After leaving the sleepy village of Senaru, our plan was to make tracks down the east coast to a town called Labuan Pandan that was recommended by our very flamboyant hotel manager back in Sengiggi.

Adrian was pretty certain that we would need to backtrack several miles in order to pick up the highway that runs all along the coastline of eastern Lombok. I, on the other hand, was fairly confident we had to take the fork in the road that lead northeast through the hills in order to meet up with the highway. Being that I tend to lose these direction disputes, I kept my protest silent. Long story short, after 45 minutes back I finally decided to ask a local "which way to Labuan Pandan?" The teenaged boy looked at us strangely and pointed in the direction that we had just come. He also added, "it's much too far. It's like 5 hours drive". We were convinced it was more like 2-2.5.

In the end, what we came to realize though, is that a lot of the locals have never really made it too far out of their village. This became apparent with the VERY exaggerated travel times and the massive discrepancy of responses from virtually every person we asked. No worries though, just an interesting cultural sidenote.

Following the boy's direction, we turned the bike around and traveled another 45 minutes back to the fork and took my suggested route. After another short detour it seemed... Yep, I was right! We were finally on the right track. This happens far too rarely so I must relish in it. Right then, moving on.

The motorbike ride down the east coast of Lombok was nothing less than breathtaking. The blue ocean water to our left crashing ashore, while the dramatic lush, green mountains and hillsides continuously rolling to our right. We felt the warm Indonesian sun brown our already tanned skin even further, while the wind blew against our faces.

There was VERY little in the way of towns or even villages on the way to our completely unknown destination. It was for this reason, that we made no real pitstops aside from a 3 minute break to stretch and give my poor behind a much needed rest. After probably 3-3.5 hours total including our lengthy scenic detour, we arrived into the town, nah village (maybe), of Labuan Pandan. We actually drove completely through it initially thinking to ourselves, surely there must be more than that!? But after a brief motorbike investigation we quickly discovered, nope, this is it!

Driving back into town to the one of two guesthouses we spotted, it did dawn on us that, come to think of it... like the previous day, we hadn't passed one single restaurant, hotel, motel, or Holiday Inn on our entire drive. The reason our Senggigi friend had suggested this place is because it really and truly is the only place to stay.

And so we pulled up to the Labuan Pandan Hotel. We chatted to our host, negotiated the price, as we were the only guests there, and at last set our bag down and plopped ourselves on the bed. The accommodation was significantly nicer than the night before, however, it was also twice the price, a whopping $15, that we were well ok to pay.

By this time, it was going on 3pm and we hadn't eaten since our attempt to consume the creepy textured "banana pancake" 7 hours earlier. We asked our host for a lunch menu and in response he showed us to our seats and called the village cook. Apparently he is 'on call' on the off-chance there are guests.

He was there within 10 minutes and quickly got busy preparing our Mie Goreng. Not to rush perfection, it was nearly 4pm by the time we received our food. Though, my arm would've probably been mighty tasty by that point, I must tip my hat to the chef. It was a great meal indeed.

After our lunch, we got taking to our new chef friend, Qumar. We had asked how we could get to the beach which was on the opposite side of the road and through what appeared to be dense bush and palm and/or private property. "No problem" he told us. "I will show you on my motorbike."

So we went back to the room and packed up a couple things for the beach, hopped back on the motorbike and tried our best to keep up with the speedy Qumar. After five minutes or so, he made a quick turn off onto a overgrown dirt track. Struggling to keep up, we had even lost him at one point, but luckily he turned back around smiling back at us as we caught up.

After several more very bouncy minutes on the back of the motorbike we arrived at the beach, well more precisely, at Qumar's beachfront shack. Qumar's wife, three boys, and several buddies were all there gathered round a makeshift table outside the door to their shack right beside the ocean.

We parked the bikes and immediately were invited to join them for a drink. Now, we certainly weren't fighting it, but there was absolutely no way we were getting out of this one. It would've been rude, right? So we grabbed a small plastic chair and pulled up to the small wooden table with our new friends along the black sand beach of Labuan Pandan, Lombok and settled in for a... drink.

In three large plastic bags in a cardboard box on the small wooden table was a cloudy, pink liquid of some sort. Qumar opened one of the bags while his buddy dug around the shack for a spare cup. After rustling up a cup, Qumar poured a healthy dose of the cloudy substance and pushed it across the table to me.

"What is it?" I timidly asked.

"It's Palm Wine. You can buy it in town for 10,000 Rupiah a bag (that is a whopping $1US). We usually drink it mixed with milk, but we don't have any right now."

"Oh, that's just fine" I answered. And with that took a big, healthy swig of the pink, funny-smelling liquid.
It was, how shall I put it, Bad. Not awful mind you, but far, far, far from good. I got the feeling that it wasn't a sipping beverage as they all sort of stared at me until I finished the heaping cup. After wiping my face clean they looked at me with a sort of ..."Well?" expression, to which I replied, "yeah, that's good!"

After a big smile from everyone on the opposite side of the table, they quickly filled the cup once again to the brim and pushed it over Adrian's way. I shot him a sneaky side of the mouth smirk, which Adrian would certainly read as "ha ha, enjoy! (Sucker!)" he began to choke down the warm, thick, chalky, alcohol.

After Adrian's go, our friends took the cup filled it once again and each took turns slamming the funky, pink substance in sheer seconds. This continued until the first bag was empty. We had had our fill of palm wine as well as the broken English attempt at conversation for the time being, and politely excused ourselves for a walk down the beach and a bit of a swim.

Although, Qumar insists that particular beach was home to the best snorkeling on the island, the water itself was far from inviting. The dark black sand, coupled with the huge amount of floating debris left me thinking that I was just fine parking myself on the warm sand and letting the buzz of palm wine wash over me.

We relaxed and zoned out in that spot for a good hour before we knew it was time to head back to the 'party'. Upon our return, as suspected our man gestured us over to sit with them again. He opened another bag of palm wine, only this time they had sent someone for milk, because they opened a juicebox sized container of milk into the bag and began to vigorously shake.
And just as before, one of the buddies filled the cup, passed it my way and gave a smile and nod as if to say, go ahead drink up!

We finished yet another bag of the very strong tasting concoction, all the while they continued rolling cigarette after cigarette, and chatting about Lombok life, the pearl industry, and Qumar's plan to build an organic garden, commune-like camp ground on the land on which we were sitting. I got to say, it was a pretty pleasant afternoon, and by the time we were about ready to pack it in, I had actually acquired a bit of a taste for the palm wine.

We said goodbye to Qumar's friends and family, who spoke next to no English. We thanked them for the wine and lovely hospitality and pushed off on the bike, keeping her as steady as possible on the short ride home.

Back at the hotel, we showered and lounged about in our air conditioned room. After a little R&R we took up two seats at the restaurant and grabbed the two last remaining Bintangs in the hotel and for that matter in the entirety of the village. We played a few games of cards until Qumar rolled up on his motorbike and strolled directly to the kitchen to get cracking on our dinner.

Adrian and I spent the hour and fifteen minutes or so that it took to prepare my veggie noodle soup and his chicken curry discussing how we would spend the remaining 12 days in Indonesia. We had a wild idea of joining a small basic boat tour for three nights/four days to sail east to Sumbawa, Komodo, and finally Flores. From Flores, the plan would be to fly, sail, drive or combination of any/all of the three to East Timor.

After delivering our delicious meals, we ate with and chatted more with Qumar. Among other things he confirmed that, as suspected, we were literally the ONLY tourists in town that night. He also mentioned that he had a friend that sails boats and that he would be happy to escort us in the morning to chat with him and take a look at the boat. We agreed, thanked him profusely, and after we were all finished, wished him a good night and headed back to our room for the evening.

In the morning, after breakfast, and packing up our few belongings for the trip we jumped back on the motorbikes and followed Qumar out of town to the Lombok city harbor. We once again struggled to keep up but before long we were at his friends house sitting cross-legged on a rug with his friend's wife awaiting the friend's return.

We chatted to Adi (the friend), checked out his boat, and confidently decided that if we could organize transport to and from Dili after the boat trip that we would gladly take the four day boat trip east. And after a few handshakes, we wished them all well, climbed back on the bike and set in for the long ride around the mountains and across the island back to Senggigi.

Our motorbike roadtrip was coming to an end. And although (and because) we had absolutely zero expectations for the trip, they were completely exceeded! Good fun and definitely a short trip to remember.

If you ever get the chance, get involved with some Palm Wine!!!