The past few days Katie and I have been beachin' it on Nusa Lembongan, an island that is just a 30 minute boat ride from Sanur, Bali. After our time in Ubud, we were ready for some relaxation on the beach!
Our first night on Lembongan we met some Canadians and after eating a delicious meal of fresh fish, we had Bintangs (Indonesia's beer) and a breathtaking sunset.
Early to bed, early to rise for beach time! We ate breakfast at our hotel and walked to find an ATM and to rent either bicycles or motorbikes. Well, we failed at the ATM and we failed at the motorbikes (because I was a chicken with the whole opposite side of the road thing coupled with the horrific condition of the island roads). So with my Rupiah in hand to last us the next few days, and bicycles rented, we headed towards Mushroom Beach.
Pedaling through town proved easy, as long as one could avoid the potholes and the drivers. However, once we reached the edge of town we hit a hill that was simply not possible to bike up in flip flops and with our less than optimal mountain bikes. Silly me for thinking that only a 90 minute class at BIG could get me so sweaty...
Eventually, covered in sweat and a bit annoyed with life (it was a brief annoyance, as it's hard to be unhappy in Indonesia), we made it to Mushroom Beach. We had seen absolutely no other bicyclists along the way, just people zooming by on their scooters. Oh well, we earned our beach beers!
Mushroom Beach was a beautiful and relatively long beach, with various boats in the bay that took tourists snorkeling, diving, and on banana boat rides. We paid $5 each and set up camp on some lounge chairs where we enjoyed Bintangs, the crashing waves, and a local Balinese guy strumming his guitar. We also got the privilege of playing with the happiest little girl!
After our 4pm happy hour cocktail, we rode back, showered, and watched another great sunset before chowing down on more fresh seafood followed by fried bananas with ice cream, and bed.
Our last full day in Indonesia consisted of one of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen, a fabulous pool, beer, girly cocktails, and more bike riding. Dream Beach was a fitting name - white sand, crashing waves against cliffs that had lush greenery up to their edges, and every shade of blue, from the light blue of the sky to the darker blues and turquoises of the water. It was simply stunning. Our $5 once again got us lounge chairs, but also gave us access to the infinity pool overlooking the beach. We set up camp underneath an umbrella, and went to town reading books, ordering drinks, snacks, and lunch, and relaxing. Before leaving we opted to have some beachy drinks - a piña colada for Katie, and a banana daiquiri for me. We should've stopped here, given the bike ride we had back to our hotel, but happy hour had just started...so we opted for one more drink, which happened to be the one with 4 types of alcohol and a splash of juice. Needless to say, we didn't finish our drinks, and we hopped on our bikes happily drunk. Our bike ride went a little like this: stop for pant rolling, a little wobble here and there, successful and failed attempts at missing pothole ax a broken flip flop, and walking downhill with said flip flop in one hand. It was quite the sobering adventure.
After a shower, our initial attempt at dinner failed. Katie's chicken was a dark grey inside, and we aren't even sure what came out on my plate. We very quickly paid and went to the restaurant next door where we ordered the safest thing - pizza, beer, and french fries. We're leaving our time in Bali unsure of that last meal, with mildly sore "treasures" (as Madonna at BIG would say) from the bikes and potholes, slightly sunburnt from the strong Indonesian sun, and blissfully happy.
