We hoped to recreate the vibe we had heard so much about through the recent honeymooners Jason and Sophie, but unfortunately realised that on our RTW travel budget, (despite 'blowing it,') Kuta beach (Bali) is not the honeymoon destination we thought it might be. Yep, one day in that 'chavtastic' town was enough to confirm that life for us means more than stunning beach, warm weather and great surf. It actually means, having the space to enjoy it away from the crowds, fast food factories of the west and pesky street hawkers selling knock off surf wear. So, completely ignoring the budget now out of necessity [ed: and to save our souls!] we booked another last minute transfer to the neighbouring island of Lombok [ ed: thank god or buddha for the internet!!]
Above: Its time to leave when you see this sort of stuff!
Breathing a sigh of relief on the ferry crossing to Lombok, we discovered that there are in fact two Kuta beaches. Kuta Bali which is cr*p, whereas Kuta Lombok was the beautiful white and black sandy beaches we were looking for - with very few tourists and perfect point breaks!
Staying in Sengiggi, our budget resort turned out to be the 'Ace in the hole' - 35quid/night gave us a huge studio room, private veranda and open air bathroom - and thats forgetting the hotels inclusive buffet breakfasts, huge pool complex, giant chess set, private beach with coral reef and turtle rearing enclosure!!
Below Left: M enjoys the welcome cocktail.
Below Centre: M learns to play chess!
Below Right: M enjoys another cocktail..............!
Spending most of our time in the resort itself we aimed to chill out from the daily grind of travel [ed: yes he is loosing the reality of work!!] and living out of a rucksack. But, we resorted to form and undertook a mere 260km moped ride to Bangko Bangko in the south west in search of another nice view, [ed: resulting in 2 very numb bottoms!] Another day was spent diving off wooden dugouts in the beautiful Gilli islands and Meno slope, [ed: my first backward roll dive entry and first sighting of several turtles, an octopus, a huge cuttlefish and even a black tipped reef shark!........peeeerrrfect!]
Above Left: the stunning volcano view from our beach.
Above right: The Gilles
Next, 3 flights - Lombok to Denpasar, Bali; Denpasar to KL & KL to our final destination of Singapore ! [ ed: bring on a good set of flight socks!]
Great new entries and pics.It all looks and sounds wonderful and, for those of us who can only follow from a distance, nice to get off that Oxford bus at last!
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