Bangkang

As expected our legs ached from the trek so we decided to have a chill day and relax at a couple of beaches in Kuta. The first being Mawun beach, where we enjoyed a few hours to sunbathe. It was a quiet bay with white sand and very few people around, although unfortunately there was a fair amount of plastic in the ocean which seems to be quite common around south Lombok. Of course within minutes of walking along the sand we were pestered by various locals asking if we wanted a sun bed, until we finally gave in and agreed to one each. 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 we suspect it was a very well learnt script which included ‘you look pretty like an angel’ and ‘he is a lucky man’. 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 were very different. He was very forward and interested in UK living including salaries, housing and transport which we were open to discuss. It turns out our 3 month travel budget would buy a house in Lombok. The man was very shocked to hear this however when we told him UK houses started at £250k for something small, he just couldn’t believe it. He spoke relatively good English but was unable to read or write, so we also ended up helping him with a conversation on WhatsApp he'd been having with another English couple he'd 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, although acting as a translator was a bit strange.

We parted ways and left for another beach called Tanjung Aan. Again, another quiet beach with little around but an easy place to relax whilst watching people trying to surf. There was a large rocky platform covered with rock pools which we wandered around. Here we noticed so many crabs scurrying across the rocks, even jumping between each one trying to dodge the incoming waves.

Lombok’s equivalent of an ice cream van was a scooter with a polystyrene cool box strapped to the back. ‘Ice cream, ice cream’ he called and rode straight over to us. Of course we had to get one.

Riding back we passed Pertamina Mandalika race track. We still need to read up more on this track but we understand it is relatively new, and perhaps this could be a new race track for Moto GP or F1. We did spot a statue of an F1 car in the middle of the roundabout so who knows. It looked as if a serious amount of money was being put into surrounding infrastructure, perhaps gearing up to accommodate with mass tourism in the future. Most of Kuta was little more than shacks along a road and the odd restaurant or bar by the many beaches. In contrast, this newly developed infrastructure included miles of wide bricked pavements with frequent benches, 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 southeast 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 but it wouldn't surprise us if Kuta was preparing for increasing tourism as a result of the race track. Maybe one to watch over the next 5-10 years.

In the evening we rode to the centre of Kuta. We walked to Kuta beach but were shocked to see one area of the beach completely covered in rubbish. Definitely not a nice beach compared to the ones we had visited earlier in the day. We then had dinner in town and returned back to our hotel to get ready for our flight to Singapore the next morning.

Kuta is definitely a place we could have spent a couple more days exploring, however the trek meant that time had to give somewhere. It really has been a flying visit to Lombok and if time was on our side we would have happily stayed for longer. Many people say that Lombok is the ‘untouched Bali’ and we have to agree. Plenty of land and greenery and far fewer tourists, however it will be interesting to see how this may all change over the next decade or so.Read more