Lembongan Island: Part 1

I have no idea why in the past 3 years living in Bali never had I once thought to go to Lembongan island. It's not far and hardly tiring to reach. And it is very beautiful, too. The best of it is that it is not as crowded as Bali!

My friend Pam and I left for Lembongan early in the morning. We went to Sanur, where the boats to the island departed. Traditional boat trips are available at 7:00 and 10:30. The board says that the fare using these boats is Rp 60,000. But we arrived at 8 in Sanur, so we missed the first boat. The second one seemed too long to catch. So we asked the fare for the speed boat. The guy behind the counter said it was Rp 75,000. It didn't make sense! Why is it only Rp 15,000 difference between the normal boat (an hour ride) and the speed boat (half an hour ride)? Anyway, we took that since the next speed boat left at 9 and we saved half an hour of sea trip. However, as I was about to pay them, 2 guys cut my line asking for 2 tickets and paying with only Rp 100,000. What the hell? I was determined to find out what the normal practice was here.

As we were about to climb to the speed boat, again, some guys cut my way and I almost fell to the sea. THESE PEOPLE NEEDED SOME SCHOOLING ON MANNERS! I couldn't believe I kept getting that at the early start of my weekend getaway journey!

Anyway, the speed boat was too full. Some people had to stand even. I whispered to Pam, "There is no way these guys were paying 75,000 each. They don't look like they had the money OR if they wanted to spare that much money for one-way boat trip." Pam whispered back to me, "Yeah, and the boat was way too full. Let's hope it wouldn't crash before reaching the island."

In the meantime, the little boy next to me kept vomitting because of sea sick. I had to look away.

It wasn't a bad boat trip in the end. I loved the feeling of my hair being blown by the sea wind, and the morning was lovely. I could see a range of mountains from afar and when I looked back, I saw a crazy amount of sea water being splashed by the motor of the boat.

30 minutes later we arrived in Lembongan and our feet stepped on clear sea and clean white sand. Such an uplifting thing after leaving Sanur's dirty black sandy beach. So...

Hello, Lembongan!