Kuta beach Lombok: Happy Super Fun Day

Getting to Kuta, Lombok was a bit of a hassle, mostly because it ended up costing us more than we thought it would. Our hotel was pretty gross, and the sink was being held apart by ducked taped, but we figured we could make it work. Once we arrived we put on our beach gear and headed to the beach, stopping along the way for some delicious seafood lunch. The beach was met with swarming herds of Indonesians attempting to sell us things. We did end up buying some deliciously sweet coconut lime drinks, and after sitting for a few short minutes Robert went in for a swim. I was looking around and noticed I was the only Bule girl in sight and all the other women were either swimming fully clothed or not swimming at all. So I opted to simply cut my losses and swim in my dress. It felt a bit ridiculous, but also kind of cool, and on the plus side, the dress was then wet and cool for the rest of the evening, however you all know how I feel about sitting in salt water. Gross!

Christmas morning breakfast!

We stopped at a cool surfer bar for some cocktails, and I indulged in a double espresso. On the way home I stopped off to indulge some more and purchased an $18 bottle of wine. I figured it was Christmas day, and Christmas day deserved wine. Back at the hotel I took a look in the mirror and realized I was actually insanely sun burnt, so I opted to save the majority of the wine and began chugging a few liters of water.

I sat on the balcony and skyped (the internet connection wasn’t the best) while Robert and Scott swam in the pool. After an hour or so we decided to head to dinner and stopped at Sunset café, which had rave reviews for their beef burgers, which, regrettably were unavailable for whatever reason, so I had some yummy pasta instead. We watched bats fly around our heads, the sunset, and stared intently as geckos ate their prey. At this point we were all exhausted and had no idea how we were going to make it to our Christmas day skype sessions that evening. We all did, though we struggled to stay awake, chugging on insane amounts of water as we waited.

Awesome tree!

The next morning was super happy fun day! We went back to the surfer bar and had some delicious morning smoothies and then headed up the coast to find a beach to relax on for the rest of the day. After some serious trekking through the sand (I say this because the walk was almost as bad as hiking Bromo), we managed to find a shady spot to relax and explore. The morning was filled with staring at clouds, discovering critters, giggling contentedly and re-applying drastic amounts of sunscreen. The sandy sunscreen application was my least favorite part, and I’m sure my facial expressions as I rubbed it in were hilarious.

Our beach for the day!

Eventually we all got hungry and had to eat some food. Opting to take the road over the sandy beach, we soon were dripping with sweat and had to stop to get ice cream, and soon after choose the nearest restaurant to chug a fresh fruit juice and indulge in pizza and burgers. Yummy! We were perfectly fine to hang at the hotel the rest of the afternoon lounging by the poolside and sipping on drinks. When we reached hunger again we headed to a nearby woodfire pizza place and I devoured a whole pizza. The 100 meter walk home was exhausting enough to make us all ready for bed at about 8:00pm. It is incredible what sunshine can do to your body.

Rocking like a sink, sinking like a rock!