On Catherine and Peter’s last day in Bali we make an excursion to nearby Lembongan island. It is a 30 minute trip in a fast boat. To begin with the boatmen have to punt the boat out of the reef shallows and then we speed across a calm sea until in the middle of the crossing we hit rolling waves that make the boat and the passengers leap about a bit. 5 loud Australian girls sitting in the back get louder still and shriek excitedly.
Boat trip to Nusa Lembongan
We arrive on a beautiful white beach where small boats are moored. The sand is sharp with broken shells and pieces of coral. Small bungalows for tourist to stay in hillside above the low cliff and the back of the beach has a walkway and a few restaurants. It’s a quiet, traditional island which is becoming more popular with tourists.
Jungutbatu beach
The island has about 1500 inhabitants and 80% of them are employed in seaweed production, which is exported for use within the food and cosmetic industries. Carrageenan is an emulsifying agent used to thicken ice-cream, cheese and other foods; it is also used as a fat substitute in diet foods. The waters around the island are shallow and rich in nutrients and the locals grow the seaweed on the bottom of the sea on patchworks of bamboo and ropes. The locals wade into the water and collect the seaweed in baskets which they float on rubber inner tubes, or in shallow boats.
Seaweed collecting
We are going to do some snorkelling and we collect our masks and fins and transfer to a traditional boat with 7 other tourists to be taken out to a good site. We pass people collecting seaweed and boats taking out tourists for fishing and diving.
Traditional boat
The outboard motor doesn’t sound too healthy and after a while it stops altogether. We bob around gently and chat amongst ourselves while the boatman tries to fix it. He fiddles with it and changes the plugs, but no luck. He says he’ll get another boat for us, but in order to get a phone signal he has to punt the boat to a more favourable spot, where he throws in the anchor and we wait to be rescued. We are not at all worried; the weather and view are lovely and if the worst came to the worst we could wade to the shore. After about ½ an hour another boat pulls up alongside and we all climb out of one and into the other boat. We leave the stranded boat and boatman behind and carry on to the snorkelling spot.
Abandoning ship!
Snorkelling on a coral reef in warm tropical waters is a new experience for me and I am amazed by the varieties and colours of coral and fish.
Snorkelling
After the snorkelling we return to the shore for lunch.
Lunch
After lunch we have a short tour of the island in a open-sided truck. We drive along the coast passing through areas where seaweed is drying on plastic sheets amongst palm leaf and huts. These huts are not lived in, but are used by the workers during the day.
Seaweed drying and workers' huts
We come to a mangrove forest and take a short trip on a punt. It is blissfully quiet and through the crystal clear water we can see bright blue star fish lying on the bottom.
Mangrove forest boat ride
We then drive along the length of the island to another village. This one is very traditional, with each house having a large home temple within its grounds. We visit a very strange ‘underground house’ which is dug out of the rock with a network of rooms; interconnecting passages and chimneys. There is a board with a history of the place, but it is written in pidgin English in such a way that it is hard to make sense of it. It seems to have been built in the 1970s to replicate a cave house that featured in an old story as protection for a family. We climb down a step stairwell and clamber around inside, having to keep our heads ducked down I don’t know if anyone actually lived here, but if so they must have been midgets!
Underground house pssages
It’s then time to leave the island and we scoot back to Bali on the fast boat.
Leaving Nusa Lembongan
It’s Catherine and Peter’s last night and they fly home again tomorrow. We have a last meal together and then say our goodbyes in the early morning. Thanks for a great holiday!
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