lombok.

Lombok. Oh Lombok. We have a love/ hate relationship. Lombok is supposed to be the "unspoiled Bali". And it is. It is beautiful and there are very few tourists. But just in our first few minutes in Lombok we were bombarded by people trying to get our money any way possible. Tourist taxes, horse carriage rides, taxis, etc. We just kept walking until we found a Bluebird Taxi again. Bluebird seriously always saved the day. But here are the things I was not so fond of in Lombok, especially Senggigi, Lombok:

• Spiders! We (I mean Stephan) killed about 5 HUGE spiders. Just crawling up the walls making themselves at home. Heeby jeebies for days.I don't even think we snapped pictures because they were so terrifying and we didn't want to get that close to the creatures.But obviously this is not Lombok's fault that they have such massive spiders.I was definitely blaming Lombok at the time though. 
• Stories of people macheteing arms off. We met an Australian who had just moved to Lombok and I think he was seriously regretting it. To let off some steam about his move, he decided to vent to S and I about all the horrible things about Lombok and how they just want your money and they are super violent. This happened within our first hours of being there and really made me uncomfortable the rest of the time. 
• The locals out to get our money--Not a single restaurant would let you look at a menu in peace. The entire staff of the restaurant would come up and yell things out to you and try to give you deals just to come in and eat at their place. And the worst part was every single restaurant had the same stinkin' food. Pizza, pasta, burgers. They are really trying to cater to tourists, but they are trying SO hard. They want to be like Bali and make their money through tourism, but I don't know how good it is working. Maybe 20 years from now it will be the next Bali, who knows. 
• In Kuta, Lombok, we seriously got ripped off with our motorbike. Lombok is much less developed than Bali, and that means the roads too. The roads were full of pot holes and missing parts of the road. There are beautiful mountains that line the different beaches, but sometimes you have to drive up the huge hills to get to the beaches. Our motorbike was not fit for the roads at all. They first gave us the bike with the flat tire, and we had to pay to get it fixed. Then the head light was broken and then the breaks were broken. It was so frustrating, and we knew the locals knew they had given us a horrible bike. We couldn't even go to some of the beaches because of the bike and the roads! I am getting mad about this just writing about it! 

Anyways, that being said, I really did enjoy Lombok and there are some things that I really loved:

• I loved how quiet the towns were. Kuta, Lombok was really neat and I imagine that that is how Kuta, Bali was thirty years ago. Little shacks and shops lined a long the beach selling everything possible from rides to the airport to a sarong to gasoline for your motorbike. It gave the town so much character and it was nice not to have huge resorts take over the beauty of the beaches. 
• Our new friends Kania and Adi. We met two different locals at two different places in Kuta and they were so sincere. We had coffee with Kania twice in Lombok. She owned a little shop and we just sat on her shop floor and drank Indonesian coffee and chatted about her life. She was 26 with a cute little 2 year old. She never went to school. She works her tail off so her little 2 year old can eventually go to school. She sells souvenirs and her husband drives tourists to different destinations in Lombok. She was so sweet, and totally helped my mind set on the locals there. Adi was another friend we made. He was close to Stephan's age. We had hot tea with him a few times. He spoke really good English, but we helped him learn some new words and phrases. He wants to be really successful and you could really see his hard work ethic. He was so genuine and I think he really admired Stephan. I would go back to Lombok just to see those two sweet people. 
• The beaches. Every beach we went to was really unspoiled. It was normally just Stephan and I out laying in the sand or swimming in the ocean with no one else around. The only locals that were around were selling pineapples and coconuts. And don't worry, we bought one from every single person selling them. Because they do carry machetes to chop the coconuts and maybe to chop other things too. WHO really knows. This could also be why we both got so sick. BUT the coconuts and pineapples were really tasty and it is really fun sipping out of a coconut on a beautiful, remote beach. 
• On our final day, Stephan really wanted to surf and he knew of just the spot. It's called Gerpuk. And to get there you have to take a boat out into the middle of the ocean to this area where a series of waves break. We met a Canadian and a Swiss who were beginners going out to this surfing area. We ended up sharing a boat with them which made the experience really comfortable. Again, I tell ya, more horror stories from the local surfers in this area. So having some westerners on the boat with us made it very comforting. We made it out to the wave and Stephan and the other surfers hopped in the water and paddled to the wave. I got to just lay out on the boat and watch all the surfers and snap pictures. I really had fun and felt super safe the whole time. I even got to see Stephan catch some waves which was SO fun to see!! 

Lombok was full of crazy experiences and I am so happy we got to go see what it was all about. It really is such a beautiful island. Stephan and I agreed though, that we were so happy we just took our time in Bali and did not rush to get to Lombok. We had the perfect amount of time each place we went. Indonesia was truly amazing and I really want to go back one day. Maybe even live there!?