Black Sand!
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2010
1
16
32
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Astiti Guest House
Senggigi, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia
Sunday, December 19, 2010
We left the hotel in Kuta to be picked up by the tour company. Then we took an unbelievable white knuckle ride to the port on the other side of the island. Now I know we have reported about terrifying journeys before, but this was just the scariest thing we have done. At one point we were inches away from crashing into a huge truck in front of us. Everyone in the mini bus was terrified and I even looked away and buried my head in Marks shoulder as I truly thought it was the end for me! But...after a few more sharp, two wheeler turns around some very tight corners we got to the port. This time everyone really did breathe a sigh of relief and we sympathised for those who had to stay in the mini bus to the next port. We boarded the slow boat to Lombok which would dock into Lembar. Due to our strict budget, the slow boat was the only option for us as it was much cheaper but we didn't expect the 35km to take 6-7 hours! Luckily for us, there must have been a current behind us which made the journey much shorter, but it was so hot and sticky, the plastic covered chairs didn’t help and the hundreds of vendors pestering us to buy their produce were extremely irritating.
Coming from the boat we were met by our company to take us to Senggigi. This town is one of the most built up, 'resorty’ areas in Lombok and after our disappointing time not being able to surf in Bali, we hoped there would be plenty of options for us when we got there. Lombok is said to be about ten years behind Bali, so naturally, the scenery was unspoilt and was much more lush and beautiful. The towns were much less commercialised and the beaches were very clear.
When arriving in Senggigi we were dropped off in the ‘centre’ of the town, supposedly. By now we knew better and we weren’t surprised when we got out of the mini bus to be shipped into the driver’s friend’s tour company. This is generally what happens! But after Mark checked the Leeds score in a neighboring bar and we sampled the Lombok beer, we walked to the main street where we bumped into a young lad offering us cheap accommodation. We followed him up a small side street, turned onto a mud track, turned off this down a small alleyway, past some very disgusting and smelly hollers and still trying to smile and keep positive arrived at some lovely apartments with a huge big bed and a lovely big balcony. It was very clean and we managed to barter our way down to 80 000 rupiah a night – which is under 6 pounds! Bargin!
After settling in, we consulted The Book, and headed down towards the beach to find some of the local food stalls to get a cheap lunch. The atmosphere here was excellent with lots of people playing in the sea, eating, children playing in the sand, but it was obviously a resort for the locals or a popular destination for the neighboring Muslim communities around Indonesia. So having spotted a white couple feasting on the local cuisine, we sidled up next to them on the beach mats to get some advice on what to order as they looked like they had done this before. We ate our very spicy chicken and then accompanied by our new friends, Zoe and Andy (from Aus) we took a walk down the beach and watched a few of the locals surf.
That evening we went to a bar called Saga Saga. We had met the owner on the way to the beach earlier and he was so friendly. He showed us the menu and told us about the amazing seafood they served for a very low price. We ate a really fulfilling meal (although cheap, our budget still didn’t stretch to afford sea food) and had a few beers which were the most expensive we had paid on our whole trip due to the island being predominately Muslim. The owner, with some of his friends, then began to play lots of different songs on the guitar and drums giving a really chilled out vibe to the evening – although his rendition of ‘I’m an English couple in Lombok’ did make it all the more cheesy! We then headed to another bar with a live band but the beer was EVEN MORE expensive here so we planned to leave after a few. But, we struggled to leave, the music was brilliant and we got the taste for the beer, we got up to leave three times that evening and every time we were stopped in our tracks by the music. It also didn’t help that the lead singer just came and sat with us during a break and we ended up requesting quite a few more songs so then it would have just been rude to leave!!! Although we had a few more than we had planned, we tottered up the side street, down the dirt track, through the alley way, back to bed. We slept soundly until...at precisely 4:15am we found out why the room was so cheap. Behind our room was the town’s local mosque, the many speakers attached to the outside of the building cried for the morning prayers. Whilst this continued for the next 40 minutes, we were crying and praying for something much different than the locals. After the wailing stopped – or rapping as mark called it – we fell back into a deep sleep for all of 5 minutes, before the hundreds of cockerels surrounding our guest house decided it was there turn to make some racket. Not impressed!
We got some breakfast the following morning and decided to hire a small jeep for the next few days as there was nothing really to do in the town. We bravely navigated the roads down to the south coast to visit the surfing capital of Lombok which was also called Kuta. Again, the scenery and beach was amazing but there wasn’t much to see or do. Even the surf wasn’t much due to the on shore winds. So we bumbled around in the jeep for a bit, exploring the different beaches and coves and then headed home to Senggigi. We had a cheap evening, eating at the local Warung’s (which means cheap local food) which was recommended to us by Zoe, who had been here before and spoke fluent Indonesian. We watched a few episodes of Californication on the lap top and fell asleep, dreading what was going to happen at 4.15am again!
In the morning we met up with the Aussies and headed to a town north of Senggigi to search for some waves. We found a beach recommended to us, got a few beers and relaxed for the day. The beach was black sand and very weird but I came to really like it although on the pictures, it looks like mud! We hired some boards out and attempted a few waves. Although the waves weren’t brilliant we had fun in the sea and Mark spent most of the time laughing at me just simply trying to stay on the board and paddle through the waves. I gave up in the end and became chief bag watcher which I was much better at doing. That night we returned the jeep, booked tickets to go to Gili Truwangan for the Christmas period, and ate at one of the local Warung’s again.
In the morning we checked out and waited to be picked up for our journey to the small Gili Island off the North West coast of Lombok.
Until then
Lou and Mark x
