We could have stayed on Gilli Air for longer than our 6 day stint but time was running out and there was more of Lombok to discover. We were heading to another Kuta, this time hoping it would be nothing like it’s namesake in Bali. The drive there was spectacular with lush green hills and a succession of hidden idyllic beaches with rolling surf. This was promising as our destination was supposed to be ideal for learning to become gnarly surf dudes. We shared our hotel with a lovely bunch of Aussie surfers who adopted us into their group and showed us the ropes. They also set us up with an instructor who after a 30 second demonstration put us on a boat and sent us out to a rather large reef break. It was scary and knackering but we both managed to get to our feet a couple of times, Mark rather more stylish than me. As usual my sea legs failed me and I had to stop surfing every now and again to puke…thanks for those inherited genes mum!
After surfing we chilled out in the hotel pool and wandered along the beach watching to locals collect their dinner from the rock-pools. I finally ignored my dad’s voice of caution in my head and let Mark get a motorbike and we had a great time razzing all over the place visiting some of the most stunning beaches of our trip.
In the evening we joined some of the ausssies and local surfers and sang song and drank rice wine in the village. The day we left was market day and we had a mooch around the stalls selling everything from raw tobacco to machetes. Our 5 hour ferry ride back to Bali was thankfully calm and went by quicker than expected, assisted by guessing games of what odd food combinations would be in the wrapped banana leaves we had bought prior to leaving.
A chilled out night in Padangbai was necessary to recover from the journey and then we were on our way to our final destination of Tuban. Recommended by the aussies as the less shitty neighbour to Kuta. Here we stocked up on dodgy DVDs and made good use of the flash pool in our neighbouring hotel. we found a fantastic restaurant who served excellent Nasi Campur and played great music. We bugged them so much about what the music was they presented us with a copied CD on our last night. We have loved coming back to Indonesia and can’t believe this our last stop in Asia.
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4 comments so far
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Is a ‘flash pool’ a posh pond or somewhere you whip your cossy off before entering the water?
May 26th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Is that funny little thing crawling out of the shell what the locals have for dinner?
You both look very ‘glam’in your helmets….Mark like Darth Vader??….Helen like a ‘Footballer’s wife’??
That “Tobacco”?…looks more like giant Shredded Wheat!!
I think the food on the plate (is that Nasi Campur?) looks far more appetising than the stuff in the ‘nana skin’! xx
May 26th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Cor h ur tan is going to give the boys a run 4 their money when u get back. They will be impressed with the bike but i’m not sure about the helmets
did they not have one with a 46 on! Miss u xxxxx
May 26th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Hi Clare welcome to the blog, lovely to hear from you. The worse thing is NOBODY else was wearing helmets but I insisted so I was the reason we looked so sad! Dad’s voice to reason didn’t leave totally. Give the boys a kiss from me.
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