Mandy: Saturday 31st August
Nasu Lembongan Island
From our island we can see Gunung Agung, Bali’s active volcano. It is the highest point on Bali and It dominates the surrounding area and influences the climate we are told. It is usually surrounded by clouds so it is a wonderful surprise when you see the top peeking through sometimes. (Smile) Gunung Agung last erupted in 1963 and is still active, with a large and very deep crater which occasionally belches smoke and ash. (Eeeek!) We spoke to a man here who was just a child when it erupted in 1963/4 but his parents told him about the sight of the spouting volcano going up miles into the air and of the thick ash that covered Lembongan days later. Exciting and frightening at the same time I am sure.
We walked away from the coast in to the village early one morning, looking for a cheap breakfast. Mmmmmmm just when we thought things couldn’t get grubbier they did, so we didn’t bother! On the way back we happened upon their little outside market (no tourists in sight) I felt we shouldn’t have been walking around there but we did. Taking photos to show you what it was like would have been going too far! They were selling the fruit and veg that had come in on the boats and ready made offering baskets complete with petals ‘convenience offerings’ They don’t seem to have convenience food but convenience offerings yes! The women were sat cross legged on the floor or stood up but one women was sat on a small rugged stone! They have a strange and amusing attitude to comfort over here! Soooo frustrating that I can’t take photos but it seems too rude.
We have not had any rats in our room or on our roof (that we have noticed) since the first night but as we walk around we can see down alley ways that they are running around in between the stalls and cafes in day light happily, unaware of the death of their family members in our grounds.
Later on we walked into the village again, going deeper in to the non-tourist area. Darn me if the first thing we saw wasn’t a barbers sign!!! Glen spoke to the man next door mending a bike…..who would also cut your hair for 40,000 Indonesian rupiah!! Mmmmm I bet he would. I pointed out to him that Glen didn’t have much hair to cut, he just laughed. Glen said to him that he would be back….not if I could help it I thought! The drawing of the person having a hair cut on the sign had clearly had a pudding basin put on and cut around it…..ah maybe that is why all the men have sort of turbans on their heads and the women walk around with the towels twisted into a ring on their heads. I thought the men were in tradition dress and the women were waiting for another boat to come in to carry things off. Maybe it was that the man was better with a spanner than a pair of scissors. (Wink) Actually all of the women have lovely ‘long’ thick black hair. I bought some shampoo here and to my amazement it came out jet black! Didn’t do to my hair what it did to theirs! Mine is still showing grey!
Luckily we haven’t got a list of Auspicious days for August or September showing Glen which dates he can have his hair cut!
We walked a little further along to a food stall. The lady didn’t speak English but that didn’t stop Glen trying to establish whether something that resembled a bag of mini Cornish pasties were in fact anything like their English cousins. He asked if they had chicken inside, she smiled and nervously said “yes” we pointed to the vegetables (covered in flies, I knew they had to be somewhere!) and she said “yes”…..she obviously knew a few English words but not their meaning. Glen wouldn’t let it go and continued to try to find out what was inside…..he ended up taking the packet down to the barber/mechanic and asking him. Glen said “Chicken?” “yes” the man said putting his thumbs up “vegetable? I said “yes” the man said…… we decided to give them a miss and have our usual budget snack for lunch (pastry with nuts in….although I have only ever once seen a nut in them!) 7,000 Indonesian Rupiah instead of the seafront price of 10,000 Indonesian Rupiah, bargin! A saving of 18p for walking in to their village.
The start of the Mangrove forest. “What do you mean my hat looks stupid and doesn’t match my trousers!?”
I have to cover up with long trousers and top as the sun is so strong here.
A little graveyard, unusual seeing as the Lembonganese people are Hindu.
(like on Bali but not so neat and tidy with their offerings!)
There are girls with little makeshift stalls selling trinkets everywhere along the beach front….. Often tiny young girls saying “you wan’ buy braceleeeeeeets?” As you walk by “For the schooooool” However we came across these in the middle of nowhere can’t think they sell much.
Then one night there was a boy by one of the stalls on the beach front. He hadn’t learnt the elongated drawl of the girls sales pitch but instead said “want to buy bracelets?” “want to buy bracelets?” “want to buy bracelets?” in quick succession as three couples walked by! (Chuckle) and to be honest he hadn’t actually mastered the word bracelet, but everyone knew what he was trying to say (smile)……best he played jumping off the boats and fannying around in the water with the other boys I think.
Island life? it is a strange one, they are surrounded by beautiful, beaches and mangroves and trees but they have rubbish everywhere in land. We did pass a clearing where they were obviously sorting and disposing of the rubbish properly (plastic bottles and old offerings mainly!) but most of the time you see them burning little piles of rubbish around the place…or just leaving it where it is! Such a shame.
We came across emergency petrol stalls around the island. In fact that is all we saw, we didn’t see a proper petrol station.
We saw these (minus the sign) in Bali when we were out walking in the countryside and as the petrol was in old vodka bottles we assumed, incorrectly, that it was their homemade brew!!! Thank god we are not dependant on booze enough to buy some! Otherwise goodness knows if we would have survived our first vodka and orange juice. (worried look)
Oh no! Not the white dog?
Locals sit around in the evening eating fish on little makeshift BBQs over open fires on the beach or pavements. Nothing with it, no rice, or veg, no plates, they just all pick bits off as it is cooking over the flames. The locals seem to live in tiny huts whilst tourists live in nice ‘bungalows’ as they call them. (even though they are two storeys!)
We have seen the odd Monkey tied up down alley ways (sad face) and there are lots of cockerels everywhere. Men sit around holding their cockerels (that sounds bad – smile) late afternoon and occasional put them together to see which is the feistiest with a view to fighting when they are older I guess.
I can’t get my head around the fact that they sit on the floor (up side alleys) preparing the food instead of sitting on a chair at a table inside! You rarely see them sat on a chair or at a table. What is that about?
Other than tourism and seaweed farming another way of making money is from handmade salt. I think salt production is dieing out now though.
I sooooo wanted to take a photo of the ‘old’ couple sat/laying by this salt sign on one of those raised platforms with a little tin and palm frond roof as we stopped to ask them directions. They didn’t speak English (not sure who wrote their sign – chuckle) so there was just lots of pointing at the map and hand signals. The ‘old’ guy was so keen to help bless him. I don’t think they get many passers by. Can you see the state of the road….that wasn’t the worse one by any means!
Sorry Mum and Meryl but It was far too hot to explore the Island by foot, so when in Rome…….
Poo comment ….for Jane Flook’s benefit: The big Lizards do big cow pat style poos! Well that is what it looks like when it falls from a great height above you from the balcony ceiling to floor by your feet!
These little Gekos greet us when we come back to our room at night. They are so cute. Some are minuscule and some as quite big. They are everywhere, surprised they are not on the snack menu here. Maybe that’s what is in those ‘nut’ cakes. (wink)
