Trekking to Rinjani - what to expect

This was a long awaited trekking trip that I sign up months ago. Through an office colleague, I was introduce to Dody Adventure which I then join the group of 14 (11 Indonesian, 2 Aussie and 1 Malaysian) on a 5D4N Rinjani treks. Besides that, we also have 16 porters and 1 local guide coming with us, they are in charge of our logistics throughout the trip. Huge group hey.

The expedition was plan to start from Senaru, so all 14 of us had a night stay in Pondok Senaru, the cottage was lovely, I love how spacious the room is, and there were plenty of green around the cottage too.

Here's how our room at Pondok Senaru look like, I shared this room with a new friend, very co-incidentally we both adore cats.

Garden in front of our room, isn't it lovely?

They are plenty of monkey arpund this area, here's what happen during my 1 day at the cottage. While catching up happily outside our room's balcony, there's this wild monkey appear in front of us and suddenly started hissing at us vigorously, with those sharp teeth exposing to us, we panic. My friend automatic reaction was trying to shoo him away, however the monkey do not seems to be bothered but thank God he eventually climb away after 2 or 3 hisses. After the monkey left, we basically quickly dispersed into our room as well.

We later spent the rest of the evening in the cottage's restaurant, sipping coffee and continue our chats. 

while seated in the restaurant, a black kitty onto my lap and slept comfortably for at least 30mins, natural lap wrmer!

Let me now share on some useful info on logistic. 

Packing:  I reckon porters here prefer you pack stuff in carry bags than big backpack - this is so that they can tie your bag securely with strings, see below 2 pictures you will know why I said so. 

here's how our baggage are being pack

and this is how the porters would carry you baggage

In Rinjani national park, there is no guest houses like those in Nepal, every pit stop, you are to pitch a tent. In this trip we overnight in 3 locations:

Night 1 - Plawangan Senaru

Night 2 - Danau Segara Anak (lake side)

Night 3 - Plawangan Sembalun 

A few pictures to show you what to expect:

The interior of our tent, fits 2 person perfectly

The exterior of our tents!
Yellow - exterior of our tent from the pic above
Blue - the porters, they cook, eat and sleep in there.
Red - toilet

In case you are wondering where to bath? the answer is there is none, so prepare yourself to deal with no bathing for a few days.. Well, at least I can assure u should be able to dip your body into the hot springs near the lake side.

Now finally the most important part of the lodging - food! Don't you worry about not having enough food, with the local crew coming along, you will probably be eating none stop like I do! 

the kitchen

some of the food

I'll write about the 4D3N trek soon, stay tune.