Adventure in Lombok
I experienced a misfortune recently. Just three weeks before Tropical Jamming 2018 began, my left-knee got injured in a regular parkour training session. Until D-2, when Andreas and I left Surabaya by motorcycle riding, my left-knee hadn’t really 100% recovered yet. As a result, I only could do light training during the event while watching jealously the other friends who were able to do full-strength training.
However, apart from that, I was so grateful that I could revisit Lombok Island for the second time after the first Tropical Jamming in December 2016. On that day, Wednesday, April 11th 2018, the trip was started around 07.30 AM after Andreas and I ate breakfast. Then around 01.00 PM, we stopped by Situbondo city to visit Danial Syafhan, one of the senior practitioners from East Java Parkour
After chatting each other and eating soto, we headed to Ketapang Port in Banyuwangi city. Around 04.00 PM, the ferry we rode finally started to cross the Bali Strait, which meant we had ±one hour resting time.
At 05.00 PM (Indonesia Western Standard Time) or 06.00 PM (Indonesia Central Standard Time), we continued our trip from Gilimanuk Port to Denpasar city. A three-hour motorcycle riding through the dark forest made us really, really tired. Then finally, around 09:00 PM (Indonesia Central Standard Time) we stopped at Andra’s food stall. Just info, Andra is our old friend who was a member of Parkour Surabaya. Now he has settled in Bali. With a very, very exhausted physical condition, black-panda-eyes, and hungry stomachs due to not eating since in Situbondo; we ate the dinner and chatted each other there until 11:00 PM. Then we spent that night by resting in Andra’s boarding house.
Around 02.00 PM on the next day, Andreas and I continued the trip to Padang Bai Port, which is located at the eastern part of Bali Island. Overall the traffic was quite smooth, and the weather luckily was clear enough. However, when we nearly approached the port, there were so many trucks queueing inside which made the traffic become congested.
After a long enough wait, finally ±at 05.00 PM the ferry started to cross the Lombok Strait. During the next 4 hours we rested in the boat while enjoying the sunset view in the middle of the sea. Finally, around 09.00 PM we finally arrived in Lombok island. The motorcycle trip still continued about one hour more before arriving at Paradiso Hotel in Mataram city. The hotel would be used as the staying place for all of the participants of Tropical Jamming. After re-registering to the committee, we spent that night by chilling out and resting in the hotel lobby.
DAY 1 (APRIL 13th 2018)
07.00 o’clock in the morning, all of the participants had already gathered in the hotel lobby. The event started with a short opening speech from Anggarda as the head of the committee, then followed by warming up and running around the hotel complex. After that, we headed to Sangkareang Park to do free jamming and also looked for breakfast. As I mentioned at the beginning, my left-knee was still injured. But…my bad, I admitted I was too stubborn to accept my condition, I just couldn’t stand seeing the other friends moved and trained happily, I forced myself to do some big-jump that caused my knee getting sorer.
Around 01:00 PM, after the Muslim participants did the Friday prayers, we moved towards Udayana Park. There were many interesting parkour-spots that could be explored. But unfortunately, I could only do light training while imagining what could’ve been done if I were in 100% fit condition. I just could grumbling inside my heart, why the injury should happen at a time like this.
The first day jamming finished around 03.30 PM. There were some participants who returned to hotel, and there were some who did sightseeing around the town. Meanwhile; Andreas, Mundo, Rony Luke (a.k.a. Imran), and I decided to visit 'Vila Hantu' (Ghost Villa) in Senggigi Beach area. Just info, the name 'Vila Hantu' is only for tourist attraction. In fact, this is a half-finished abandoned building that now turns into place for photographs or taking videos with the beach/sunset background.
For the next one hour and a half, Andreas recorded video with his drone, and also not forgot to record Rony Luke parkour-actions around there. Meanwhile Mundo and I were just chilling out watching the sunset view. Then, by 06.00 PM, the four of us decided to return to hotel.
After eating dinner and resting for a while, every participant returned to the hotel lobby at 08.00 PM for meet-and-greet session. In this session, every attended community introduced themselves. And by the way, beside Parkour Surabaya, there were Parkour Bali (and also Hafizh from Parkour Salatiga who would come in the following morning) as Tropical Jamming participants from outside Lombok. The session itself ended at ±10:30 PM, and everyone soon went to sleep due to strength-preparation for the next day cross-country trekking.
DAY 2 (APRIL 14th 2018)
All participants departed from the hotel around 08.00 AM by motorcycles to Gelanggang Pemuda (youth sport-arena), as the first jamming location. After eating breakfast and doing some preparation, at 09.00 AM we started the warming up session and then continued with free jamming while interspersed by mini-contest of freestyle.
Towards mid-day, we immediately continued to Bukit Tinggi Village, in West Lombok regency. The 40-45 minute trip was felt so short because it’s a rollicking motorcycle-trip, plus, the sunny weather made us become more passionate about this 2nd day.
After parking our motorcycles and resting for a while at a random food stall, the rented pick-up car came. Everyone rode the car to the village-hall, which was located 4-5 km northern from the food stall. Because of so many participants, it took 3 times back and forth so that everyone could be transported.
Once everyone had gathered in the village hall, the trekking journey began. Soon we walked the footpath through the hill to Tibu Tereng Waterfall. The clear water and deep natural-pool made us without hesitation immediately did the flip training there. And there were other participants who played 'slide-to-the-water' using the slippery rock surface.
After we satisfied having fun and doing the flip training, about one and a half hour later the journey continued to Tibu Kelambu Waterfall, which wasn’t located far from Tibu Tereng. The footpath towards there was very steep and slippery, so almost everyone had to remove the footwear so that we wouldn’t get slipped by the mud. Lucky us, there were still many roots of trees/bushes that still could be used as handgrip.
This extreme ±30 minutes downhill journey luckily didn’t end in vain. Once we arrived at the location, we saw a beautiful view of the waterfall which not really different with Tibu Tereng (but the height is about 1.5 times taller). The clear water springs and the sound of the waterfall soothed our mind. However, due to the water-depth isn’t as deep as Tibu Tereng, we didn’t do the flip training there. Besides, we had done a lot of physical activity since the morning, so that was the right time for relaxing.
This waterfall session was finished around ±04.00 PM and all participants immediately returned to the village hall. Then, from there we went to the motorcycle parking lot near the food stall using the pick-up car. We bought snacks/drinks and rested there for a while, then returned to the hotel right before sunset.
Being exhausted, most of the participants were at rest in their own room or chilling out in the hotel lobby that night. Meanwhile I had an appointment with an old friend and spent the night hanging out with him in a diner near the hotel.
DAY 3 (APRIL 15th 2018) – RETURNED TO SURABAYA
The last day of Tropical Jamming started by exploring a half-finished abandoned building near Meninting Beach. Even though everyone still felt the fatigue of the previous day cross-country trekking, but it didn’t lessen our excitement of following the whole series of event. As usual, I only did a light training because I didn’t want to make my left-knee condition getting worsen.
Towards mid-day, if referring to the official event schedule, we supposed to continue to Senggigi Beach and closed the event there. However, because almost every one of us was already too exhausted, and the crews of Parkour Tanjung Luar (East Lombok) should go home soon, then the event closure was held earlier around the building as well.
After the closing session, the remaining participants immediately returned to the hotel to pack their stuff. Because the weather was still quite hot, I decided to chill out in the hotel lobby until ±03:30 PM. Then finally, it’s time to leave Lombok Island. Together with Andreas and Hafizh, the three of us immediately said goodbye to the others as we drove to Lembar Port.
Overall, the traffic was quite smooth, except when we nearly approached the port. There were a lot of motorcycles queued into the ferry because it has been a common knowledge that Bali always becomes tourists favorite destination. After quite a long time waiting, the ferry finally left Lombok Island around 07:00 PM, four hours in Lombok Strait was enough time to rest for a while.
11.00 PM, the ferry docked at Padang Bai Port. Soon after coming out from the port, the three of us immediately looked for any random roadside food stall because we hadn’t eaten anything since before entering the ferry. Then afterward, Andreas and I separated with Hafizh. He decided to stay at Widio's boarding house (Widio is our friend from Parkour Bali), while Andreas and I kept continuing our trip to Gilimanuk Port.
Thankfully the trip went smoothly without any bad things happened. Although we were exhausted physically, luckily we could keep concentrating while drove the motorcycle to Gilimanuk Port. We arrived there around 03:00 AM and it was totally different with Lembar Port (which was too crowded). Gilimanuk was quite deserted at that time, we didn’t have to queue like before. We immediately entered the ferry right after paying the ticket. And another surprising thing, we were the only passengers who used the motorcycle, the rest were just a few trucks.
It was just felt like I slept for a while, but I had to wake up again. It took ±one hour to cross the Bali Strait, but I didn’t feel satisfied enough in resting honestly. It was 04.00 AM (Indonesia Central Standard Time) a.k.a. 03.00 AM (Indonesia Central Western Time). We had already arrived at Ketapang Port in Banyuwangi city.
After ±one hour leaving the port, we couldn’t stand the drowsiness anymore. It would be too dangerous if we forced ourselves to continue the trip. As a result, we decided to stop at the gas station and slept in its public praying room (musholla). We woke up around 06.00 AM then continued the motorcycle-trip to Surabaya.
Overall, the traffic was pretty smooth, there was almost no traffic jam. Andreas and I took turns each other in driving motorbike, replacing whoever felt tired. And finally, we arrived in Surabaya ±at 12.00 PM with black-panda-eyes and shabby-looks. But, apart from that, we were grateful for arriving home safely.
Four days exploring Lombok wasn’t enough for me honestly. There are still many parkour spots and touristy place that I want to visit in Lombok. Moreover, I have a “debt” to myself to re-explore the Tropical Jamming spots with 100% physically fit condition without any injury. So…mark my words, one day I’ll be back much stronger to Lombok!!
Comments
Post a Comment