Yesterday we emigrated south from Gili T to Nusa Lembongan. There seems quite a comparison between these islands . Gili T seems to be a mecca for Asian Tourists and European Backpackers. We saw two Asian girls in matching head to toe rash suits and another throng with matching sun umbrellas being led by a smug guide. As for the European, you know the sort, all young, deep tanned tall skinny blonde girls from Sweden or Denmark with their barbie hair accompanied by some ripped shirtless guy called Sven with long locks doing his best Fabio impersonation.
Lembongan is more Aussie than the burbs with tribes in Bintang tank tops, blokes called Kev & Gav with a surfboard under their arm whilst Sharon looks after the tin lids for a few hours whilst the surfs up.
Last night I commented how much quieter it here on Lembongan. That has been completely dashed as a bloke near bye has spent the last six hours feverishly chain sawing away. I can empathise though, there is nothing more satisfying for a bloke than 'spending a day on the chain'.
Our epic sea voyage yesterday afternoon was via the good ship Super Scoot. There were five passengers in total and we made up four of them. We decided to sit on the upper deck with the skipper and a few crew. It was with a touch of sadness as I watched Gili T disappear into the horizon behind the boat blending harmoniously into the azure sea and the big blue sky.
Our arrival less than two hours later on Lembongan was to a low tide so we transferred into a small tender and walked across the sand flats to the shore. There has been considerable development on the headland overlooking Jungutbatu Bay in the last few years with restaurants and villas having sprung up from nowhere.
Check-in for our return visit to the Lembongan Island Beach Villas (LIBV) was seamless. It seemed only fitting to have a soak in our plunge pool and then the resort pool. We dragged ourselves down the path to The Reef Restaurant where I had the obligatory Nasi Goreng (with egg sunny side up). The others chose calamari with fries & fettuccini carbonara. A nice feed indeed, with bellies full we sat watching Bali twinkle across the sea and the locals fossicking in the exposed reef with hand nets and headlamps. I advised the kids that the baskets they had with them were laundry baskets and they were looking for lost socks. The wife just rolled her eyes and the kids giggled incessantly no doubt disturbing the other guests.
Today is officially a lazy day. If you all check your calendars I am sure it should be printed there somewhere. My lazy day started at some ungodly hour when a gecko deciding to rustle about somewhere in my room. Don't mind them at all just wish they would tone it down when I am trying to get some kip. If someone invented miniature chainsaws I'm sure they would love to also have a 'day, or night, on the chain'.
After our continental breakfast the kids decided to squeal and argue. Needing some "me time" & to stop, 'dad doing his nana' I acquired a moped for a couple of hours to explore just like Ewan & Charlie ... not.
Being a rider and having a 1200cc Adventure Tourer at home means I am having slight bike withdrawals so this was just the fix.
I rode over to The Sandy Bay Beach Club Restaurant and Bar with infinity pool. They offer free transport (too & from) which is handy for those un-eager to ride at night. The place is suitably impressive and I just hope the food lives up to everything else when we spend an afternoon/evening there soon.
Next stop was across the bridge to Ceningan Island to the Cliff Jump at Blue lagoon. Tourists pay RP50 000 for the pleasure of jumping off a cliff from either 13m, 10m or 8m into the sea. It was high tide and the depth was 11m and it is 8m at low tide. Once you have pin dropped you can climb back via a well-placed ladder and do it all again (for a fee). There are various posts on YouTube of people taking the plunge. Having bungy jumped before I'm sure it was not beyond me. But with no audience to capture a moment of madness for prosperity I left it for the moment. After a bit more of an explore it was back to the villa for a cool down in the plunge pool. I had to shoo the pigeons away first.
I regularly watch pigeons drinking the pool water here. Are they all impervious to pool water?. I'm sure they must do big chlorinated pigeon poos all over the place. Perhaps the constant cooing is from sore pigeon tummies ....?
Well that's it for today as I sit on the balcony staring across at Mt Agung, I have a repertoire of Aussie iTunes drowning out the chainsaw. I had also better go and clean all the sunscreen of the netbook and my Yamaha stubby holder has an empty Bintang.