Lembogan Island

We spent three nights on Lembongan Island at hotel Pondok Jenggala on the Jungut Batu side of the island. The island is known for it's pretty beaches, surfing and snorkeling, but we found that the beaches were mediocre and the place was better for lounging at the pool and doing nothing all day. 

Volcano view on our way to Lembongan:

Mushroom Bay- boat port and beach where we arrived: 

Day 1 we checked into our hotel room ($350,000idr/ $30usd- air con), drank our welcome drinks, ate lunch and wandered on over to beach nearby. 

Our welcome drinks:

Our patio: 

The beach had very corse sand, nothing like we were used to, and there were many boats floating in the water when we arrived. We were surprised to learn about the seaweed farming that takes place on Lembongan; the locals collect mounds of seaweed and ship it to Japan to be used for cosmetics. 

Seaweed farming:

Low tide- seaweed farming boats:

We spent the rest of the day swimming in the hotel's amazing pool and talking to other hotel guests (lots of Canadians). That night we went to a nearby Warang for dinner and ordered chicken satay, nasi goreng and spring rolls. 

The next day we ate the breakfast that was included with the price of the room, surprisingly good and somewhat filling- eggs, toast, tea, and fruit.

Afterwards we jetted off on a motorbike to explore the town and found ourselves in a panic because of the fact that the island has ONE ATM and doesn't take visa. We were forced to either leave Lembongan island or pay a money changer 7% to get cash, so we opted for the more expensive and sketchy option and lost a couple bucks in the trading process. 

After the ATM scandal we headed back into town to find a place to eat and stopped at a beautiful viewpoint on the way. 

Panorama Viewpoint:

Naturally we ended up at Gomez Kinda Mexican Restaurant for lunch and ordered pretty good tacos, quesadilla, guac, and bean dip. We sat around for a while and played pool, finally I can shoot a ball, and then headed to the spa for a massage. 

Gomez Restaurant: 

I got an extremely necessary cream hair bath for my severely sun damaged hair, along with a shoulder, head and hand massage. Aidan got a full body Balinese massage. We met a super cute furry friend while we were in the spa and realized how much we miss our furry friends back home! 

Day three we decided that we needed to find a nice beach to swim and snorkel at and sought off on our motorbike to do so. Without a map or any idea of where we were going, we ended up doing a complete loop of the island and stopped at some pretty incredible, but unswimable beaches on the way. 

Looking out at the neighboring island:

Dream Beach:

Devil's Tear Beach:

Umbrella grave yard:

One of the many temples on the island:

 

After finding our way back to our side of the island, we stopped at Jibaku Restaurant, which is right on the beach and ordered beers and a bruschetta snack. We meandered back to the hotel and walked the stretch of sand in front of our hotel.  Later we banked an hour or so at our luxurious hotel pool. 

Once we were waterlogged enough from the pool, we went to explore the range of beachfront resturants.  We landed at a small hotel and dive center where we watched a beautiful Balinese sunset over the seaweed farms and munched cheese stuffed jalapeños and sipped cold white wine! (Can you tell we miss some of the tastes of home??) 

The hard life continued... We discovered a small beachfront warang that served fresh fish, freshly baked bread and dinner with our feet in the sand. Katie got the fresh tuna steak mmm! I of course opted out of the seafood and had a chicken burger on fresh bread. The kitchen was outdoor, as is typical in Indonesia, and consisted of what we may consider as two propane burning camps stoves; it was a delicious meal on island time!