Nusa Lembongan

After Kuta, we decided that we'd had enough of the busy beach scene for a while and headed off to Nusa Lembongan. Nusa Lembongan is an island about 1 hour's boat ride from Sanur, on the southwest coast of Bali. The island is home to several thousand Balinese and a handful of tourists. Most visitors come here to surf, dive, relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of Southern Bali's resorts.

Most of the locals are involved in the seaweed industry, so every afternoon, when the tide goes out, people migrate to the beaches, where they harvest seaweed and set it out to dry on the sand. We were told that a kilo of seaweed can be sold for around 4,000 Rupiah, or $0.40 USD. From our observations, it looked like most people harvest about 2-3 kilos of seaweed per day. Most of this seaweed is eventually exported to Japan and the US (seaweed extract is used in some ice cream and other dairy products as a solidifying agent).

Aside from learning a little about seaweed agriculture and the local economy, we took advantage of some of the activities on this beautiful little island. We snorkeled the reef beyond one of the surf breaks, went on a push-bike adventure around the island, tried our hand at sea fishing and did two dives. Our snorkeling adventure was a bit a more involved than we anticipated. To get to the reef from shore, we had to maneuver our way through the seaweed farms, over sharp rocks and around ominous sea urchins for over 100 meters. Our efforts were rewarded with a beautiful reef and a good afternoon. We wanted to try more surfing, but took one look at the reef-inflicted war wounds on surfers as they returned each morning, and decided maybe we should stick to the gentle beach breaks in Kuta. We did surf Kuta for one day and it was a better location for beginners.

The dives were really cold, but worth the pain and suffering, because we both saw Manta Rays for the fist time. For those of you who aren't familiar with Manta Rays, they are huge black and white sting ray-like creatures who feed on plankton and love the cold water environment of Bali. It's difficult to describe what it was like to see them in the water, but they were a bit like graceful 10-meter flying saucers that appeared out of nowhere and glided right over us like we weren't even there.

Led by a local guy we called "Captain Mushroom", we went fishing one morning with some English and dutch friends. This "Sea fishing" was essentially skewering chopped up tuna onto a hook and weight attached to a roll of fishing line and lowering that down to the sea floor. Not super-technical, but actually tons of fun. Billy caught a grouper, our friends caught several more groupers and a snapper. Julia didn't catch anything, but the boys were nice enough to share some of the cooked fish with her later that evening. The freshly caught fish was a great meal and the snapper was the tastiest.

As always, our visit to this island was made special by all of the amazing people we met. Our English and dutch surfing friends provided tons of laughs and hours of musical entertainment. Billy thoroughly enjoyed the jam sessions and learning new songs. The Australian family, with their kids in tow, ensured that we kept the potty-mouth to a minimum and shared some great insight into the Balinese life and culture. The family was great fun and made us miss our family at home...love you mom and dad.

We absolutely loved Nusa Lembongan and would strongly recommend it to anyone planning a trip to Bali.

-Julia and Billy


Nusa Lembongan


Julia, overlooking Dream beach


One of the bays we saw on our push-bike adventure around the island


Billy, lamenting the tiny bike seat


Seaweed harvesting


Footbridge to Nusa Ceningan, Billy met several local boys here who looked up at him and simply said, 'Money'


Kieran, Jules, Kris, Jack and Foreno preparing their bait


The fishing boat


Billy with his dinner


Sunset on Nusa Lembongan


The fish was thiiiiiiiiiiiiis big


Julia, Kieran and Jack


Billy serenades the crowd at Agung Bungalows

Our introduction to Indonesia: Kuta beach and corrupt government officials

Upon our arrival in Bali, we had a trip first: extortion...by a corrupt government official. When we arrived at the airport in Bali, Julia's passport was nearly full of stamps and visas and there were only two blank pages available for the Indonesian visa (which takes up a full page). The immigration control officer jumped on the opportunity to make an extra buck and insisted that she pay a "fine" of $50 US, because he had to put the visa on one of the last pages. Julia asked for a receipt and the officer just laughed. Angry, but without another option, Julia paid the fine. Not the the best first impression of Bali.

Originally, we had planned to skip Kuta beach all together and immediately head elsewhere in Bali, but Billy needed to see a doctor and Julia needed to visit the US consulate to get additional pages added to her passport, so we decided to stick around Kuta for a few days.

Honestly, for all the negative press it receives, Kuta isn't really all that bad, especially if you take it for what it is: a crowded town on a heavily touristed island. The beach is ok, the town itself is entertaining for a few days, but nothing spectacular (plus you have to fight off thousands of people trying to sell you stuff). Regardless of its downfalls, we still had fun. We did a little surfing, relaxed, met up with some Dutch friends, Oscar and Anamica, and planned the rest of our adventure in Bali.

-Julia and Billy


Kuta Beach


Billy's first solid meal after a bout with food poisoning


Each home in Bali seemed to have its own family temple


Busy streets of Kuta


Dinner with our Dutch friends, Oscar and Anamica


Kuta's crazy nightlife, though interesting, was not exactly our style. Can you see the person on stilts dressed in the nurse outfit? Yep, that pretty much sums it up.


2002 nightclub bombing memorial


Sunset at Kuta beach

A royal sighting in Kuala Lumpur

We planned a rather brief stopover in Kuala Lumpur. We were expecting to see a few sights, do a little shopping and enjoy the comforts of a nice hotel (cashing in on Julia's hotel points, of course), but Billy got sick and we ended up staying close to the Hotel. One evening, we got a little unexpected sighting...the King of Malaysia.

We were enjoying a snack at the hotel when we noticed that there was a group of beautiful people dressed up in traditional Malaysian clothing milling about in the lobby and practicing some hand gestures. We thought this was a little odd, so we decided to check it out. Upon further investigation, we noticed a red carpet and a grand entrance set up. It turned out that the King of Malaysia was visiting our hotel. We only got a brief glimpse, but it was still pretty cool. It's not everyday that you get to see the king.

-Billy and Julia


Kuala Lumpur


Billy and Julia, hanging out with the King's welcome wagon


The Petronas Towers


It's good to be the king, can you spot the king of Malaysia in this photo?


Scooter-riders in KL

Sipadan: A Divers Paradise

We arrived in Semporna, the launching off point for dive trips to Sipadan and were pleasantly surprised to find that our accommodation, the Dragon Inn, was better than expected. We had air conditioning, clean sheets, much needed hot water, breakfast included, and we were a quick 5 minute walk from the dive shop (always a good thing if you are one who relishes every extra minute of sleep). This was a definite treat after roughing it in the jungle; it's amazing how you take such simple things for granted until you're in a situation where you don't have the basic comforts of home.

The town of Semporna itself turned out to be a dump, but the diving more than made up for it. We spent four days diving, three of those days at Sipadan Island and one at Mantabuan. The diving world class, especially at Sipadan. Sipadan, a pinnacle island, is located off the continental shelf and seemingly appears out of nowhere. The portion of the island that sits above water is actually very small, but once underwater, provides the stunning sheer cliffs that plunge to 600 meters on one side of the island and 1200 meters on the other.

We don't know exactly why this is the case, but we were told that the fact that the island is located off the continental shelf creates an ideal environment for sea life to flourish (that and it's part of a protected marine park so there isn't any dynamite fishing). We saw hundreds of turtles, a handful of reef sharks (white-tip and black-tip), one leopard shark, lion fish, scorpion fish, Anemone fish, lobsters, trigger fish, unicorn fish and much more. In addition to the sea life, the conditions were a diver's dream: the visibility was over 20 meters, the variety of coral was impressive, and the water was a comfortable 84 degrees (29 degrees Celsius, for Anna and all of you other crazy Celsius-using Europeans). Needless to say, we were thoroughly impressed and would recommend Sipadan to any diver.

We experienced only one minor hiccup while diving at Sipadan. During our first day of diving, Julia was provided with a malfunctioning BCD (the air valve o-ring was bad), but we didn't figure this out until we were about 20 meters deep. Julia went to adjust her buoyancy by slightly inflating her BCD, and all of a sudden air started to free flow into her BCD. Julia skyrocketed towards the surface like a balloon, and after failing to get Billy's attention by yelling (which is impossible underwater) she managed to grab him on her way up. Since her BCD was free flowing, purging the airbag did nothing, so Billy had to disconnect the BCD air hose, but not before we went up nearly 10 meters together. This scary incident put us both on edge for the remainder of a beautiful dive.

The nightlife in Semporna was non-existent after midnight, except for a little thing called a Chinese karaoke bar, which Billy got to enjoy during two evenings (Julia had food poisoning and missed out on all the fun).

-Julia and Billy


The Dragon Inn, which was built on stilts over the water


Overlooking the dive site at Mantabuan


Anemone fish (Nemo fish)


Julia, free diving


Lion fish, beautiful, but poisonous


Billy, swimming with a turtle


A local fisherman shows off his catch


The Celebes Sea


Steve (underwater photographer-extraordinaire), Mike (the divemaster) and Julia on the boat a Mantabuan


The dock at Sipadan, we spent our surface intervals on this beach (resting between dives)


Billy, resting and sunning himself on the beach (get that hairy monster out of here!)


Julia, doing the same, but looking much better


The Malaysian military personnel who patrol Sipadan really wanted a photo with Billy and these Swedish children


Ominous clouds move towards Sipadan

Into the Jungle...

After spending a few days in Kota Kinabalu, we decided that our fist excursion would be to a jungle lodge. We spent 2 days and a night at a jungle lodge in the forest near Kota Kinabatagan.

The adventure started in Kota Kinabalu, where we hopped on a bus and suffered through a hellish 5 hour ride to Kota Kinabatagan. This was one ride for the books. First off, we barely caught the bus after initially being ushered onto the wrong bus. Julia had the stroke of genius to ask where the bus was going... After a little chaos, we stopped the other bus that was pulling out and got the last seats available, in the back, next to the toilet. We soon found that the a/c vent above our seats was broken and Billy managed to put some engineering skills to use and block the vent with his sock. Since we were in the back, we couldn't see or hear the movie, which was on too low to hear anyway. To make matters worse, the toilet started overflowing...and yes, we were right next to it, which made for an unpleasant smell and several damp items.

From Kota Kinabatabgan, the jungle lodge people picked us up and took us on a dusty bumpy ride to the lodge.

At the lodge, we put Billy's new guitar to work singing Ghost Riders in the Sky returning us to childhood memories of car trips with the family. Billy entertained our fellow travelers and guides with some Johnny Cash and Beatles songs late into the night. We took evening and morning boat trips up the river in search of wildlife, and participated in a night hike. On the boat trips we saw tons of birds, monkeys (including the long-nosed proboscus monkey), lizards and even a crocodile. The night hike was an interesting opportunity to check out all of the micro life in the jungle. We saw lots of brightly colored frogs and insects with the help of our Australian friend, Steve, who became our own personal tour guide. To Julia's great relief, we didn't have any personal encounters with leeches.

-Julia and Billy


Billy suffers through the bus ride


Arriving the lodge


The lodge's dock onto the Kinabatagan river


Our Welsh friend, Tasha, after the dusty drive


The Kinabatagan river


One of the Wildlife boat trips


Monkeys playing in the trees


Sunset


Looking for animals on the river


Steve pointing out a frog during our night hike


Sunrise on the river


Can you see the monitor lizard sunning himself on this slanted tree?


Billy, Tasha, Steve, Julia and Hannah at the lodge