My dream to hike Tambora started when I was planning for the Rinjani trip circa 2012. I was drawn to Tambora due to its iconic eruption in 1815 which resulted the Year Without Summer. My dream had to be kept at bay as no one that I knew of wanted to hike Mt. Tambora with me. Only few months ago, I was alerted by a hiking friend that Indonesia would be organizing a massive commemoration of 200th anniversary of Tambora eruption. After considering many factors, I agreed to join Mt. Tambora expedition.
|08/04/2015| 200 Tahun Tambora Menyapa Dunia 2015 – Day 1
I flew out one day earlier than the rest of the team. Due to hectic days at work, I had to spare a rest day before we travelled through Lombok onwards to Sumbawa Island and then hike the majestic Tambora. Arriving at Selaparang International Airport slightly after 8pm, I took the taxi to Puri Rinjani Bungalows, Kuta Lombok for the price of IDR140,000.00. While most of the tourists still head to Mataram, Senggigi and Gili Islands, I still find Kuta, Lombok a perfect location for vacation. From Selaparang Airport, you can get a fixed price airport taxi or haggle with the unlicensed taxis outside the arrival gate. For the sake of self-security as a lone traveller, I settled for the fixed price airport taxi. I had pre-booked Puri Rinjani Bungalows with Agoda for RM150. I really liked the room at Puri Rinjani Bungalows. My room was only a matter of few steps from the swimming pool.
At the time of writing, there are 2 Airasia flights flying daily from Kuala Lumpur to Selaparang Airport, Lombok. Another route from Johor Bahru to Lombok has been recently launched. You can now fly to Lombok from Johor Bahru in any one of the 3x weekly flights.
|09/04/2015| 200 Tahun Tambora Menyapa Dunia 2015 – Day 2
To climb Tambora, one has many options to choose from. First, you can fly to Denpasar and then take another flight to Bima and subject yourself to ground travel by bus for 6 hours to reach Desa Pancasila. Second route is for you to fly from Mataram to Bima. And the third one is to travel by land, ferry and land for more than 12 hours before reaching Desa Pancasila. I had no choice but to follow the third route. After picking up the other climbers, we left Lombok at 3.30pm for Labuhan Kayangan, Lombok. At all material time, we were ferried with a 12 seaters van.
Banners, buntings and billboards were heavily used to promote 200 Tahun Tambora Menyapa Dunia. Whoever that came up with the tagline was a brainer.
The package offered to me was IDR2,800,000.00 [2D1N Tambora + 1 Day Komodo Island], which was very pricey considering that one could climb Tambora with virtually no costs at all. Little did I know the guide and its crews drove all the way from Surabaya to Lombok and onwards to Sumbawa. Since Tambora is an off-beaten path rarely visited by many and I’ve been waiting for some time to find a group to go, I did not mind the price given.
We had to wait for almost 1 hour for the ferry to be loaded with vehicles. Our destination was Labuhan Poto Tano, Sumbawa.
And finally, on the ferry…
The ferry ride took almost 2 hours to reach Labuhan Poto Tano, Sumbawa. If you plan to use the toilet in the ferry, don’t forget to bring wet tissues. As the ferry moored, we quickly squeezed through the vehicles to get inside our van. But we were stuck in between motorcycles and did not make it on time to reach our van; we had to run for shelter when the rain dropped. Later that night, I didn’t have much recollection except for bumps that woke me up from my sleep. I was one of the few who had been blessed with sound sleeping.
2 Comments
Dah banyak gambar selfie nie. 😀
Blame it on tongkat narciss, whoever that invented Go Pro and similar gadgets. Hahaha.