Indo Fantasyland

After Kuta, we had no idea what to expect of Bali, but Sam was eager to try some surfing in water, not plastic bags. On the advice of some fellow surfers we ran into in Kuta, Kyle and Cassandra, we headed to a spot on the southwest coast of Bali. January and February is the rainy season in Indonesia and somewhat of an off season for surfing, so we were glad for the advice. When we arrived, we found that the artsy restaurant and bungalows nearest the beach had rooms available (apparently a rarity) so we got ourselves by far the artsiest bungalow we've stayed in, with paintings, modern decorations, big tile counters, very clean and nice, for $20 a night. As a bonus it also had the most unique toilet paper holder we've found in Bali, it was your typical monkey god statue with a very large, uh, male member, cheerfully horizontal but modestly hidden by the TP.

We stepped blinking onto our balcony and took a look around. The steps to the beach were just a few yards away. The surf break was directly in front of us, beautiful waves, double overhead on the sets - too big for me! A pleasant and reasonably priced restaurant was right there on our left, with delicious frapuccino-like iced coffee, good pizza, Indonesian food, and even edible Mexican food! (That's a first on this trip.) The owner was a Canadian expat and author of the Lost Guide to Bali/Lombok which was full of good advice, though some of it a bit late (like the watch out for Kuta bit.) The beach was blacksand and completely deserted. A river ran out to the beach on the left, and there was a palm-tree lined headland topped with a temple to either side. The area only had about ten guesthouses, most of the rest of them empty this time of year, and a small town at the top of the hill with a few houses and shops. In other words, a complete Bali-surf-fantasy, the kind of thing we did not think existed anymore. We spent two nights there, Sam got to slide all over the place on his single fin, and I got to read, go for runs and make tracks on the unmarked beach, and do some drawing. Oh yeah, and we both got to eat a lot! Our B.C. friends were there so we also got the scoop on Bali and life in Canada as well. (Summary: both are great, but not in February.)

Unfortunately our room was booked after two nights, but our friends had rented a car and were heading to the airport near Kuta to fly to Lombok, so we figured we might as well tag along. The flight had seats available (only $30) so feeling a little tick-like, we decided to follow our friends a bit more - they had done lots of research and seemed to know what they were doing and where they were going! The flight was, um, well Indonesian airlines are probably blacklisted for a reason, but it wasn't too bad and only took 30 minutes. The worst part was when the captain said something in Indonesian that sounded remarkably like "crash position, please" in English and then immediately put the plane into a nosedive, straight into, oh, the Mataram airport landing strip. Normal descent? Lucky crash landing? Anyway we seemed unscathed so we grabbed our boards and shared a taxi with our friends to, oh no, Kuta. Yeah, there's a Kuta on Lombok too!

Like Kuta Bali, Kuta Lombok is a surftown. That's about where the similarity ends. The town is small and pretty empty of tourists this time of year. There are many beautiful deserted beaches and a long craggy barely populated coastline. There are a few dozen unimpressive guesthouses both on and away from the beach, and a dozen or so restaurants. After some walking around, we found a pretty good deal ($18 for a huge room with a private outdoor bathroom, A/C, and hot water) at a haunted looking hotel with huge parklike grounds. We later found out that it was government-owned; it had probably been previously abandoned for awhile by the past owners when the first version of the Lombok international airport deal fell through. (The new deal is supposed to go through resulting in an international airport next year. Or maybe that's what the real estate mafia tells us, not sure.) Anyway the hotel pool was in good condition and the rooms were clean, which was all that mattered to us.

Now it was time to face the local mafia - i.e. moto and boat rental guys that lurk outside the hotel security gate all day, waiting for us, practically the only tourists in town. Luckily we'd already been warned of the most common scam there: they rent you a moto, but keep the spare key. When you park it on a beach or something to go surfing, they take the extra key and steal the moto and make you pay $1200 for it (the thing is probably only $700 new!) But you have no choice since of course the police are in on it, as well as a dozen or so large locals. FYI: the police in Indonesia are pretty much never on your side and should be avoided at all costs. Even the guidebook recommends running away if they try to pull you over while driving! Apparently running away is not a crime so you are not going to pay any extra and as a bonus you might actually get away. But we talked to a girl who ran away so much that they eventually set up a roadblock and threw the girl and her friends in jail because she couldn't pay the few hundred dollars worth of tickets she had racked up. So she spent the night in jail, bought the guard a few drinks, and he let her go in the morning! Crazy! Anyway the moto-scam. We told our guys that we wanted a guarantee that they would not steal our bikes, and they said ok for at least the immediate area. Outside of this area there are stories of machete attacks, etc, so we figured that was reasonable. We didn't have any problems, but two other people did get charged $1000 each for this scam while we were there, so be careful if you go! Lombok is great but you have to be on your toes while you are there.

The next day we chartered a boat from the same group and headed out to Garupuk, the main surf break there and the only place that was breaking, out on a reef in a nearby bay. This bay featured the typical emerald green and turquoise blue waters, picturesque brightly painted fishing boats, green crags at the entrance to the bay, virgin yellow sands inland on the beaches...yup, pretty standard. The surf was great for a few hours, which was plenty long for us! I mainly got paddling exercise, being a little afraid of the 1 1/2 overhead waves and reef. The sun was intense and even Sam got sunburned to the point of peeling later. This is saying a lot since by this point Sam was already super dark from Laos. I of course did an imititation of a Thai tourist and turned lobster red. But after awhile the wind and rain picked up, and 20 people in helmets with longboards showed up on a boat marked "Sengigi Surf Camp" or some such, so we happily retreated to our hotel pool. Later we got delicious food at the Family Cafe (really the only good place in Kuta Lombok that time of year) - get the chicken sandwiches and Brasilians (cinnamon, coffee, and chocolate smoothees) if you go!



Next day: repeat. In the afternoon we took the bikes and checked out some of the other beaches - no surf but Cassandra and I went for a jog and admired more scenery. The surf break was getting a little crowded though as more and more people figured out that this was the only spot breaking on the whole island, and the wind started picking up. So Sam and I decided to go to the Gili islands, to avoid the Rip Curl Search coming to Kuta Lombok in two days.