Travel Day 672 – Mataram to Kuta on Lombok, INDONESIA
After having miserably failed in getting a visa extension in Mataram on a Saturday morning, today things were off to a better start…
Wooden Fishing Boats in Kuta on Lombok, Indonesia
Instead of taking the bemo and walking for a while, on this early morning, I could simply jump on the scooter and make my way to Kantor Imigrasi, the immigration office, rather quickly. So far I still had not received any definitive information if it was actually possible to extend the Indonesia visa here on Lombok. But everything was looking good as I was handed some paperwork and sent off across the street to make some photo copies of my documents. Once everything was filled out and copied, I submitted my papers and sat down to wait…
When then being ordered back to the counter, the message was that the immigration office could unfortunately not give me a visa extension because my passport was too full already. Obviously that triggered a lengthy discussion, but luckily it was possible to convince the officials to put their stamp on my last page across some printed text, after I promised several times that I would get a new passport as soon as possible…
Entrance Gate to Pura Lingsar on Lombok in Indonesia
The decision that had to be made next was to either ask for the normal, cheap processing time, or to pay extra money to expedite the process. Since normal processing time meant having to come back twice to the immigration office over the next two days and since Mataram wasn’t really the kind of place to linger, I rather opted for paying the extra fee and getting the visa issued on the spot. This really seemed to be the best decision, especially because I had my passport back in my hands and we were able to drive off towards Kuta in the south of Lombok…
Luckily everything worked out well and so we could explore a little bit of Lombok while making a few stops along the way to Kuta. The first stop was at the holiest temple on Lombok, Pura Lingsar, a temple that was dedicated half to the Balinese Hindus and half to Lombok’s mystical religion. Unfortunately the temple was only partially accessible and so just mildly interesting, as was the close by village Suranadi which still made a good stop for an open market lunch…
The Evening Beach of Kuta on Lombok, Indonesia
The drive from Suranadi was then almost a straight shot south towards the coast and the beach town of Kuta. This little sleepy beach town, even it had the same name as the crazy tourist area on Bali, had luckily nothing to do with it besides sharing the same name. Kuta on Lombok was rather an area of little villages and nice empty beaches with small fishing boats. Unfortunately this area was threatened by thoughts of new development and it certainly needed to be visited rather sooner than later…
So we managed to arrive and settle for a cheap room at the end of the day, right before the sun was setting. What we found in Kuta itself, were a few hotels and home stays, a nice local beach with wooden boats and a great local warung for some amazingly delicious home cooked food. So overall it had been quite a successful day and besides getting the much-needed visa extension, it seemed we had also found the nicest place to be on Lombok…
Leave a Reply