Last Days In Indo

After a two hour+ bumpy car ride, the landscape opened up to a breathtaking seascape – blue skies, jagged rocks and turquoise water. Gorgeous! We pulled up at my soon-to-be new friend Kimen’s surf shop. I counted out the RP300,000 fare and my driver’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree! He was so giddy and happy. Kimen saw me arrive, came over and said that I had just paid him an average one month’s salary in exchange for a 2-hour ride. Cool.

Kuta Beach in Lombok

So next thing I know, I’m in Kimen’s shop surrounded by his surfer pals/employees and he’s offering to find me a hotel room, drive me to exchange money, get me some food, show me around town and give me a tour of the real estate opportunities in Kuta. He is such a full-on young business man and entrepreneur – lol! I told him what my budget was for land, what I was looking for and after settling into my hotel, two scooters pulled up to escort me around. I hopped on and went for a CRAZY ride over mountains and down bumpy dirt lanes.

Two properties caught my attention in particular. One was on a mountain with good road access (and by “good” I mean paved) and the most gorgeous views! The other one which I REALLY loved was a 2-acre rice paddy with a small house just 200 meters from the ocean. Wow! It had a natural spring being fed into the rice field and I could totally envision a garden of coconuts, mango, fig, papaya, banana trees and on and on and on. The only problem was it was down a small and hilly dirt path – quite difficult to access.

2 Acre Rice Paddy by the Sea

After my real estate tour, I went back to town and made oodles of friends straight away. I had offers for dinner, to go swimming, to go to the one nightclub (Kimen’s) in town – even an offer from one of the hotel staff to take me home to meet his family in the neighboring town after he asked me if I was married. LOL. There is definitely a higher ratio of men to women in Kuta I think, thanks to all the international male surfers coming to catch some Lombok waves!

Sunday Market Madhouse!

The food was awesome in Kuta, in fact all the meals I had in Lombok were delicious. I was a little apprehensive at first because Kuta is such a small town with just a handful of mom-and-pop shacks, but everywhere I went the food was fresh and they all went out of their way to make meals according to my request. One of the highlights was a restaurant called Ashtari about 3kms out of town on the mountainside. Totally gorgeous views, open terrace dining and delicious vegetarian food. I only went there once with a friend, but had a stayed longer in Kuta, I would have definitely gone back.

The same Australian owners who run Ashtari also offer massages in Kuta town in a little open-air spa. You can’t see it from the road, so it’s hard to find, but oh-my-god, SO WORTH IT! This was THE best massage I have ever had in my entire life! It was a combination of Thai and seitai massage and while I’ve had Thai before, this one combined kind of a Japanese-style chiropractic massage too. It felt so incredible – 1.5 hours of bliss for US$15! I even tried to book another one the next morning before my flight, but they were closed for holiday.

Speaking of flights, it’s not until I got to Lombok that I learn that you can fly from Lombok to Bali or vice versa in a 1/2 hour for less or the same price as my 7-hour creaky boat ride!! I thought flying would be much more expensive?! Ah well, live and learn.

Next stop, I’m back in Bali and head out to Seminyak for my last night before going home to Oz. Even though I knew it wouldn’t be, I still expected Seminyak to be quaint like Ubud but wow, it is totally more modern and expensive, replete with wall-to-wall designer boutiques and upscale beachfront hotels. The beach was nicer than I expected. I was pleasantly surprised since I had heard rumors that the Bali beaches weren’t that great. But it was lovely – clean clear water and soft long stretches of sand. I guess the only aesthetic drawback is that the sand is a murky gray color, not powder white or volcanic black – but fine by me nonetheless.

I found two cool veg restaurants. The first was Earth Cafe which is mostly macrobiotic, but had about a 1/2 dozen raw dishes too. I tried the macrobiotic plate and a raw bliss ball – both yummy. There’s also a health food retail shop inside and they run a natural gourmet cookery school.

Earth Cafe in Seminyak

The other cafe, a sister store to Earth Cafe, is Zula Vegetarian Paradise. Both use organic food as much as possible and have similar menus with some slight differences. Zula has less raw food offerings, but I did have an amazing raw coconut ice cream there – OH YEAH! Both cafe’s have free wifi and are open LATE, like all of Seminyak it seems.

Hospitable Home, Zula Cafe

I tell ya, Bali is one hopping little place that (almost) never sleeps. But now it’s time to go back to Oz. See you on the other side!

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Lynda

So glad you enjoyed your paradise trip. Can´t even fathom the fun you had. Am thinking still about that massage....
Welcome back to Oz. Are you closer to Adam now that he has moved?
Lynda