Something Clever : Lembongan Island, Indonesia

Typing on my phone has lost all novelty and I am just sick of it, but I will push through! Have put off for too long! I departed for Indonesia from Kazakhstan, and with brief layovers in Astana (peanuts), Moscow (pigeons and excellent airport internet for birthday singing) and Bangkok (mango and sticky rice! I thought I didn't have to do 3 layovers again!) landed in the Bali airport and officially needed like 4 less clothing layers. My brain could not compute the difference in temperature. It was insane, and the humidity was nuts. It felt so good! The extremely lush scenery leaving the airport was awesome and the huge statue of a horse cart on the way to the ATM was cool. My hotel had arranged for a transfer company to pick me up, which they did indeed do, and we headed out to the boat landing at Sanur beach along busy streets. The bus stops are elevated off the road, so cool!

We arrived at the beach and in the few minutes I had to wait, switched from my huge boots to flip flops. All I could think of was switching from Cheryl Strayed to Elizabeth Gilbert! Should have taken a photo! We then boarded the boat run by the same company that had picked me up by car (we put our flip flops in a boat-provided container and walked through the water barefoot to get on, it was quite an introduction!!) and sped to Lembongan Island. My driver was not impressed that I was going to stay there for 6 days "It's too small!" but with the amount of activities included in my package, I didn't fear being bored.

I arrived on the beach (they dumped out our flip flops so we could retrieve them upon our exit - they float off if people try to board the boat with them, I saw that happen!) and headed through one of the alleys between buildings to an open backed tourist truck with a covered roof that brought me to my hotel! (With huge puddles in the road that you had to grip the sides of the street to maneuver around!) It was about 5pm and I was greeted at Rama Garden with a Welcome Drink (cucumber mint!) and a jam packed schedule for the next 5 days! People keep asking me how I chose this vacation... 'google cheap yoga retreats' is my answer! I did some research to find out that all the activities were at different locations in the village (but included in the price) so it was not as though I was in an all inclusive walled resort. We were very much just one of the many hotels and guest houses throughout the town, however my package did include breakfast and lunch every day, so I was sure to see the town and also the hotel fairly often.

What followed was an incredibly incredibly pleasant week. I had so so so much fun at the lovely yoga classes, worked through my annoyance about being terrible at surfing, had two massages, ate very very well (light food with eggs, veggies and fruit, great smoothies including mango, pineapple, or my favorite, peanut butter!) and took a magical snorkeling trip to see soooo many cool fish!!! I met great people (who had googled 'cheap yoga retreats' as well?) including people from Finland, Washington DC, the Isle of Jersey, and Singapore. Most of all, I really really enjoyed the island (and wish the schedule had included more time to explore! But such is life!). It was not rich, by any means, but people greeted you without agenda, were kind and lovely, and took pride in their businesses, with logoed clothing being very common. Tourism appreared to be a huge part of the economy and people seemed to be doing reasonably well for themselves with scooters and lots of happy outdoor socializing.

Now because I can't handle it, I am just going to describe some pictures and call it a night! Haha

One of many kind of free roaming but cared for beach dogs headed down the road from my hotel to the beach. This road was full of puddles but did dry out well the last 3 days I was there. I was shocked at how quickly it dried!

Very nice sunset (these photos should be in reverse order) from close by bean bag dinner restaurant with good pizza and nachos to counter the healthy hotel food! Only had a sunset this night as other nights it was too overcast.

"Yoga Shack" which was not a shack but a gorgeous pavilion type thing complete with lizard audience. Loved doing yoga here with the breeze coming in and nice teacher. Amazing how every yoga teacher is a little different and teaches you something new. No, I didn't buy any car insurance from them :-)

All kinds of statues.

And temples that got twice daily offerings in palm baskets, so a weekly cleaning was necessary. After the incense is out, the offerings aren't sacred any more.