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Published: July 30th 2012
Yesterday, Tyler and I had to leave Nusa Lembongan to move on to our next destination, the island of Lombok. I'm going to give you the most accurate description I can of the looooooong day we just had. There are so many amazing things you get to do when you travel, but I wanted to tell you about this experience to show you that our trip isn't all beaches and sunny days. Some days aren't the most pleasant...
First I will tell you our plan – boat from Lembongan to Sanur, bus from Sanur to Padangbai, ferry from Padangbai to Senggigi, find a place to stay. Busy but doable!!
For days we had been watching people leave Lembongan thinking “those poor suckers” but that day had now dreadfully come for us 😞 we said goodbye to Fernando and the gentleman Nyoman who ran our Inn and off we went. Our boat left from Lembongan at 8:30am, it took about an hour to get back to Sanur where we had prearranged our transport to Padangbai. What we didn't realize is that the transport was actually two separate buses. After an hour on a boat, we had some time to chill out before getting on an extremely packed bus to Ubud (our driver forgot someone so we had to turn around, it was only about a 5 minute mishap though). Then we changed buses and had another packed hour long bus ride to Padangbai (the driver of this bus also forgot some passengers, however since they realized it too late, we had to pull over on the side of the road and wait for them get driven to meet up with us – about a 15 minute delay). When we got to Padangbai I felt like absolute poop. I haven't been feeling 100% lately (too much fried food) so the water and roads were not my best friend on this particular day. Luckily there was a ferry sitting at the dock loading passengers and vehicles. The unlucky thing is that it only goes to Lembar which is not where we wanted to get on the island. But it was our only option (short of paying 10 times as much to get a private fast boat to where we wanted), we would sort out the rest later. Lembar didn't look too far from Senggigi on the map, maybe 40 minutes, hopefully we could find cheap transportation.
After all of our vehicle changes, stops, delays etc, we were happy to make it to the ferry in time because there is only a boat every two hours. We bought our tickets, walked on the ferry and found a nice spot on the top deck in the sun. The ferry left the dock at about 1:45pm. Phew! Okay! We made it to the ferry, now all we have to do is get dropped in Lembar, catch a public bemo (small bus) to Senggigi and find a place to stay.
5 hours later we docked at Lembar. 5 hours! Ugh. By this time it was almost 7pm and dark. We found a tourist information centre that informed us that the last public bus to Senggigi was at 4pm so we would have to get a driver. Us and another couple were in the same pickle so we split on a ride to Senggigi for about $7.50/person. It took an hour and 20 minutes to get to Senggigi and by this time we were simply exhausted. We had now been travelling for pretty much 12 hours with a lot of unexpected change in plans and a sea sick Rebecca.
Time to find a place to sleep!! Every town we come to there are always guys walking around who want to help you find a place to stay, sometimes I think they get a commission from the hotel they take tourists to but usually they offer their own tours and just want some of your time to see if you want to snorkel or climb a volcano or whatever. So we found this guy who said he could get us a cheap room. The only thing is that it was pretty far and he only had a motorcycle. He offered to take one of us at a time, but we were not going to separate. There was a hotel nearby that he went to see if he could bargain a deal for us, but that didn't work either. He asked for one last chance so we followed him down a small alley to a place he said there would be rooms for cheap. We got there and it was more expensive than promised. Now he had completely wasted our time so I went full “Rebecca” on him and Tyler. I was exhausted, hungry, felt like crap and didn't have time to be wasted. After not-so-nicely telling that guy we were going back to the main road and didn't need his help anymore and not-so-nicely telling Tyler this was the reason I don't talk to those guys (because they are a waste of time), I was on a mission to find a pillow and a bed. There were a couple of places we read about that were in our budget so I headed in that direction with Tyler not too far behind. We found Hotel Elen, checked the room, it was in our budget and comes with breakfast. Bonus! Bed time came, while Tyler watched Seinfeld with his headphones on I wished him sweet dreams and told him I loved him (because you should never go to bed angry) and I think I slept for a full 12 hours of well deserved rest.
Now today is another day, we have been to the Senggigi beach with its beautiful soft sand and warm water and think we like it here. We would like to stay 4 nights before heading to the Gili Islands. First we have to extend our visas... that's tomorrow's task.
As horrible as yesterday may have been, we've had 20 other perfect days and now we know that having food on hand for a travel day is an absolute necessity! We are learning something new every day 😊
xoxo Becs
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Tric
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The funny thing is as bad as that day seems now (and it does seem like a really bad day!) after you get home and look back on your trip it won't seem as bad. Love that you are giving us the good and bad - and very happy that there is so much more good than bad!! :)