Bike Riding on Lembongan

My first day on Lembongan, I went on a snorkelling trip. It was a lot of fun, although it was disheartening to see all the garbage floating by in the water. I don't have an underwater camera, so I do not have any photos to show of the fish and other things I saw under the water.

The next day, I went for a bike ride around the island. It's not a big island and it is easily explored in a day. Of course, the day I went was the first full day of sunshine, and no rain. And it is a tropical island. So it was a very hot day.

I started out on the road at the back of the island. Very few people live on the back side of the island and I had the road to myself and it was like a deserted island

Lembongan is connected to the next island, Ceningan, by a yellow bridge. I went across because the maps show there is a secret lagoon and beach there

I was riding along and had just found the sign pointing to the secret lagoon when a man rode up and told me he would show me around. It must have been the heat because my radar really ought to have been up. It wasn't. He had me follow him up the hill and he showed me his house. I guess now I don't have to go to India. I had no idea it was here, on this little island. :)

Then he led me down towards the secret lagoon. And he started telling me about how he was a guide in the area. Oh, damn!!! So this was going to cost me, and I hadn't established how much before I followed him. Crap!!!

Here is the rather expensive photo I took of the secret lagoon. He showed me around a bit more and then said he would take me to a few more places around the island. Before I got on the bike, I stopped him and said I wasn't going anywhere until we had agreed on what I was going to pay him. We ended up agreeing on about 10 dollars. Outrageous for a place like that and for what he eventually showed me. But I was the sucker who didn't have his radar up, so I deserved it.

He took me to the secret beach on the back of his bike. It was a nice little beach, but it was occupied. She wasn't wearing very much, so I didn't go down and intrude. Then he took me up to a good viewpoint to see across to Lembongan and then to Bali.

As we were admiring the view three women rode up on their scooters (boy did I wish I had a scooter). They were fresh meat to him, so I think he didn't actually take me to one place he said he would. He started concentrating on getting them to follow him. They more or less did so and we ended up back at my bicycle. I warned them that the price of admission was rather steep and to be careful. I didn't have the exact change to give him, so I gave him a bill for change. He looked at me and asked if I wanted change. I think I may have laughed a little harshly as I said, yes, I wanted change. And I left Ceningan behind.

Next it was on to the higher class part of Lembongan, the part with the resorts and nice views of crashing seas. There was one spot that was called the Devil's Tear. I didn't actually take any photos there. I'm not sure why. I think I was just too fascinated with taking movies of the water crashing up on the area. So here is one movie.

I had lunch at one of the resort places. I found out that staying there at the time only cost about 30 dollars a night. That was a lot less than I had thought, particularly given the view that presented from atop the cliff. The waves were crashing into a bay and it was very soothing. Then I headed back towards my accommodation and a cool drink of water under the fan in my room.