Woke up at 4am on Wed, got to the airport and flew out of Brisbane by 6am. After a 2.5 hr flight I had a 7 hr layover in Adelaide south Australia which I spent skyping the family then grabbed a bus to the beach nearby for some lunch. I got back to the airport and boarded my 4pm flight, 5 hrs later I landed in Bali, Indonesia 7:30pm local time. After an hour of waiting in airport to get through customs and get my visa finally got outta there, grabbed my board bag and hired a taxi, heading
Traffic on the road |
I stayed on the island of Lombok for 5 days and we scored waves everyday, and it even got so big that almost every spot was maxed out! My last time to Indonesia last year I had wanted to explore other places than Bali, I got out to the island of Sumbawa which was a amazing with semi uncrowded waves. This time to back to Indo I wanted to go somewhere new and Lombok was definitely high on the list, I was stoked to find out my mates were there. Once your off Bali, you see a whole different side of the Indonesian culture, it's beautiful and something I highly recommend if your ever in Bali.
Lombok, Indonesia |
During the 5 days on Lombok I stayed at an awesome hotel that I have recommend in my Travel Surf Live Surf Guide to Lombok. The village we were living in is mostly made for surfers, all you see is lil warungs, couple surf shops, small surf hotels, and advertisements for boat trips and transport to other islands. My friends Zac and Eric had been there for a week before I arrived so they already knew the surf spots and everything so that was nice. We surfed 4 different waves in the 5 days, all rights over reef/rock bottoms. The food was alright, I ate mostly local food which is fried rice or fried noodle, but we did try a few burger places and also a pizza place which was actually pretty good! It's awfully rare to head to these countries and not have an upset stomach, some how I have yet to have food poisoning in a foreign country. What I found from traveling in foreign country it is easy to change most comforts except food, if you aren't feeling comfortable with what your eating it makes your trip very hard.
Some friend's I had made in Byron, a few swedish girls Elin, Jasmine, and Amanda had happened to be in Indonesia the same time I was there. They were on the Gili Islands just a short boat and an hour taxi from where I was at the time, so they decided to come by for a couple days to hang out. It was awesome seeing them again, my friends and the girls all hung out for a few days. Lounging by the pool after a surf, going for lunch, riding the scooters around, and hanging at the beach. After a few days they headed to Bali where we would soon meet up again!
The first couple days on Lombok we surfed an epic right hander that is a 15 minute scooter ride outside the village. The setup up is beautiful with cliffs all around you and a couple small islands off the coast. The paddle is about 10 minutes at least so definitely gets you warmed up for the epic surf session your about to have. The next few days we switched off between a big bay about 30 minutes away where you can grab a small boat to 4 different waves in the bay. Its always fun getting on and off a boat to go surf, its basically the epic surf session to jump of a boat into the lineup. And for only 5 bucks round trip out to the waves, you can't complain at all!
Lombok was much better than I had imagined it, so many opportunities to get out in the water to semi uncrowded line ups. The scenery is lush, jagged, extreme, and just plain beautiful. There is so much to explore with little to no people around, I can't wait to venture further and further next time. But for now 6 days was a perfect intro to the potentional of this 1 of the 10,000 Indonesian islands, back to Bali.....