Our next destination after Gili T was Lombok. We kept on dragging our heels deciding exactly where in Lombok to go. We chatted to a few locals and Kuta was coming up fairly often so we decided to go there. There is another Kuta in Bali in case you are looking it up – not that one. Seems to be a fairly common mistake that we later experienced first hand when trying to meet up with Marc and Patti who were in Kuta, Bali. There’s even the same named accommodation called Mimpi Manis at the Balinese Kuta too 🙂
The night before we left Gili T we were pretty much decided on the accommodation where we were going to stay but whilst trying to research something completely different we came across this small and reasonably priced homestay (run by an English lady and her Indonesian husband) that we liked the sound of. So the next morning we texted them on the off-chance that they have a free room. They’d just had a cancellation that morning – how lucky was that! So on our way we were.
Journey from Gili T to Kuta
Getting to Lombok involved getting on another boat so we went through our usual water proofing procedure – valuables in dry bags and making sure that we packed in such way that if the boat was to sink and we were to swim to shore that we at least have our passports and access to money. In case this didn’t come across from our previous posts the boats often do not seem to be the sturdiest of modes of transport. Turns out that occasionally we can still be surprised by the lack of health and safety – supposedly smoking on a small wooden boat whilst sitting next to several plastic canisters with petrol is ok here 🙂
When we got to the harbour office we got a ticket for both the boat to Bangsal and also a car to Kuta. ‘How will we know which car it is’ we asked? ‘Don’t worry there will be someone with your name by the boat’. Ok. So we got on the boat and got going when this guy starts talking to us asking if I am Daniela – hmmm turns out we got our own escort all the way to Bangsal on the boat and to the car at the other end. So far so good. After we resisted buying food and drink in the cafe to which we went to pick up the driver (he needed a coffee before the long journey 😉 ) and were offered some tours we finally got into the car and got going.
Oscar was completely mesmerised by the surroundings during the drive – the jungle, monkeys and people living by the side of the road, kids on mopeds etc. The road safety standards are also somewhat slightly different to what we are used to. Our driver didn’t put his seatbelt on for the whole of the 2 hours that we were driving for on the winding roads of the Monkey forest or anywhere else. After a while we got used to seeing ten year-olds on mopeds, lanes being ignored, mopeds going round the roundabouts in both directions, cows on the central reservation, dogs having a nap in the centre of roundabouts and also all the beeping. As far we can tell the beeping seems to have a lot of different meanings – from ‘watch out I’m overtaking you’ to ‘what the hell are you doing idiot!’ Daniela had some ‘training’ on this in Morocco last year so didn’t find it all quite as surprising as Oscar did.
What surprised us though was seeing so many dogs everywhere – both wild and pets as there were no dogs at all on the Gilies – just cats. Even though there is not meant to be rabies at Lombok we are kind of glad we had the jabs before we went.
Our Kuta home
So after another rollercoaster ride (this time by car rather than on a boat) we got to Mimpi Manis (Sweet Dreams in Indonesian) – our accommodation. Lovely accommodation – our first with a TV and a collection of DVDs that would take us several months, may be years, to watch. After about an hour of going through them Oscar picked a ‘few’ to watch but think that we will struggle with even watching those in the time we’re here.
Mimpi Manis is also our first proper ‘homestay’ and we really were being made feel like at home. The family, staff and the pets are so lovely. We must have been chatting to Gemma and Made for hours and learnt a lot about what it’s like living here, Lombok and Made’s passion – fishing. We even got to taste some of the fish he caught – sooooo yummy! Just the other day he was showing us a video of a whale shark they saw that morning when fishing – how cool is that! In Oz similar experience sets you back nearly $400…
All the other guests staying here are also really lovely. One Aussie surfer even left Oscar his sunblock – factor 50 – hmmm was he trying to hint at something? 🙂
The day we arrived we got chatting to a lovely Canadian lady staying here who was waiting for her daughter to arrive and join her on her holiday. When eventually after a lot of flight delays she eventually got here it turned out that Oscar and her knew each other from his last job! How small is the world?! And to make things even more of a coincidence – they were off to Gili Air next and you probably guessed where they are staying – at Azam’s – at aZa Zil.
So our next set of neighbours at Mimpi Manis was Amy and Janelle who turned out to be great fun. We gave them some of the tips that we’d learnt of places to go in Kuta and received some great tips for our next destination, Ubud, and New Zealand where Janelle was from and Amy had spent some considerable time.
We also met Echo the gecko who liked to hide in the drain pipes and used them to rival prayer calls from the local mosque – how clever is that! One night we were sure that there was a Komodo dragon (ok we’re exaggerating here, but only a little bit ;)) on our roofs hunting as you couldn’t fail to hear him scuttling around whilst on the hunt. Oscar was lying awake for about an hour worried that he might fall through the roof and hunt something a bit bigger.
Another great bonus of staying with Gemma and Made was an orientation around Kuta that was included in the price. We got given some tips on places to eat and driven to a number of beautiful beaches. Don’t take me wrong the main Kuta beach is lovely but some of the more secluded beaches that we were shown were just amazing! The only problem was – how on earth do we get there…
Exploring Kuta
After seeing the road conditions and hearing about the need to look out for cows, buffalos, goats, chickens, dogs, lizards and especially cats we were a bit apprehensive but after some deliberation we decided to hire a scooter. There is no way we can walk around this island in the time we have J I say especially cats as we heard that when a cat is run over here it is considered really bad luck. No insurance included – wonder if our travel insurance covers mopeds? Probably not – so we’d better drive safely. As my mum said – it’s just like a bike but you don’t need to peddle. If ten years olds can manage it with their feet above the handlebars so can we! I mean minus the feet above the handlebars 🙂
As an aside on the subject of cats in the Gilies – most of the cats have quite unusual tails – they range from a stub to the long tail we’re used to. The locals assured us that they don’t chop them off and that it’s how they are born. One theory we heard is that it’s due to a small gene pool and crossing a Malaysian cat with no tail with a ‘normal’ cat.
So back to our moped – first we had to get petrol – where from we asked? Turns out that there was a petrol station just few hundred meters down the road – just not the kind of a petrol station that we are used to – the litre of petrol we bought came straight out of an absolute vodka bottle! Hmmm so that’s what’s in all the bottles that are being sold by the side of roads!
With the tank filled up we were off exploring. After a while we got used to avoiding the wildlife and infinite number of potholes and half missing bridges. The reward though was well worth it – not only did we get to some amazing beaches but also got much more of a feel for the area driving through the local countryside seeing small villages, people working on their fields and looking after their animals. The other day we saw a local boy on a moped with what looked like a huge bale of some crop in front of him on the moped. We got used to sights like this but not quite with the driver having their feet on top of the cargo way above the handlebars whilst expertly avoiding a dog in the middle of the road.
We were told about this restaurant with amazing views (Ashtari) so decided to check it out – quite a hill to get there! Our moped was struggling and at one point we were very close to having to push it uphill and wishing we ate less at lunchtime. We did make it there though in the end and what a view it was!
One of the beaches we went to was one that Jenny and her daughter Ariel found the day before – supposedly no children trying to sell you bracelets and sarongs (they can be rather persistent as Oscar found out on our first day in Kuta when they escorted him all the way down the beach). At least we think it was the same beach – Mawun beach. The beach was quite steep with fairly big waves. At first we were laughing our heads off watching people having their feet taken from under them and landing on their backsides being dragged up and down the beach by the waves. After a while Oscar thought that it looks like fun and decided he’d give it a go. Few minutes later there he was body surfing and rolling around in the waves like a beached whale. He now has a rather scratched back and is probably still trying to get sand out of his swimming trunks.
Other entertainment on beaches here includes watching dogs lying down in the surf letting the waves wash over them whilst trying to keep balance and still look ‘cool’. Oscar even made friends with one of them – it ended up drinking all his water and stealing all his beer but in return licked his entire face and shoulders.
Another interesting beach experience was seeing a crowd of children running towards us and surprisingly they didn’t try to sell us anything – they wanted to have their picture taken with us! And I thought that it was normally the tourists taking pictures of locals! Turns out works both ways 🙂
As a reward after all the hard work J we treated ourselves to a fresh pineapple lolly and a fresh coconut. At least this time round we knew what we were getting. The last time we tried to order a dessert in a restaurant we ended up with salted fried peanuts and fried potato pancake with corn… Damn, we’d finished our beer by that point!
Oscar special
When you get to a beach here you leave your moped near the entrance where the locals look after it for you for a small fee of 5,000 IDR. So when it was time to go home – we went back to the ‘car park’ (aka place under a tree). Suddenly I see Oscar getting on a moped and trying to start it – the only problem was the moped wasn’t ours… Turns out that he was getting on a moped that he wished we had rather than the one we did 🙂
Eating out
Turns out, as Daniela found out, you can’t even escape from the wildlife when having a bite to eat. About half way through her lunch she suddenly realised that there is a lizard crawling down her back. When she tried to brush it off it ran down her leg and on the floor…Phew! Only to then start running up her other leg! J A rather strange feeling…
On another day whilst we were enjoying a nice fish and chips lunch (a little bit nicer than your local cod though) one of the local dogs decided to introduce herself to us whilst we were unawares and climbed up on to Oscar’s lap to get a bit closer at the food. She was gorgeous so we did end up sharing some of our food. Oscar is becoming a bit of a Doctor Dolittle whether he likes it or not. Same as Oscar she didn’t seem to like cucumber very much 🙂
On the subject of eating out – when you’re eating out all the time you’re at the mercy of the chef and staff of wherever you chose to eat. This is usually perfectly fine but occasionally… Fortunately this hasn’t happened too often but we have had a few ‘emergencies’ (supposedly part of the experience we’re told), the latest one of which involved a beach, bamboo hut and a squat toilet… Ok we’ve now ticked this experience off the list – no more please! J
Sightseeing
So with all this relaxing and beaching we decided to join Amy and Janelle on a tour that they were taking with Made to go see the Benang Stokel waterfalls near the Rinjani volcano. There was one that you could even jump into from about 7 metres and the local guides assured us it was 5 metres deep but since they weren’t going to go first we decided it might be best to climb down and jump in from a little bit lower.
Next up was our first temple which was a Hindu one called Suranadi. Of course we had to oblige the local customs and adorn a sarong whilst walking round which made for some even better photos (nobody really wanted to pose though… I wonder why?)
Afterwards we visited a traditional Sasak village – Sade, which was quite an experience. They have a mixed faith of Hindu, Islam and Sasak and the only ceremony or tribute they need to make to the gods is that once a month they need to cover the floors of their huts in buffalo dung (we’re still not quite sure why though). Of course we were allowed to enter one where this was currently being done but surprisingly nobody lasted longer than the two seconds it took to take a quick photo of the inside.
Balinese wedding
Whilst we were staying with Gemma and Made, the Mimpi Manis cook was getting married (this was the 3rd and final ceremony) and we were all invited to attend. Great! Daniela thought and promptly signed us up, but the condition was that we were all to wear the traditional outfits.
So whilst the girls were all wearing the most amount of makeup they’d ever put on in their lives, Oscar was being pushed and pulled whilst the guys remembered how to put on a sarong in the traditional way. It made for some great photos of everyone trying their best not to sweat off their makeup and Oscar trying to breathe out so the sarong didn’t fall down to his ankles.
The wedding itself was fascinating – so many different traditions and offerings. Just wished I knew what they were all for. The bride and groom looked absolutely amazing and everyone was so welcoming. Daniela was told that it’s ok to take photos of anything so off she went snapping away. She may now have more photos than the official photographer and even some of him too!
And the food – must mention the food – bowls and bowls of all sorts of yummy things and a hog roast. The best crackling we’ve ever had!
Another bonus was that on the drive home from the wedding we saw another wedding – a traditional Sasak one. This amongst other things consists of all the guests walking down the street with music (the part we saw). Everyone seemed in such good spirits and were loving having their picture taken whilst our car was trying to get past.
The girls then had several photos of them taken by staff of a shop we stopped at on the way back when trying to top up on some essentials.
Gemma’s Birthday
So on our last day it turned out to be Gemma’s birthday and also Gemma and Made’s wedding anniversary. One of the negatives of being a homestay owner is that someone generally needs to be left at home to look after any remaining guests and future ones too.
So we all decided to tag along with Gemma and help her celebrate her birthday at her favourite restaurant down by the beach. During the evening there was a rather well timed power cut and so an impromptu ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung by all and then as if by magic as soon as we had finished, the lights all came back on. It couldn’t have been planned better even if it had been arranged.
Of course the evening couldn’t have been complete unless there were some more kids selling bracelets. Only these ones were little superstars in the making and Gemma was serenaded with several songs. So after a week of saying ‘no, thank you’, Oscar decided now was the time to get a couple of bracelets.
No wonder our 4 nights at Mimpi Manis turned into 7 with such amazing experiences which really made Lombok that extra bit special for us. As the local song goes “Lombok, I love you!”.

Didn’t manage to take a photo of the Gili Air lizard but at least we caught this one on camera in Lombok
Lunch break
















































