Bali & Lomboc rides

We just finished riding around Bali and Lomboc - what a world of difference between the two!  Bali is geared for the tourists with all the amenities and Loboc had nothing, unless you count two surfing beaches, neither of which is easy to get to.

The ride around Bali was beautiful with many lovely green terraced rice fields being plowed by oxen, hundreds of beautiful Hindu/animist temples, CLEAN sand beaches that we camped on just about every night, friendly people many of whom spoke at least some English (to our benefit), and on every beach were many fishing boats.  It was really need to see them shove off at night and return in the morning with their catches:  long narrow boats with bamboo outriggers on them for stablity and small outboard motor, some had a single small sail.  It was  warm ride but it didn't seem as bad as Thailand, maybe because we rode along the coast for 99% of the ride, were able to go for a swim and wash the sweat and road grime off each night and watch the stars.

Lomboc was like a different country:  very poor, hardly anyone spoke English, very dirty villages and cities, trash everywhere even on the unpopulated beach areas.  Lomboc is very predominately Muslim so we missed finding a beer for the week we were there.  Everywhere we went there were Mosques under construction and many very close to another one.  I don't begrudge them their mosques / religion but it seems like a bit few mosques and money spent on health care/ environment care would be better spent.  There never seemed anyone in the mosques even when the call to prayer goes off.  Actually the call to prayer is quite soothing we have found.

The only really unfortunate happening was that someone stole Sally's bike shoes the first night on Lomboc.  We were camped in a field with the owners permission and never thought we'd have a problem.  Bikes, stove, pots/pans, my shoes etc were not touched.  We filed a police report but really didn't expect any positive solution. 

Everywhere we have riden here we were greeted by "hello mister" - even Sally.  At first it was funny but after two weeks it has gotten a bit old.  We are at Padangbai, a bit east and north of Kuta and Denpasar after returning from Lomboc yesterday.  A wonderful laid back village with beer and relatively cheap food/lodging. Taking a rest day here and may try to get into Denpasar tomorrow to see if we can find some shoes for Sally - just in case the ones that are being sent from her stock of shoes at home don't arrive.  We also hope to get up to Ubud which is another tourist area but strong on the culture aspect of tourism so maybe we'll get some Balinese cultural education.

Indonesia has been great but we are ready to get back to BKK and heading to Laos, plan to take the night train from BKK to Vietienne and start riding towards Vietnam.  Right now we leave Indo on the 7th.  I left my camera cable in Kuta where we stayed for two nights when we first arrived so it will be a few days before we get any photos posted.   We are both healthy, slimmed down a bit and doing fine - other than missing some snow!!

Stan & Sally