If Bali is paradise, Nusa Lembongan is heaven

seaweed drying

If Bali is paradise then then Nusa Lembogan is heaven. We took an all day tour with Bali Hai leaving from Benoa Harbour at 9.15 and arriiving at Nusa Lembongan after 45 minutes. Like I said Nusa Lembongan is heaven. It's like Bali must of been like 30 years ago, time has stopped here. The water is the most beautiful blue that I have ever seen,deep, clear and with an abundant of sea life, great for any snorkler or diver.

There's also great surfing with waves rolling in one after another, breaking over the coral reefs below . Nusa Lembongan is made up two villages Jungutbatu and Lembongan with 3000 people living in each, they are seperated by 4 kilometres of sealed road. The island provides cheap accomodation at Jungutbatu and more upmarket accomodation at Mushroom Bay.

The islands lack of fresh water and thin soil does not permitt the cultivation of rice but other crops such as maize, cassava and beans are grown here. By walking around the villages and from the strong smells of the seaweed drying in the sun you can see the main indusrty is the harvesting of seaweed with women doing most of the labouring. 85% of the population are seaweed farmers, while only 5% work in tourism.

The children are schooled at one school, with elementary classes running from 8am-12pm and Junior high school classes from 1pm-5pm. If students want to continue their education they must move to Denpasar and stay with their relatives or are forced to quit. The island has one ckinic with the doctor mainly attending to surfing injuries caused from the coral.

The Bali Hai cruise gives you a great opportunity to help with a turtle release program. there are too many boats and fisherman in the water so they collect the eggs layed by the turtles, they are then hatched and released on Sunset beach unfortunately the land around the beach is for sale with plans for villas to be built. if they sell the land they will have to search for a new place for the turtles to be released.

If I go back to Bali I know I will definately be coming back to Nusa Lembongan not just a day but for a few days that could easily turn into a week as time has stopped here.