Nusa Lembongan, Bali, Indonesia
With our bike repaired and back from the shop we were finally able to leave Canggu and head back to Sanur where we started over 6 weeks ago.
It was a nervous affair heading off on the bike again given our accident a week ago. Dani more so than myself. Anytime anything came close to us I could feel her tensing up and gripping on to me harder, which in a way didn’t really help my riding as I could feel her moving around on the back and unbalancing it a little. I was generally ok but pretty tense at times especially when turning right at junctions when I needed to pull into the middle of the road.
With the tank filled up we cut across the island from West coast to East, unfortunately through Denpasar, the fairly busy capital. I didn’t have much choice other than to ride as confidently as I could, keeping up with the other traffic as best I could. Still having to accelerate at times through narrow gaps i the traffic to move away from big trucks etc. If I didn’t do that and wasn’t confident it would be hard for the locals to anticipate my maneuvers. That’s just how it works here. If your too cautious and dither they don’t have much of a clue what your next move is going to be and that can cause more accidents so I relaxed into it as much as I could and got back to confident riding.
Thankfully the ride across to Sanur was short, maybe a little over an hour and we were gratefully turning off the main highway and onto the quiet main road through the seaside town. It was a welcome relief to pull up outside Di Kubu Homestay where our big bag-packs had been stored for the past few weeks.
We popped in to see the lady who we had rented the bike off and she was totally fine. Seemingly more concerned about us than the state of her bike. To be fair after the repairs the bike looked a lot better than when we took it thanks to a multitude of shiny new panels. She was really cool and we sorted out a decent price with her for the extra couple of weeks that we had the bike compared to the original agreement when we took it.
Originally our plan after Java was for a couple of quick nights in Canggu for the Rugby and a night out then ride across to Bali to Padang Bai to catch the public ferry over to Lombok. A quick week riding round Lombok to check it out then a week on the Gili Isles.
Unfortunately all that changed. Firstly we didn’t really have enough time left to do that. Secondly Dani was understandably uncomfortable doing any more big trips on the bike given what happened. And thirdly there wasn’t a lot of point trying to hit the Gili’s now as it is an expensive ferry trip over there and also we were mainly going for the snorkeling. With my hand still healing and one stitch still in there was no way I could go in the sea as I would have risked infection and it not healing properly. So we came up with a plan B. A trip across to Nusa Lembongan.
We have been to Lembongan a few times before, maybe 5 I think? We love the place and knew it would give us a nice chilled last week in Indonesia without the expense that the Gili’s would be. The ferry over is cheaper as well as most things on the island such as food and accommodation.
We had done some reading and were going to take the public speed boat over as we had read it was cheapest. However on the morning we headed down to the ferries we discovered that they didn’t give any discount on a return and it would cost us 400K IDR each to get there and back. We had one of the usual locals trying to steer us towards another boat and managed to get a decent price of 350K IDR each instead of the public boat. needless to say we took the cheaper option.
The trip over was quick, quicker than I remember it being. Just 30 minutes after leaving the shore of Sanur we were slowing down into the turquoise tropical waters at the shore of Nusa Lembongan.
The good thing with this boat as well is that the price also included a tuk-tuk ride to our digs and then back again for the return ferry.
We didn’t have anywhere booked but had a place in mind that we would check out so told the guy where we were headed. With the small truck loaded up with half a dozen travelers we headed off 10 minutes later only to discover that the place we had in mind was 30 yards round the corner. A tad embarrassed we made our apologies to the others and hopped off with our bags.
We hadn’t booked anywhere yet as we were waiting to hear back from a resort about a collaboration in exchange for some free accommodation. As we checked the room at Radya Homestay we stalled for time a little while we logged in to their WiFi to check if we had a response about the free digs. Unfortunately there was nothing back from them yet so we happily took the room at Radya which was cheap and more than nice enough. A good clean detached bungalow with aircon, set in a nice garden with a pool and breakfast the next day all for the princely sum of about £13. Not bad at all.
We ended up spending two nights there and really enjoyed it. We didn’t go too far at all. Just a nice easy couple of days round the pool, a trip down to the beach for sunset and a beer each day and some good tasty food round the doors. It was just what needed, some nice easy island time.
On our second day there we were fortunate and heard back from one of the resorts we have been in touch with. They have kindly offered us a couple of nights stay and we are really looking forward to two days of relaxation and luxury at their new resort somewhere in the heart of the island. It should be a great couple of days.
