At The Gate

Kuta, August 14th 2010

When one says "Kuta", people's mind usually goes to Bali. However, the Kuta in Bali is nothing in comparison to the Kuta in Lombok. The word "kuta" means "gate". No wonder Bali's airport is in Kuta. In a short time Lombok is also going to establish its international airport in its "kuta". Hopefully it would somehow make us easier to fly to Lombok. When I say "easy", I mean "low cost".

We checked in at Tastura Resort.

I went to the beach while waiting for our lunch order at a restaurant across our Tastura Resort. I forget what the name of the restaurant was. Our order took very long. So I went to the beach while Frank kept our table.

I was stunned. Blueish green, light green, and white... I took a couple of shots and when back to the restaurant. Our order still hadn't come yet. I told Frank that he could take his turn to take pictures while I keep our table. "It's very, very, beautiful there," I said.

"At which side?" he asked.

"At every side," I answered.

The "Ayam Taliwang" (one of Lombok's delicacies) I ordered, was hard and the rice seemed not to be well cooked. Hah, luckily I'm not so much into food. I just hurriedly finished it and went back to the beach.

The only and one thing I hate about Lombok's Kuta is the vendors. I felt like a "deja vu" of Sapa (Vietnam), the beautiful land with no privacy. However, in Sapa, the vendors dressed in colorful traditional clothes. They put on themselves what they sell. I wasn't interested in buying their products, but was very interested in taking their pictures. I believe many tourists are also. In almost every guide about Sapa you can find a photograph of a girl in this traditional clothe. Except you are seriously deeply madly interested in human interest photography, I don't think you would be excited to take pictures of the vendors in Kuta, Lombok.

Now, the embarrassing thing for me as an Indonesian is that these vendors in Kuta pursues a tourist to buy their product by asking one to pity on him or her, like:

"Kasihan, Bu. Saya tidak bisa pulang, Bu."
("Poor me, Madam. I can't go home.")

Or, "Beli, Bu. Buat beli buku."
("Buy from me, Madam. I need to buy books.")

The worse, "Ibu nggak kasihan sama saya?"
("Aren't you a pity of me?")
I recall I heard this at least twice, from different vendors.

I had never ever heard such a thing even once from the vendors in Sapa. Besides by dressing attractively, they do their best to attract a tourist by showing a way to a nice spot, by starting a conversation, by being kind (even insincere), but never by asking to be pitied on. On the contrary, one of the vendors who followed me along the way during my trekking, bragged about her husband who works hard in the field. She proudly told me how she learnt her English which was good. When we passed by a local school and I asked whether she studied there too, she answered, yes, but made an empahsize: "But I have graduated already."

If I have to rate from 1 to 10, for scenery matter, I give Sapa 4 and for Kuta 9. But if you speak about attitude, I give Sapa 9 and Kuta 2.

I truly hope that the Kuta vendors' attitude is not the major attitude of this whole nation. We can succeed, because we deserve to succeed, not because we deserve to be pitied on!