I didn’t stop on my first drive across the island of Lombok as I headed to Flores.
Now on the way back I wanted to stop somewhere. Climing Mt. Rinjani would be nice. But after three weeks on the road, I wasn’t up to a three day expedition. That gives me a reason to return to incredible Indonesia!
I was still feeling lazy, so I figured I’d go to another beach. I had a couple choices.
One is the popular Senggigi Beach in the North West of the island. I try to not pay too much attention to the preachy, judgmental Lonely Planet, but the description made it sound a bit overdeveloped.
Kuta sounded better. No, not the horrible mess of a city on Bali. There’s another Kuta on the South of Lombok. I rode there instead.
The roads of Lombok are like those on Bali: a confusing, meandering network of small roads. Google Maps got confused and tried to send me down a dirt path! I had to backtrack and try to get to Kuta on my own as my phone’s battery died.
I made it just in time. Kuta, Lombok was indeed nice. The tourism industry was small, and had not become the monstrosity it was in Kuta, Bali. There were only a few basic hotels. The restaurants, tourist offices, and minimarts were simple shacks.
But there were some big developments too. It’ll probably be spoiled in a few years.
Beaches are boring when traveling alone, but it was nice to spend a day not touching my motorbike. I just walked around photographing the beach. It was not good for swimming because the tide went out.
I could have went to Gili Islands after this, but why? That would just be more boring beaches. This would be the end of my epic Bali to Flores and back scooter trip.
Besides climbing Mr Rinjani, I accomplished everything I wanted to. I visited three islands, and got far off the tourist track.
I was done for now, but not forever. It’s impossible to check places off of bucket lists. Indonesia is really incredible. It’s the undiscovered gem of South East Asia. I was not done.
There are many more islands. It’s so easy to visit them on a motorbike.
Buy a motorbike in Bali and drive to Sumatra? Hmmm….
