Nusa Lembongan. The Quiet Island To Take A Chance On

In Padangbai we hired a local fisherman for the hour boat ride to the small island of Nusa Lembongan. I had no idea how great this boat ride would be. Not only did he let me drive the boat but he gave me his rice hat to wear while I did and I was in heaven! 

Dream Beach

We arrived along the crystal clear waters of the island in the morning and quickly found our room and hired a scooter for the next three days at a bargain price of 160,000 Rp which is about $14 Cdn. I admit I was terrified of driving the scooter especially with a passenger on the back but I figured it was time to face my fear. This was a great place to practice driving as there are only a few work trucks on the island but no other cars. The streets were barely bigger than a sidewalk and there would be times you wouldn't see anyone else on the road. 

Mushroom Bay

We drove around for awhile, following our map of this small island, and ended up at Dream Beach. The water was an incredible color, the sand was white, and the waves came crashing in. We went for a good ride in the strong waves and enjoyed the scenery. Close to Dream Beach is a path that leads to Devil's Tear. The water comes crashing into the rocks and creates a natural water plume. I don't think nature has ever amazed me as much as this place did. The strength of the ocean is unbelievable.

The Magroves we had to snorkel through

The next day we drove to Mushroom Bay. I was nursing a horrible sunburn from snorkeling without sunscreen in Padangbai so we stayed out of the sun for the most part. We heard you could snorkel from shore here and we tried but found the current to be quite strong and there were too many boats to not worry about having our limbs torn off by a motor. 

We later headed to the mangroves. People had been trying to sell us snorkeling trips here but we made the decision to be cheap and try it ourselves. What a journey that was! We swam through mangroves, sticks, mud, seaweed farms, and dogged multiple water snakes, but we finally made it to the coral and it was so worth it! The fish were incredible, the coral was beautiful and best of all it was free. The only issue was that we had to go back through all of that to get to shore. 

The next day we hired a local fisherman again and got a good deal on a snorkeling trip to The Wall and Crystal Bay. Crystal Bay was full of beautiful, healthy, colorful coral. It was the first time we got to feel like Little Mermaid which we quite enjoyed. When we snorkeled the wall we followed the current along the coral but after seeing how healthy Crystal Bay was we weren't as impressed, but that may have also been because we both were stung by jelly fish. The current is strong and you couldn't see them coming so when I cleared my mask I got stung on the face and Rachel was stung twice on her hip and back.

We thought the snorkel trip was over and we were both a little cold but the fisherman had something else in mind. Little did I know how fantastic the day was about to become. He stopped at a spot and asked me if I wanted to snorkel again as he was going to snorkel. Rachel decided to stay in the boat and I took my GoPro along for some more video. Ends up that the guy was spear fishing. I saw the first fish he caught and he was such a great sport about it. He came right up to the camera with me and we took a selfie with the fish. He continued fishing and I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do so I took a chance and swam after him. He handed me the next fish and told me to hold on and swim it back to the boat. This continued on until we had caught a few fish. There aren't even words to explain how amazing this was for me. I still shake my head in awe of that day. We decided to hire him again the next day for our trip back to Padangbai for our ferry to Lombok. For a little island there was a lot to offer and a lot to enjoy. This was before Gili. Before things changed for us. Before we knew what we were really getting into.

Mushroom Bay

Cheap Scooters for Rent

Devil's Tear

Some of the coral at Crystal Bay

Catch of the Day!

Padangbai. Not Just A Transit Town

Padangbai

After a few days in Ubud we looked in our travel book and randomly picked out our next route. We wanted to go to the island south of Bali called Nusa Lembongan so we decided to go via Padangbai. We stayed two nights in this little fishing village but it had a few hidden gems.This was one of those towns where checking the travel blogs came in handy.
We took the main road up to the right and found one of the oldest temples in Bali perched up on a cliff along the water. The next day we took the same road over to the left, up a huge hill, and ended up at Blue Lagoon Beach and what a site! This was the first crystal blue water we had seen in Bali and heard there was some great snorkeling here. We lug around our own snorkel gear which some days we curse, but this day it was a blessing. There was a natural opening in the coral close to shore and we snorkeled in the morning when the sea was calm for almost two hours along the coast. There was no need to pay for a snorkeling trip here when you can go for free from the beach. We saw some great coral, found Nemo for the first time, and I saw my first eel. I fell in love with this little town. Maybe it was because I was back at the ocean, maybe it was the ships and the ferries that reminded me of Vancouver or maybe it was the lack of tourists. Either way it was a great place to spend an extra day for the snorkeling alone.

One of the oldest temples in Bali

Blue Lagoon Beach

The beach has a lot of volcanic rocks

Follow the opening on the left for some great snorkeling
right from the beach

What To Do When It Rains in Bali

Here we are in paradise. When you think of paradise, at least for me, you think of the hot sun, the beach and just relaxing. But sometimes in paradise it rains. After a day of surfing and waking up sore, we decided to spend an extra night in Legian, Bali. We are within a five minute walk to the beach and thought it would be good just take a full day of laying in the sun, but were rained out after an hour or so. We headed back towards our room and stopped to get some water from the cute little store down Melati Street Gang (gang means an ally type road). Beside the store was Energy Ink, a tattoo shop that we had passed on many occasions. As the rain came down harder we decided to go in and take a look. And that's when it happened. Within the next hour both of us had designed and priced out a tattoo for each of us and booked for the next morning.

Realizing what we were in for

After a lot of thought we decided to put down our deposit. This meant a couple of things for us. We had to book an extra night here in Legian, which at $14 a night we weren't complaining, and we had to change our future travel plans as swimming is out of the question for a bit. The joy of freely traveling with no set plans is we can do whatever we want. So tomorrow we head to Ubud for some relaxing and adventures that do not include swimming. 

We both got tattoos on our sides. This area hurts more than I could imagine but we bared the pain and got through it. The guys at Energy Ink were great, making sure we were OK and the place had a great vibe. I didn't think I would end up doing this on this trip. Back home we would just say YOLO, but here as everyone says; Whatever. It's Bali.

It Only Takes A Of Couple Days To Feel Like Forever

It took us over twenty four hours of traveling to get to Bali, Indonesia but here we are on our third day and I feel like I have been here for weeks. Just finished a simple breakfast with coffee and am sitting outside of our room listening to the rain gently fall down. I think this is where they record every ambient relaxing piece of music from the sound the rain to the birds and even the annoying roosters in the morning it just makes every inch of your body relaxed.
Now that I have blabbed on about how relaxed I am I can tell you that our first stop in Bali has every reason not to be relaxing. We are staying in the Legian/Kuta area which is beyond touristy. Every shop sells the same shirts, sarongs, watches, random wooden penis', offers massages and shady money changing. We have walked street after street, been called beautiful, sexy, and girlfriend. We've had people try and be our friends, take pictures with us, and of us. We have had an overload of people selling everything. At one point there were six people crowded around us at the beach trying to sell us everything from massages, to bow and arrows, to bracelets and hair braiding. We even said no to rice hats and ice cream. Something I am still regretting this morning, as I imagine sitting here with my rice hat on and a Magnum bar. Maybe I'll get more ice cream today. We also had to switch rooms. It is disgusting hot here. Our fan in our fan room broke the first night. The point I am getting at is that with all the craziness that is here, the people hawking us, there are still not words to explain how amazing it really feels here.
The sunsets are like falling head over heels in love. The people are incredibly kind. The smell of incense is everywhere, calming the soul. The sounds are relaxing. The vibe is just all around good. I think I see why people never leave and I think I remember why I always wanted to be here.

Sunset at the gates of Legian Beach

Gorgeous sunset on Legian Beach

To Travel Is To Live

Jen

Rachel

In less than a week we are going to be leaving the comforts and the familiarity of our homes, friends, family, jobs and life as we know it. We are two sisters nine years apart who have decided to take on an adventure, go out of our comfort zones and see the world. 

The idea for this trip sprung a year ago when our youngest of three sisters took a leap and moved to New Zealand. Having never been on a plane, lived on her own, or ever having a job we saw her grow and learn as she faced her new world head on. This came as an inspiration for myself, Jen, and I figured if my 18 year old sister could do it so could I. Then there were a change of plans. She decided to come home and my thoughts of living and traveling in New Zealand changed. One day I was reading a fellow travelers blog which stopped me dead in my tracks. He had left with a one way ticket, a minimal amount of money and has been finding ways to support himself while traveling the world. He has been traveling as of today for 5,057 days and has visited 87 countries. You can read his blog if you want to see all the things he has been doing to support himself along the way http://www.wanderingearl.com/

Needless to say he made me look at traveling as a way of life not just a trip. I thought about going back to India, trying the Europe thing, but when I realized how far my money could take me in South East Asia I decided to start there. I've always wanted to go to Bali and Thailand and figured why not add it all in. Gorgeous beaches, new cultures, volcanoes, a chance to dive in some great spots...once I got certified of course! It was a huge life changing decision I made that day and have had to change my life in so many ways since that day. It just so happened that my middle sister decided one day to ask me if she could join me. I was a little hesitant, not because I didn't want the company, but because I had a vision of things I wanted to do. I gave her my list, told her the style of trip I wanted to try and she was all for it. 

I've packed my belongings in storage, lived with roommates, taken a leave from work for a year, said goodbye to most of my family and friends and here we are. We fly out in less than a week from Toronto to Bali with a layover in Hong Kong. I've heard everything from everyone on how to stay safe, how I will find myself, things I need to take. As I did with India two years ago, we're not going to be naive but we're going to go with open minds and open hearts and hope we can really take in the beauty of life. We don't want to just travel, we want to live.

 Here are our lives so far:

Packing our backpacks for six months

Rachel's belongings are packed up at home

Backpack packed and moving out