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Friday, January 29, 2010

DAY 18: One Last Trip Around the Island!

As it turned out, DAY 18 was fabulous! The gray clouds moved their little selves out of the sky around 9am, and all we could see was blue the entire day! What a wonderful treat for our last full day in Indonesia!

We rented the scooter again and decided to take one last ride around the entire island... Here are some pictures I took along the way of the locals:

Nyoman's neice after her shower...

Some local junior high age boys getting ready to jump off the bridge connecting the 2 islands...

A statue of a Hindu god, with a fresh offering laid before it... 
... a young Lembongan boy, watching his older brothers play volleyball...

... walking along the village road

... a humble offering outside the entrance to a home where a Hindu ceremony was taking place...

... a beautiful woman who lived in Lembongan.  We met her when we stopped the scooter to play with some puppies along the road.  She saw us, and brought her own puppy over to meet us!  He was even cuter and MUCH cleaner than the ones we were attempting to catch and play with...

... he did like to bite though!!  :(

A boy, with his dad, riding through the island...

About 100 women, carrying offering baskets on their heads, down from the temple on the hill.  They do this twice a month: once at full moon, and once at 1/2 moon.

A family commune where seaweed is their livelyhood...
One of the oldest men on the island, walking his bike along the quiet road...

Arizonans... Can you believe it?!  Lantana flowers grow here, and they're everywhere!!!

This young boy lived in a small shack along the sand...  He was playing, alone, on his bike, while his mother cooked behind him.

"Oh my gosh, I think that was a pig!" was what I said when we rode by this big old pot belly along the side of the road! 

Not sure where his pants are, but he does have some candy!  :)

Their own personal take on a punching bag gym!  I think this scenery would make anyone want to exercise!

This was the scene right behind our hotel, in the alley where we would park the scooter.  It was a common reminder of how I should always be thankful for what I have!

A bored, young Lembongan boy, waiting for his dad to finish working at a motor bike maintenance shop.

(Probably a brother and sister) playing under a gigantic banyan tree in the village.

After making our way completely around the island, we stopped by Mushroom Beach, just to bid it farewell, and then headed to Dream Beach where we spent almost the entire day again! We both agreed it was our favorite beach in Indonesia, so, it seemed fitting that we spent our last day there!

Aaron found a comfy hammock, and I layed my sarong, on the sand, 1/2 way under him for some shade, and left just enough room at the end for my toes to dangle into the powdery sand! It was great! We both had our books with us, and only ever put them down when the water was calling our names! :)

As we were reading, we saw Tick (the name we gave her), a stray puppy/dog, who lives at Dream Beach. We gave her the name tick, because, well, she has ticks; lots of them, in addition to a skin disease and something that makes her limp around!  

We saw her the day before, and loved on her for a little bit. When we left, she followed us all the way to our scooter, which made me sad to say goodbye. So, we were thrilled that she remembered us today!  She layed with us ALL day, right next to me in the sand! :)


Can you tell we're both HUGE animal lovers!?

When we left the beach, we rode about 200 meters away, to a grassy area with a beautiful view. When we got back on the bike to head out, look who we had found! TICK!!!   She limped all the way over to where we were!   What a little smooch, huh?!

We said our long goodbyes, and then rode over to Ceningan Island to watch one last cock fight, but it was canceled for the night. We were still glad we headed over there because we were able to see, and say goodbye to, Nyoman and his brothers, who we have become close with over the week!

** One cultural side note that's worth sharing: Hindu's use a cast system... So, they will always ask you things like: Where you are going? Where did you come from? Where are you staying? What birth order are you? and... Are you married yet? It helps them know where to place you in their Hindu cast system. So, being that Aaron and I were always together, we would often get asked if we were married yet.   Apparently, you should never just say "No." Rather, you should always answer by saying, "Not yet," even if you have no intentions of ever marrying!  If you say "No" it throws them for a loop, and they don't know where to place you in their system. So, we would always answer, "Not yet" and start laughing! Then they would say they wanted to come to our wedding, which made us laugh even harder!  It made for some fairly awkward, but funny moments with the locals!

We rode over to Sunset Beach...

... just as the sun was setting, to watch the waves crash and, of course, the sun set! Unfortunately, there was a gigantic cloud in the way, but the small area under the cloud filled the sky with blues, reds, and oranges... and that was beautiful enough for us!

We had dinner back at Bungalow No 7 with Dan, Jaime, and Kelsey, and then bid farewell for the night! 


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