Day 7 - Legian

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Alarms off very early today to get us all up and dressed and off to Breakfast in readiness for our pick up at 8.45am. We thought the easiest thing to do was to have breakfast at the poolside buffet to not waste time. They charged $12- per person and it was pretty normal buffet choice. I had some corn flakes and then a couple of fried eggs as well on toast.



The minivan arrived on time to take us to Benoa Harbour for our departure via high speed catamaran to Lembongan Island. The catamaran caters for 150 people but today only about 30 on board. I decided to buy a waterproof bag for my mini camera so I could take some shots of the is whilst snorkelling. I had seen someone use one of these with iPhone when we did white water rafting the other day so I took the plunge and paid $22- for the right size for my camera.



We soon left the harbour heading past a couple of spectacular boats / yachts. One could only imagine how much money they cost to own and maintain. We could see a massive new road project being built to take people on a bridge over the water to Nusa Dua region. I presume the current route must be pretty slow. Looks like this road is about 2-3 km over the water so a big engineering feat by Bali standards an due to open in time for some big conference in October 2013.



The water was pretty smooth but as got out of the harbour we hit a strong swell cutting across us. The waves were not high just strong swell and it made the journey a little bumpy causing some to lean overboard for a much closer look at the Bali Sea (I won’t name names but it was not me !).



It was 12km across the Badung Straight to the Island which has about 7,000 inhabitants who do seaweed farming and tourism as the main industries. This straight had a famous battle in 1942 between the Japanese and the Allied forces and a Dutch Navy vessel was sunk in the battle.



The ride took us about 1 hour as we went up the south-eastern coast of Bali. We had great views of the big Volcano (Mt Agung). The clouds were hovering at about half it’s 3,031 metres height so I guess looking from ground nearby you would probably see little but from out to sea you could easily see the top and massive crater which formed after it’s eruption on March 18, 1963.



Initially the ship docked next to a floating pontoon. From here we went snorkelling. I had some problems with water keeping to get into my goggles and found it hard to tighten them to stop leakage. The fish were cool, but visibility was just OK compared with what we have done before.



I tried out the camera in it’s waterproof bag but had trouble trying to see the screen due to glare to be able to focus for photo’s so must were just blurry. The video footage was fine though. I would later remember the camera actually has a special setting for underwater images (silly me !!!). I’ll try and remember that for next time.



Luke starting going down the waterslide which drops you off the boat about 2 metres above the ocean. It was only a slow ride down so after talking to some German dude on the day trip they decided to walk down to end of the slide and started doing backflips ! I managed to get these on video from where I was snorkelling and they turned out really well. Elise & Luke then started playing in the Jacuzzi at the rear of the boat which had lots of suds.



Soon it was lunchtime and we had a smorgasbord to feast on. BBQ chicken, satay sticks, noodles, rice (yummy!). Filled up the plate quickly as snorkelling makes me really hungry. After we let the food settle it was time for me and the kids to do some thrill seeking on the Banana Boat. He took us on a lap around the boat, and then dumped us in the water as a surprise to finish !



Next we took the small boat to the Island where we stayed at the Coconut Beach Resort. It had a couple of nice pools and a restaurant. It was on a small cliff face with views down to the village on the beach (a mini Mediterranean like aspect). We could also see some of the surf breaks from here as well. They were strange in that it appeared as though waves would popup in between some coral reefs (about 50 metres wide), and the wave would break continuously in the same area every 30 seconds or so allowing someone to ride it for a minute or so and then just paddle back to the same spot and off they go again. The wave would finish well off the beach area (at last 300 metres off shore I guess).



After a swim the pool, Kerry & I decided to do the optional village walking tour with Tini. She was a local Balinese lady and at first she took us to a spot near a few Roosters and tried explaining something whist they were crowing loudly. Could not hear a thing she said ! Waked a bit further and she said some more but we could only pick up about one word in every 10 so I did the polite thing and just nodded as if to say understood exactly what she was saying. She would ask if we had any questions but was not game to hear her answers really !



Then she started making calls on her mobile phone which was quite unprofessional, so she was hardly the right person for this role. Slowly but surely the other people in our walking group dropped off and it was now just Kerry & I ! Anyway she eventually walked us to the small quaint village stopping at the cemetery to explain something about it (I guess ?). We then met some dear old lady doing some weaving of fabric. I think he said it took 6 weeks to make a tablecloth so we bought one of course.



Could not get back to the Resort fast enough, and get a cool drink. The kids were playing chess I think near the pool area. We swam for another hour before getting the boat back to the Catamaran and the return home. It was not quite so rough but still a little choppy.



After getting back we then caught a Taksi to Jayan Padma and had dinner at Pizza Restaurant outside The Lokha Legion Resort & Spa (in fact right where the guy crashed his moped the night before), 2 for 1 cocktails (Crazy Boss + Islander Delight) for starters , and Luke had the 2 for 1 pizza offer as well. I had a Bruggeman Special steak dish with chips and salad. The salad was really nice and made me realise I had not had any salad lately. The girls both had Penne Carbonara. Total bill was IDR 545,105 or $56-.



I started noticing the service fees and taxes added to meals varies between 10% and 25%. Don’t know if we are being ripped off or not ? Tomorrow nothing planned so all alarms are OFF !

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