First Impressions of Kuta, Lombok - Is This The New Bali? 🇮🇩

As Bali becomes more and more popular people are starting to look for an alternative and that alternative might just be Lombok. Located just a short boat ride away from Bali this island has been getting more and more attention for its beautiful beaches, incredible landscapes and a much slower pace of life. But is Lombok really the new Bali? I'll be spending the next two weeks traveling around the island to find out what it's really like starting in the town of Kuta and over the next two weeks I'm hoping to discover some pretty incredible places. From waking up surrounded by endless rice fields to experiencing a completely different side of local life and eventually taking on one of Indonesia's biggest mountains. So let's see what Lombok is really all about. Okay we have just arrived at Padang Bayar and we're going to be grabbing a ticket at this little place behind. So I think it's relatively cheap to get to Lombok so let's see how much it is, grab a ticket and then wait for the ferry. Okay so we just grabbed a ticket it was 75 per person and now we're going to Lombok. Let's do it, let's go to Lombok. Thank you. Okay we grabbed the tickets that was a really easy process, just went into that little ticket office and grabbed them. They were 75 per person and then literally opposite is the terminal. So the ferry is at nine o'clock this morning and we're going to board now. First glimpse of the ferry. Here it is, hello. Thank you. Have you eaten? Yes, I have eaten. How many times? Have you eaten there? Yes, yes. You can't eat on the boat. Oh okay. Okay, bye bye. Thank you. Lovely friendly people to start the morning. Okay we're here at the ferry, it looks so cool. A little bit old, hopefully it won't set on fire like it did last week but it's all part of the journey. Okay that was literally such an overwhelming start to get on a boat. Loads of people just come out and started talking but we're on it now. You can see over here the whole of Padang Bayar, super beautiful and we're going to be on here for they predict four hours but it depends on the sea condition so if it's really wavy maybe it will take longer. So this is going to be our seat for the next four or five hours. So a guy just came and sold us this mattress, a pretty expensive mattress, it was 50,000 but you can sit inside but I feel like when the boat's rocking a little bit it's going to be a bit sticky and here we can see all the views of the ocean so best 50,000 spent I think. Look at this, beautiful. Got a coffee, got overcharged but here we are for the next five hours. Bullet price. Bullet price yeah. Two times the original price. Yeah and a guy even come over and was like hey Lima and she was like... Hours later we can see the land. It's not actually been a bad journey at all. I think getting that mattress and sitting outside was definitely a good idea because inside it is a little bit stuffy. There is AC and everyone's just kind of like laying on the floor and chilling out but it's a little bit stuffy and the boat has kind of rocked quite a lot. Not too bad though, the sea's pretty good. We've been lucky but yeah definitely worth getting a mattress and sitting outside but anyway we can see Lombok. I think we're going to be approaching in about I'd say 30 minutes. Can't wait to get off this ship. I may have spoke too soon earlier when I said that we were almost here. We arrived but then we waited by the dock for like one hour so after six hours we're finally getting off but as you can see this is the only way to come to Lombok with a motorbike so if you do want to bring your motorbike from Bali this is the ferry that you can take. If you take the slow boat you can't so if you want a motorbike there's literally no other option. Actually we don't have one but I still did it but oh my god so excited to get off, get to the hotel and eat. Hello, Mafia, so long. Hello, nice to meet you. How are you? Finally we're in the car. Very very grateful to be picked up by a Samsul who wasn't supposed to pick us up so we were actually supposed to rent a car for this trip but when we're on the ferry I got a text saying that they couldn't meet us, they were fully booked or something so I just took it as a sign from the universe that we shouldn't drive a car around Lombok so we're going to get a motorbike instead but luckily there was a really nice man on the ferry who contacted his friend and he picked us up so I'm very grateful. Anyway we are almost at Kuta and it's almost 5pm which I'm so shocked about. It was such a long travel day. I would suggest if you do do this journey to give yourself some kind of day to get here because it takes so long but we're almost there and I'm very excited to check into this hotel. Wow, finally we are here and this is our little homestay. Very cute indeed. It feels so good to be in a room right now. So I actually booked this homestay. I'm going to be staying here for the next few nights and exploring this area which is Kuta, Lombok. Now this area is being compared a lot to Bali and what it was like quite some years ago is becoming quite popular so over the next few days we're going to explore, we're going to see what we can get up to here and see if it lives up to the hype. But for now we are going to chill, we're doing absolutely nothing for the rest of this day because we're absolutely exhausted after the ferry. So, see you in the morning. Wow, look at this. Look at this, beautiful. Yeah, it's so nice, wow. What's your name? First time. Danny. Yadi. Yadi, nice to meet you. What's your name? Ria. Ria. Yeah, nice to meet you. Ade. Ade, hello Ade. Nice to meet you. You live here? Yeah. Yeah. Wow, it's so beautiful. Look at this. Hello, Pagi. Oh, you have coconut. Very cool. Wow, guys, look at this. Coconut fresh on the beach. What's your name? Mahar. Mahar. Okay. Okay, guys, good morning. Selamat pagi from Tanjang An beach here in Lombok. Oh my goodness, this place is literally paradise. So, we had a 10-minute drive and first impressions of Lombok. The roads compared to Bali are so good. There's kind of like a highway that surrounds this area and it's perfect condition. So much space, no traffic, it doesn't feel dangerous at all. So, it's a really pleasant drive. We picked up our bike this morning. We paid 80,000 for one day. It's like a Honda Click or something like that. So, not too bad. And the first spot of this video is here at this insane beach. Oh my god. So, we parked in the parking area. It was 10,000 for parking and then we walked through like a little bush bit and just come out to this paradise. So, we're going to chill here, probably get a coconut and spend the morning enjoying. I mean, look at this. And obviously swim. Okay, I think we've found a seat for the day. Look how cool this is. Little chairs and it's decorated so nicely. Look at this. So cool. You can even rent a surfboard here. What's your name, my friend? Me? Yeah. Olin. Olin. Nice to meet you. You too. Thank you. Ria. This is my son, Eddie. Oh, so cool. The letter is so big here. Did you paint this? Yeah. You? Like a friend Eddie from England. Oh, yeah. Oh, cool. So cool. Well, thank you. Okay, so we're going to perch here for the day. Two of the chairs were 100,000 and you can use them for the whole day. As we were walking along, we did see some more like established places, but I feel like it's really good to support the locals, especially in places like Lombok. So we've chose a local place and behind me they even sell food. So it's going to be comfortable for the morning. What an incredible place. It's honestly just so beautiful here. So when people compare this place to Bali, I assume they're kind of comparing it to like Canggu, Seminyak area, but it's absolutely nothing alike. I mean, where in Bali can you find sand this white and ocean this blue? Before we continue exploring, let me take a moment to introduce the sponsor of today's video, Hover Air. I've had my device with me through my trip to Lombok and honestly, it's been so much fun having it with me. It's perfect for capturing all the different landscapes here from the beaches to the rice fields to the mountains. And because it can automatically track and follow me, I can get these really cinematic shots completely hands-free and it's so easy to use. You can literally launch it straight from your hand, choose the flight mode you want and you're ready to go. And clearly I'm not the only one who thinks this device is cool. It's even caught the attention of some local kids who absolutely love watching it take off from my hand. But if you want to capture the landscape without actually being in the shot, it also comes with a manual remote that gives me more control, which I love for getting those big cinematic landscape shots. So whether I'm filming myself exploring or just want to capture the scenery around me, I can get completely different perspectives without needing to carry a whole drone set up. It weighs just 191 grams, folds down really small and can shoot in up to 4K at 60 frames per second with a two-axis gimbal, electronic stabilization and horizon leveling. And for something that takes up so little space in my bag, it gives me so many different ways to capture a trip. So if you like the look of the Hover Air and you fancy trying it out yourself, I'll leave all the details down in the description below. But for now, let's get back to the video. Obviously Bali has its own charms, but I think over the years it's become so touristic and it's just so busy. But this, it really does feel like you've stepped onto a completely different planet. It's so beautiful. And you've got all these little warongs lying in the edge of the beach, a couple of nice restaurants. It's not too overcrowded. You can see all the people surfing. Yeah, it's just amazing. I could honestly spend all day here, but unfortunately I have to show you guys more. Lunchtime. Let's get some mac food time, please. Can I get a nasi goreng? You are the chef? Oh, you're the chef? You're the chef? Sometimes. Sometimes. Will you make me a good nasi goreng? Yeah. Chicken or ketchup? Sayur. Let's try the beach nasi goreng. It's the first time I've ever tried nasi goreng with sweet corn in it and it's upgraded it so much. So nice. I say this every time I eat nasi goreng, but this is one of the best nasi gorengs I've ever eaten. I don't know how they've made it. I think they've put onion inside and sweet corn, which makes it so much better. And it's just so good. But I don't know if it's because this is the view or because this is good. Or the fact I'm just really impressed that they made it literally on the beach. After a nice relaxing morning, we've made it to Kuta town. And I can probably say that this place definitely reminds me of Canggu. It's so busy, chaotic. There's so many kind of like upmarket restaurants and bars and stuff like that. Mixed in with some warungs, you've got a Starbucks, nail salons, massage parlours, like literally everything. So yeah, it does definitely remind me of what Canggu is like. And it's not as relaxing as the beach we were at earlier. But anyway, we're going to go and try and find a little coffee shop to chill out for a while before heading to a really cool spot to see the sunset. So here you can see the Starbucks. They've actually designed it really well though. That's really cool. It looks so nice and pretty with all the palm trees around it. Okay, so we've just found this really cute little like, and it was bright pink and it caught my attention. Now I don't normally drink matcha, but I'm going to try it because it looks really good. So I'm going to order a strawberry matcha latte please. With fresh milk? Yeah. Look how cute this little place is. They've decorated it so nicely and this is what particularly caught my attention. So this is the menu. They have so many different choices of matcha. I'm no expert at all but I got the strawberry one. That sounds good. But they have literally so many options and not bad value. Wow. Strawberry matcha latte. Thank you. You can keep this for you. Oh, look at this. This is so cute. Oh, this is so cute. Look on the straw. They put these little hair clips and these look so good. Look at that. So this one is the pistachio and then we got this one also the strawberry. Alright, so let's try our matchas. We're both not matcha drinkers, but this place was cute. Would you like a hair clip? Oh yes. So cute, right? I'm going to put that in later. Would you like the pink straw? No, I would love the other one. Okay. This is such a cute little place and the woman's really friendly. How is it? It tastes really healthy. I don't think they've put any sweetener inside. I'm not a proper matcha drinker but as it's close to sunset, it feels better to have this coffee and it feels healthier. Cheers. I'll try yours. Oh, I love that one. Thank you. Bye. After about a 20 minute drive outside of Kuta town, I must say quite a terrifying drive because even though the roads are super clear and there's no holes or anything like there is in Bali, everyone drives so fast because it's like a highway. So if you're a little bit scared on a motorbike, warning, very, very scary. But anyway, we've arrived at our sunset spot. This place is called Bukit Merese and it's a very famous place, a hill where you can kind of walk up and watch the sunset. So hopefully we get a good view. We've got a nice clear sky tonight, so it should be a good one. So you can see here, you have to walk up the side of this hill, pretty steep, some training for what's to come in the next videos, actually, that weren't long, maybe five minutes. Definitely different to what we're going to be doing in a few days, but we've made it to the top. Wow. Yeah, it's absolutely stunning. Look at this view. Wow. So when you make it to the top, you can see all the people chilling out over here, but there's also another hill here, which I think looks a little bit more appealing because over here, it looks like you're going to get a view of the sunset completely. So we're going to go check out this second hill. You can see the beach, the mountains, super nice. Hello. How are you? Something I really like about Lombok that I noticed in Bali you don't get as much is the fact that everything's mixed local and tourist, which I feel like in Bali, when you go somewhere like Canggu, you never see any locals doing anything there, like just working. So this feels much better to me. They're here enjoying as well, which they should be, of course. So yes, really nice. There isn't really a sunset, as you can see, it's covered in cloud, but it's still a really beautiful spot. I can imagine that if the sun is really visible, like it's absolutely amazing. But right now we have a lot of cloud, but it's really cool to see how the waves are kind of crashing in. It is really beautiful. It looks like a picture, but sadly no sunset. After a slightly disappointing sunset, we have arrived at Warung Mawrin and here they do some ikan bakar. So if you don't know what that is, it's basically just grilled fish. So at the front, they have a selection of different fishes that you can choose and they're going to grill it, bring over with rice and vegetables and hopefully it'll be really nice because it's my favourite food. So let's tuck in. Wow, yeah, thank you. Grilled barracuda, this looks absolutely unreal. Wow. Then we have some sambal, some lime, some cucumber. Okay, I am so excited about this. This is the first bite. They've given us this sambal full of garlic and it looks so good. So let's give it a try. Wow, that is so good. It's got a lot of little bones though, so you have to be careful, but the taste is so nice. It's really fresh. I think they probably caught it this morning, but I definitely feel like this would be better to eat with your hands actually. So we ordered a barracuda. I'm not sure how many grams, but it's pretty big and it costs two hundred thousand and then they give you the rice and the vegetables with it for free. The hands out. This is so much easier to eat things like this with your hands. You can feel all the bones, but this is so good. It's literally delicious. We've polished it off so nicely in literally like five minutes. So we're sitting and there's a lot of people coming and selling bracelets and this little girl is so cute. Hello. Hello. Is this your sister? No. No. Friend to man? No. How much are your bracelets? Fifty. Fifty? Mahal. Mahal. Twenty bagus, yeah. Dua puluh bagus. Okay. You have one for twenty? Okay, I think I'm going to have to get one because they're so freaking cute and I can't deal with it. Right. What one's twenty? Pick me one. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to get this from them because they're the cutest ever. Just this one. Okay. Thank you. One for me. Oh, I have a whole gang here. Look at this. Say hello boys. Hello. Because I first with you already. No, they come first. I come first when you eating already. Where did you learn English? Gila. Gila. You gila. Orang gila. Well, that was a turn of events. The whole village turned up to sell a bracelet and I had to get one because the girl was so cute. I couldn't say no. But anyway, the food was absolutely delicious. I can't recommend this place more. So the total price was two hundred and sixty. We got a beer, a large one and the fish. So really good value. Anyway, we're going to head home now. Going to explore more tomorrow. So I will see you in the morning. Good morning, everyone. It is day two of our Kuta adventure. And this morning we woke up very early to head to Pantai Selong Belanak. But on the way, we just stopped by this super cute cafe to grab a drink. It's literally right on the side of the mountain near the beach. And it is absolutely stunning. You can literally see such an epic view from here, like a whole coastline. It's so beautiful. So the name of this place is Fault Cafe. We've ordered a couple of drinks and we're just going to chill out, enjoy the view before we head to the beach this morning. Apparently, I'm turning into a matcha girl, which I never would have thought. But this place has ceremonial grade matcha from Japan. And then they make the strawberry jam themselves and put it at the bottom. So I thought I'd try it. And it is absolutely unbelievable. This place is such a vibe. You've got the most beautiful view. It's all these paragliders in the sky above just paragliding around the mountains. So nice. So we've just arrived at the beach and it is absolutely stunning. And this place is a good place for beginners to do or try surfing. So I've tried it once. It was really, really scary in Australia. It was an overcast day, literally like absolutely terrifying. And I didn't like it at all. But this looks much better. You can see the ocean is really beautiful. It's really blue. There's so many people trying it right now. So I think we're going to give it a go. Look at this beach is absolutely stunning. I absolutely love the beaches in Lombok so far. They're literally so beautiful. You've got all these beautiful hills and cliffs surrounding. The ocean's blue. You can see all the surfers doing their thing. Oh, that's going to be me in a minute. And then loads of sunbeds to relax after. So this guy, Jogul, is going to help us with our beginner surfer lesson. OK. I am shitting myself. Is it easy? Very easy. Yeah. Are you sure? I'm sure. You sure? You promise? OK. Because here all is sandy bottom, no rips, no rocks. Oh, there's no rocks? Yes. OK. OK. Should be all right then. Thank you, my friend. OK. So guys, help me stand up in the boat. Always make your body in the middle in the boat, yeah? In position like that. Left foot, foot, until here. Then foot until here. OK. Then always go in this, say lower, all right? And then make your shoulder forward and make stretch your body. OK. Then open your hand. Yeah. You can make more control your balance. Right. Sometimes you lean back, lean forward. Sometimes you lean back. Uh-huh. OK. Got it. You can show me first, sister. You can show me first. Let's go, baby. OK. Paddle. Paddle. Stand up. Yeah. Nice. How was it for surfing today? So good. So good. I had a very good teacher. Thank you. Mr. Jojo. Hi. Thank you for coming. Ria. You were a very good teacher. So thank you. You too. Very smart. Pintar, yeah? Pintar, yeah. But he said earlier that I was a pro, but then proceeded to say that I was a problem, not a problem. But thank you so much, yeah? I definitely recommend trying a surf lesson here if you come to this beach, because I did this six years ago, as I said earlier, and I was terrified because the conditions of the sea were completely different to this. This is nice and calm. And then there's sand underneath and no rocks. So it's a really good place to learn for your first surf lesson. So definitely come and check it out. We're just going to chill here for the rest of the day. And then later, we're going to head to another spot to visit another beach that's a little bit more remote. Okay. After a short drive, we've arrived at the last spot of this video, which is Lanching Beach. The vibe of this beach is completely different to the one we went earlier. It's so much more raw. You can see all the locals kind of playing in the sea. And now is the time where the tide has completely gone out. I don't know if you can see behind me, but something really cool that's going on is there's all these fishermen and they're like banging sticks on the water, I assume to scare the fish and then using these big nets to catch them. And they're catching so much. So it's so cool over here. You can see we are surrounded by once again, just such beautiful mountains. All of the tide has gone out here and everyone is just having a good vibe. It's so nice and completely empty. To be honest, there's not really anything else around, but the original plan was to come here and watch the sunset. But after we arrived, I've noticed that the sun actually sets on the other side. So it's going to go behind the mountains and we're going to miss it. So I don't think we're going to stay for that drink, but definitely recommend coming here earlier in the day and grabbing a drink because this is such a vibey beach bar. It's all these like straw umbrellas. It looks so cool and so nice to have a drink, but I don't think now is the right time. And it's been a long two days. I'm so exhausted. That surf lesson earlier literally killed me. It was so fun, but I used muscles in my body that I didn't even know I had to do that. So yeah, I'm extremely tired. So I think we're going to head back to Kuta Town and go for our last dinner before we move on to the next place in Lombok. Okay, we've made it back to Kuta Town and we've stumbled across this really cute street. So all the way along, it's lit up and there's all different restaurants that you could choose from. So when we were looking on Google Maps, we saw that there was an Indian place and we really fancied Indian. So we're going to check it out, but all the way around is different places. So it's such a nice place to visit at night. It feels like such a vibe. The weather's perfect. You can sit outside, grab whatever food you want, and hopefully the prices won't be too bad either. Here we are, Bombay Bangkok Curry Hut. Let's see what they've got on the menu. Oh, it looks like it's a mixture of Indian and Thai. Okay, so here are the options. They have butter chicken, tikka masala, madras. Oh, I feel like I'm in heaven. And then they also have some naan bread, poppadoms. Oh my God, I should have ordered this. And also some Thai food here. Oh my God, look at this deliciousness. This is so unreal looking. Oh, all right, here we are. This looks like the best thing I've ever seen in my life. I don't know why, but we both just really fancied a curry. We've been eating Indonesian food so much for the past few weeks. So it's nice to have a change. So I actually ordered the platter. You get two curries and this one specifically has butter chicken, which is so good in England. So let's give it a taste. See if it lives up to the English Indian takeaways that we have. We do have good Indian takeaway. Oh my God, that is so good. This is exactly what I fancied. And soon they're bringing over a naan bread, which is going to be even better. We also got a side of roti and it feels so crispy. Oh my God, I'm in heaven right now. Put the curry on the roti. This was the best idea we've ever had. Wow, it's absolutely unbelievable. So when you're in Kuta, Lombok, if you fancy an Indian, definitely try this little place. It's such a vibe as well. All these families are out enjoying. It's kind of lit up, got all different types of food that you can order. But this one's really, really good. Well, that food was literally 10 out of 10, thoroughly enjoyed. Who would have thought that you could find really good Indian food here in Lombok? Crazy. So when we started this video, we wanted to see the comparison between Bali and this area of Lombok. And would I compare it? Probably not. The vibe's completely different. Firstly, the culture's completely different. In Bali, it's Hindu and here it's majority Muslim. The architecture's different, like their houses and everything like that. The roads are completely different. The beaches are white sand and crystal clear water. You can surf, maybe that's the only comparison. But I would say that what compares the most is probably the town of Kuta because they're building it up like probably how they started to build up Canggu in the first place with all the fancy restaurants and spas and stuff like that. But yeah, other than that, I wouldn't compare and I would definitely recommend to visit both. Anyway, guys, I'm going to end this video. I hope you enjoyed watching. If you did, don't forget to hit that subscribe button and I will see you in the next one.