Arriving in Kuta Lombok

Reaching Kuta after many hours I was pretty tired, the distance on a map don’t reflect the time and concentration its takes to travel a distance.

This is the only developed settlement of guest houses on the south coast and the eastern section is across the road from the beach. The beach at Kuta is nothing to look at and all the guest houses are spread out east and west of the main road. I checked out the Matahari Inn and the rooms were decent with fan and shared pool. The staff member told me the room would be 150,000rp as all the economy rooms were full. I offered 75,000rp which he refused so I left. Here’s the gap in marketing that goes on here. All the economy rooms are taken (75,000rp each ), I show up and say I’ll go to the next level for the same price. I know most of those rooms are empty, but instead of negotiating a higher rate the staff says ‘Sorry cannot.’ If you have a customer show up while having unsold inventory and don’t try to sell him you’re an idiot.

I road across the main road and checked into the Anda Inn for 30,000rp. The room is no fan, no AC but seems okay. Hopefully by midnight it will cool off.

I got to the place around 5.30pm and was feeling pretty tired. After a shower I stepped out the front door and ended up buying a blanket for 50,000rp from Mia and Lia. They competed for price with the same products (not a smart move) and after I bought one another lady showed up and said “Now you have to buy one from Mia because you negotiate with her too and should have pity for her.” “Pity isn’t something you should base your business on.” I replied and they took off. I later found out I paid way over the top for the blanket but that’s okay with me. I got a nice blanket for a price I can live with, if the couple of extra dollars profit Lia made helps her family I am happy.

Kuta seems like an outpost of tourism with adventurous Euros and Brasilians making it out here. I can only wonder how the local businesses are doing.

The first warung I went into I asked for a small Bintang, he only had Ankor ( which isn’t good), I said okay. He came back and said he only had large. I didn’t want to drink a large Ankor so went next door. I chose grilled fish and rice but the waiter told me they had run out of fish�there were no other customers and we’re on the coast. Oh well I took nasi goreng (fried rice) for 10,000rp.

The nightime entertainment in Kuta consists of having a beer in a warung or browsing the dozen of so blanket / art stalls on the beach. This is fine with me since I live half a block from Dhyana Pura.

I don’t want to spend this whole trip on a motorbike so I was hoping to check out one of Lomboks famous white sands beaches in the morning.