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Traveller Mark Crowdy starts his Indonesian
journey in Bali and takes a ferry from the
Port of Padangbai to Lombok (sometimes called
the new Bali) and the Eastern Islands.
 Lombok has a drier climate than Bali and its population is
predominantly Moslem as opposed Bali's Hindu majority. Tourism
is developing fast here but the animist culture still
survives, especially amongst the local Sasak tribe. Mark attends
a stick fight or Peresehan, a traditional
form of combat. Local spirit magicians known as Dukans put
spells on the sticks to protect the fighters from injury.
Indonesia has some 400 volcanoes and Mark spends a day making
a steep climb up Mount Rinjani to the rim
of the crater lake just below the summit, where people of
all religions come to pray and meditate.
 Mark takes a boat ride to the island of Komodo to see the
famous Komodo dragon, the world's largest
lizard. Its razor sharp teeth can tear apart the hindquarter
of a deer in seconds. It was feared that the dragons were
facing extinction but money earned from tourists watching
the grizzly spectacle has been used to ensure their survival.
From Komodo Mark takes a peaceful boat ride to Flores,
one of Indonesia's largest islands. He sees the dramatic sight
of the sulphuric lakes of Kelimut, which
locals believe the souls of the dead go into the brilliant
coloured lakes: the young to the green, the old to the blue
and the criminals to the black.
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