DAY 12 was what we'd been waiting for for a long time: blue skies, lots of sun, beautiful sand and crystal clear water! It's what Bali is all about right?!
We took a small boat over to Nusa Lembongan Island in the morning (south of Bali), arrived around 11am and checked into a darling bungalow style hotel called Bungalow No. 7 on the water! My room is the one closest to the ocean... It's about 25 feet from the water!
We dropped our bags in our bungalows and grabbed some lunch at the on-site restaurant.
Then, after our belly's were full, we jumped on our scooter and rode around the island, stopping at lots of different places, like this one, where the water shot up from under these rocks!
Then we found Mushroom Beach! It was exactly what we'd been waiting for and dreaming about! Yes, that's me, laying in the SHADE! The sun was sooo hot, I couldn't help it!
Since I couldn't bare laying in the sun, Aaron taught me how to float on my back in the water... It was perfect, because I could get tan, and be in the water all at the same time!! :)
After going to the beach, we jumped back on the scooter and continued our quest around the island! We saw a sign for "Underground house" and intrigued, we turned the bike around and headed for it!
The house was built underground using only a hammer, chisel and intuition as guidance. It took 15 years to complete this incredible labyrinth, which includes a bedroom, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and sacred meditation room.
This was our tour guide, through the caves... He definitely grabbed me in the dark a couple times... not sure if it was on purpose or not. I'd like to think it wasn't, but I'll chalk it up to the experience!
We decided to head over to a smaller island called Ceningan Island, which you can reach by a very narrow yellow wood slatted bridge! As we entered the Island, we saw these guys playing volleyball and waved hello. They motioned for us to come over and play, so we stayed here for a while, playing a little game of bump the ball with them!
Then we jumped back on the scooter and headed south. We came to a REALLY steep hill, and as we were going up, there were a bunch of high school aged kids on scooters coming down. So that we didn't crash, Aaron pulled over to the side of the road... but because the hill was so steep, every time he would hit the gas, we would go backwards, down the hill! Luckily, there were two young guys behind us who got off their scooter and gave us a little push... and the rest is history!
That is how we met these two! Nyoman (19) and Kadek (17), two boys, native to Ceningan Island! Their families are both seaweed farmers... They wanted to practice their english, so they offered to show us around the island.
First, they took us here to the Blue Lagoon, which was perfectly named! It was some of the bluest water I've seen to date!
Aaron and I standing on the cliff at the Blue Lagoon.
Then, they asked us if we wanted to see a beautiful view, which of course we did! so, we headed up the Tsunami trail to the top of the hill on the island, where we could see all of Bali and Lmebongan Island. We hung out here as the sun was setting and talked about living in Indonesia, religion, family, etc...
We hung out here for a while with all the locals! :)
When we got back to Bungalow No 7, we grabbed our towels and headed for the beach in front of the hotel to watch the end of the sunset and the lightning storm in the far off distance! It was beautiful!!
We have a date with Nyoman and Kadek today to jump of the yellow bridge connecting the 2 islands! I've never jumped off a bridge! Nyoman said he would jump with me and hold my hand while we jumped... so look out for my next blog! You just might see me jumping off a bridge! (Don't worry mom, it's only about 12 feet from the water!)