Escape to (Relative) Serenity

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In the end we had only four full days on the island of Nusa Lembongan instead of the two weeks we'd planned. As soon as we arrived, though, it instantly felt so good to be away from the hustle and bustle and general commercialism that is mainland Bali. Mind you, a lot had changed on Nusa Lembongan in the twelve years since we were last there. It has really gone upscale, which in turn has caused the previously dirt roads to be paved. The downside of this is that the once sleepy island, where you could barely find a truck to get around, has become full of trucks and motorbikes zooming around the narrow streets. On the plus side, it's easy to get a ride to anywhere you want to go around the island.



On our first day we decided to stay close to home. The kids really wanted to do the water slide in our pool (which was the main reason we picked Tanis Resort) so a day at the pool and local beach it was! It wasn't long before we were reminded of one of Tanis Resort's main downfalls - the Chinese tour groups. Boats start arriving with day trippers as early as 9am and at times the beach looked like the D-Day landings, with groups of 40+ people piling off speed boats. Each day a large group would come to our resort to use the pool. Now, I don't mind sharing, but the Chinese have no clue when it comes to personal space. We'd put our sarongs on two loungers and go for a swim, only to find several Chinese sitting on them, right in the middle of all of our stuff! The real problem, however, lay in selfies. Specifically the obsession of taking selfies with our children. At first Kyla and Jake kind of liked their celebrity status, and to be fair, the Chinese were friendly and well-meaning, telling us how cute our kids were. However, when you have a group of forty people and half of them want to grab your kids to try to take a selfie with them, it becomes a problem. All Kyla and Jake wanted to do was go on the water slide again, not pose for a selfie. I dread to think about how many times my kids will be featured on Chinese social media!



To combat this problem we decided it was best to avoid Mushroom Beach and especially our hotel from 10am to 3pm. This was quite easy on our second day as we had booked onto a dive trip all morning. We all arrived at 8am and Scott and I got kitted out with our scuba gear while tossing crackers and cookies to the kids for breakfast. I know, bad parents! By 8:30am we were boarding the boat and were a little freaked out to realize that the boat had no actual seats, just a broad rim you sat on. We had to hold onto the kids very carefully! We were supposed to set up our equipment on the way out but luckily our dive guide realized that wasn't possible for me, so did it for me. It took about 30 minutes to get to the first site. The kids enjoyed the boat ride and seeing all the dramatic cliffs of the islands. I'd have loved to take some photos but my hands were pretty much tied up in keeping Jake from falling overboard!



Once at site, Scott took the kids while I took the first dive. This dive was at manta point and is pretty much Lembongan's showcase dive. I said we could draw straws as to who got to do this one but Scott insisted he didn't mind if I took it, which was really nice of him. I was impressed that we actually did a buddy check, as we'd just been diving in The Philippines and let's just say their safety practices are pretty much non-existent. It was definitely reassuring!



We back-rolled in and descended right by a manta. From that point on, barely a minute went by that we didn't have at least one beautiful big manta in our sights. It definitely was a special dive and I started to have manta-guilt about Scott.



When I came up from swimming with the gentle, graceful giants I found that things were not going too well for my littles. Kyla, it turned out, had to pee but was refusing to go into the water to swim. I tried to coax her but she was adamant she didn't want to get wet. The next thing we knew the boat was taking off for the next site. It was too late!



Once at Crystal Bay the crew passed out a lunch for everyone. Jake and Kyla ate bits of ours but mostly ate the cookies I'd brought. Cookies for breakfast AND lunch! ? By this time, Kyla really had to go. I managed to get her to go in the water finally, and after that she felt much better! We watched Daddy go down for his turn to dive, and then we even spent some time snorkeling (with Jake just riding on my back) and Kyla spotted a free-swimming Nemo all by herself! When Scott came up he said they'd almost seem a mola mola/sunfish (which are huge weird looking fish and hard to find) but it had gone too deep and they missed it. I told him about my manta-guilt and offered to keep the kids at the resort on my own the next morning if he wanted to do the manta dive on his own, but he said it was ok. He's at least seen them in the past.



The next day, day 3, was another good day. We took a truck out to Dream Beach, the nicest beach on the island. We had a pleasant day just playing on the beach and collecting hundreds on tiny "Sheba eye" shells. The waves were pretty big so we didn't venture out too much, but Kyla and Jake had a lot of fun running away from the waves. Run for your life!



On our last day, we took a truck out to the main town on the island, Junto Batu. We had two goals in mind. The first was to do some shopping for some cute wooden hangings I'd seen over a week prior when I'd gone to the medical clinic for Kyla's fever. I found I loved them even more than I'd remembered and we ended up buying five. Goodness knows how we are going to carry them! Our second goal of the day was to walk back towards our beach along the cliff line, checking out all of the beaches we used to go to along the way. The first Bay we came to was pretty but had a pack of stray dogs on, which has been a common problem traveling in the third world. We carried on until we reached Tamarind beach, and stopped to get an ice cream. From there it was only a ten minute walk to our beach, but we stopped at Little Mushroom beach along the way at Kyla's request. It's a beautiful little beach but, as no resorts are directly backing it, no one cleans the beach so it definitely had a garbage problem if you went too far back. Still, we spent a pleasant hour or so playing. The kids loved drawing in a part of the beach with a thin layer of black volcanic sand covering the white sand. It kind of made a chalkboard effect! We realized that we'd left the kids' life jackets at home, so they were a little afraid to go in, but spent a lot of time getting cups of water and pouring it on themselves like a shower!



One problem with only staying at a place for a few days is that we find it generally takes that long to get our bearings and settle into a routine. Nowhere is this so evident as in eating. As many of you will know, Kyla is a very picky eater and is reluctant to try anything new. She often won't touch things on the regular kids' menu, and we need to order things in a very specific manner. When you are moving from restaurant to restaurant, this is quite difficult. However, if we get to know the staff at a particular restaurant, it is much easier to make strange requests. For example, we sometimes order her a raw carrot sliced up, or simply a plate of raw broccoli. Other times, we'd order toast but request it not be toasted because she won't eat it if there's any brown on it! It's crazy! Today the kids finally decided they'd try the berry bowl at Mola Mola restaurant (our restaurant of choice on Lembongan) that Scott and I have been addicted to for the last four days. Both of them loved it and quickly gobbled down a medley of healthy frozen blended berries. Of course, it's our last day on Lembongan!



Tomorrow we start several days of travel, staying in five hotels in six nights. Back to Sanur for one night, then we fly to Kuala Lumpur for two nights just to renew our visa, then we fly to Lombok for one night before heading out to the Gili Islands, our next real destination. I wonder how many cookies and crackers are in our immediate future?! ?



*** Don't forget to scroll down for more pictures! ***

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[D MJ Binkley]

Bali
Serenity Now