On our 6th trip to Bali we decided to 'get away from it all' and travel to Nusa Lembongan (1 hour ferry trip from Bali). I had booked us a private villa over the internet that an aussie couple had just finished building, as the gardens weren't quite finished they gave us a reduced rate of $100 per night ... what the heck, at that price I booked the 6 of us in for 4 nights, if it was no good, we'd go somewhere else. So we unload off the ferry to this beautiful, small tropical island (about 4kms long), 3 guys come running down the beach all wearing 'Villa Rumah Kami' uniforms, beauty ... that's where we are staying. We meet Komang the Manager and instantly like him and off we trek up the hill 100mt to our villa (with the staff carrying our suitcases on their heads, poor buggers!). We get to our villa and can't believe our eyes .... too good to be true ... we all pinched ourselves at least 20 times, checked it all out ... awesome, 3 bedroom x 3 bathroom, plus living area and kitchen downstairs, huge living/dining/lounging are upstairs, pool deck with lounge chairs/brollies out the front with beautiful views to the ocean from every area. Jumped straight in the pool, and ordered 4 bintangs ($1.70 each) it was before lunch time but we had to celebrate our good fortune of coming across this place! We asked Komang what the deal with meals was and off he trots to the kitchen to get menus for brekky, lunch and dinner. Brekky was $4.20/ head included fresh juice (watermelon was best!), eggs any style with bacon, toast, grilled tomato and pancake of your choice (mango was my fav). Lunches were about the same price, heaps to choose from, but we usually went for club sangas or fresh pizzas (EVERYTHING was made from scratch). Dinners were about $7 - $9/ head for 3 courses!!!! Komang then explained his brother had taken some holidays to come and chef for us, he usually worked at the most expensive 5 star resort on the island ... so we all thought we should get a few good meals here ..... well we never ate anywhere else on the Island and we ended up staying a week (instead of four nights)!!!!
You can do as much or as little as you like on Lembongan. The snorkelling was surprisingly mind blowing, colourful soft corals, heaps of fish life. The surf break was right out the front of our villa ... so the boys were in their element. Had a few excellent massages ($7) while the big boys were off surfing on our pool deck ... the staff took the little boys off on adventures around the island on the motorbikes and returned with bags full of lollies. The kids were absolutely spoilt by the staff and so was I, knowing that the kids never left their sight.
If you are heading to Bali, don't just do a standard day trip to Lembongan ... stay at least a few nights, what a beautiful place, full of beautiful people. We all can't wait to get back there ASAP!!
For pics of lembongan underwater and above from our trip visit http://www.worldisround.com/articles/319976/index.html