Unexpected Encounters

In February 2018, we traveled to Indonesia and spent one month on Lombok, a beautiful green island south of Bali. This is a little insight about our trip and a surprising collaboration on the way.

Sometimes we hate social media. Sometimes we love it.

During our stay on Lombok, there was this moment we loved it for sure! We got in touch witch a film director via a Facebook group by mere chance! He was looking for somebody to assist him in a video project. His name is Sol and in August 2017, his wife and him decided to move with their 4 year old daughter to Indonesia — permanently.

“Life in a big city like Seoul is stressful and fast-paced. The level of air pollution had come to a point that I felt the responsibility to act and find a healthier habitat for my daughter to grow up.”

Originally from South Korea, he is now based on Gili Trawangan — a tiny archipelago south of Bali. Our first meeting with him was pure magic and we decided to work together in instant. Benni was happy to have carried all his equipment to Indonesia with the outlook to use the drone in new territory!

Let’s do this together!

From now on we had a common goal to pursue: producing an image video for the Hotel “Villa Nero” on Gili Trawangan. The owners are friends with Sol and they helped him and his family to settle in and get their business going. So his intention with this image film was to say ‘thank you’ to his friends. For us, an inspiring background and a good reason to do it without any money involved.

Smooth workflow

Working on this whole project was simply smooth! Once you arrive on Gili T. you feel the relaxed vibe immediately. No cars, no engine sounds, only bicycles. The whole team of Villa Nerro supported us with everything we needed, starting from pick-up service, drivers, a nice villa for our stay, delicious food as well as every little thing needed for the shooting on the island and in their villa complex. We can’t deny that being picked-up in their private speedboat was one of the highlights for us! It gave us a James Bond like feeling – with the license to shoot awesome footage!

Sol had the entire script ready and a very detailed prospect of the video, so we took it easy, yet focused. As D.O.P. (Director of Photography) Benni basically did all the shooting while Alex was responsible for organizational stuff and for keeping the DOP relaxed by carrying his equipment. Sol was directing and fine tuning every step of the way.

One more thing

On our last night and with the help of our new friends on Gili Trawangan, Alex was invited to play a DJ set at the seaside during sunset. It was a perfect finish! Imagine an epic sunset with the mighty volcano of Bali at the horizon, some groovy tunes, snacks and drinks, and not to forget: in great company. People on Gili T. surely know how to party!

The Other Side of the Coin

People make places. Yes, thats true! But it’s also people who make places not lasting for too long. Particularly, when it comes to mass tourism and consumerism. In this case we are talking about the destruction of nature and the problem with trash all over Lombok, the Gilis, Bali and Indonesia as a whole. The paradise seems to be slowly fading. Those are islands – so where is all the trash processed? Well, either in ends up in the ocean or on huge dump somewhere on the island. We experienced an extraordinary level of pollution during monsoon ourselves. People told us, that in this regard it is the worst time of the year as the rivers rise and carry all the rubbish from the inside of the island to the beaches.

Unfortunately, many people on Lombok don’t have any awareness for this phenomenon – neither the tourist nor the natives. Our friends from Gili confirmed our observations. On an extensive tour through some local areas, we saw many flooded streets with houses entirely uninhabitable and yet people were still living in them. They have no other choice as to deal with it.

We spoke to them and they don’t seem to care too much about that. They’ve got used to it because it happens every year around this time. Nonetheless, it was heartbreaking. At the same time, people were happy about the heavy rain – they need it for their rice fields.

Bottom Line

Our experience on Lombok and the Gilis was sort of two-sided. On the one hand, we met many awesome locals and had a great time with them. Those people are always smiling, they are helpful and up for a joke or a conversation. On the other hand, we saw so much poverty and pollution in this paradise which made us think about our own behavior of treating nature. Tourists like us are part of the pollution problem as well. Plastic and mass consumption surely are no invention of the Sassak community of Lombok. And: who are we to judge anyway? Even though we try to take care of our environment, we still take planes, drive around with scooter for no reason, and generate plastic trash simply by buying anything that is factory processed. Yes, we are aware of the fact that we are part of the problem and we have no real solution for it. Maybe except creating an awareness for it and never leave our trash in nature. However, in deeper contemplation it boils down to the question: Are we willing to give up this travel lifestyle for the sake of  nature…? What does conscious travelling mean? Is there a sustainable way of doing it? How?