01-OCT - Tue - Where are all the people?

We rented a scooter for the two of us, this being the only way of going exploring around Kuta, as the distances are too far for walking or cycling. The roads are horrendous to anyone’s standard; it is more of a hopping along at meagre 20km/h from pot hole to pot hole. As we left Kuta and ventured East, we rode past families of farmers, their living standards extremely basic from what we are accustomed to. Mothers sitting in the shade with their newborns, children playing in groups, older children and men in the fields, herding cattle. The land is very dry, its landscape is mostly bushes, small trees and lots of coconut palms, all in that washed out green and browns we are so accustomed to in Western Australia, with the only lush green you see being fields of corn and tobacco plantations. The coastline is an amazing contrast to this landscape, with bay after bay of pure white sand. Each bay is cocooned by coconut palms and sheltered by rocky hills. The water is pure emerald green and turquoise blues, balmy and calm, as the waves crush on reefs far away at the entrance to these sheltered beaches. We explored all three beaches East of Kuta, suitable for swimmers, and settled on Tanjun Aan. Imagine a clock and draw a circle from twelve noon to ten, this is the shape of this bay. Add pristine white sand to the whole setting, and make the beach ten football fields in length; let the most amazing clear, blue, emerald and turquoise water into the whole bay; make it shallow so that you can walk nearly to the centre of the bay in waste deep water, walking past patches of seagrass and corals; add coconut palms in the background and further on brown dry hills. Add two bamboo huts on this huge bay, 100m apart, offering cooked food and refrigerated drinks; gently place ten tourists (we counted them) on this vast beach, inject a family of sarong and fresh coconut sellers, and this most amazing setting is complete. We could not resist buying the most beautiful blanket and feasted on a fresh coconut whilst taking in the setting and the sun! No boats, no cars, no scooters, no aircrafts to break the silence; all you hear are small waves, the wind, the occasional rooster and a goat or two. This truly is a tropical island where the Western commercial wave of destruction has not yet arrived, but with the new airport for Lombok only 30 minutes away, regrettably another paradise will be lost.