snorkelling at menjangan island

After 3 days in Sanur, the first two very rainy, I travelled with Made (Alex's brother) to Pemuteran to stay at the lovely Taman Sari Hotel. The hotel is spread out over large grounds, and they have a very successful experimental project to re establish coral about 5 metres from the beach out the front of the hotel, an ideal spot for some snorkelling.

The highlight of the stay was the snorkelling at Menjangan Island. Sam and I enjoyed 3 hours of snorkelling, and one spot was called the ledge, a sheer drop down so deep we could not see the bottom, the coral was plentiful and colourful and the range of beautiful fish simply spectacular. Our boat crew comprised a skipper and a national park guide, which is compulsory. We organised motor bikes for the 15 km ride to Labuan Lalang where the boats leave for the island. Afterwards we enjoyed a fresh drink of coconut at the guide's home, meeting his young son aged 3 years.

We have moved onto Villa Agung in the village of Anturan, in the Lovina stretch and was met by the ever talkative Nyoman who remembered us from our visit 2 years ago. The beach sellers were onto us quickly and I make a point of buying something from each one, and they leave you alone for the rest of your stay.

On the way to the internet cafe a naughty pet monkey stole Sam's hat from his head and the owner had to take firm action to get it back!!

Only 4 sleeps to go!

As usual, the week or so before I leave I just cannot sleep! I find myself counting the number of sleeps (a common practice with Bali Travel Forum contributors, a travel site for travellers to Bali to share experiences through JBR's - Just Back Reports, ask questions about hotels, places to visit, etc., we even arrange get-togethers through the Forum and meet on Legian Beach at beach vendors' Sammy & Suzie's, it's a great way to get together with people from all over the world and meet the face you have known through the site only as a psynodeum. We also have get togethers in our home cities in Australia too, it's good fun. Anyway, back to the number of sleeps. The BTF administrator Ken has 'banned' us from posting number of sleeps, so this is my OWN blog page and I can do what I want so here you go .......... ONLY 4 SLEEPS TO GO!!!

I have decided to take a backpack this time as I will be travelling by boat to Lembongan Island and I think you may have jump out of the beach in the water to walk up the beach so I think I will find it easier to have a backpack. I bought the backpack from the op shop, a bargain at A$20 and it has a separate day pack I can zip off. It certainly looks well travelled and I wonder what adventures it would tell me if it could!

Anyway, I packed my things the other day and it came to 4.6 kg which is not bad for a girl planning a month long trip. Of course I haven't put all my toiletries like shampoo in yet, nor my all encompassing first aid kit (complete with toblerone chocolate bar for extreme emergencies like a broken limb - which would mean my trip would be over and that would call for desperate measures like the eating of chocolate!) I call it my lucky toblerone bar as it has travelled with me to bali for the past 3 years and although friends are urging me to replace it, as surely it would be all heat affected and white by now, I think it would be unlucky to replace it at this stage! By the way, I'm completely over chocolate as I have been doing a weight loss program with weight watchers over the past 12 months and lost almost 54 kg so I'm not going to be hoeing into my toblerone bar without good reason!

So now I've got plenty of luggage kgs to pack the donated items I have collected to take over there, things like bras for women who would need these things but they will spend their very small family income on important things like paying the $10 per month for their child to go to school. I noticed in the last presidential elections that not one of the 19 candidates had free education on their campaign agenda! So it is very hard for some families who live in villages and have to make a living from fishing to sell at the market to support themselves. Not every balinese relies on the tourist industry for an income. I've also got heaps of pens, pencils and exercise books for the children at the school I will be visiting while staying in the village homestay program. I've put in some pictorial books about Australia, even though they are from the op shop and a bit dated (the fellows look very neat in their bemuda shorts and long socks! era 1960-70), the Sydney Harbour Bridge looks the same and so do the kangaroos and outback photos.

Garuda gets three cheers for allowing myself and our son who will be joining me later on in my journey an extra 20 kg to take, so that's 60 kg in total, should be able to put lots of good items in my bag to give away.

Anyway, that's enough rambling, will post more when I get to Bali.