Nusa Lambongan
2008-02-18 to 2008-02-22
I knew I`d end up spending way to much money if I didn`t get out of Kuta fast, so I got a boat out to Nusa Lambongan, in search of a mellow, kicked back island without any clothing stores, and that`s exactly what I found.
There isn`t much on Nusa Lambongan. Mostly its full of local seaweed farms. I saw big tarps spread out on the ground, covered in piles fo seaweed laying out to dry, and local women carrying huge full baskets on their head, alwasy ready to flash you a smile. The people are just lovely there, they don`t hassle you for money, they are just friendly. It`s very relaxed, but there isn`t much going on.
Unfortunatly there isn`t much beach either, or much sunshine right now. I spent 3 days/4 nights out there, and it rained every day. Fortunatly, the rain didn`t really affect anything below the surface of the water, and I was able to get in 2 days of amazing diving. The colors of the corals and the fish and other sea creatures are so beautiful. I hadn`t been diving in a year so my first dive was a little frightening. I couldn`t get down because there was a huge air bubble in my wetsuit. My fin fell off, there was a really strong current, nothing seemed to be goign right. After a few minutes it got better (enough to make me want to go again the next day). The second day I went without a wetsuit and had 2 awesome dives and felt so much more comfortable in the water (its 80 degrees, I don`t know why anyone wears a wetsuit, let alone a 5mm!).
After the dive I rented a scooter to check out the other beaches on the island. They are all pretty small, and accomodation becomes much more expensive, so I decided to head back to the main island with one of the divers I met and up to Ubud, the cultural center, for a different take on Bali life.
