Triceps and flip-flops: Gunung Rinjani's porters
Stepping out of our van at Sembalun village on the tropical island of Lombok, Indonesia, at the start of the climb up Gunung Rinjani, we are served banana pancakes and fresh pineapple by four short but muscular men.
They don’t speak much English, but their calm demeanor and warm smiles make us feel welcome.
We quickly learn their names -- Hera, Nina, Edy and Beduk -- from our guide, Jay, and that they are the porters for our trek up Gunung Rinjani, Lombok’s 3,726-meter active volcano, which last erupted in May 2010.
Dressed in little more than flip-flops, shorts and T-shirts, they will be climbing the mountain with us, carrying all our belongings too. Before we even start I am slightly awed by these guys.
At 3,000 meters it gets cold on the mountain and I am sure they will have light jackets and shawls to wrap around themselves.
But no. Our group is decked out with full winter gear, hiking boots and ergonomic backpacks and the porters look like they have just stepped off the beach.
Climbing up a steep volcano would be tough under any conditions but our porters are tasked with carrying all of the food, water, firewood and camping gear for our group of 11.
The porters fasten their load with rope to a bamboo pole, and balance it on one shoulder, swapping to the other shoulder when the weight gets too much.
They have huge calluses on their shoulders from the years of heavy carrying.
We start our trek from Sembalun village through farmers' fields and after an hour reach the foot of the cloud-shrouded volcano.
Our porters are in their late 20s or early 30s, and despite their burdens, they set the pace.
It's not until we start our ascent of the mountain that we witness the strength and stamina of these men.
Despite chain-smoking for much of the journey up and down the mountain, the porters were always far ahead of us and would be setting up our tents and cooking our food by the time we reached the designated rest stops.
So not only did our porters exhibit mental and physical toughness that would make a Special Forces soldier proud, they also had to cook nourishing meals with the most basic of kitchen tools.
Meals were simple but tasty. We were offered fresh sandwiches, fried rice, fried noodles, salads, fresh fruit, and even French fries.
Our porters have all been working since their teens.
They hail from all over Lombok, married Sembalun village ladies and started families there.
They are part of a proud group of about 200 Lombok men who work for a dozen trekking companies. The youngest porter in Lombok is 14 and the oldest is 49.
They generally do not stop until their bodies can no longer handle the grind of daily hikes up the mountain with only a few days rest each month.
The money is pretty good for the region; they generally earn US$250-300 not including tips from trekkers.
This is much better pay than their other employment options like farming and making handicrafts.
They are trained in cooking, mountain search-and-rescue and customer service.
Only a month before my trek, our guide, Jay, had to recover the corpse of an Italian woman who fell off the side of a cliff.
For the toughest rescue missions, there is also an Australian helicopter search-and-rescue team stationed in the Northern Territory, only a couple of hours away from Lombok.
But you must be part of a registered trekking outfit if you want to be insured for your trip.
At the end of the trip, the porters dropped us off at our vans waiting in Senaru village on the north side of the volcano. They waved goodbye shyly and walked off into the forest to hitch a ride back to be with their families.
The next day, they would all wake up at sunrise to do the three-day trek all over again.
