Around Lembogan

I wanted action...i had it ! After the two dives and 3h of surfing in the morning I decided to go explore around the island. I was hoping to rent a bike and ride up and down the hill for a a couple hours before sunset... but the bike-renter never showed up. So I started on foot, passed by many private houses and nice kids that loved pictures !



and when I was approaching the bridge that linked Lembogan to Ceningan Island I got a ride from some local man who was heading to work !



Once on the bridge, I crossed it on foot...but you'd better watch out if you wanted to avoid surprises !





At least the panorama by low tide was gorgeous.


Yoni, a young 18-year old local kid was riding his motorbike when he stopped to talk to me. I barely had one hour of sunlight left and he told me I should go all the way up the hill to see the panorama....no time left ! So he offered me a ride on his bike ! Needless to say I wasn't that confident on the bike, riding fast on irregular steep roads, but he was pretty good after all ! And the traditional question didn't miss : "Do you have a boyfriend?" ;-)



Un cop de tornada al pont, em quedaven dues hores a peu si volia tornar cap a la platja on tenia la meva bossa, i per sort, van passar dues motos i una d'elles encara tenia un lloc lliure ;-)

Aixi que no corta ni perezosa, els hi vaig demanar..i resulta que eren catalans ! El mon és molt petit. Aixi que al final vaig acabar dormint als bungalows d'en Jordi, la Joana i l'Alessio, uns bungalows espectaculars perduts bastant endins de l'illa.

L'endemà, dimarts 13, volia tornar amb el nou vaixell public que en teoria existia a les 3pm també aixi aprofitava per fer surf al mati.

I aixi vaig fer...llàstima que era dimarts 13, no tot podia anar bé :

- vaig llogar la taula de surf i tota motivada vaig anar al "spot" que estava com un plat, ni onades ni res...i quan van arribar les onades ja estava cansada de tant remar ! XD

- En una de les onades el leash va passar tant a prop de la meva orella...que em va arrencar una arrecada i la vaig perdre :-(

- cap a la 1pm vaig anar a tornar la taula, dinar i marxar per agafar el vaixell, pero...sorpresa ! "Oh no, no public slow boat today, no customers" Vaig intentar fer cara de desesperada, dient que tenia el meu avio aquella tarda, pero nah de nah, hi havia una cua de gent a la que li havien dit el mateix pero que no els hi havia molestat pagar 3 cops mes car per agafar un "fast boat" (ja em direu, guanyen 45min...). En fi, que am vaig haver de quedar una altra nit al poble.

- els que van anar a fer sumbarinisme un dia després meu van veure el Mola-mola ! quina rabia !

Doncs res, a passar la tarda sense fer gaire res, pero al menys vaig poder degustar l'especie de puré de peix amb cacauets que venen al poble embolicats en pell de platan per...0,10€ !


I si, l'endemà a les 8 vaig poder agafar el famos "slow-boat"...





PS : Fyi, tourist price for the public slow boat between Sanur and Lembogan is 60.000 Rp (~6USD); it runs daily at 8am (and eventually at 3pm during high season but its definetely not reliable, trust me on this one!) and takes around 1h30. The faster boats run more often and cost anything between 100.000 - 200.000Rp/OW.

Lembogan Island - Scuba Diving & Surfing

I still had 5 days left and had no intention of staying in Kuta for this long. Fred had an ear-infection and couldn't do much, not even catch a plane to leave the island ! So I left him in the nice fancy room in Kuta, grabbed my motorbike without knowing exactly where I wanted to go : Ubud, Amed...

After 2h of riding I got fed up with the big trucks and the balinese traffic and decided to run away from it and grab the ferry boat to Lembogan Island where I could also go Scuba Diving.



Todos los barcos traicionales Balineses tienen una especie de "brazos" flotantes exteriores al barco....y cuando hay bastante mar deben ayudar a flotar, pero tambien a empapar a los viajeros !





Lembogan is a fishermen island, nothing to do with the Gilis...except that tourism is growing at a very fast pace and when one reaches the island it can be a little surprising to slalom between "funship"s and platforms set for tourists taht want to spend a day on board, before reaching an island where luxury villas invade the northern coast and fishermen try to recover their seaweed in between the parked boats along the beach.




At low tide, all the fishermen appear suddently to collect their seaweed and the panorama changes radically.




When I was in Lembogan, low tide was in the evening so fishermen would sort and lay their seaweed under the sun during the day before go fetch new one the next day.





Seaweed is basically used for our western cosmetics (and probably super expensive ones !) although the local fishermen only sell them for 5000Rp/kg (50c€). You may want to think again before buying a 40€ lotion...

After checking out a couple rooms I decided I would stay on the beach again, couldn't be bothered to pay the price they were asking for when the climate is sool nice and all you can see at night from the beach are the stars above you !

Et ensuite j'ai rencontré Melanie, finalement quelqu'un qui, comme moi, n'aime pas Bali ! Donc on a bien discuté, mangé un gros pancake à l'ananas et j'ai finalement été dormir dans son bungalow en cachette car le proprio a vu en moi l'occasion de gratter des Roupies supplémentaires pour une même chambre ! Bref, on s'en est bien sorties et le lendemain matin je suis sortie tôt et y ai échappé à 5 minutes près !

Diving time ! On avait prévu 3 plongées dans la journée, dont les deux premières profondes, mais le capitaine du bateau n'en voulait faire que deux car l'après-midi il avait une cérémonie (crémation). Et s'ils tiennent à quelque chose ici, à part salir leur pays, c'est
à la religion.




Tenia muchas esperanzas puestas en estos buceos ya que por una vez iba sola con el monitor y otro dive-master. Pero fue bastante desastroso. Esperabamos vez peces grandes y el mola mola ! Pero no aparecio...nos quedamos con dos rayas aguila, poca visibilidad, una nube de arena y muchisima corriente.... asi que bajamos a 40m para no ver nada ! Es lo que hay....

En el segundo buceo, mas tranquilo, si el monitor no hubiera ido extremadamente rapido y a 5m del coral hubiesemos podido ver algo. Pero a mi que me cuenten el interes de ir tan rapido, pagar 35USD por un buceo si es para no ver casi nada y salir con 130bar en la botella al cabo de 1h... yo me podria quedar mucho mas ! Asi que ni sola con el monitor no puedo utilizar mas de media botella de aire.

Después de los buceos y una comida rapida, me habian hablado de una ola pequeñita en un lado de la isla asi que alquilé una plancha y fui ! 2h despues estaba rebentada...pero al menos no me podia quejar, habia hecho deporte !