Day 61 – Going to Kuta, Lombok (03/10/2015)
“It’s hilarious to hear an Indonesian person mimicking a British accent. ” – Caleb’s wise words of the day
Today was time to leave the Gili Islands. At the harbor we got two tickets to Bangsal, Lombok. We had to wait until 35 people got a ticket before we could leave. The boat was the same as the past two times, scary but luckily it didn’t take long. As soon as we got to Bangsal there was a guy trying to sell us a ride. We wanted to go to Kuta, which is in the South of Lombok. Two girls heard us saying that and because they we’re heading to Kuta as well, we made a good deal with sharing a taxi. After about 2.5 hours we arrived in Kuta. With what I saw out of the car, I’m pretty impressed, Lombok looks amazing.
We finally learned and already had a reservation for a room at La Bangkat. When they showed us the room I was happy. It is very nice, the pool looks amazing and we got a free welcome drink. It’s IDR 350’000, which is not that cheap but it’s worth it. We got a nice refreshment in the pool before we rented a scooter and went for lunch in the village of Kuta.
After lunch we went to Kuta Beach, which was beautiful. We saw so many beaches in the past days but this one was very different. The whole landscape here is very different than what we’ve seen so far on our trip. It’s kind of like a desert, it has a lot of hills and it’s very quiet, not a lot of tourists and a lot of the island looks uninhabited. Unfortunately I got pulled out of the excitement very suddenly when I stepped on a branch with thorns. The thorns broke of the branch and were stuck in my skin. As prepared as we are, we had nothing to pull it out with, so I had to do it with my hands, which almost made me pass out. However, I was still alive and we kept going. When we walked along the beach kids kept trying to sell us bracelets. It was impressive how their parents taught them sentences like “one more”, “10’000”, “cheap price”. The best sentence was “for school book”, which was obviously not true. They were quite persistent and as you can imagine they were pretty cute. It made me feel like the most heartless person in the world to not buy anything but first of all we can’t buy bracelets from every cute kid , second of all I would buy one if it was actually for school books and third of all I think it’s terrible of parents to send their kids selling things and if they make money it just makes them believe even more that kids are the better moneymakers.
Back at the hotel we sat in the pool forever. We finally have a clean and clear pool again. The owner of the hotel told us that he’s a specialist of Indonesian curry so we felt like we had to stay there for dinner and try it. The prices are amazing and the food was too.
Day 62 – Beaches around Kuta, Lombok (04/10/2015)
“Monkey crossing can be dangerous.“ – Caleb’s wise words of the day
After having breakfast we got told that we have to move to another room because the more expensive rooms were fully booked. We weren’t very happy about it but the new room is nice too, plus we save 100’000, which is great. After moving all our stuff we took the scooter and drove to a beach called Selong Belanak. The ride was amazing, we were going up and down, there are almost no houses, just nature and because everything is so dry, from time to time it feels like you’re driving through the desert.
When we got to Selong Belanak we were pretty shocked that we had to pay IDR 10’000 for parking but this was supposed to be the most beautiful beach on the coast, so we payed it. As soon as we got off the scooter, everyone was trying to sell us something. I’m getting so sick of it. The beach is interesting for surfing but not that much for swimming and it’s quite touristy. The view would have been nice but it was too hazy today. We were hoping to find a more impressive beach, so we had a quick lunch and kept going. I would not say that that is the most beautiful beach on the coast, we liked Kuta Beach better.
Our next stop was at Mawi Beach. Again we had to pay IDR 10’000 for parking, which is a bit ridiculous but we’re here now and we don’t wanna miss out on anything. The ride to the beach was not very comfortable. There was no real road, we had to drive over rocks and potholes and through sand. The beach itself was nice. Not a lot of people, nice sand beach and amazing waves. Unfortunately they were burning stuff right next to the beach, which stank and made the sight bad. The Indonesians are ridiculous with burning stuff, they ruin so much with it. Without haze this beach would be pretty amazing.
Third and last beach for the day was Mawaun Beach. Another IDR 10’000 for parking but whatever. The waves on Mawaun Beach were so high, it was amazing. It was hilarious to watch people getting hit by the waves. We were just sitting there with our ice creams and we couldn’t stop watching. After a while we walked along the beach and finally laid down in the sand. I was reading and Caleb was making a bracelet out of a rope that he found, when a kid just sat next to Caleb and started talking to him. It was cute but I was just waiting for him to try to sell us something and of course it didn’t take too long. He was lucky that he was selling pineapples because that’s what I wanted. He left and he came back with a pineapple cut like a popsicle. That was so cool looking and it was the best pineapple ever. As soon as I had one bite I regretted that I always got mangos. The pineapples here are so much better than in Europe. I could have eaten ten of them.
On the way back to our place we stopped at Asthari, a restaurant on top of a hill, which apparently had a great view. Caleb was excited about having a coffee and about taking some great pictures. We sat down on the terrace and the view really was pretty nice but when we looked at the menu we were speechless. There was no way that we were going to get something there. A fruit juice was IDR 48’000, which is more than twice as much as everywhere else. We left without a drink and without a picture. That was quite disappointing.
As soon as we got to our homestay we went swimming and we didn’t wanna get out of the pool anymore, we stayed in there forever. Because Caleb liked the curry so much last night, we had dinner at our place again. Caleb was wondering if we could do a cooking glass with the owner of our homestay. He asked and the guy said that we can do one for IDR 150’000 each, which is very cheap compared to all the places we’ve seen so far. We agreed on doing it tomorrow and we are really excited about it.
The Travelling Smiths 