Our endless Saturday is flowing smoothly along. We wake up to the sounds of roosters, wooden cow bells, cows mooing a distinctive Balinese moo, little kids running around laughing. We can hear the wind in the trees in the garden and motorbikes in the village. In the mornings, we have time to explore beaches or temples or markets before heading to Timbis to fly. We fly the afternoons away with local and traveling pilots and hang out on launch between flights with everyone who makes up the flying community here.
The last few days, we took our first trip off Bali to an island called Nusa Lembongan. It’s a small island with a lively seaweed farming community, many beaches, a few dive shops and a disproportionate number of roosters. We had heard that accommodations can fill up there, so we made a reservation at Linda’s Bungalows, a place recommended in our guidebook (The Rough Guide). It turned out to be a charmless, boxy place with a tasty restaurant, unfriendly Aussie owners and it is surrounded on two sides by to the island’s rooster coops. Thankfully, the first morning, we were getting up early to catch a dive boat!
I hadn’t been diving since 1998, the last time I was in Indonesia, so we went over to World Diving the day that we arrived on the island. They gave me a refresher course in the pool right on the spot and Sati swam in the pool and relaxed. It was great to go over the basic gear setup and skills before diving the next day.
We jumped on the boat the next morning and headed out to Manta Point. Sati came on the trip to snorkel and we had six divers, two dive masters, a driver and a guy to help out. There’s always one guy to help out on boats, buses, trucks, etc in Indonesia. The trip along Nusa Penida was spectacular with 300 foot limestone cliff faces and arches.
At first, I was intimidated to go without a buddy, but it turned out that no one had a buddy on our boat. They paired us up and we backrolled into the water. We saw two manta rays within the first 15 minutes of the dive. They come to this cove to get cleaned by other fish. The visibility was not great, only about 15 meters, but we saw a lot of cool corals, many fluorescent nudibranchs and a couple lionfish. Between dives, we rested for a while and motored over to Crystal Bay. We had nasi bungkus, a banana leaf filled with rice, vegetables and fried shrimp, for lunch. Crystal Bay was a gorgeous dive and snorkel spot just teeming with life everywhere you look. My most vivid memory of it was just hanging, suspended in the water absolutely surrounded by angel fish. I’ve never seen so many! Sati and I snorkeled after the dive and it reminded me of how lucky I feel to get a chance to see such abundance.
On two days, we rented a motorbike and puttered around the island. It’s a pretty chill place with the more beautiful beaches away from the main drag. There are just tiny little paved paths around the island and no cars. About three or four trucks help the locals shuttle building supplies and water around, but other than that, it’s just motorbikes, pedal bikes, and foot traffic. We bumped into two of my previous Expression College students and their crew of seven friends and got to share stories of travels. I’d go back to Nusa Lembongan and stay on another beach.
We got back to Bingin yesterday afternoon to welcomes and stories of what had gone on while we were away. Our family here is so great – they definitely make it feel like home.
The endless Saturday continues.