
Kuta, Lombok
The majority of our time, 8 nights, on mainland Lombok was spent in Kuta. Heaven to the one in Bali. This Kuta is a small town on the south coast of Lombok near some of the best beaches I have ever been too.
It’s a surfer town predominantly due to the ridiculously huge waves that some of the bays in South Lombok have to offer. The tourism wave has yet to break over Kuta and indeed the majority of Lombok. Unfortunately, it is on the horizon.
Greedy investors definitely have this place in their sights, construction work has started on high-end hotel complex’s and you can almost sense the change that is coming. In fact it has already started, our guide book was next to useless for this place and it’s only 2 years old. I just hope this Kuta doesn’t go the same way as Bali’s.
The saddest part of this change for me is that locals are not the ones that will benefit. They will see their quiet town transformed (probably ruined to them) and new expensive restaurants and hotels pop up. Almost all will be foreign owned exploiting the locals for a cheap workforce. I guess it is partly this exploitation that makes my holiday cheap, it’s just a shame that’s the way the world works.
Anyway, Kuta was pretty awesome. A chilled out surfer and beach lovers paradise. We visited 4 different beaches during our stay. Mawi, Mawum, Pantai Tanjung Aan and Selong Belanak. Each stunning and unique.
Mawi, the big boys and girls beach. Where proper surfers flock to test themselves against the massive waves that break here. The beach itself isn’t that nice but it was fun to watch some pros in action.

I also learnt a new inventive way to eat a pineapple.

Mawum, a beautiful beach in a cove with perfect swimming. Supposedly. We, unfortunately, didn’t go swimming as the only day we visited was the last day of the Ramadan holiday so it was full of locals. See top picture. It’s a shame we didn’t make it back to this beach.
Another picture perfect beach (I did’t actually get one) was Pantai Tanjung Aan. It also has a nice sunset watching spot on the hillside. Again we didn’t really spend much time here. We were unlucky in that the sun only shone for the first couple of days. The weather gradually got worse, by the end it was raining most of the day.
The final beach we visited, and probably our favourite was Selong Belanak. A beach with baby waves that a perfect for anyone wanting to surf in safety. Like me. If you want to surf here, pick your favourite surf shop and stick with them. Use it as your base for the beach and get to know the workers. They are a friendly bunch. Board rent is 50000rp for a day, a lesson is 250,000rp for 2 hours. Worthwhile if you have never surfed before.

Word of warning. To really enjoy the beaches surrounding Kuta you are going to need to rent a scooter. Fortunately, the roads around Lombok are mostly well paved and very quiet. The perfect place to level up your scooter skills. Just what I needed.
In fact, I took the scooter challenge of driving to Mataram for a visa run. A three hour round trip. We enjoyed it so much we did it twice. I got the experience of all types of scooter driving, motorways, wet weather and some hairy city driving. The journey was exhausting but I survived and must have levelled up a fair few times.
I might write about extending your visa at some point but for now this post covers it pretty well.
The evenings in Kuta are relaxed and just what you need after a day surfing. It proper takes it out of you. Kuta probably has the best selection of restaurants we have seen. Particularly for such a small town. An especially delicious one was the Morrocan style place, El Bazar.
For drinks, The Bus is a cool bar serving cocktails from a bus, who would have thought it. It also has a decent selection of pizza. Then, if you’re feeling up to it, a number of bars take it in turns to run the evening party. These have live music then a DJ plays. They are alright, nothing special. Kuta, in my opinion, is best for a few beers and a chill rather than a lot of them.
The only problem with Kuta is the army of children employed to harass tourists, making them feel guilty for not buying the bracelets they are selling. A few have some charm, sass or cuteness which helps especially for soft-hearted souls like Kathy, although she did rip off one 5-year old. But mainly they are annoying. Sadly, we got the feeling they may get beats if they didn’t sell enough.
Extra bits
Mataram is a dull place, not designed for tourists. Katherine felt very out of place. There is a huge mall though which is pretty cool. I bought some more boxers here since Kathy is always blagging me for only bringing 4 pairs.
We tried some interesting Indonesian snacks.

When choosing accomodation don’t get seduced by the fancy looking rooms unless you know its going to be good. Just aim for cheap then you can’t be disappointed. We were.

Also, we are pretty sure they dipped some dollars out of our bags, thieving bastards. Avoid JM Hotel its shite.
After travelling for 2 weeks we have learned a few things:
- When packing up your bag, use the inner straps. They are there for a reason.
- Cimb Niaga is the most reliable bank. We use mainly Monzo, but also Revolut and a normal bank card. Cimb has never rejected us.
- Use the safe for all money left in the room.
- Book your accomodation for 1 night only, then either extend if its good or find somewhere new. You can walk around asking all the homestays to view a room and for their prices. These are negotiable.
I must of learned some more things but I can’t think of any right now. From Kuta we headed back to the Gili’s which I have already written about here. Then back to Ubud. Not sure what the next edition will be.
Sadly as I write this my Katherine has left me. So I’m all on my own :(. Time to start working, I hope. But first I’m off diving in Nusa Lembongan. Maybe I’ll write about that.
If your enjoying reading about my travels don’t forget to follow the Wip Around the World publication here.
Thanks for reading :)

