We’ve spent the last week on the islands of Nusa Lembongan and Gili Air. After a rough start to the trip with Frances succumbing to seasickness, it’s been plain sailing since. We’ve mainly used the time for some rest and relaxation to recover from 4 months of non-stop travel. We thought a blow-by-blow account of our days sitting by the pool wouldn’t be that interesting, so instead we’ve just put together a selection of some of our best activities:
1. We swam with Manta rays at Manta Point (inventive name) off Nusa Penida’s coast. They are usually seen feeding close to the surface in this area, but decided they weren’t going to play ball that day and were diving deep. Third time lucky we found these beautiful guys:
Andrew got a bit carried away diving down with them, and managed to explode his eyeball.
2. We worked hard on the tans. It being low season here, and seemingly even fewer tourists around compared to usual (who knows why) we were often the only people staying in our guesthouse. This meant we had the pool to ourselves, and a personal restaurant service.
3. We went full vegan. This cafe was bored of seeing our faces after visiting 4 days in a row, we sampled nearly everything on the menu. Our favourite was the sharing platter (below). We even had a personal handshake with the cafe front man. Frances found instagram fame after writing an ass kissing google review, which they featured on their story.
4. We watched the sunset and sat on a swing. Andrew got revenge for the Great Barrier Reef hand holding saga & refused to participate in the romantic scene.
Andrew: Have you hand sanitised?
5. We found another turtle. And a few more. Video credit to our snorkel guide who took over the GoPro filming for this shot. To be fair to him he can hold his breath for far longer than us.
6. We visited some underwater statues. This completely clear shot that lasted under 1 second masks the real story. There’s an unbelievable crowd of tourists splashing around with bizarrely dressed “influencers” posing in the middle. Unfortunately we’d forgotten our knee length striped socks for the fantastic photo opportunity.
7. We treated ourselves to a Spa day. Andrew had a full body Balinese massage whilst Frances opted for a Foot Massage and Pedicure. It turn out even by Indonesian standards Frances has ridiculously small feet, which her therapist enjoyed mocking.
We are now in Kuala Lumpur for a few days before heading on our final wildlife excursion of the trip; Orangutan trekking in North Sumatra. We’ll update you on life in the big KL soon.
There & Back Again 