Récits de voyages autour du monde

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6 (Following)

LOMBOK – NUSA LEMBONGAN ISLAND (Via Padang Bay)

Upon arrival on Nusa Lembongan Island, we took a taxi to our hotel: the Kastapar Bridge. Our beautiful large balcony room faces the pool, the sea and Ceningan Island. What a beautiful location! Away from the hotel concentrations, the place is quiet. In addition, we are the only guests at the hotel at the moment. (The high season has not yet begun.)

We bathed in the pool all afternoon. When the sun started to fall, I went for a walk to the yellow bridge that leads to Ceningan Island. The narrow bridge is a crossbar for scooters only. I took pictures of the boats and the beautiful sunset over the sea. On my return to the hotel, Claude and I bathed again before going to dinner at the restaurant across the street. Sitting on high benches on the terrace that moves into the sea, we dined while gazing at the lights in the night of Ceningan Island. What a dream setting! We ended the evening swinging barefoot in the sea water on the double swing of our beach.

• 

• 

• 

• 

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7

NUSA LEMBONGAN ISLAND – NUSA CENINGAN ISLAND

At 7:00 this morning, it was already very hot. We had a good breakfast, alone at the hotel’s small restaurant. Claude rented a scooter and we went to the Mangrove Tour Telatak. The site was uninviting with all the rubbish littering the ground and boats moored in the mud. I took some pictures of the mangroves and we turned around.

We crossed the Yellow Bridge and headed west to Ceningan Island, crossing the village of the same name. We went to the Blue Lagoon by the narrow mountain road. The view from the top of the cliff was superb! We met a lovely young French couple with whom we spent the rest of the morning. At the Cliff Jumping Blue Lagoon restaurant, seated along the terrace overlooking the sea, we watched the skillful surfers playing on the huge turquoise waves. How awesome to see!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We returned to our hotel to cool off. The sun was so strong (33 degrees C and felt 42 degrees!) that we decided to postpone the rest of our scooter ride to later. We bathed at length, tied on our heads to protect ourselves from the scorching sun. We went to dinner at sunrise warung. With our wet clothes and the breeze on the waterfront terrace, the heat was bearable. We spent the early afternoon relaxing in the shade on our balcony.

Around 3:30 p.m., we left by scooter to explore the beaches of Lembongan Island. We made a stop by passing Gala-Gala Underground House. This underground house was built in 15 years, from 1961 to 1976. Its owner used conventional tools to dig limestone. The house includes 7 entrances, 3 ventilation windows, 1 well, 2 kitchens, 1 room to sit and 1 bedroom. This farmer and priest were inspired by a Hindu legend and used his house as a place of meditation.

Continuing our path, we discovered Mushroom Bay Beach. To get there, the path is narrow and overrun with scooters. The beach is small, and people bathe through the moored boats. This beach did not impress us, but we are glad to have seen it as it is an important tourist spot on the island. I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the beautiful Pura Sagara temple located in front of the beach.

The next beach, Tamarind Beach, didn’t impress us either. Space is limited. However, caves at the bottom of the cliff caught my attention. A few bathers had ventured there. The surroundings of this beach are littered with rubbish and leftover building materials, which does not help to appreciate this corner of the island. In fact, the entire island would need maintenance and a great cleaning session. It’s really sad to see how bad the island is. « I’m hurting my land! »

We took the road in the mountains and reached the summit. The view of the village and Jungut Batu beach is magnificent at Panorama Point.

We descended the mountain to see the beautiful white sand beach of Jungut Batu up close.

The sun was starting to go down. We went to the wonderful Mahagiri beach to the postcard landscape. The beach is huge, and the sand is pristine. The Mahagiri Hotel provides chairs and umbrellas free of charge if we consume on site. We didn’t want to go back to the dark, so we didn’t linger too long, telling us that we would come back earlier the next day. What a great discovery! This is our favorite of the island despite the fact that we like the quiet area where we are staying.

We set out on our way back. The beautiful sunset at Jungut Batu was worth a short stop. At the same time, we were able to admire a magnificent white temple that stands out from the many temples on the island.

Back at our beach, we saw an algae grower returning from picking with his boat full of green algae. On the ground at the top of the bank, algae were laid in the sun for the drying stage and in some large baskets, dark red algae were ready for sale. Looking closely at the seabed, one can see large dark squares bounded by ropes; these are seaweed crops, an important economic activity of the Nusa Lembongan and Ceningan Islands.

We returned to our hotel and bathed with the beautiful sunset in the background. We had dinner at the water’s edge at Mama Mia Resto-Bar. I choked on my soup too spicy and Claude kindly exchanged food with me. So, I finished his plate of fish and chips. We then walked down our little or no light street, tapping into the shoulder every time a moped passed by. We arrived sweaty at the hotel. As there were lightning bolts in the sky, we didn’t swim at the pool. We took a good shower and ended the evening in air conditioning at our room.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8

NUSA LEMBONGAN

While having lunch, we chatted with Tuputika, the young receptionist at our hotel. While placating, I managed to publish some of my travel stories. (The internet signal on the small islands of Indonesia is often weak and often I can’t download my texts and photos within a reasonable time.)

Claude and I left on a scooter for the day. We went to Dream Beach. This small beach is in a bay surrounded by a high cliff. The bottom of the water is rocky, which is not ideal for swimming. We discovered some lovely villas overlooking the bay on the east side. We ordered a pineapple juice and watermelon that we drank sitting on the benches in the pool with the sea in the background. We chatted for quite a while in the pool with a young couple coming from Austria and working in tourism.

Under a relentless sun, we went to explore the west side where we discovered Devil’s Tear, an impressive little bay where huge waves come crashing on the rocks of the high cliff.

We continued on our way and made a stop at Sandy Beach Club. The high prices discouraged us from having our lunch there. The small Sandy beach is surrounded by hotels that have appropriated it.

A little further on, we found a restaurant overlooking the sea, Sunset Point. Installed under the roof of the terrace with the fan in the back, we dined at this restaurant overlooking the sea. My « cap cay » with fish and shrimp was delicious and I ate it with appetite. Claude took the opportunity to play a game of pool with himself and he won! (Ha! Ha!)

We spent much of the afternoon swimming at one of the three pools at Sunset Villas and relaxing on our sun loungers in the shade, waiting for the mid-day sun to drop a bit. The water was boiling and not refreshing but we had the pool to ourselves and were surrounded by beautiful tropical vegetation.

At the end of the afternoon, we went to the other side of the mountain, to the beach Mahagiri visited the day before and for which we had had a crush. Claude quickly became disenchanted when he discovered the bottom of the water covered with small rocks and shallow for several hundred meters. He immediately turned around, disappointed by this beach with perfect looks but so disappointing for swimming! We then understood why this beach was rather deserted by tourists. For my part, I bathed for a few minutes to cool off, floating on my stomach and advancing with my hands so as not to have to walk barefoot on the rocky background.

After my swim, sitting under an umbrella, we ate our spring rolls and enjoyed the view of Bali with its mountains and its impressive active volcano Mount Agung.

We dined a little further at the Nyomans Warung, a restaurant recommended by our French friends. Our grilled fish was exquisite and cheap ($7 CAD each). We sat facing the sea and the volcano under beautiful end-of-day lighting.

We crossed the mountain again before dark and returned to our hotel. After a good shower (in cold, salty water!), we stayed in our room in air conditioning, fleeing the humid heat from outside.

SEE THE NEXT ARTICLE : « SULAWESI »