sweetwater

So, if the fulcrum of society pivots on shower facilities (and I could make an empassioned argument to that effect right now), today I crawled back into the light.

This morning I left Gili Trawangan (also known as Sandals Asia, a full report to come later) and came to Mataram, the administrative capital of Western Nsua Tunggal (and the island of Lombok). I spent 5 days there reading on the beach, drinking local gin, doing some breathtaking snorkeling (I saw 3 turtles and shark), and, most of all, taking 2 salt water showers per day.
The most exciting thing about returning to Mataram (where I am stranded by my crap airline for a day) was knowing that there was a fresh water shower awaiting me, somewhere, somehow.

It occurs to me that many of you might not know what an Indonesian bathroom looks like and that this is the opportunity to introduce them. Basically the bathroom is a tiled square (often baby blue tiles, probably little on this later but interesting nonetheless) with a squat toilet on the floor. The nicer of these have footpads with some degree of relief (for traction, I imagine). Next to the toilet is what is called a mandi, basically a tiled tank about waist high that comes with a spigot and plasitc scoop. The plastic scoop is key. It is with this that you flush (scooping water into the toilet), paper (left hand rule), and bathe (upend overhead). Today I was so thrilled to be fresh water showering that I stood in this bastion of squalor long after I was clean and gleefully dumped scoop after scoop of water on my head. All this for only $3 per night (breakfast included).