Lembongan Island, Indonesia

Having lived in the desert for over a year, our first thought having left Newman was to put our feet up on a beach somewhere. We landed in Bali on the first night at midnight, got through customs, and it was ON! Taxi Taxi Taxi? Where you stay? Where you stay? You need a room? You need a piggy back ride? RUUUNNN! We jumped in an unmarked taxi a bit worried we were about to have our kidneys removed, but in the end made it safely to a hotel in Sanur, Bali just a bit overwhelmed. We had a walk on the beach the next morning in Sanur, and decided that we were looking for something just a bit further off the track...i.e. less t shirt shops, but still having refrigeration for cold beer. Lembongan, a less visited but still popular island just off the coast was the answer...we boarded a boat for the 30 min crossing...Hello Paradise!


The local boats (left) take people, building materials, chickens...just about anything across to the island, but frequently sink in the deep waters between Bali and Lembongan. As one had sunk just off the beach the day before, we elected to take a speedier passenger boat with life jackets...






Within just a few minutes of hitting the beach we got set up with a nice cheap bungalow on the beach with a sunset view...Ahhhh! That evening, with cold Bintang in hand and kidneys in place, we got our feet up on the beach for our first sunset in paradise.The next day we rented a motorbike and set out exploring the island...beaches on one side and really impressive cliffs on the other with crashing waves, blow holes, and tide pools. Then there was a lot more putting our feet up.

The best thing we found was a snorkel spot on the back side of the island where manta rays come to feed. A boat drops you at a u shaped cliff where water from the depths wells up and crashes on the rocks and the mantas come to filter feed. The guide / captain from our hotel got us there very early, and as there were only a couple of us in the water, they would swim wide circles around us with their mouths open, and sometimes turn and swim right at you only to lift a wing and sweep off in another direction at the last minute...a very cool experience.

 For our last day on the island we decided to step it up a bit. There was another island (Nusa Pedina) behind the one we stayed on which is rarely visited...we thought it would be a unique experience to catch a boat over and check it out. Our friendly guide Ketut from the hotel who had done the manta swim for us agreed to run us over on his boat and arrange motorbikes to show us some interesting places on the island. It was a refreshing step back to just before tourism takes hold...no souvenir shops, the people seem friendlier, and the kids make you feel like a celebrity offering up as many high fives as you could return.


Our first stop was one of Indonesia's most sacred temples inside of a cave, which people (Hindus and Buddhists, but not the Muslims...as Ketut put it) travel from afar to visit and make offerings. Everyone going in was asked to cover up with sarongs, and then we squeezed into a small opening in the rock behind the temple which opened up into a massive cave with several different temples and areas for prayer. It was particularly interesting to see two religions coexisting and sharing some of the same spaces. Services continued as we passed through mostly unnoticed and made our way to a different exit in a cliff face at the far end of the cave. As we exited, I asked Ketut if the monks minded the intrusion by non Hindu / Buddhists into what was a very important place for them, and was told that it made them feel as though their temple was well renowned. 



We then rode to the far side of the island to see the high sea cliffs and a tempting but decaying stairway descending down to the waves. As no one else wanted to go down, I made a hurried but careful descent by myself. Knees shaking, I put a toe out to check the strength of each next rusted step and slowly crept halfway down only to find local workers below carrying massively heavy sections of a new pipeline down the steps as if it was nothing. Not too keen to try to climb over them, and knowing that Krista was imagining all the ways I could stumble and fall, I headed back up full of adrenaline. I was also reminded of how a year of office work and no exercise can take its toll as was evidenced by 10 full minutes of sucking air at the top which cast a doubt in my ability to hike to the Mt. Everest base camp as a climatic end to our travels...we'll see.

  Anyhow, the day was getting late, so we made our way back to the pier to head home and I decided that everything had gone a little to perfectly, so I decided to crash the motorbike in some gravel going around a corner. Having ridden these quite a bit by now, I had assumed that this would happen to me at some point, and I finally got my chance...and just when Krista was starting to trust me as well...bummer. Luckily, we were going pretty slow with the roads being in awful condition and came away with only minor scrapes and bruises to the pride...oh well. Ketut got us off the hook for the scratches on the bike for a small fee to the owner, and all in all we left felling pretty fortunate. On the up side, I did get to leave a little bit of myself on Nusa Penida, which was well documented by Paul, an Australian that joined us for some of our adventures, and if I can get ahold of his photos I'll add them later.

 After that we were pretty well done with the beach and island scenery and got ready to head to our next stop in the heart of Bali, Ubud...

LEMBONGAN ISLAND PHOTO SET