Lombok is for relaxing. It’s a place to hunt out a bargain in a dusty market, to haggle for pearls and sarongs on the beach, to explore quaint villages and pick up a genuine handicraft for a song. Or to brave the local markets in search of a unique collectible or quirky item at bargain-basement prices.
A good place to start – and one not usually listed in tourism guides – is the Pasar Cakranegara, or Cakra Market in Mataram. Located in the middle of the city, the Cakra Market is a labyrinthine maze of stalls spanning a city block, packed with bargains for the intrepid traveler.
Stalls upon stalls line the narrow alleys of this market, shoulder-to-shoulder with their neighbors, and overflowing with goods of every description.
One section of the market is dedicated to food. The sights and smells can be overpowering on a hot day. Chickens, freshly plucked, heads and feet piled high on trays lay on tables next to hacked pieces of meat and offal. Swarming flies are lazily flicked away by the vendors, as are the cunning cats lurking under the tables crowded with fish and seafood.
Nearby stalls waft exotic aromas with baskets of spices for sale – cloves, ginger, pepper, lemongrass, garlic and shallots add their scent to the warm air. Bright oranges and mandarins, bunches of purple grapes, spiky pineapples, snake-skin salak, papaya, bananas and other tropical fruits spill from stalls in bright confusion.
Further along, baskets overflowing with flower petals provide welcome relief and are a colorful sight. These are sold to the many Balinese Hindus who live in Lombok and who use the flowers in their daily offerings to the gods. Woven bamboo baskets, brightly painted boxes and bowls, platters and containers of all shapes and sizes teeter in towers on stalls all around. Many are used for ceremonies in the temples but also make great collectibles and accessories for the home. Down another alley, glass cabinets display traditional headdresses, glittering brooches and elaborate costume jewellery – worn for weddings and special celebrations. More stalls sell beautifully sewn intricate lace kebaya – the traditional blouses worn by Indonesian women.
The next alley reveals jewellery, jewellery-making findings, buttons, beads and haberdashery. Necklaces, bracelets, rings, bangles, and everything to do with decoration, hang on stands and are piled in plastic bags on the floor.
There are stalls full of hats, handbags, scarves and shawls. Desks officiated over by serious men sell gold and gold jewellery by the gram, at current market prices.
In the true tradition of an eastern bazaar, the Cakra Market is an amazing kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, colors, textures and smells… engaging all the senses… and presided over by friendly and wily traders who are happy, and perhaps a bit surprised, to see a Bule, tourist in their midst.