Senggigi, Senaru & Kuta, Lombok

The first afternoon in Lombok was spent in Senggigi. There was not much around despite apparently being one of the busier areas. We did head to the beach for a walk but to be honest, the next days trek was on our mind so it was dinner and an early night.

The next day we were driven to Senaru. This time there was even less around but we did go to see two waterfalls. Something we hadn’t read up before we came to Indonesia is that throughout the day prayers are played in the villages through a loud speaker. This includes early hours of the morning between 2am-5am. Unfortunately for us, this loud speaker was very close by so it wasn’t the best sleep before our busy day ahead.

Fast forward to after Rinjani and we left for Kuta. Kuta is considered to be the busiest area in Lombok and this was more evident. After a 4 hour drive from Sembalum to Kuta we checked into our homestay for the night. It was a nice private outbuilding with an outdoor shower and a pool although we didn’t end up using the pool.

The following morning we had a lay in as our legs were pretty sore as you can imagine. After breakfast, we hired out a scooter and rode to Mawun beach about 15 minutes away. It was a quiet bay with white sand and very few people around although unfortunately there was a fair bit of plastic in the ocean which is quite common around south Lombok apparently. Of course within minutes of walking along the sand we were asked if we wanted a sun bed until we finally gave it and agreed we’d to one. Within a few more minutes two young girls came up to Jess looking to sell a bracelet. They appeared to speak good English but in reality I expected it was a very well learnt script which included ‘you look pretty like an Angel’. After that Jess agreed to buy a bracelet for around 30p which they seemed happy about. After chatting to the owner of this shack it became clear our lives are very different. He was very forward and interested in UK living including salaries, housing and transport which I was open about. Our 3 month travel budget would buy a house in Lombok which he was very shocked to hear, however when I told him UK houses start at 250k for something small, he couldn’t believe it. He could speak English but could not read or write, so I ended up helping him with a conversation on WhatsApp he was trying to have with another English couple he met a few weeks ago. This English couple apparently wanted a small holiday home in Lombok and he wanted to build it for them on his land to which they seemed genuinely interested in albeit a bit strange…

We parted ways and left for another beach called Tanjung Aan. Again another quiet beach with little around but easy to relax on watching people trying to surf. Lombok’s equivalent of an ice cream van is a scooter with a polystyrene cool box strapped to the back. ‘Ice cream, ice cream’ he called and and rode strait over. Of course we had to get one.

Riding back we passed Pertamina Mandalika race track. I’m yet to read up on this track but I understand it is relatively new and it looks as if a serious amount of money is being put into surrounding infrastructure so it can cope with mass tourism in the future. Most of Kuta is little more than shacks along a road and the odd restaurant/ bar by the many beaches. This newly developed infrastructure includes miles of wide bricked pavements with built in seating, freshly laid dual carriageways, modern looking street lamps and bus stops all with loads of plants that were all being watered by multiple tankers. This may seem normal for UK but this sort of infrastructure is rare in south east Asia, let alone the small island of Lombok, currently considered to be the unspoiled Bali. It really did look out of place with the rest of the island and looks as if Lombok is gearing up for mass tourism as a result of this track, at least around the Kuta area. Maybe one to watch over the next 5-10 years?

We then spent 5 minutes at Kuta Beach which is just filled with rubbish unfortunately so turned around and had an evening walking around Kuta’s strip, looking in stalls and eating dinner before tomorrows flight to Singapore marking the last stop on our travels before our flight home.Weiterlesen