Island paradise
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2011
1
35
83
Trip End
Jul 14, 2011
Nusa Lembongan, Indonesia
Thursday, March 17, 2011
After the one-hour boat journey we arrived at the pier (well actually just at the shore, so we had to step through half-meter deep water - no problem with flip-flops of course!). The boat anchored in Jungutbatu, where we walked a bit North to find a cheap guest house. We ended up paying 90,000 rupiah (7.50 Euros) for an amazing double-room, including a swimming pool at Wahyu Guest House! Highly recommended! The room was fresh, clean, had a nice porch, and the pool was the first we swam in on this trip!
We spent the next three days on Nusa Lembongan and loved every minute of it. The island really is a little paradise. Many people rent scooters, but we ended up exploring the island on foot. Hiking is fun and keeps you fit anyway! We found our favorite beach of the trip so far. We headed North from Jungutbatu towards Mushroom Bay (named after the numerous gorgeous mushroom corals in the crystal clear blue water). Just next to it we found a 100m stretch of wonderful white sand, and incredibly vivid turquoise water. Hardly anyone ventured there, so we sometimes had it to ourselves (we went back twice because we liked it so much).
On our second day we just couldn't resist the clear blue water and had to do two more scuba dives. We checked out the different dive companies, and decided to go with World Diving to take us out on their boat. The first destination (that got us so excited) was located a little bit South of the nearby island of Nusa Penida. Our divemaster Wayan explained to Dani, John (a friendly traveler from Southampton) and myself what the plan for the dive was. The boatsman carefully navigated around the high waves until he found what we were longing to see...
We put on our equipment and did a backwards fall into the water from the side of the boat. Once we all gave the OK we descended and were instantly mesmerized by huge gorgeous manta rays! We had the incredible chance to dive for 53 minutes with manta rays up to 2.5 meters in diameter! The fascinating creatures were some of the most elegant animals I have ever seen. They gracefully used their huge "wingspan" to hover through the ocean and get as close as 1.5m away from us! I saw up to four at one time, and a total of about ten swimming as if in slow-motion next to and above me! It was one of the most incredible dives I've ever done. As a side-bonus we saw colorful coral and entire schools of beautiful banner fish and other marine life! Absolutely amazing.
Back on the small speed boat we were all mesmerized and couldn't quite comprehend what we just experienced. We were served a delicious nasi campur inside a coconut leaf, papaya and pineapple, and some Coke and coffee. We rested for a while to let the nitrogen in our blood dissolve, and then went on to our second dive on the way back at Crystal Bay. On both dives we had great visibility around 20m, and this time we got to see lots of amazing corals and even more fish! We saw banner fish, trigger fish, clown fish (Nemo again!), red tooth fish, coral box fish, flounder, nudibranch, lip scorpion fish, ribbon eels, and plenty of gorgeous corals. Bali and the surrounding areas really are amazing places to go diving, and the costs are very low as well!
Later that afternoon we walked down to Dream Beach, which was also gorgeous white sand with pounding surf and turquoise water, although we preferred our little bay since there were less crowds.
The sunsets we saw on the three nights were astounding. Clouds in the distant sky (none over Nusa Lembongan the whole time basically) looked like impressionistic brushstrokes in red, pink, and purple.
On our final day we did lots and lots of hiking in the hot sun (with the occasional dip in the ocean of course). We walked across the island to get to the shaky suspension bridge that connects it with the even smaller island of Nusa Ceningan. We walked to Secret Beach in the South, but it didn't impress us as much as the scenery of Nusa Lembongan so we didn't spend too much time there.
We found some great little warungs that had cheap delicious meals along the main road of Jungutbatu. We kept going back to the same ones for breakfast and dinner because the owners were so friendly and the food so delicious! Nasi goreng, mie goreng, gado-gado (vegetables with sate sauce and rice), or pancakes and omelets for breakfast were all great and very cheap (around 1 Euro for a meal maximum). What a little paradise!
After three nights it was time to move on since we still had some more to see on Bali...
Comments
Da habt Ihr ja 3 tolle Tage im Taucherparadies gehabt. Demnächst kannst Du auch noch als Kenner der Fisch-Szene deine Vorträge halten, ist schon incredible mit Dir :-)
Die Unterwasserwelt scheint ja wirklich besonders zu sein,..............wenn alle Fische, in slow motion an euch vorbei ziehen .......schon wieder Nemo.....ha ha ;-)