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July 2005 It is a dilemma that every traveler faces – especially every traveler who wants to tell his friends about the Hidden Paradise he’s discovered: the very fact of giving a name - or a face - to the place you love changes it till it becomes a place you hardly like. Talk about how unspoiled somewhere is, and you’re almost inviting its despoliation. When someone gives you the address of the unknown Shangri-La he’s found, you’re forced to wonder whether he’s serving its interests or his own.  “It’ll be like another Bali, mate,” the blond, bearded surfer said over morning coffee at Jelenga Bungalows in Scar Reef. “Give it five years. You can’t create more land, Bali is maxed out. Bali is still one great place, but this is the new paradise,” he enthused pointing to the white sand beach behind us and the long swells rolling in, beams of sunlight bouncing off the waves.  It’s the relentless search for another tropical paradise. Who hasn’t dreamed of a secluded beach with gentle waves lapping the shore and powder blue skies dotted with pastel clouds drifting lazily along on their cosmic path? Adrian Vickers has written of the manufacturing of paradise on the island of Bali. And for over a million visitors a year, Bali serves as that romantic representation of paradise. One of the most recent of a spate of memoirs about how a Westerner discovered Bali is titled, A Patch of Paradise: A Woman’s Search for a Real Life in Bali. For Gaia Grant her paradise consists of living by the beach while keeping her international consulting business going via the internet.

Sumbawa is one of the largest of the 13,700 plus islands in the Indonesian archipelago. It lies to the east of Bali and Lombok, and is larger than the two combined. Administratively Sumbawa is part of West Nusa Tenggara along with Lombok. Despite its size, Sumbawa has a population of around one million, less than a third of the population of Bali. Lacking the exotic and colorful aspects of Balinese Hinduism, Sumbawa is known to tourists mostly for its world class surfing. During the dry season (April to November) a lot of dust is blown up and around. Strong winds blow in off the ocean, and the lush green hills, mountains and valleys turn a dusty brown. When the rainy season returns an amazing transformation takes place and the island reverts to verdant jungle once again

Wayne and I take leave of the restaurant and wander the twenty meters down to the beach. A physically imposing German couple is just paddling up on the beach after a morning of catching waves. She, tall, blonde and falling out of an impossibly small bikini, shouts up at Wayne and I, “Yeah, waves very good today. You come out later?” I laugh at her enthusiasm, not used to seeing tourists on this rugged, physically imposing island. “I don’t surf,” I yell, she gives me a shrug and flops down on the sand next to her partner.

Sumbawa is known in the surfing world as one the great surf spots with good surfing year round. Surfers come from as far away as Brazil just to surf Sumbawa. For detailed information check out the website, 
Wavehunters, http://www.wavehunters.com/sumbawa/sumbawa.asp.

Culturally and physically, Sumbawa belongs more to Eastern Indonesia than to the West. It lies east of the Wallace Line named after Sir Alfred Russell Wallace, the English naturalist. Wallace proposed the boundary in the 1860s to mark the division between Asian and Australian flora and fauna: to the west of the line are flora and fauna related to Asian species, while those on the east side are related to Australian species. Wallace particularly noted a distinct difference in the bird populations of Bali and Lombok. Birds on Bali being of the Asian variety, while birds on Lombok were related to those from New Guinea and Australia. 

Sumbawa lies within the Ring of Fire, a string of volcanoes encircling the Pacific Ocean. It is a mountainous island with deep ridges and fertile, green valleys. Sumbawa is the home of the volcano, Tambora. The 1815 eruption of Mt.Tambora was the largest in historic time in spite of the common assumption that the Krakatoa (also in Indonesia) eruption was the largest. Before the eruption, Tambora was 4,000 meters tall, five days later it was 2,743 meters. About 150 cubic kilometers of ash were erupted and fell as far as 800 miles away. An estimated 92,000 people were killed by the eruption. Of this 92,000, 10,000 deaths were directly related to the bomb impacts, tephra fall, and lava flows. The other 82,000 deaths were caused by starvation, disease, and hunger. The concussions from the explosion were felt 1,000 miles away. The debris that coated the stratosphere affected the climates of North America and Europe causing cool temperatures, crop failures, and a resultant lack of food. This was known as the “Year Without a Summer.”  The rapid settlement of the Midwest in the US is sometimes attributed to the effects on New England of the Year Without a Summer. Desperate New Englanders fled the cold temperatures and terrible growing climate for the Midwest. During the Year Without a Summer, the incessant rain in Northern Europe forced a party containing Mary Shelley to stay indoors during their holiday. During this dismal period, she wrote Frankenstein.
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Rangtun Beach

Wayne decides that its time to get in a sampan and head out beyond the break to catch some waves. I grab my motorbike to head up the coast to the district capital of Sumbawa Besar for some needed shopping and a small road trip. The 125cc Honda has just enough power to access most places on the island. Still another 125cc of power would help on some of the steeper inclines in the mountainous south of the island. The 8km road from the Jelenga Beach Cottages is one of the odder roads in a country of odd roads. Parts of the road are nominally paved with a thin asphalt cover, but then suddenly the paved road gives way to a dirt trail studded with rocks and loose gravel. As I slowly navigate a thin trail of clear dirt on the road, an asphalt-covered stretch suddenly appears again. Just as I slip into third gear, the asphalt gives way to dirt once again. I remember what Pak Memed from the bungalows told me this morning about the road. “Yeah, the government will make a very nice road for tourists to use so that it will help our special friends.” These words strike a memory node and I can see my neighbor telling me the same thing about the government making us a new road from our village in Sekongkang to the main market town of Maluk. That was two years ago; the partially constructed road now is favorite trail for hashers and water buffalo. I hit the main road and snake my way up along the coast to the small town of Taliwang.

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Taliwang is a growing village just off the coast. The area is best known for its spicy grilled chicken called ayam Taliwang. If you are a chicken lover, this is a treat not to be missed. Taliwang is somewhat unique for having no large ethnic Chinese merchant class. Stories are many about what happened to the Chinese, but their place in the social structure has been taken over by Indonesian Arabs. For me Taliwang’s significance lies in having a certified Honda repair shop where I take my bike to be serviced every three months.

I pull in to the Honda shop and find only one bike waiting to be serviced. I put my bike up on the concrete slab that serves as a waiting area. The manager of the shop greets me as the few customers have a good stare at the rare bule (white person) in this area. A short young guy with a wispy beard and a New York Yonkees (!) shirt pokes his buddy and says bule masuk kampung, the name of a popular TV show about an American who moves in to a Javanese village and falls in love with a beautiful local girl. I turn, look him in the eyes while smiling, and say, “Sudah nikah, sudah ada banyak anak-anak mas (I’m already married and have a lot of kids). Everyone laughs and goes back to watch the soap opera on the small TV stuck in the corner of the waiting room.

The relaxed pace of life on Sumbawa reflects its agricultural base. The daily life cycle corresponds closely to the rising and setting of the sun. Motorized traffic adjusts itself to the ambling gate of water buffalo, goats, Sumbawan horses, and Balinese cows. Honk all you want a herd of water buffalo knows who controls the road, and they take their time as they move from one grazing area to the next. Southwest Sumbawa is characterized by the free-range animals that wander alongside the road in search of a good feed. The imprudent driver who happens to kill one of these road hogs will be required to make restitution to the owner. As I discovered a few months ago, even throwing rocks at beasts grazing on my own property has a high probability of landing me in trouble.
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A short thirty minutes and my bike is expertly serviced. Giving my farewells to the boys in the shop, I head north for Sumbawa Besar again. I pass through Seteluk just up the road. Seteluk is another small, but developing village with a number of attractive new houses along the main road. I have a British acquaintance who lives there, but I don’t have his number so I cruise on through up the road. Just south of the harbor of Poto Tano, the road improves dramatically and the landscape changes drastically suddenly becoming drier and brown. As I climb a hill, I get a view of the north coastline and see that I am about to hit flat land as I work my way over to Alas. Unlike islands to the west of Sumbawa, the effects of Hindu and Buddhist cultures are minimal in Sumbawa, and although the island is predominantly Muslim, the role of adat (traditional culture and law) is still very strong. Although Sumbawa is predominately Muslim, it has developed a reputation, partially due to inaccurate reports in popular travel guides, for being oppressively conservative. In fact along the north coast on the road from the harbor, Poto Tano, to Sumbawa Besar, the regional capital, many Hindu and Christian neighborhoods are built skirting the main road.

Road on Sumbawa

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The road from the Poto Tano turnoff to Sumbawa Besar is a newly asphalted wonder with a dividing line. I take the bike up to 100 and turn my San Francisco Giants hat backward to keep it from flying off my head. The wind whips around my sunglasses and my eyes begin to tear. As I enter the outskirts of Alas, I’m amazed that the town that I have been making fun of to my friends from Alas is, in fact, a fairly good sized town with something close to 20,000 people and a tennis court along the main road. I slowly cruise through town checking out the shops to see what goods they are selling. I hear my name being shouted over and over. Generally I ignore this because an Indonesian word that sounds similar to my name means “keep going”, and I’ve been embarrassed many times by stopping and looking around to see who is beckoning me. This time, however, I turn and see one of my colleagues from school. I hop off the bike and apologize for all of my cracks about Alas. Yuni laughs and gives me a “I told you so” look. The sight of a bule talking to an attractive young Indonesian women causes a number of passersby to stop and ask what’s going on. I get slightly self-conscious, but just as I’m wondering if I’m upsetting some local sensibility, Yuni’s handsome young fiancée appears in tennis gear and we have a short chat. But I’m on a mission to buy some circuit breakers and have a strong need for an ice-cold beer. Yuni tells me that it will take two more hours driving until I reach Sumbawa Besar. I sigh and take my leave.

Sumbawa’s remoteness is due to the difficulties of getting to the island. The common route for the surfing backpacker crew is to take the ferry from Padangbai, Bali, to Lombok, travel overland in Lombok to the eastern seaport and then take another ferry to Sumbawa, ending up in Poto Tano. From there transportation is somewhat problematic and depends on the final destination in Sumbawa. Getting to Sumbawa Besar is easy, as there are plenty of buses that ply that route; getting down the west coast is another problem. There are occasionally buses that run down the coast, but they don’t cross on each ferry, so there can be quite a wait at the harbor. The other option is to take an ojek, a motorcycle taxi, down the coast road. Because of the distance, the price is steep and the ride less than comfortable, but it will get you there usually in less than two hours.

The largest city on the island is Sumbawa Besar. Because of the geography of Sumbawa, it is basically two islands: the western side of the island dominated by Sumbawa and the eastern side centered around Bima. The languages spoken by residents of these two areas are completely different.

I arrive in Sumbawa Besar and make my way to Hotel Tambora that is owned by a Balinese businessman who has interests in the southwest part of the island as well as in Sumbawa Besar. The hotel is basic for a tourist’s needs, but seems to be popular with Indonesian business travelers. My small air-conditioned room with a tiny bathroom complete with a cracked Western style toilet and a television costs about USD 10 per night. As I’m only staying for a day, the room will serve my purposes. It’s Sunday and my goal is to buy three 25-amp circuit breakers for the house. I ask the check-in clerk if she can recommend a shop and, as is common in Indonesia, she calls one of the staff to accompany me. He makes it clear that we need to go immediately because the stores will be closing at 1:00 and won’t open until 4:30. On inquiring about the reason for this unusual closing time, Ari tells me it’s because of Sunday church services in a tone of voice that implies this is a common fact of life. I find it amusing that on the island with a reputation of being a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism, shops should close for Christian services. Just when I start to think that I understand Indonesia, some new information arrives to bring me back to reality. I love this country. 

Next month- the return trip and a look at the southwest villages.

The following are the previous articles Bruce wrote for the magazine:

Getting Out Of Dodge ~ Fulfillment, Adventure, And The Cash
The Practicalities Of Moving To Bali ~ Thoughts On Living In Bali 
So You Want To Retire In Paradise - Thoughts On Bali, Singapore And New Guinea
Reflections On An Expatriate Life ~ Escaping To Asia

To contact Bruce Click Here
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