From Bali to southern Lombok

Along our route to Flores we had set up several meeting points to catch up with Mark's wife Birgit, Jack and Carla, who were travelling by plane. The first one was Kuta, a small beach village on the southern coast of Lombok.

Day 3: Hanging around a bit too long during breackfast it was almost 1100 when we finally got on the bikes again to drive up to Padangbay, the ferry harbour for the crossing to Lombok. The main road has lots of nice views and leads through some interesting villages, but it is always 'macet' all along the way (indonesian for a permanent traffic jam). All of us know this area quite well, so we were keen to leave the Bali traffic behind as quick as possible (see East Bali in the side bar).

Taking it easy in Padangbai, we managed to miss the next available ferry to Lombok while sitting in a warung (foodstall). The crossing takes 4-5 hours, so we finally had to drive the last part from Lembar harbour in Lombok to Kuta beach in the dark. We looked for a cheap losmen and then had dinner together with Birgit and the kids.

Day 4: A lazy day with a couple of hours on the beach and some walks across the hills separating the small bays and lonely beaches. In the afternoon we went on a ride all together through the mountain area west of Kuta.

Day 5: We had been checking out a route to Labuhan Lombok which went a bit criss-cross through south-east Lombok. The ride was fine with moderate country side traffic, but because it was also the weekly market day in several villages, the ride frequently came to a standstill.

Riding east, we had to adjust our driving stile. It turned out that the most 'dangerous' vehicles on the road no longer were trucks or busses, but now we started to watch out for horsecarts. They are relatively wide (the roads also get narrower), and they move around less controllable than a car. It doesn't help that they are often driven by underaged kids. And don't expect them to follow any road rules.

Finally we reached Labuhan Lombok. After getting off the bikes we were immediately surrounded by a noisy crowd of kids, food sellers, waiting passengers, who wanted to take a closer look at the 'big Hondas' and exchange a few words about where we came from and where we wanted to go. Two police officers also approaced us and explained that they would clear the road if we wanted to do wheelies up the ramp onto the ferry. We joked around and bought some fruits, water and nasi bungkus. I had another experience of how things in Indonesia often just fall in place: to get rid of a guy desparately trying to sell us another pair of sunglasses, I told him half jokingly, that that's not what I want. I needed new reading glasses, which I had lost a day earlier. 'No problem, which size?', he said, pulling out his collection.

Next page: our next target was Sumbawa.

Previous page: Bali