The rest of our trip through Lombok was amazing and quite relaxing. While having a couple pretty hilarious stories, most of the time it was pretty laid back! So far this has been Mikaela and I's favorite place to date, for the simple reason that Lombok is what we thought Bali would be like. While the pain subsided from the Rinjani trek, it was a nice 2 hour car ride to the small, relaxing, nearly empty town of Kuta, Lombok. It was time to catch up on some much needed rest. While still dealing with the occasional local salesman, we were completely surprised with how many children were sent off into the streets to sell bracelets. These kids were relentless!!! They did not mind sitting down with you at restaurants and following you down the streets! At one point we convinced about 8 kids to put down the bracelet selling and just play with us on the beach, which turned out to be an entertaining affair. Once we found what would be our home for the next 9 days (Kuta Baru Home Stay), we spent the next and final day with our Canadian companions (Alex, Phil and Charles) before they left for Sumatra.
Driving to Senggigi from Mt. Rinjani for a quick 2 day pit stop before heading to Kuta, Lombok.
1.Playing with the crazy local kids! 2. Finding an astounding amount of sea shells at our secret beach!
The Kuta Baru Home Stay! What an amazing place to spend our time!
After the first moped incident we decided to try our luck again and explore the local beaches with Phil & Alex on their last day. It didn't go as planned for the first leg of the journey!…… Following google maps, which started on a nicely paved road, quickly turned to us driving down a dusty, dirty, bumpy road, and running out of fuel! Luckily, we were able to get two jugs of fuel from a grass shack that farmers were living in and they actually turned out to be quite nice for not speaking a lick of english! It was a real pointing and grunting game for about five minutes until we got the point across that we needed fuel and then we were back on the road.
After backtracking for 40 min, we finally made it to the beach (Selong Belonak) which we had planned on going to from the start. It ended up being right off the road that we passed about 1.5 hours prior! When we finally got in the water it was the best feeling on earth! We spent the rest of the day surfing the perfect sand beach break, relaxing, and eating grilled corn! It definitely was worth all the trouble and ended up being a pretty funny story afterwards. Especially when Phil's moped ran out of gas (broken fuel gauge) for the second time, 10 min from our home stay on the way back!
Selong Belonak Beach, catching some rays after a fun little surf sesh.
Mikaela shredding the gnar at Selong Belonak!
Enjoying a nice warm coconut!
After saying goodbye to our new friends, the rest of our time was spent exploring the beautiful beaches, chartering boats to go surfing, and just plain relaxin! It was so amazing being able to explore the open roads with little to no traffic and a breathtaking view around every corner. Passing monkeys, cattle, goats and chickens never got old and neither did high five-ing the local kids at 25 mph from the moped! Seeing how the locals live really opened our eyes to how good we have it at home and it was so nice to be around people that were genuinely excited to see us.
Our secret sea shell beach. Millions of sea shells around every corner!
Moped Shenanigans on the empty roads!
Heading back from the empty surf break Gerupuk Insides. Literally me and 1 other guy for 2 hours!
Seger Beach Lookout. What an amazing place to spend our final night on Lombok.
We ended up taking a fast boat back to Bali, which was yet another unfortunate event, almost ending in the laptop and camera being fried from water damage! For nearly 2 hours we were completely annihilated by wave after wave on the roof of the fast boat, due to 30 mph winds and rough seas. That being said, we are glad to not have any boat rides in the near future, because we just cant seem to catch a break! We are sad to leave Indonesia but are so excited for the next leg of the trip. This place was truly awesome and we’re looking forward to coming back in the future! …..............INDIA!!