Life in Switzerland: Adventures on the small island of Lembongan, Indonesia

The original plan was to stay in Bali 5 or 6 days and then book a last minute flight somewhere else for 3 or 4 days, but very early on we realized Bali was so great that we wanted to stay our entire vacation there. Thom left after 5 days, so, at the beginning of our second week Roberto and I had to search for a new hotel, since our previous hotel was completely booked up and could not extend our stay. After visiting 6 or 7 places we made our choice, and were very happy with new one because it was the same price but emerged right onto the beach and we could hear the waves from our rooms. We spent a couple hours on the beach, then went to the Tanah Lot Temple, known as the temple on the beach, to see the sunset, and spent several hours hopping among the rocks.

The next day we decided to take a day trip to the island of Lembongan, a tiny little place of 8 square kilometers accessible only by a 45 minute boat ride. We got to the marina and got our tickets, where for once Roberto was unable to negotiate a discount, but couldn't see a dock in sight so instead waited on the beach with some other people for our boat to arrive. Once it came, we realized that it was not going to pull up to a dock at all and that we had to take off our shoes in order to wade out into the water to climb on board the boat. It was quite a funny sight to see us all balancing our belongings on our shoulders and heads to keep them dry while awkwardly trying to climb aboard the boat as it bobbed up and down in the water.

The ride itself was really bumpy, and the boat slammed down on top of every wave it crested, throwing the passengers against the walls and seats in front of them. The people in the back of the boat got wet on every bump from the spray coming over the side.

A nice Australian guy named Ron sat next to us and began explaining how he owned a kayak and snorkeling rental shop on Lembongan island. He had gone over to the mainland to buy supplies and was bringing them back with him on the boat. He gave us advice on what to do and told us the best thing was to rent a motorbike when we got to the island because it was the only way to get around. That was how, an hour later, we found ourselves with a 150cc 2 person scooter zipping around the tiny Indonesian roads. We'd both ridden scooters before but my only experience was a few days during my vacations to Bermuda and Roberto's only experience was 17 years earlier during one summer. After we both took test drives individually on the bike, Roberto informed me that I was driving. We must have been a comical sight with me, at 5'3", in front driving, and Roberto, at 6'2", in back, hanging on like mad.

We headed to the northeast side of the island first and took a tour of the mongrove trees and seaweed farms. The locals harvest the seaweed from the ocean and then lay it out on tarps to dry and bleach for 30 days. They pack them into huge 20 kilo bags that sell for only $14, and then the bags are shipped to Japan to be used in cosmetics.. These people are the poorest of the poor, and live in littered plots of land with small huts for houses. There was some running water, but the facilities were very limited, and we saw a little boy of about 3 pooping in the middle of the path in front of his house.

After the seaweed farm tour we took the long path around the island, through dark wooded forest, to the other side where there were beaches. The water was beautiful aqua blue and green, but a bit murky and slimy with seaweed. We had lunch at a great spot on top of a cliff, visited many beaches, and then made a mad dash back to the port to drop off the bike and wade back out to the boat for our bumpy ride home.

We had another amazing dinner at the beach restaurant with the red lanterns, and on the way back to our rooms contiued what had become a nightly gecko-hunting ritual. We had perfected our team technique where one person tapped the gecko off the wall so the other one could pounce on it when it landed on the ground. After we caught the geckos we deposited them into our hotel rooms so they could spend the night eating mosquitoes for us. However, the geckos never seemed to be there anymore in the morning and we eventually figured out that there was enough space under bottom of the hotel doors for them to slip in and out at will.

On our last day in Bali we went to the beach again for a short hour in the sun before we had to leave for the airport. We said goodbye to the beach vendors we had become friends with and loaded our plethora of bags into the taxi.

Leaving Bali was a sad affair, and it will go down in my record books as one of the best vacations ever. I can't wait to go back.