Exploring the south of Lombok

Monday morning in Kuta Lombok and the clouds dumped a pretty decent amount of rain on us on a 2 hour period.

Last night temperatures were pretty hot and I was surprised that in the middle of the night I actually got to use new blanket. Maybe the guest house has got a deal going with the blanket vendors, they don’t put top sheets or blankets n the bed and the second night the guest buy a blanket. It’s a cool souvenir anyway and I don’t mind helping the economy for something I’ll use.

Sitting in the restaurant area of Anda guest house I awas the only tourist, although I knew there are several other people staying here.

The clouds were so thick as I typed that I could hardly make out the headland to the right, the rain pelting. Tropical storms tend to be fast and furious so by the time my pancake was eaten we had sunshine.

People have said that Lombok is a malaria zone and I know mosquitoes are around its just that I haven’t seen many. In the evening I wear a long sleeve t-shirt and long pants to give them a smaller target area. On my back porch in Seminyak I’ll get 5 or 6 bites if I’m sitting round reading but here maybe 1 or 2.

The sun has started to appear and I will hit the road to the SE beaches soon. There are supposed to be great unspoilt beaches to the east and west and maybe tomorrow on the way back to the port of Lember I’ll check out some to the west of Kuta.

Riding to the east of Kuta the road is decent, tarmaced and untrafficed. The hotel Novotel Coralia Lombok has an expansive amount of construction with tiled roundabouts, stone edged roads and decorations along the approach roads. It’s a curious combination of Nusa Dua and a quiet tropical island.

Continuing east I monitored the looming dark clouds overhead and cruised along at leisurely 30kmh taking in all the scenery and trying to make eye contact and say hello to locals, who were going about their day routines of harvesting wood and gathering coconuts.

After riding for maybe 15 minutes I rode down a rutted lane to the beach where 2 locals where hanging out. The long beach stretched maybe a mile, white sand and clear turquoise water. I didn’t want to swim here because the place was totally deserted and I wanted to use my time to explore. The south coast of Lombok has sweeping unspoilt beaches that havent been covered in volcanic ash as soon of the beaches in eastern Bali have. For tourists and travellers who are choosing between Bali and Thailand consider Lombok also for the white sand beaches. Much easier to get to from the airport when compared to Thailand’s islands.

The map in my guide book indicated a single coastal road but a few kilometers of riding offered me many choices and I decided to go with the flow, get lost and see what was out there.

I rode as far as the village of Gerupak and slowly made my way down the main street which was a muddy potholed track. Locals were sitting around, ladies chatting and looking after kids, men sitting under ‘bales’ playing cards. I stopped for a Lombok coffee, which is the same as a Bali coffee (grounds dumped into a cup of hot water) and chatted with a couple of guys who were there. The usual questions about where I was from, where I live and where I was going came up and I tried to entertain some of the local kids juggling 3 tangerines.

After 30 minutes I jumped back on the bike and headed back along the country roads to Kuta. I really wanted something to eat and asked locals if there was a warung handy. In Bali they are all over, but in Lombok they are not found very much in the villages.

Following a long road which wound its way closer to the coast I kept asking locals if a warung was close by and some indicated I should keep going. Finally I realized there was just not going to be a warung. Most villages have a small shack or 2 selling wafers, coffee and other small items, petrol is widely available in racks, but no where can you buy food.

Lombok almost feels like it has just been discovered by tourism as the infrastructure and number of visitors is low. Still for me this makes for a great place to visit and I was enjoying this mostly unspoilt island while I had the chance.

Arriving back in Kuta around 3pm I stopped at a small warung and had a nasi goreng for 8,000rp. It was nothing special but I was hungry and ate it. The owner came over to chat and his 4 year old daughter Pia was an expert in getting to know new customers.

Not satisfied with my mornings adventures I mounted the bike again and headed off west of Kuta. Hills definitely let you know you’ve been on a bike and a bit of saddle rash was going to be my souvenir from today. I saw a few other tourists driving back from the direction I was heading in with surfboards racks on their bikes. Lombok does get swell on the south coast and I talked to people in my guest house about how the surf was. It had been flat over the last couple of days but was picking up. Lombok has one of the best point breaks in the world at its SW tip, Desert Point. This is a fast left hander that tubes and gets stronger as it goes along. Of course you have to have the right swell, tide and wind conditions for things to work right.

The rice harvest seems to be a constant activity here in Lombok and as I was riding down a road I watched a lady performing her afternoon prayers in the rice field. She would stand for a few seconds, bow, then kneel with her forehead on the ground. This was repeated. After the prayer session was completed she pulled off the white headress and robes to reveal a black shirt and red top. She then donned a towel on her head and went back to work.

Some of the steep hills out in this area make it seem like Colombia and I had to use 1st gear to get all the way up one. All the way along my ride I saw friendly people walking, working in the fields and a few times I stopped for a photo session. This group of women and men had just finished beating stacks of rice stalks over wooden frames to free the grain and were taking a breather. My camera allows me to show the photos immedaitley which brings cries of ‘Ohhhh!!!’. These people were very nice.

I passed an older lady and her 2 grandkids with 3 goats. She had been chewing bettle nut for what must have been many years and her teeth were stained heavily with the red residue.

After I said goodbye to them I told myself ‘just one more hill and I’ll go back’. Rounding a corner I came across 4 locals ( 3 women and 1 man ) who were on their way home from the fields. “Want a ride?” I said. The man offered one of the ladies to go and we sped off for another couple of miles past small group of locals also walking home. This lady hollered out to the people we passed something like ‘look at me I don’t have to walk.’ I dropped her off and headed back up the steep hill. This time of day sees herds of water buffalo meander down the road proded on by their handler. They make an imposing sight with large curved horns but up close are docile and allowed by bike to squeeze by. Passing the place where the lady was praying I offered another local a ride, this time a fellow in his mid 30′s. The people here don’t have any hang ups about climbing on with a westerner and I don’t mind helping someone out with a ride on a hot day.

Arriving back at Anda guest house around 5.30pm I was quite tired. This day at the beach turned into day in the saddle but my mental picture of Lombok is getting filed out.