I thought through a technical glitch that I’d lost all my pictures from Nusa Lembongan, Indonesia, and half of my Tokyo pics. Turns out I found them!!

Nusa Lembongan is an island off the coast of Bali. It’s part of a cluster of three island that, unfortunately and unbeknownst to me, are major tourist sites. Everything I’d read made the islands sound like they’d barely been explored or exploited. Turns out that wasn’t true. But I still had a fantastic three days hanging out on my own on this beautiful piece of land.

Pulling into harbor – that’s a volcano straight ahead! 😀

It was a quick boat ride away from Bali. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy traveling by boat? Particularly speed boat 🙂

Unfortunately, the boat dropped us off at Mushroom Bay instead of the main part of the island they were supposed to, but as it didn’t look too far on the map, I hoisted Harry Harvey and set off.

45 sweaty, sore minutes later, a guy pulls up on a motorbike and asks if I’d like a ride to town. Some locals were driving ahead of him showing him where the one atm on the island was. Grateful, I hopped on! He also had a backpack on, so I was perched quite precariously on the very back of his bike, but we made it in one piece ten very bumpy minutes and down a steep hill later. It’s random experiences like that that keep me smiling and looking fondly back 🙂

Lovely room I stayed in for three nights

I definitely spent much of my time relaxing on my balcony with a Bintang Radler and a stunning view

Breakfast every morning 

I relaxed and wandered on foot the first day, but the second day I rented a motorbike and zoomed off to explore the adjacent island and some of the major highlight points of Nusa Lembongan.

Coolest and biggest starfish I’d ever seen!

The giant suspension bridge connecting the two islands. I was nervous to cross, but felt exhilarated each time I did 

Seaweed harvesting – mostly sent to Japan and China for cosmetics

Always making new friends 🙂

It was a full day of biking. It was funny – I made it up and down a mini mountain of extremely bumpy, rocky, and generally treacherous terrain just fine, but ate it skidding out on a little bit of sand. Gah.

One thing that was absolutely breathtaking was the water. It was such a vibrant blue all around the island. I went to a couple of different points and they were all spectacular. The crashing waves were awe-inspiring.

Yeah – that wasn’t happening.

I also went snorkeling for the first time! No pictures, but I’ll never forget it. I’ve always been scared of water/what’s in the water, but for the first time, I was introduced to the magnificent world that lives beneath the waves. I swam with manta rays and saw electric blue starfish. The colours down there were unbelievable. And it was so peaceful – like a meditation because you can only hear yourself breathing. If I had known what a life changing experience it would be, I would’ve focused my entire trip on getting my PADI certification and going diving all around SEA. Guess I’ll just have to make another trip 😉

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