NUSA LEMBONGAN- went Aristocat Luxury Catamaran ($116 each). I couldn't stand being surrounded by salt water and not fishing on
Bali, so the Cat was a compromise between 16 yr old who wanted to do water sports and my wanting to fish- you can troll during the trip- not that I caught anything, but I had a rod in my hand... (no rude comments!) Nice way to travel- motored and under sail on way over- sail all way back- how peaceful. drinks, snacks on way- no seasickness, although had taken our own stuff just in case. Son dying to go scuba diving- never been. so, for $65 AUS had 1hr long dive (only poerson doing it). I asked him if he had any safety instructions and he said "about 10 mins, but i only understood about half of it". Oh well, he was only going amongst coral etc, so i figured he wouldn't get the bends or drown.... He LOVED it and is hooked! Went on the village tour; the underground house tour- dont go if claustrophobic!!- nice BBQ lunch; banana boar rides, snorkelling- the day seemed to go very fast on the island, but a fun day.
WHITE WATER RAFTING- ended up on the Ayung River- heaps of steps down- not much water in the river, so not very fast, which suited me and the mum from Norway we went with. Lovely scenery and still pleasant, although not a real "rush". HEAPS of steps back again, then a nice lunch with the family from Norway. We started higher up the river than sobek appeared to. We both enjoyed it- can't find that receipt, sorry.
WATER SPORTS- Mitch went parasailing once and on jet ski's twice, we went across to Turtle Island all for $39 AUS. He enjoyed the activities, but as i have said in previous JBR I was not impressed with Turtle island- they rushed you heaps- although I was very unwell that day, so it is in my mind as the worst day.
TARO ELEPHANTS- wow- what a place. I dont know what an unhappy elephant looks like, but they "seemed" happy! Could have stayed there for hours and watched and patted them. The ride was fun and the grounds beautiful and the guides and workers great. Mitch loved it too- could not believe that you could get so close to them- I would really watch littlies if i took them there- saw an unsupervised Japanese girl (about 5-6yrs old) walk under an elephant and around it's legs picking up bamboo to feed them!)
MONKEY FOREST- took corn in- they leave bananas for corn, so we were mobbed. Nothing dangerous happended, the one old man monkey that seemed to want to cause trouble was followed continually by a guide and kept away from visitors, although he did put on a fierce disply that did scare a lot of people.
Boy we had fun!!!