Nusa Lembongan

That evening at we to a Japanese restaurant for dinner called Dahana.


On Thursday morning we woke up and left by 8am for Nusa Lembongan.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Nusa_Lembongan

The boat ride was only half an hour, so we arrived by 11am. At which point we found a two very cheap rooms (though, they didn't have Air Conditioning, so I wouldn't say it was wrongly priced). The dive operation that we were going to be with was called Dive Concepts, and they were all French. I have met so many people in Bali that speak French, it is making me more and more regretful I really have never been able to pick up the language in a school setting. Maybe one summer I will do an intensive French course to make up for it.

The rest of Thursday was spent on motorbikes touring the small island. We went to Dream Beach (which finally had acceptable sand). The guys wanted to go snorkeling in the mangroves but the men who were going to sell them the boat were trying to rip them off. It's funny, in Bali I was reading The Beach by Alex Garland. Ironically one of the lines in the book said one of the characters "Boycotted Indonesia because of Bali" and basically the touristy unauthentic scene. I laughed at that, but supposed I was far less of a ''traveller" than on "holiday" in Richard's eyes.

Though one thing he spoke of is very apparent. The uneasy feeling of buying things from locals who are clearly making it overpriced because you're a tourist but also need the few extra dollars far more than you do. Haggling with poverty. Anyways, since the guys couldn't go snorkeling they decided to watch a Cock Fight which we had passed on the way.

It will undoubtedly be the worst experience of my travels.

As a young teenager I had an irrational fear of chickens and roosters in Cayman. They roam around the town centre and are just so... so... well they made my skin crawl so I would give them a wide berth. Turns out my fears were actually fully rational.

Cock Fights happen in Hindu religion after some kind of ceremony that was lost on me. So they're held in a temple. Which means, we had to pay money to put on sari's to go and watch rooster's being forced to fight the other to the death, out of respect and all. Read that sentence again. I seemed to be the only one of the five of us who found this nauseating. I suppose I was the only girl.

There must have been 60 men there, the men who seem to be struggling for money but are all shouting and bidding over $50 for each fight. It was confusing. Thankfully I didn't see too much of the fight. I saw dead roosters on one side, and others in woven cages on the other, waiting. I saw a moment when two of the roosters had given up fight one another and were put in a small cage that they were forced to jump up on one another in attempt to escape...
Basically it was all very horrible for me.

Once we returned we went to the beach (yay) and met with other guys for dinner (the ratio of guys to girls ever increasing). After we sat around and I watched one of the surfer dudes do some cool smoke tricks and play his ukulele to Bob Marley songs.

Early sleep.

Remember the Cock Fighting? Well my sleep in the stuffy, hot room was not that great, but at 5am the roosters started to crow. There were dozens, incessantly. I couldn't get the images out of my mind so up I was at 5:30am, reading The Beach. Waiting for my 7:30am dive.

We went to Crystal Bay and Manta Point. The two attractions which were our main goal were Manta-rays and Sunfish (Mola mola).  Sadly we actually didn't see either. I was less disappointed the the three Thai guys, for it was the only reason they went diving.

The boat ride was seriously rough (managing to put on a wetsuit was quite an ordeal) and two of the guys were actually sick before our first dive. Diving was a lot harder than it is in Cayman because the currents were so strong I had to really fight to move around, and restrain from using my arms frantically and looking like a n00b. It also made me really miss my parents. I only ever go diving with them, and coming up between dives there is so much chat and laughter, on this dive there was just a loud silence and rocking.

Other than those things, the dive was lovely, I'm glad I managed to do it. The corals were far more colourful than in Cayman (we were much shallower to at about 50 feet max, so that helped), and less damage than what I imagine has been inflicted on our reefs over the decades.

I saw a baby lobster and so many wicked Clown Trigger Fish. There was one stingray and a turtle as well - but I've been spoiled into thinking they're commonplace.

By time we got back I took a nap and chilled in the sun for awhile before we left by 4 for the boat back to Bali.

That night I stayed in. I was exhausted and knew I would be struggling to keep my eyes open, so let the boys go out and try and find those chicks they were always talking about.