Up super early for the fast boat to Lombok. No worries getting picked up at 0645 but what's the point when you're driven 15 minutes away then wait 2 hours for the boat to leave? Bloody Indo rubber time. The fast boat was fast (with 4 outboards on the back) but we got slightly hustled in that the one we ended up getting took us to the wrong side of the island! We got off in the middle of nowhere with 6 vans all waiting to take us to Kuta for an extortionate amount of money. We had a pretty heated negotiation and ended up with an ok deal but cringing as the guys strapped our boards to the roof with string.
Cool drive through the mountains and monkey forest to get across the other side of the island. Quite different here, definitely more arid/barren and a lot poorer. Had a bit of hassle finding a room in Kuta Lombok once we arrived. Finally found a place which wasn't really all that cheap (compared to other parts of SE Asia) but was the last room in town. Really hard work here with lots of somewhat hostile people hassling you to rent motorbikes, surf guides, buy braclets, etc. Hard place to figure out too, the village is quite spread out and seems empty despite being apparently full of tourists. Don't get me wrong though, it's a stunning location, sitting on the bay with reef out to sea and nestled in between imposing barren hills. Very exotic and a long way from home.
We walked all around in the sun trying to figure things out, where and when to surf, where to eat, where to get a motorbike (and not have it stolen straight away). Apparently this is the most dangerous area in Bali/Lombok with lots of warnings about having your bike stolen by the guy who rented it to you or being mugged while riding out to the different surf breaks. The other problem is that everyone tells you a different story about which breaks are good, how dangerous, which tide to surf, etc. Eventually we rented some bikes and got enough surf info to cross reference and made a plan for tomorrow...
