Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In the market town of
Narmada
, about 7km east of Mataram, the
Taman Narmada
gardens
are very popular with local families, especially at weekends. Built in 1805, they include a rep-
lica of Gunung Rinjani and its crater lake, made for the raja when he became too old to climb
the real volcano to make his offering to the gods. More cynical commentators claim that he
built the lake to lure local women to bathe while he watched from his pavilion. The grounds
are extensive, and there's a public swimming pool and a Balinese temple,
Pura Kalasa
. The
gardens are on the south side of the main Mataram-Labuhan Lombok highway, opposite the
bemo terminal and daily market.
Pura Lingsar
Daily 8am-6pm • Admission by donation; optional guides Rp20,000 • Take a bemo from the Mandalika termin-
al to Narmada, then change on to a Lingsar bemo
Pura Lingsar
, 5km northwest of Narmada, is used by Hindus as well as the Muslim Wetu
Telu and is the site of one of Lombok's most enjoyable
festivals
. The temple was foun-
ded around 1714 and rebuilt in 1874; its highest, northernmost courtyard is the Hindu one,
guarded by fierce monsters at the
candi bentar
, while the Wetu Telu area has a pond over-
looked by a vivid statue of Wisnu, home to well-fed holy eels, which emerge for hard-boiled
eggs brought by devotees. On the full moon of the seventh Sasak month (Nov or Dec), the
local Hindu and Muslim communities cement their amicable coexistence and then ritualize
their rivalries in a ceremony known as the
Perang Topat
or
Ketupat War
. Proceedings open
with a procession, the presenting of offerings and prayers, and culminate in a good-humoured
mock battle involving the raucous hurling of
ketupat
(packets of rice wrapped in leaves)
and eggs at each other. Everyone participates, most wearing formal dress, and everyone gets
splattered. Tourists are welcome to enjoy the spectacle.
Benang Stokel fall
Road access to Benang Stokel is complicated and ill signed and may be best done with a local driver; turn north
off the main trans-island highway at Pancordau, 17km east of Mataram, and continue uphill via the village of
Terutak (4km) to the village of Aik Berik, site of the falls car park, 11km from Pancordau
If you're into waterfalls, or need an excuse for a very scenic drive through a landscape of
rice terraces and tobacco fields that's reminiscent of Bali several decades ago (with added
mosques), head for
Benang Stokel falls
, 30km northeast of Mataram. The trail to the falls is
also the opening stretch of a challenging six-hour
hike
up to the crater rim of
Gunung Rin-
An easy ten-minute trail from the car park through light forest gets you to the unexceptional
twin 10m-high cascades and bathing pool of Benang Stokel (Rp5000 plus compulsory guide),
a hugely popular spot on Sundays, when it's busy with foodstalls. Continue along an undu-
lating forest trail for another 45 minutes to reach the prettier, net-like spray of
Benang Kel-
ambu falls
.
