Sunday 27th - Off to Lembongan for three nights. I have booked to go over with Rocky Fast Boat, and they are picking us up around 10.30/10.45. The villa owner has very kindly said we can leave most of our stuff there for the three nights we are away and he isn't even charging us, which is really very good of him. So hand luggage bag only and all those other millions, and off we go. Traffic again at the roundabout is horrible but we are booked on the noon boat so plenty of time to get to Sanur. Quick call at the office to pay, (had booked by email) and down to the beach. Mmm, the water is a little bit rough looking. The boat comes in and unloads passengers and luggage, then ours is loaded on and we hitch everything up and in we get. We just happened to sit on the left, which ended up a good choice as it is definitely rough and the right side is swamped with water the whole way there. Thump, thump thump all the way, but our side is good, we can even open the windows. Gotta give credit to the skipper he did a really good job, but I guess he is used to it and knows how to pick the best line in the swell and chop. As promised it is only just over half an hour there even with the choppy conditions. Booked to stay at Villa Shambala, can't even remember where I found the name but ages after I had paid the deposit I happened to find an old review that was a bit scarily awful. Another uh-oh moment, but I then emailed a few more questions to the owner and was reassured on most points, fingers had now been crossed for some time! So off we are led around the back of the beach buildings to a rusty old baby truck with benches on each side for us three, another couple, their parents and their two kids, plus surfboards, ALL their holiday luggage and grandma clutching a kite that she has apparently carried half way round Bali and doesn't want to get broken! (If my hubby had any say it would have been binned way back and another one bought the day they were leaving) So it was a bit squeezy to say the least. Off we chug out of the village and wind around until we hit a bit of a hill and back to first gear, even then we weren't too sure it was going to make it, but oh us of little faith, it did. It seemed as if we went on and on for ages but its that illusion of when you have no idea where you are going it takes forever. Eventually we drop the majority of the load off and then back track half way (it seems) and turn in the other direction to our villa. (When we actually get our bearings, they were one side of Mushroom Bay and we were the other, but there is no straight route between the two sides) By now of course the villa manager has ridden back from meeting us and probably had time to have a coffee and a nap! So far so good, the villa looks like the website from the back view, down the steps, still looking good, and inside and wow, it is pretty much as pictured. (Later, after we get wi-fi back, we compare the old review, the web photos and the actual villa and most of the bad review points have been fixed / improved by a new owner. The photos need updating to reflect the fixes) We are surrounded by 'jungle' can see one villa further around the coast, but other than that nicely isolated. We ask the manager about restaurants and are told there is a menu on the table and they will deliver. We ask where the nearest one is and he says about 10 or 20 minute walk, hmm, maybe not 'nicely' isolated after all, so we phone and order a late lunch. The phone is supplied by the villa which hadn't been mentioned on the website so a handy inclusion. Later that afternoon, hubby and I decide we will explore and find these restaurants, and low and behold it is only a 10 minute stroll at best. Pleasantly surprised we walk up and down the length of the bay and there must be at least 6 or 8 restaurants and hotels. By the time we get back it is just about dark so we are glad we bought the torches from the first villa with us, though there is a miners head lamp in this villa that we also use. Showered and changed we head back out to Mushroom Bay. Now it is very dark and as we head down the driveway a little snake makes its way across in front of us and up the fence on the other side. From here we start walking really loudly and slowly checking each step as we take it. We make it unscathed to the bay and pick a restaurant, they are mostly on the beachfront and have sand floors, under the trees, with just a few tables undercover. The one we pick, Mola-Mola has all of four tables and no customers. (Another finger crossing time again) The meals we select end up being really nice, daughter has a whole chicken breast (with a sauce she mentions a few times later in the holiday so it must have been good), I had tuna and can't remember what hubby had, but the bill with drinks was under Rp160,000. Another cautious walk home and this time great big snails were out, a few frogs, a few geckos but no snakes!
Monday 28th - Breakfast isn't included in the villa so we walk to the bay again, it is getting shorter every time we go, stop at Tanis Villas (the delivery one) and have breakfast. Ask about snorkelling, only I am interested so work out that they have a small boat (the large one is already out) and as it is only one person I can have a discount, so back to the villa to pick up mask and snorkel and back again to go out on the boat. We head off to the mangroves and there are a few other boats there already. I am told to just float with the current and he will move along at intervals to keep pace with me, glad I'm wearing a red t-shirt. The current is quite fast and I can now understand how divers could become disoriented and lose track of where they are. At times I feel like I am floating inland, other times going out but I am floating back towards the main bay, the way we came by boat. I tried to swim to stay still but I'm not that good and it was hard work, don't know how those fish do it without even a flick of a fin! A couple of passes is enough so back we go with a detour to the front of our villa hoping the others may see us, they do and come out to wave. Lunch again at Tanis, being F1 fans and not having cable we have no idea who has won the Monaco GP. The staff watched soccer so they don't know but they are happy to give us their wi-fi password so we can check on our phone. Just our luck, the race we miss Mark Webber has won! Exploring after lunch we find the other side of the bay behind the hotels there are little mini-marts, a few more small hotels and spas, bike hire, diving - all sorts we had no idea were there. We hire a scooter from our manager and hubby and I head off to look around, he tells us to just keep turning right and we will find our way to the suspension bridge, so we do, calling in at Sandy Bay, Dream Beach, through the village and past the seaweed farms. Stop to watch one of the men washing his rooster in the ocean, swish, swish, throw and it swims back to him, over and over. Reach the bridge, wait for others to come across and then its our turn, clatter across and keep heading right. The roads are truly awful, tracks really. We end up following signs for cliff jumping, there is no way we are doing it but we are happy to watch someone else! The first point on the cautionary sign lets us off - only ages between 15 and 45 can jump - phew we have a few years leeway on that one! The staff assures us we can jump from the 6 metre if we want, but we don't want, so head for home. (There are 13, 8 and 6 metre ledges)
Tuesday 29th - Laze half the day away but as we have the bike we may as well use it, so head off to explore the other half of our island around the mangroves. We skirted the edge of the mangroves but really nothing much to see and at one point it looks like we found the town rubbish dump so we head back, through the Jungut Batu village, up and down a few tracks before we get back to familiar territory, or so we thought, we end up on the wrong side of Mushroom Bay. Back again, take the next road instead, once again we come out about 10 metres from last time and still on the wrong side. Further back again and this time we must have the right one and finally we get home. We were booked to leave at 11am Wed, but as there is not much else to do here and we have a few things to collect in Bali we have changed to the 9am boat.