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Miraculously I woke up at 5:30am with only the most faint hangover this morning, which was brilliant news. I packed up all my stuff in the room - Lembongan stuff to last till the 30th in my board bag and backpack, and the rest of it in my suitcase to leave locked up in the luggage store room.
When I first saw Joey and Matt in reception they were looking pretty rough, and had a couple of the stories from the night before, which were DEFINITELY worth heading! Joey, as planned, got his very first Tat...'GNARLY' on his butt cheek, during the process of which he nearly passed out! It actually looks pretty good thoug this morning so thats alright.
Georgie, who was apparently mad drunk, got 'Over Frothing' on his foot, to add to the collection of a few big tattoos he already has on his chest and torso. However I am yet to see that one, or him at all infact, as he didnt ever get back to the villa last night Hahahaha. I'll have to catch up with him on the 30th when we get back, before he and Saskia go to Bankok!
Our shuttle picked us up at 7am as planned and took us to Padang Bai, where we got the boat at 9:30am. We were on a big speed boat with about 8 others, which was awesome. We thought it was at least an hour on the boat, but were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at what can only be referred to as a tropical paradise island about half an hour later. Pulling up on a beach with bright white sand, crystal clear water and no rubbish etc was amazing!
From there we got a shuttle to the main harbour/bay 15 minutes down the worst Indonesian roads I have seen, where we went to the 'Monkey Surf' shack, recommended by Kira+Win from when they came here. We spoke to the cool French dude who runs it, and wandered on another 50m to find somewhere to stay...and what a place we found!!
Saskia and I are sharing a double room, which is the most amazing room I have ever stayed in in my life! As the photos will show, you can literally roll out of bed, over a pavement and into the ocean, it's incredible! You can also see one of the good reefs breaking right out the front, and check the surf from laying in bed! To be able to get it for $12 a night each seems unbelievable!
Having got our rooms sorted (Joey and Matt sharing a double next to ours is very funny), we had a mammoth lunch to shake any hangover anyone had, and decided to go for a surf. Me, Saskia and Joey organised a local to take us out to 'Shipwrecks' (one of the 3 reefs) in his boat, while Matt who doesn't surf went snorkelling in the bay.
Taking a boat out to the reef was unreal, it was just like you see pros do in their surf videos, didn't seem right I was doing the same! I couldn't believe how nice the water was, just completely crystal clear and could watch the reef whizzing along below the boat.
He dropped us off and said he would come back 2 hours later to collect us. We paddled over to the the peak where the most perfect 2/3ft little waves were breaking and peeling round the reef. it was super unnerving to see the water so clear and multicouloured reef right below you, but inspection showed it was about 6ft on the takeoff spot. All the same I was glad to be wearing booties!
For the first half an hour or so we had the spot to our selves, which was perfect so we could get used to it etc. Saskia struggled a bit as shes goofy and it's a right hand wave, Joey got a few and I was having an absolutely amazing time. The wave was long enough to allow you to do 2/3 turns before the reef was only about 2ft deep and you had to pull off.
Then 2 young French kids from Cambreton, as it turned out, came out who were incredible surfers, and were showing the rest of us horribly. It was seriously impressive to watch them surf.
After that 2 Indonesian blokes came out, but only lasted about 15 minutes - one of them took a wave and in the closeout his fin hit the back of his leg, almost completely severing his Achilles Heal. It was a pretty horrible looking injury, and fortunately there was a boat still around so he got on that back to shore straight away. It was the same boat as the one we used, so on our way in later I asked the captain about it. He said that blood was squirting out with his pulse into the boat...nice!!
When we came back we we chilled out for a while, then decided to go for a wander down the beach, and see if we could find somewhere to eat. It turns out the entire waterfront of the bay is backed by hotels/restatraunts, but in quite a classy nice way. We all came to the conclusion that Lembongan is by far nicer than any part of Bali we have seen yet.
We came across somewhere to eat where the guy did his best to sell it to us with 'best food in the bay' claim, and looked like a nice place so went for it. We had fresh coconuts and then dinner there, before walking back 'home' in the dark later.
When we got back every man and his 5 year old son was setting off fireworks from the tiny strip of sand on the beach, so we sat outside watching for a while before going to bed.
(Photo - the view out of our room. You couldn't get much closer to the water if you tried!)
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