Woke up to a lovely sunny day with no wind, stayed that way for the whole 10 days we were on Lombok. Had our brekkie at the hotel, choice of pancake or eggs and coffee or tea. Went for a walk on the beach, Kuta is a beautiful bay with a long stretch of beach and lots of rock formations and little beaches towards the ocean. Had a look at the hotel next door, ‘Surfers Inn'. it had a nice pool with fan double rooms and twin rooms for 100,000rp per night including breakfast, and the brekkie was a little more extensive than the place we were staying. The pool can be used for 25,000rp per person. Had a family conference with Zoe going 'please, its got a pool' and decide that it was better value as it was only 20,000rp more, Tom would have a proper bed, not just a mattress on the floor. We went back to the hotel and the boys went for surf at a break called Grupuk, they negotiated a price for the boat trip out to the break as it is an outside break, started at 70,000rp each and got them down to 25,000 as we said we were staying a while. Zoe and I read a little and had a little snooze and I awoke to the mobile ringing, Danny to let us know he was in Lombok and his brothers wedding was today. Arranged to phone him tomorrow and he would meet us somewhere and take us to meet his family and over too Mount Ranjani for a day trip.
Moved into Surfers Inn and straight away knew we had made a good decision. Really friendly staff and a great crew of people staying there. A young English couple who live in Manly, an older Aussie couple from Broome, and a couple from Portugal, the guy being originally from Ireland. During our stay another 2 young English people arrived, friends from their uni days- guy and girl. And an American guy who had many great comedy routines, kept everyone in stitches. The kids loved all of them and because they were all surfers spent a lot of time together, checking out the surf, talking about their surfs and actually going surfing. Some of the girls did not surf every session, so we had lots of girlie chats around the pool. On the night before most of the crew was leaving we all threw some money in and had a cocktail party, we were lacking a few ingredients, but most of them were good. The hotel put on a set meal for us and we had a great time.
We rang Danny and had a look at the map and suggested that we meet him in Masgabik, which looked like it was close to his village near Almik. He agreed and we set a time and set off. Got to Masgabik with no problems but no sign of Danny. Waited a while and it was pretty obvious that this was a town that was not used to tourists. Gave Danny a call and he said sorry didn't think you would be so quick will meet you in 10minutes. It turned out that Danny's clock in his Mothers house was wrong. Arrived in Danny's village, parked the car and went up a few laneways to Danny's family home. It was a nice house and there were plenty of family members to meet us. Danny explained that most of the men were in Malaysia, working on construction jobs or like him and his Brother in Bali selling DVD's. We took some video footage of everyone and then played it back on the TV. Everyone was laughing at everyone, and there was around 30 people crowded into the lounge room, it was great. Then we took a bit more footage, this time they were all playing up to the camera, played that back too just as many laughs. Unfortunately after that the battery on the video went flat but we have promised Danny we will burn the footage to a DVD and send it too Danny. After a drink and a chat we jumped back into the car and Danny showed us the way up the mountain. Climbed for about 2 hours and got to the top to a beautiful valley and Danny pointed across and said Mount Ranjani over there, about another 1.5 hrs. By this time it was 4pm and considering we had to get back down and then 1.5 hrs to Kuta we decided we had better not go any further. Driving at night in Lombok is a bit of a nightmare, with a lot of the motor bikes having no lights. Dropped Danny off and promised to meet up again in Ulluwatu.
All the restaurants we ate in were good and most meals for the 4 of us between 140,000 and 200,000rp. The one most worth a mention is on top of a hill as you are driving south from kuta. It has been built by and Aussie and English girl and is really beautiful and with the most magnificent views over the beaches. It is called Astahri and is only open for breakfast and lunch. They have blackboard menus and they change something every day, it is all natural food and vegetarian but everything was Yum. Do sell Bintang though! We spent quite a few lunches relaxing, chatting with other travellers as well as the Surfers Inn people who also tended to go most days after a big morning surf.
Only health problem for us was one day hubbie drank some water out of the boat while surfing. Straight away he thought it did not taste all right and about 2 hours late he was spewing etc. We did the caring family thing and went to Dinner, better to leave him alone. My first experience of driving, but believe me Kuta is quiet and anyone could drive there, just have to keep an eye out for the many buffalo. The next morning he was starting to feel a little better and by the following day was back to normal. We drove around the coast to Maui and Serabyan, everywhere was really quiet. The beaches are all beautiful with some magnificent cliffs and rock formations. On one trip we saw some boys up a coconut tree, we stopped and took some video footage of them and went to check out the beach. On our way back they were flagging us down and offering coconuts for sale, we bought the 2 tiny ones they had, 2,000rp, and they were so happy, singing and dancing, got some more really good video footage. The people on Lombok do appear to have a lot less than the Balinese. One difference that we noticed was the use of horse and carts, they are everywhere and all the farmers have one to transport all sort of things. They are also a major form of people transport.
You most definitely need transport in Lombok, and if you are a family or group of people, renting a car in Bali and taking the ferry is a great way to go. I would have hated to arrive in the airport at Maturam, and have to arrange transport to kuta and then when you are in Kuta the only form of rental is motorbikes. We would have had to rented 3 bikes, one for me and hubbie, and separate ones for the kids, as they can handle a bike but not really doubling. Bike rental in Kuta is around 30,000rp per day, the car cost us 150,000, so you can see its reasonable value. The ferry was just under 500,000 one way, but an airfare would have been closer to 1,2million rp one way for the 4 of us. The other issue with the flying if you have a board is that the boards get easily damaged on the small planes. A few of our fellow travellers had dings on their boards from the plane trip to Lombok.
The ten days went quite fast but we were very aware that we only had 11 days to go and still had to get back to Nusa Lembongan , so with some reluctance we packed up, paid the bill- 3million rp for the ten days, accommodation, lunch, drinks including Bintangs, a few dinners and that was for 4 of us. Just got the Visa account and it was $434, average of around $43 per day. Our lunches outside of the hotel would have averaged 140,00rp and dinners between 140,000 and 200,000. Lombok is certainly pretty cheap. We aim for $100 per day so the place suits us fine, we will definitely be back. And although we chose the budget option there are plenty of other options, the most expensive being Novotel, really nice setting but pretty expensive, Kuta Inda- which is another hotel with a pool and was pretty quiet while we were there. We ran into an Aussie guy who had an air-conditioned room for 120,000rp. Other places without pools can be sourced for as low as 50,000rp a double a night. Did a tiny bit of shopping, a few T shirts, sarong and weaved mat, met one guy in a restaurant one night and he talked to us about the ‘soft sell way' and we were so impressed we told him we would visit his shop. When we arrived his mother told us he was home with his sick baby. Showed us wedding and baby photos and before we knew it he had arrived. Bought a few things and had a chat and moved on to one other shop where I had told a girl I would see her later, you know the story!
Tried to get away early but we are pretty hopeless, said goodbye to the other visitors, we might see them on Lembongan and off we go at 8.30. Arrive at Lembar just as the ferry leaves, great its only 9.40am. Went out of the ferry terminal to put the car in the shade and get away from the sellers. A young guy pulls up on his motorbike and stops for what turns out to be a rather long chat. He goes to check out the ferry situation and tells us one is due to arrive but it might be an old one and we were better to wait if it was. Turns out its new one, so we venture back in and the staff come and tell us that its best for myself and kids go on the ferry on foot, and hubbie stay with the car. We get on the ferry, find a good spot and settle, then the sellers of everything imaginable attack us. Buy a few drinks, the paper, some noodles and lollies, and still being asked. Zoe and Tom put on their I pods and I start reading the paper. Slowly the ferry fills, not many tourists but lots of Indonesians, It is a Muslim holiday in a few days and a lot were going home to family, 4 buses on the ferry. Just about to leave and we see the familiar faces of the English people and Portuguese couple, they join us and explain that the plane was full so they were driven to the Ferry at breakneck speed. Having a big group certainly made the long trip seem a bit shorter. Arrived just outside of Pandang Bai around 4.30 but there were 2 other ferries waiting to go in. So we had to wait at sea for 2 hours, finally off the ferry at 7pm. Once again great to just drive away and not to have to hassle over transport. Drove to a Money changer in Legian and then decided to check out 3 Brothers hotel for the night, prices a little beyond our budget so tried the Sri Ratu, they were pretty full and showed us a twin room, quite nice but 225,000rp per night, no thanks. Then went next door to the Wisata Beach Inn and they had very simple rooms, double downstairs, king single up stairs, cold shower ,western toilet and fan, everything we need. First the lady started at 75,000rp per room but when we said but we need to 2 she said OK 100,000rp for the two. Deal done, unloaded the car, quick change and a quick 50 meter walk to Je Je's for dinner, beautiful chicken schnitzels and a few games of pool. Slept really well.
Up and raedy at 8am the next morning. Off to Legian Snacks for breakfast and hubbie went down to the car place to fix up the bill and arrange for one of them to drop us at Sanur for the Perahma. Picked up the driver and over to Sanur in plenty of time, told the car place we would message them to let them know when to pick us back up. Bought tickets and straight away saw some familiar Lembongan faces getting off the public boat. Had a chat to Ronnie and his son, who is doing well in the surf competitions, Johnno, one of the captains of one of the boats and Wayan who works for our friends uncle in Bali as a driver. Can't wait to get back to Lembongan (been there 7 times for long periods). Our friends from Lombok join us and we all set off excited. It is great to see the faces of the first time visitors as they come in closer to Lembongan. The blue of the water, the amazingly clear visibility in the water, the scenery and to add to it all a pod of dolphins escorted us in. When the Perahma landed we caught another small boat to Puri Nusa and this time we had managed a sneak attack and Kal one of the staff was jumping around in amazement! Things were so quiet in Lembongan and we certainly helped arriving with 4 guests.
More to come.