Hello everyone, we're back! 

You may be wondering why we stopped updating the blog so early on our trip. The problem was the internet connection in most places but it was already poor in Lembongan. We had a hard time uploading anything to the blog, especially the photos. Although we had our own internet connection in many places (which was still working under the hotel connection), it was too slow to upload even one picture. The frustration led us to quit updating, because the blog is quite boring without photos. But we'll try and write our travel story now, so you'll know how it all went.

On the local boat to Lembongan

First of all, we decided to do the Divemaster-course on this trip because we're travelling so long with loads of time for it. We chose to go to Lembongan island again as we liked the island and the diving there when we visited it the first time in 2012 and because we were pleased with our dive shop Lembongan Dive Center (for short LDC). We planned to do the course in two months, which is a good time for the course, and we did do the course in that time, but in two parts. More about that later.

Divemaster course material

In 2012 we took a Rocky fast boat from Sanur, Bali,which takes about 30 minutes to Lembongan. It costs more than the local boat, so this time we decided to save money and cross with the local boat. We were a bit worried about it, as they tend to overpack these boats with people, animals and food and sometimes these boats sink because of this. We had luck though as our boat only had as much tourists as there were seats and no chicken:) The trip took about an hour and cost 125,000 IDR one way. Rocky roundtrip costs 450,000, car service included. We went to our dive shop first to say hello and drop our dive gear and got a warm welcome. They still remembered us and were immediately joking around.What a great staff.

Lembongan Dive Center. Don't let its small size fool you, they're professionals and know the dive sites like their own pockets.

A few things had changed since our last visit here. Some new buildings had emerged like our Widia Homestay, and an ATM now lies in the corner of Warung 99 right on the beach. It doesn't always work, so it's still better to bring cash to the island. And many companies here like to have their payments in cash. Our homestay was nice. Because we stayed on the island long (first planned to be here two months, but our plans changed due to an accident), we got a good price and a kitchen for our use too. There was a cabin with locks in our room, air condition, fan and a bathroom. We asked for fridge too and got it. There's no swimming pool or sunbathing area, just a small garden, so for those we had to go to the beach.

Lembongan beach at the Jungut Batu village.

The Lembongan main beach is not a usual beach though. There aren't much swimmers or sunbathers, most what you see is all sorts of boats, seaweed plantations and local people picking up worms from the sand for fishing. What mostly ruins the Lembongan beach for swimming and sunbathing are the boats, they're scattered everywhere, not just in one spot. So you have to watch out for the anchor lines, the boats coming and going, etc. The surfers are further away and the daily cruise boats stay close to the surfing area too, which is called the Playgrounds. There are all kinds of water sports on offer. The sunbathers stick to the hotel areas that provide chairs etc for them. The hotels on the cliff are more expensive.

Sea weed farming close to the beach

Drying seaweed

We started diving the next day from arrival. First we had to check our dive gear so they were working properly and couldn't take our cameras with us. Or could have, but decided to leave them for later. Of course we saw mantas then! Luckily our dive buddy had a camera so we got photos from her. Also saw a new nudibranch, scorpionfish, pipefish, octopus (my favourite), leaf fish, cuttlefish, flounders, thornback cowfish, etc. What a good start!

 Manta, a big star of the ocean.

The Panther Grouper, Cromileptes altivelis. Also known as the Polka-Dot Grouper.

Some nudibranches found in Indonesia. Can you spot these eight?

Lembongan has good dive spots, but most dives are in currents, which isn't always fun or good for beginners. Even advanced divers sometimes have difficulties here in strong currents. The "best" drift dive - I say best, because I love good drift dives you can go along with - I heard done here lead from Mangrove point to the Mushroom Beach area, and it only took them forty minutes to dive about two kilometers! They went with the current all the way. My best drift dive so far was in Palau where we started from the middle of the ocean, went with the drift in Ulong Channel and ended up on the beach. That dive was a few kilometers too, we couldn't see our boat anymore, we were so far away. It was nice to end the dive on the beach.

We cooked our first meal with tempeh, vegetables and noodle and it cost 8 cents. Can't get a dinner that cheap from many places. We bought two large bags of groceries in China and it all cost FIVE euros! In Finland that would cost about 80.- euros. What a difference! Sometimes we ate at a local restaurant here, but tried to save money. It's cheaper to make your own dinner. One of our favourite place in Lembongan is Hero's Warung right on the beach. Another one where we like to eat a tofuburger and a milkshake is Pondok Jenggala. Other good ones are Ketut Warung, Bungalow 7, Ulu and Pondok Baruna.

Tempeh with vegetables, noodles and coconut sauce.

Our shop. The owner speaks english and always picks you the best veggies and fruits.

A good drink in the heat.

There's this saying "Bali belly" here, and I got my first experience of that already on our first trip to Bali in 2010. We had milkshakes in Gili Trawangan before we left to Kuta. As we went for a beach walk later in Kuta I soon noticed I wasn't feeling right at all. Right after we got to the beach where people were cuddling romantically in the sunset I couldn't stop myself, but threw up right behind this romantic couple. Oops, so sorry! We rushed to the hotel and I got so sick I thought we had to go to a hospital. I kept drinking a lot of water and took a few carbon tablets. Strangely before morning I was quite ok and was able to fly, we had a flight that morning of course! This was my first experience of Bali belly and every time we've come to Bali I've been sick for a few hours, but not nearly as badly as the first time. When we travel I always bring probiotic tablets with me to keep my stomach in some balance, but they don't really work against the worst bacteria.

Hero's Warung on right.

Every island is different. In Gili Trawangan you don't find dogs but only cats, and in Lembongan it's pretty much the other way around. Also small islands tend to get rats running around in many smaller local shops. Some packages are dirty from their feces, so this also contributes to the belly problem. In many places the fruits and vegetables also lie openly around for hours for any critters and bugs to chew on them, so this is a problem too. But hand hygiene could be the number one problem for stomach issues. It is kinda hard to avoid the belly problem here, but it's usually a minor problem. The Balinese people don't like to kill animals, it brings bad karma. I'm not towards killing either, but I would do my best to keep places clean. All in all during our year travel I got six food poisonings and every one of them was in Indonesia. And it didn't matter where you ate at, it could be an expensive restaurant or street food, even a place recommended by TripAdvisor or Lonely Planet. You just have to take your chances.

Warung D&B, a popular restaurant for cheap and simple dinners.

Ketut helping us out in the Widia homestay kitchen the first time.