Surfing brought us to Kuta*, on Lombok's southern coast, where once again the warm spirit of the local Indonesians made us feel at home. 

Kuta is much more rural than other Bali areas we’d seen so far. The streets, mostly narrow, dirt roads, are rockier and strewn with stray dogs, goats and roosters. 

It's also hillier, and the beaches are more spread out, so a motorbike is a must. As we rode around exploring, we passed by dozens of warungs with fresh, hot, and cheap (the winning combination) Indonesian food.

When we weren't riding around, we were attempting to adopt the relaxed island mindset.

We found a yoga studio with a gorgeous indoor-outdoor practice room overlooking the ocean below. It was a beautiful center, perched on top of a small mountain, among a lush forest. We could hear monkeys chattering and playing in the trees next to us as we sweat through a series of sun salutations. (The instructor was one of the smallest, and definitely the bendiest man I’ve ever seen. He's basically a human pretzel.) 

In addition to our new daily yoga routine, we started drinking fresh juices and eating salads. I know, I know, whats happening to us? ;)

Possibly because Kuta is a smaller, more remote town, we found the dependency on tourism more apparent. One part of the daily life that we didn’t like was being surrounded by children selling trinkets (mostly bracelets) on the street and in restaurants. As much as we hated saying no to their sweet little faces, we didn’t want to reinforce the practice. You never know who's keeping their sales profits. Of course, we understand that it's all part of life there. What was once a fishing community now caters to tourists, hoping to sell them whatever they can before they move on to their next destination in Indonesia.   

Oh yeah, the surfing: all of the best breaks are out a few hundred meters, so to reach them you hire a small boat to bring you out and wait a few hours while you surf. It's good because there are less surfers in the water, but meant that any non-surfers were stuck on the boat, baking in the sun for a few hours, so I stayed behind while Mike went out a few times. 

Feeling like professional motorbike riders at this point, we ventured further away from our home base - an Airbnb above a local surf shop - and found a few secluded beaches with hardly anyone on the sand or in the water.  

There were less surfers in the water for another reason: Ramadan. Because our visit overlapped with the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, an annual observance of fasting for Muslims, most locals were not going in the water at all. 

The predominant religion in Indonesia is Islam, although the island of Bali, where the majority of people are Hindu, is an exception. It was very interesting to be in a Muslim community during Ramadan (a first for both of us). Right away, we noticed that the mosques were more active, making announcements and playing music over their speakers throughout the day.

We knew that the holiday meant that people were fasting, but until talking to Lombok natives in Kuta, we didn’t realize that any water entering the body (such as ocean water getting in your mouth or ears while surfing) goes against the fasting practice.

*Kuta on Lombok is not to be confused with Kuta on Bali, the latter of which is a beach near the airport that is extremely popular with tourists, especially Australians, who come for long weekends, on hen parties, or even just to get a tattoo for far cheaper than they could back home. Kuta on Lombok shares the same name but is on a different island.