BEACH TIME AND SURFING ON NUSA LEMBONGAN
After our self-made yoga retreat in Ubud we headed to Nusa Lembongan, a small island 30-minute boat ride to the East of Bali, which is becoming a popular site due to its great diving and snorkelling, nice beaches and surfing. It’s still authentic though, which is what we were after, the locals work on seaweed plantations in the water, there’s a narrow road around the island where everyone uses motorbikes (minivans are only used for delivering tourists from the port to their hotel), internet is patchy at best, sometimes there is no electricity on the whole island, and apart from the 2-3 beaches for tourists, most of the island is still mainly for the locals. As everything is brought here from Bali, you can’t expect the same level of low price, quality and freshness of the food, but there are still good options.
Here we spent a day motorcycling around Lembongan and its neighbour island, Ceningan, where a narrow bridge takes across motorbikes (only), maximum two at a time – a slightly alarming sign on the bridge says that it only has 40% of its capacity left, hence the limitation (there are also some ruined pillars of an older bridge directly nearby – your guess is as good as ours about what happened). Due to the narrowness of the bridge, two motorcycles can’t pass each other in opposing directions, so you have to wait at the end until there is no oncoming traffic before you get on.
(Unfortunately only a few months after our trip to Lembongan we heard the news that this bridge collapsed into the water, most likely due to overload).
On Ceningan the roads are terrible, and the elevation makes it a challenging ride for the non-experienced or the unlucky driver with a weak vehicle. Well, our bike managed the elevation, but we somehow killed two tires on two different motorbikes and had to ask for a replacement (twice!). The rental shop was not particularly surprised though so probably it was not the first time it happened.
We visited the Blue Lagoon on Ceningan with incredible colours but dangerous waves so it's not for swimming. Not far from that is the top pf the island with a jumping point into the deep. When the sea is too wavy, like when we were there, jumping is not allowed but surfers take their place and have great fun.
On Lembongan there's another nice point to see next to Dream Beach, a nice little beach by the way with a bar and guesthouse on it, which is the Devil's Tear. It's a cliff with strong waves around, and an interesting natural phenomenon happens here: when the wave hits the cliff side it flows into the little caves on the bottom of the cliffs which turns the water back and sprays it out like a geysir. We heard from locals that several accidents happen here every year with people falling in the waves when it unexpectedly comes too high up.
Waves are excellent around the islands for beginner and advanced surfers as well. Our hotel was close to Mushroom Bay Beach, which is much less busy than the main tourist area. It has 3-4 restaurants and a little spot to sunbathe. We discovered a surf school on this beach, called Mola-Mola, which turned out to be one of the best ones based on reviews and at the best price, according to our course mates who have done some research.
We went for a half-day beginner course to get the taste of surfing before Australia! Well, I can say now that it is much harder than it looks – when you see all those guys making nice circles on their surfboard, that’s actually the result of a lot of practice! After a bit of theory and some exercise in the water by the beach we jumped into the boat and went to the sea for the proper waves. There is an advanced section (called “Lacerations”) and the aptly-named “Playground” where the beginners can give it a try, however it’s all in the sea, so after your attempt to ride a wave you have to paddle back to the starting point in a semicircle with your hands while lying on the board. We found the paddling part the most tiring actually, as it needs some good muscle work in your back, neck and arms. The end goal of the first class is to be able to stand on the board while on the waves. Well, we might say we achieved this, as we could stand up, if the standing time does not count! On my first attempt I could go all the way through the waves kneeing on my board, but when later I tried to stand after a couple of seconds I fell. Hence I took it gradually, but I will surely need a lot more practice. Szilveszter had a different strategy, he was braver to stand up but therefore quicker to fall! It was a fun but tiring exercise, and also a long-lasting memory as during paddling on the board you are actually out of water and can seriously burn which some might forget… This is how the Sun made a nice pair of white shorts on my lobster red legs within about an hour. Lesson definitely learnt.
We also had a look at the beaches on the other side of Lembongan. They attract a lot more tourists and offer a wide range of restaurants and cafes, although we found these less appealing now when we aimed for a more authentic and quiet experience.
Diving was great too, within 15 minutes’ boat ride we could reach numerous diving spots, which is really good compared to the average traveling time normally. We went to the Crystal Bay and to Toya Pakeh, the best diving spot in the region, where we indeed could see turtles, moray eels, many schools of fish, lion fish, so a quite special marine life. The water was extremely warm, 31 degrees, so it’s no surprise there’s not too many larger species in these waters. In its season, between July and November the unique Mola-Mola fish can be seen here, which is a fish that can grow to up to 3 meters, but is very flat, like a coin on its edge. We’ll need to see that at another time. Also at the Manta Point, another diving spot, they had not seen manta rays for weeks, probably due to the warm water temperature – another one for the list for a non-El Nino year.
In the beginning of our stay we discovered a nice warung (a local eatery) called Putu’s Warung, in the South of the island overlooking the seaweed farm, where we then went back almost each evening. They offer great food and nice service at a good value, unlike many other restaurants on the island – which was a relief after a few unsuccessful attempts of searching for similarly good food to Ubud.
Overall we had a relaxing but active few days and it was time to head to our last destination, Malaysia.