Indonesia - Lembongan

First - thanks to everyone for the comments and e-mails from the last blog, some of them were very funny - some quite cheeky (you know who you are!!). But does anyone know where my Sister Ginny has got to?

A big mug of tea to Andy and Schmenny with a truly superb piece of monetary conversion - 2 Million Rupiah = about 100 pound!!

These pictures are from 11th Feb (it's Valentines day today, 14th - so it's off for some special treats after this!).
After a 40 minute speed boat ride we arrived at another Indonesian island (there are hundreds!) Lembongan. This is Suzanne walking down the main street about to do some serious bargaining for a room for the night . We managed to get our own room with bathroom and sea view for the enormous sum of 85,000Rp (yes that really is 4 pound). Lembongan is not very 'touristy', so it gave us a good insight into normal Balinese village life.
This is the little strip on the beach where most of the accommodation is, that's Elvis testing out the sun lounger!

This is a couple of kids playing on the beach while their parents work on the seaweed farms just in front. These kids were fascinated when I took their picture and them showed them it on the camera.









If you are all fed up of seeing gorgeous sunsets on the blog, just let me know - I'll ignore you anyway! This was from the balcony on our room.

We hired a moped from the lady who cooks in the place we were staying and took off around the island. This is a little village next to the mangrove beach (great snorkelling!) . Nearly all the people on Lembongan are involved in the 'seaweed' market. You can see the seaweed laid out to dry (behind the Elvis on motorbike picture) and the picture of the guy 'raking it out to dry'. Now for a very tricky little free cup of tea question, can anybody tell us what they do with the seaweed?

The next few pictures are from villages and temples from around the island and kids riding their bikes back from school. This picture is the very rickety bridge that connects a tiny island to Lembongan - nerves of steel (and a change of underwear) were required riding over here - the boards lifted and rattled as you went over them!


Finally, back to Bali. This is the mode of transport that people use to move around the villages and towns, it's called a 'Bemo'. They run up and down the front street constantly and when you need one you wave him down. A ride anywhere along the street will set you back a massive 2,000 Rp each. Yes, that's 10 pence! You have to be on your guard though because one driver tried to rip us off and charge 20 pence each! Does he know we're on a budget!! The Bemo normally seats about 4 adults, so as you have probably guessed, when its busy the Balinese can get about 20 people in one. Yes Mr Sandersfield this picture WAS taken by me and my incredibly long arms - cheek!!

The next day we decided to take some public transport (mmmm) up to the North East coast to a place called Ahmed to see one of the best dive sites in all of Indonesia. That'll be the next blog then!