Circumnavigating Nusa Lembongan

07.11.11

So far Nusa Lembongan wasn't quite what I hoped, so we thought

we'd hire mopeds today to try and get away from the Tourists

and see some 'real Bali'.

Now, Bobby hadn't ridden a moped before and in order to get from

our guesthouse, off the beach and on to the main road, behind, you

had to ride along a really narrow path, with a 3 foot drop on

to the beach. So Martin offered to ride both bikes (one at a time!)

on to the main road and there Bobby was able to practise and suss

out how to ride the bike before we set off. We were less worried

about being pulled over, as we were told there were no traffic

police on the island. A majority of the bikes don't have license

plates here and their not concerned with whether you have a drivers

license.

Anyway Bobby was fine driving the bike so we set off to circumnavigate

the island. We were hoping the weather would clear up (still drizzly

and overcast) so we could do some snorkelling. So we headed north towards

Mangrove Point. The roads were pretty bad in places with lots of

pot holes and were all single lane. It was nice to get away from

the tourist areas and just drive through the villages. On the way

to mangrove Point we couldn't really see very much other than the trees

that lined the road and the odd house on the road.

As we got towards Mangrove Point there were several small restuarants,

renting snorkle gear and selling boat trips. We stopped to buy

some petrol, which is twice the price here on the island, or, if you're Bobby,

20 times the price, as he got confused and paid the (it turns out not so

honest) man with 2 x 100,000 notes instead of 2 x 10,000. We didnt realise this

until later in the day, and needless to say Martin found it very amusing and it

resulted in HILARIOUS jokes all day...

Then we stopped to determine the snorkleing situation. The tide was out

(we weren't sure how you would navigate between the seaweed fields!) and

it started to rain so we decided against. Instead we had a cold drink by

the sea, then set off across the island to where we knew there was a bridge

to the neighbouring, smaller island of Cennigan. On the ride across

Lembongan we passed through 'mangrove forrest' along the winding small

road past a few houses and groups of children who shouted in

chorus at us trying to sell shells. Lembongan is small and it didnt

take long to get across to the other side and reach the 'bridge'. We pulled

over and got off the bikes to take a qucik look around at the view between

the islands and check the condition of the bridge. It was old and yellow,

very narrow, cars couldnt cross, just pedestrians and the odd motorbike,

the floor was horizontal wooden slats, some flush with each other as

you would hope, some further apart than you would hope and some neither close

to the next nor fully attched to the bridge itself, tied on by suspect looking

blue rope. As we had seen a couple of bikes make it across we decided it was safe

to go (also we couldnt see the afformentioned, less than safe looking wooden slats

from the side when se walked up to look).

On the other side we didnt travel far but did get to the far west of the island

where people were farming seaweed, a young boy saw us and came running up to

me asking for a pen! It was a nice change from constantly being asked for money

and a much more innocent and sincere (and sweet) seeming request. I didnt

have a pen on me but found a pencil in my bag which he seemed more than happy

with as he went off to test it on a exposed bit of bark on a palm tree.

We passed quite a few small temple looking places with locals pottering

around throughout the day, it definatley felt like we saw more of the

'real Bali' and it was nice to have the freedom to ride around, stop to take

photos and just enjoy the peace of the coutryside and coast.

We headed back to our hotel via the popular 'Mushroom Beach' named this because

of the shape oof the bay. It was a nice beach with very fine sand and a few

expensive looking hotels but was busy with people getting on and off boats, arriving

and leaving from hotels and day trips. We had a nice lunch (Martin didnt order anything

as he was still suffering a bit with a bad stomach he tried both mine and Bobbys food,

but still had a little moan about not getting to eat) on the beach then headed

back to our hotel, not before getting some beautiful views as we had to ride up and

over a big hill to get back.