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Not Kuta Bali but Lombok,the island on the east reached by ferry(4.5hrs) and then bus(2 hrs)thats if you take the right one! we didn't..saw Sengiggi town on the north west of the island,for 5 mins. Yet again we got the wrong bus,but we got to see a whole lot more of the island!
They say that Kuta Lombok is like what Kuta Bali was 30 years ago, I think they're right.The town is under developed at the moment although I see there's lots of land for sale. The locals have shops and houses along the main beach road.This is where the children especially hawk their wares,bracelets and sarongs mostly. There are no taxis,ATMs and Petrol station or Police. I had to pay a driver to take me to Praya 1 hour away for the ATM,took a lot out as the Hotel only accepted cash. We hired a scooter to get around, fuel is bought by the bottle from Warungs(Cafe/shop)for 5000 rupiah(40p per litre)or 10000 Rp like we did one time as we were in the middle of nowhere where price is not negotiable.
10 days here was perfect, for the rest ,the sunshine and the swimming but no surfing as my shoulder needed rest.The food wasn't too bad here, certainly cheap and good fruit shakes and fresh coconuts every day!Our man! Lateral who works for the Rinjani Bungalows looked after us over the week,always trying to sell trips here and there. With the bike we covered 200km in 10 days exploring the south coast roads villages and the beaches. The roads are horrendous, its quicker with a scooter because of the potholes,it can often be twice as long a journey,patience and sun hats are needed to get to a beach. Once at the beaches you have to pay a local to guard your bike against theft,this works well as I believe its the "poacher turned gamekeeper" scenario. ! It was Ramadan when we were there and a lot of the staff were fasting. Its a large Muslim community on Lombok, the sounds from the Mosques give a different feel to Lombok compaired to Kuta Bali. All in all K/Lombok is an isolated gem for the moment with few tourists but more "backpackers", hope the locals can stop selling their land and the local government can protect this part of the island. Back to Bali soon and the now hub-bub of Ubud!

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