Kuta Bay from the killer hill to the west. Good surfing on the fringing reefs of this and neighbouring bays of south Lombok (Image Panoramio-Lucas Wandeler)Don’t confuse Kuta-Lombok with Kuta-Bali. The latter is crowded, noisy, the beach not great. Kuta-Lombok is uncrowded, laid back and has beautiful white sand beaches and some of the bluest water I’ve seen.
Kuta-Lombok is a fairly small village situated on a lovely bay with snow-white sand in the south of the island. On the beach road there is a collection of budget homestay places and one mid-ranger. There are a few others in town plus one high end place, Novotel Coralia Lombok, bayside further east. There is also a very nice flash packer place, Mimpimanis Homestay.
The countryside is fairly flat east of Kuta and there are a number of deserted or near deserted bays with gorgeous Bounty Ad. Type beaches until you reach a big Sydney Harbour type inlet. There is a fairly big fishing village at the road’s end. A boat guy offered to take me across the inlet for a few dollars, apparently there are more nice beaches on the other side, but I was a bit short on time that day.
Immediately west of Kuta town is a killer hill. I challenge anyone to cycle this hill non-stop. There are several great viewpoints back over Kuta’s lovely bay part way up and from the summit. On the other side is Mawan, a bigger bay than Kuta with a really nice beach. There are several access points, the closest to Kuta having a small charge put on entry to their beach - only abt 50cents and they have cold soft drinks and beer for sale. The valley behind the beach is largely undisturbed jungle with scattered cash cropping, its disorganized beauty contrasting so much with the spectacular order of much of Bali’s terraced padi and cash-cropping areas.
Over the next ridge west you are approaching Mawi - actually it may be best not to approach this without a guide from Kuta. Mawi has been known for locals throwing up roadblocks and relieving western tourists on motorcycles of their valuables while waving machettes around! I turned my bicycle back well before Mawi - I aint real tough around machettes. Some Brits staying in the same bungalow place as me a few years bacj had most of their money and TCs + cameras etc stolen when they went swimming near Mawi. There are some very good surfing spots along here and further west - access is difficult to find so most surfers take a local guide and don’t have hassles with the Mawi mafia. There are motorbikes with sidewinder board racks for hire in Kuta.Actaully the best way to surf this coast is off the live-aboard surfing boats out of Benoa-Bali bound for the breaks of Sumbawa.
If you visit Kuta, take the usual precautions re your valuables and bungalow. That same English couple robbed at Mawi has their bungalow broken into the very next night and the rest of their valuables taken! This is despite the fact they shifted to another room after the beach-thief got their room key with their other stuff.
Something suss here - fairly recently I read a post from a guy staying at the same Anda Bungalows who also got broken into. For various reasons he thought it an inside job. (UDATE - Dec07 - just read another report on a surfing website about thefts from Anda!) Okay, give them a big miss, just down the road a bit is a really nice cheapy, Segara Anek with a great restaurant, icy-cold beer and fruitshakes, internet and they are also the Perama agent.
Getting there:
From Mataram airport it is a very pleasant hour’s drive through lovely country and lots of bustling villages. Get a ticket from the taxi counter, which will be as cheap as the taxi mafia outside, unless you have a spare half hour and super bargaining skills. I paid 130k but there have been petrol price rises since.It is a bit shorter from the big Bali ferries at Lembar, but I reckon the price would be much the same.
From Senggigi, a taxi or independent driver would probably be an extra 20-30%. Perama run this route, but often charge abt the same as a taxi because you will be the only passenger.
From the Gili boats at bad, bad Bangsal, add say 50% for taxi or driver. Perama always has a fairly crowded bus going into Senggigi, and you could then get the Senggigi-Kuta bus mentioned above. Actually this bus starts in Mataram and goes up to Senggigi to collect any passengers, from memory, so they might want you to catch the Bangsal bus right thru to Mataram. Thing is, you may have to stay in Mataram or Senggigi overnight. No problems, particularly Senggigi, Lombok’s main tourist town, which is quite lively at night and has heaps of great value accomm from budget to super luxury.
From the big ferries at Lembar, the price was about 200000 (us$20) for a private car transfer in 06 but all the prices here must be higher now (Jul08) with fuel price increases. Perama will also run this route if there are enough passengers booked beforehand.
If you have any questions, please ask them in THE FORUM rather than below. I don't get a chance to check all threads daily, but unless I'm travelling I'll try to monitor THE FORUM regularly.
