Nusa Lembongan, Bali

Day 220 (February 3, 2019) – Nusa Lembongan, Bali, Indonesia

Nusa Lembongan, a small island located off the southeast coast of Bali, was the highlight of our two weeks. It was exactly what I was looking for. A laid back tropical island that feels authentic and isn’t swarming with tourists. It had killer sunsets, traditional Indonesian food, and beautiful tropical waters. It’s the first place I would head back to in Bali if we returned.

The speedboats don't have docks. They pick up and drop off right at the beach. 

We arrived on Nusa Lembongan by speedboat from Bali. About 30 minutes after leaving the mainland we were dropped off at Nusa Lembongan's longest beach, Jungutbatu Beach. Our hotel was only a few minutes' walk away. Our hotel was great. For $33 a night and we had a huge airconditioned room, our own private pool, and breakfast included every morning.

Our accommodation was surprisingly nice and only $33 a night. Even came with its own small private pool.

The beach along the north side of Nusa Lembongan.

Similar to Seminyak, the main beach stretches on for some distance and is dotted with a few restaurants and resorts with tables and chairs set up in the sand. However, unlike Seminyak, there were about 95% fewer people. It was a very chill and very relaxed vibe but with the same front row seats to the stellar sunsets. We continued our same nightly ritual from Seminyak and watched the sun go down every night on the beach with a beer in hand.

Our nightly ritual.

The sunsets were shockingly beautiful.

On our first full day, we rented a couple scooters for $5 each to get out and explore the island. It was our first time on scooters, but it was a good place to practice. The only vehicles on the island were scooters, motorbikes, and a few pick-up trucks outfitted with seats in the back to transport tourists from their hotels to the beach. Not much traffic to worry about.

Driving around the island on scooters.

The view from the only hill on the island, looking out over Jungutbatu Beach.

Lembongan is quite small and it really doesn’t take long to drive around it. There is one hill in the center of the island that had some very pretty views of Jungutbatu Beach. Down the other side of the hill we stopped at Mushroom Bay Beach. It was so hot at that point in the day we had to go for a swim. There were a lot of boats in the bay, but we swam between them in crystal clear waters. You don’t even need a towel to dry off. After getting out of the water, the sun completely dried us off in less than 10 minutes. It was that hot out.   

Cooling of at Mushroom Bay Beach.

We continued our trip around the island and stopped at Dream Beach, where we again needed desperately to cool ourselves off in the water. No boats at this beach but the waves were pretty strong. Travis loved it, but I’m more a fan of the calmer beaches. We grabbed lunch at one of the resorts overlooking the beach and continued around to the bridge that connects Nusa Lembongan to its even smaller island neighbor, Nusa Ceningan. The bright yellow bridge is only wide enough for pedestrians and scooters and passes over a shallow, teal-colored channel of water between the two islands.

Dream Beach, where the waves were a bit on the rough side.

This was our five-minute stop at a place called Devil's Tear. When the waves are strong they hit the rocks and send water flying everywhere, or so we were told. We arrived and encountered hundreds of people standing around the cliffs, all likely stopping there as part of a day tour from Bali, so we hopped back on our scooters to find a less happening spot on the island. 

We only rode along the main drag of Nusa Ceningan but ended up at a restaurant that had a cliff diving platform. You could jump right off the side of the restaurant’s deck and fall into the ocean 10 meters below. I was too scared to try that, but Travis took the plunge, twice. Having spent the entire day sightseeing the island, we headed back to return the scooters and made our way to the beach for another evening’s sunset.

Travis' cliff dive. More like a jump.

The yellow bridge connecting Nusa Lembongan to Nusa Ceningan.

We would have liked to sleep in the next day, but instead we got up to go on a half-day snorkeling trip. We were taken to Jungutbatu Beach to board a small boat with ten other passengers. Our first stop was impressive. We were taken to one of the places where manta rays come to feed near shore. The ocean was a bit rough at this spot, so we were bobbing all over the place at the water’s surface, but we saw a few huge manta rays swimming in graceful arcs under the water. They were seriously huge, with wingspans greater than my height, and properly scared me when they started swimming in my direction. I was hoping their eyesight was good enough for them to be able to see me and thus avoid crashing into me. This seemed to be the case since they managed to keep their distance from all the people floating in the water. It was a very cool sight to see.

This was the only picture from our snorkeling trip, as we were heading out in the morning. This was also one of the few days that it was clear enough to see Mt. Agung on Bali. 

We stopped at two other snorkeling spots, but the best was at Mangrove Point. I had honestly never seen more fish in my entire life. They were everywhere. Schools of them. I felt like I had been dropped into a tropical fish tank. You just had to float there and they would swim all around you. All sorts of different kinds of fish too, of every different color. There were so many fish I didn’t know where to look. It was also fun to swim after the schools of fish as they erratically darted among the coral. This was another occasion where I wish we had brought our GoPro from home. Oh well. It's not worth the extra weight in our packs for the few times I wished we had it. 

A typical Warung with prepared food behind a glass case.

An delicious plate of food for less than $2.

It was a fairly exhausting half day of snorkeling, so we took the remaining afternoon to relax a bit in the pool. Sadly, we had to leave the next day for the airport. I would have liked to spend a few more days in Lembongan. After everything we did during our first two days, there wasn’t much left to really see or do on the island, but it was a good place to relax and experience a slice of island life.

Can't get enough of these sunsets.

They're always different too.