Travel tips for would-be climbers
LOMBOK, West Nusa Tenggara (JP): You must be in good physical condition. Being on the wrong side of 50 and carrying a few too many kilos (like myself) are not the ideal qualifications for scaling Rinjani. A bit of training in advance would help too, like running up and down Mount Cootha every morning for about six months prior to departure.
Things to bring: While the hot springs are wonderful for easing aches and pains, a tube of linament wouldn't go astray for the two days after you leave the springs. Also bring a good hat and sun screen. Lip balm could be handy for the last day when you scale the summit, as the howling, icy wind tends to dry out the lips a bit. If you do the climb at a time when the moon isn't full, a torch is a must. The variety you strap on your head like a miner's lamp is best, as it leaves both hands free.
Choose your tour guide with care. The Lonely Planet Indonesia's Eastern Islands Guide lists a few of the operators in Sengiggi and gives a lot of very detailed information on the trek itself. A four day, three night trek should cost about $150.00.
Trekking in Indonesia isn't as well organized or regulated as it is in places like Nepal. A lot of the tour companies seem to act as middlemen. They take your money then hire a freelance guide and give him some of the money with which to hire porters, camping gear and buy provisions for the trip. Some try to cut costs by allocating too little to the guide, which results in the guide buying inferior food and hiring inadequate camping gear. This can lead to altercations with the clients. One way to thwart this little ploy is to tell the company that you'll pay, say, half the money up front and the balance upon completion of the trek. That way, if things go wrong, you can tell them why you're withholding some of the final payment. A lot of things can go wrong and we met a few people who had minor gripes about things that had happened to them.
On the other hand, some people just go begging for trouble. Embarking on a journey such as this without guides and porters is just sheer lunacy. A good guide is worth his weight in gold. Justinus Gunawan is such a guide.
While only in his mid 20s, he's a veteran of 52 expeditions to Rinjani. When he's not guiding, he's studying law at Lombok University. He speaks English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, having come from East Timor. He carries a two-way radio on every trek (a lot of operators will tell you they use radio so that help can be quickly summoned in an emergency, but in actual fact, they don't). The company he works for is Lombok Independent Tours in Mataram. They charge a bit more than a lot of the others but it's worth it.(Steve Rhodes)