Most people we talked to have been slightly confused that we skipped over Bali and went straight to Lombok, Bali was trip advisors #1 location in 2021 after all. For us most popular doesn't always mean best, it can mean crowded and too touristy. Lombok however, was described as unspoilt, laidback and beautiful. While some of that is true, it wasn't always the case for us... but we'll get into that later.
First impressions matter and ours wasn't favourable at all. As soon as we exited the airport we were bombarded with taxi touts, despite us asking for some space so we could find our bearings they just would not quit... I mean, it did work and eventually we went with one of them if only to make them leave us alone. So exiting the airport wasn't great, but we can't hold that against Lombok as it's the same in so many places.
It took about 40 minutes to get to our accommodation, a private villa on the edge of Kuta, Lombok's up and coming beach town. It was lovely, so clean and spacious, with the benefit of a private pool... there was a downside however, it was 1.5km from the beach. Now, 1.5km didn't seem that much in theory and if I was walking that far at home it wouldn't be much at all, but 1.5km of muddy flooded and unlit roads is a different story altogether. This complaint is completely our fault, it would have been an easy trip if I was brave enough to control a scooter or if Ben had bothered to learn to drive... But I'm not and he hasn't so there's no getting around that.
Kuta itself was strange, the prices in the restaurants had all been hiked up for tourists but the main street had been left to degrade with broken pavement and rubbish. The beach nearest to the town was also covered in refuse but I feel like this was swept up from the ocean during the daily storm, rather than having been dumped there. What I can't really made valid excuses for was some of the people working in Kuta, not only was there constant shouting for us to rent a scooter, or to go on a trip, or to buy this bracelet, or to come in this bar, but they'd make fun of us when we said no, continuing to call out aggressively. This combined with constantly seeing people getting short changed in shops and restaurants, didn't make us want to venture into town much. Of course, not everyone here was like this and maybe it was due to us visiting out of season but it is something I'd have liked to know before going.
We didn't end up doing much in Kuta, we played in the pool, we enjoyed the solitude and we hid from the ever present afternoon rains. One cooler morning we walked down to the prettier side of the beach but the tides were too strong for swimming. We had some nice meals out, with Mamma Pizza being a firm favourite. Maybe our experience would have been completely different had we had transport, with Kuta just a base for us rather than being the whole destination.
Not sad to leave we packed our bags and ordered our taxi online, which didn't show up, well.. it got to the bottom of the road before randomly driving off. We can't be sure, but we suspect that he might have been warned off by the locals, after all the transfer we had to then arrange with the hotel cost twice as much. Feeling a bit sour we headed off to Tetebatu, where our experience was about to get completely turned around.
Roni, the owner of Al Sasaki homestay couldn't have been more welcoming. Once we'd put our bags down and checked out our home for the next couple of days he arranged lunch for us, a little selection from the food his family were preparing for that nights celebration, delicious! Feeling pretty lazy, we whiled away the afternoon wandering around the local paddy fields before having an afternoon nap. That evening we headed off and found a local restaurant that had stunning views of the nearby mount Rinjani. They also had a bonfire that evening which once of the hotel guests invited us to join and try local rice wine.
The main reason we came to Tetebatu was to explore the paddy fields and visit the monkey forest, so when Roni said he could arrange a days guided tour for just 150000 Rupiah (£9) each we were delighted. Our day started at 9am when Hari our guide came to collect us, not wasting any time we headed out into the paddy fields, walking along the narrow ledge between the crops. I'm glad I managed to contain my natural clumsiness as the ledges slowly climbed higher and higher, while the drops either side becoming more severe. At times my heart was definitely pounding but the views were amazing and worth overcoming my phobia of falling.
Alongside exploring the local flora and its purposes, we also learned at lot about rice production and helped with a very small bit of planting. Although the ladies were very complimentary of my skills I noticed they didn't ask me to stay to help when it was time to head off - I also noticed quite a few free floating rice plants that had escaped my attempts.. oops!
More death defying paddy field walking brought us to a rickey bridge that we had to cross to reach a waterfall, after scrambling from rock to rock like a slightly drunken mountain goat. It was a great spot to get out of the heat and Ben happily stripped to his pants to go and frolic underneath the spray. Getting out of there however was a bit of a climb, literally for me at least, my heart again trying to bash it's way out of my chest as I pulled myself from step to step, fingernails digging into the rock above. I was proud of myself, often times I let my anxiety overcome me and I find myself stuck unable to continue. I don't know wether it was the knowledge that going back would have it's own challenges to overcome (scary bridge) but I didn't let it beat me and I made it to the top without fuss.
Eventually we made our way over to the Monkey forest, home to Lombok's black monkeys alongside their more common grey cousins. We managed to see a fleet of the greys and were heading further into the jungle to search for the rest when the heavens opened. Our guide rushed off to cut himself a banana leaf umbrella while we donned our rain ponchos, looking quite fetching and not to give the game away, ultimately drier than our guide. Not being sensible we decided to carry on, heading further and further in... once it was clear that this was a stupid idea and we should head back all the paths had turned into rushing riverlets that wanted to wash us back down the mountain. Hopping to and fro avoiding the fastest moving of these streams we made it back out the jungle and headed off the get some dinner and head home. We never saw the black monkeys we headed so far to see but that's okay, we still have a fun story to tell.
That afternoon, while being pretty exhausted after that mornings adventures, we learned how to make coffee with coffee beans that were grown in the garden around us. It was a lot harder work than we were expecting, from the roasting over an open fire to the round after round of pounding and sieving that followed but it was worth it, according to Ben who will enjoy the fruits of his labour of a while yet. In the evening we headed off with Roni to a secret sunset spot where we not only got stunning views of the sun setting over the palm trees in the distance, but of the cloud covered mount Rinjani. The perfect way to end our trip in Tetebatu.
Our last destination, Senggigi, was confusing. Sold to us as a quiet, laid back town (TECHNICALLY true but only as it was the town that tourists forgot) Remnants of its heyday can be found on every street with shut down resorts and boarded up shops. Looking up reviews for restaurants was an exercise in futility as there was no guarantee they were still open. The places we did go to eat however were very good, one an Italian that made it's own pasta; the other a super cheap Warung with delicious local food at ridiculously low prices.
The beach itself was stunning, but still the ever hopeful hawkers lingered ready to show their wares to any tourist they saw, taking away from the peaceful environment and making us weary instead. There were some
spots of Senggigi that still thrived, a few resorts
on the far end of the beach but even these
backed onto a busy noisy road.
We (again) didn't get up to much here, a few walks and a lot of time spent in the pool; there simply wasn't that much to do that didn't involve booking a trip to leave the area. I feel that if we had hired a scooter and had the freedom to cheaply explore more of the surrounding area we might have enjoyed ourselves more. It just wasn't really for us.
Ready to explore somewhere new we booked a taxi and headed off.
Trip date : oct 2022
Next location : Gili Air Previous Location : Surabaya
The tourist trap bit sounded yucky - the rest of the post sounded very cool!