What’s better than being surrounded by water, feeling
the cooling breeze on your skin as the sun beats down to warm you up? This was soon to be my day adventure as I
travelled with WakaSailing to Nusa Lembongan island in Bali
Slowly they arrived, Koreans, Germans,
Australians, Italians sharing pleasantries and a refreshing drink while awaiting
remaining travellers before boarding the sailing boat.
On board, safety instructions out of the way,
we were invited to partake in pastries and drinks and everyone found their
seating. Some sat or lay inside, while others ventured outside onto the top
deck of the two parallel hulls, to lie on mats and sunbathe.
Before we knew it, we had arrived at our
destination, a bay where a local boat collected us while we anchored off
shore. The short boat ride allowed us
our first glimpse of the island where the glistening turquoise water and
beautiful
white sandy beach contrasted with the rocky
outcrops and the pointy Alang Alang rooftops that looked like little hats
jutting out of the hillside.
Greeted with a refreshing fruit juice, towels
dolled out, sun chairs chosen, followed by a refreshing dip in the pool, and
the option to go snorkeling was accepted by about half the group.
We remounted the local boat moored at the
beachfront, after choosing our snorkeling gear and within minutes arrived at
another bay, where the appeal of the island was suddenly squashed by the
unexpected discovery of many boats and other snorkelers, given their piece of
the water in the exact same area. This peaceful haven suddenly became overcrowded
with mass tourism poised to infiltrate with banana boat rides zipping to and
fro not far away.
I wondered if many of the other bays held the
same appeal for the unsuspecting visitor however thankfully this was not the
case as I later discovered when travelling to the other side of the island to
visit the seaweed farmers later on in the day.
On our return, a sumptuous buffet lunch was
served. Options from vegetarian to those for the fish and meat lover were
available as well as my favourite dessert Pisang Goreng (fried bananas).
After lunch a tour option, to visit the
underground house and seaweed farmers was provided. About a dozen people jumped
up onto the back of open trucks to be transported to the next location.
Our first stop was an underground house built
by a 75 year old man who’s incredible fortitude and determination in creating
this place by hand, using only a hammer, is something to see. Going down, then
back up these sheer manhole caves was not easy and the next day I was sure my
leg muscles would probably be aching, they were. A rickety piece of wood
concreted and tied to another at the top of the hole was the only handle we had
before we moved down, then later up, some so called steps. Inside, as we were
being shown around we experienced a power shortage and the light went off. Standing
in darkness I reflected on the fact that possibly some 20 years ago while excavating
and creating this home there may not have been any power just candle light.
This added to my amazement of this project undertaken by just one person.
Arriving back on the surface, we met up with
the remaining group and visited the seaweed farmers where we saw the drying of
the different types of seaweed that are used in food, food supplements through
to cosmetics. The farmers are given a plot of water were each grows, on a rope,
seaweed. This is then harvested. As rice crops cannot be grown on Nusa
Lembongan this livelihood is an important one for the people on the island and
can be quite profitable as it is harvested monthly compared to rice that can
only be harvested three times a year.
Returning to the beach club we had time for a
quick dip in the pool then boarded the sailing boat for the return
journey.
The trip back was even more pleasant then the
trip across as we passed through the Bandung Straits. Throughout the trip the friendliness
of the crew, their knowledge, multi lingual skills put all those on the boat at
ease. It made my day and I am sure others experienced the same.
A provider on the Bali Tourist Card www.balitouristcard.com this
tour takes place Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and costs 135 USD
per person. Worth it, absolutely.
