Lombok

The Economist magazine has a fun way to measure Purchasing Power Parity (how much buying power the equivalent of a US dollar has in different currencies). It is called the Big Mac Index and it basically compares the price of a Big Mac at McDonalds’ in different countries. The prices for Big Macs range from $1.90 (Hong Kong) to $7.20 (Norway) in the latest index (http://www.economist.com/markets/bigmac/?CFID=142952265&CFTOKEN=66843563 ).

 Perhaps another interesting indicator using the same restaurant would be the McDonalds availability index. It would measure the number of McDonalds per million people as a way of gauging the assimilation of the country or area into “the world”. For example if New Mexico has 50 McDonalds and 2 million people, it would have a McDonalds availability index of 25 and if Jakarta has 35 McDonalds and 12 Million people, it would have a McDonalds availability index of 2.9.

Lombok, an island adjacent and similar in geography and population to Bali, became our latest tourist destination for 6 days. We were told to “visit it now!” and see it in its traditional state as the Indonesian government has targeted it to be the next Bali and is building a new international airport and has invited in big tourist resort corporations from Dubai etc… to develop large resorts around the island.

Here’s what we currently found in Lombok:

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  Great mountain waterfalls

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  friends at a Sasak Village (Sasak is the main tribe of Lombok)

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  great beaches and snorkling.  Exotic sea life spotted included giant turtles, parrot fish, clown fish, flying fish, angel fish and tang fish.  Unfortunately I lost my wedding ring (again).

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  great mountain vistas after a 6 mile trek through the rain forest (only Eric, Neil and I did this). The mountain in the background is Rinjani (around 10,000 feet) and the caldera below contains a huge lake and smaller cinder cone (google Mount Rinjani images for truly amazing pictures).

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  trash on our Rinjani Trek, which is ironic as Indonesia is hyping Rinjani treking as part of it's eco-tourism development.  Apparently they forgot to tell their guides, who throw trash everywhere.

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  traditional Lombok weaving and clothes.  Hope and Janet did this while I was trekking

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  giant insects

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  Quite by accident, Janet and Hope also found and ate at the only McDonald’s on Lombok (population 6 million), giving it a current McDonalds availability index of 0.16. I bet that index will be much higher the next time we visit.  I just hope the index for all the beautiful traditional things on Lombok remains as high or higher too.