Food For Thought on Vacation

Went to Lombok for a short vacation in the last few days of December. Lombok positions itself as Bali before Bali became commercialised. And it was only in the past decade that tourists have started going there in earnest - thanks to pack backers who led the way.

And to be sure, there isn't that rampant commercialism and development that's descended on Bali. Agriculture is still the main source of income - tourism is only #5. So there aren't the same conveniences, ease of communication and efficiencies that you find in Bali. And it's those little diamond-in-the-rough edges that give Lombok its personality. And keeps mass tourism away.

That's probably the reason villages like Sasak are still around. The Sasaks were the main tribe in Lombok - and now they occupy a series of villages where houses have thatched roofs, mud and dried dung floors, and, according to our guide, is still pretty communal. The money we spent on handmade fabric is to be shared between the villagers, and the money we gave our guide would go to him and ten other that he was training to be guides.

Our village guide spoke really good English - better than most of the staff at our hotel. He learned it from books: five words a day, when he was young he said. He has no e-mail, no smartphone, and is contactable only by SMS. The tribe has no website, even though it gets income from tourist visits (20 a day, mostly from Jakarta). Most of the villagers speak Sasak, not Behasa Indonesia. Kids go to school, but the community inter-marries and no one's left the village yet, he says. Medical care comes in the form of herbal and spiritual healing. It's a close knit community and everything is shared - from income, to home-building, to food.

Of course, education will bring modernity to the young in the village and bring them opportunity. But, in our globally connected world, seeing what others have that we don't also increases our wants, our needs, our goals. It would take a really special education system and community involvement to preserve that closeness and keep the balance between opportunity, community, and our very natural desire to have more, do more, see more.

link to Lombok images here: http://bit.ly/uFCC9j