Travelling to Nusa Lembongan

We planned to have breakfast at Revolver Cafe in Seminyak at 8am to allow us enough time to pack. After a frustrating taxi ride, the cafe looked shut from the outside and we were all groaning. But luckily it was open, inside were these large, dark and cool rooms that just seemed to keep going. There was a chill music playing and it had a very Wellington feel to it, apart from the Western theme. The bathrooms were covered in old 50s women's advertising. The coffee was excellent and the avocado and tomato on toast was zesty and delicious. The food was cheap too!

Packing at home took until 10.30am so we had half an hour until the gardener Made came to pick the keys up. I tipped him 100,000.

We had booked our Nusa Lembongan resort via Tripadvisor and used Scoot travel for the ferry. It included a transfer from Seminyak, but as the others left in a taxi, Josh and I had a nervous wait at the villas across the road from our driveway. Would the driver show up?

Bang on midday, a nice man dispelled all our fears by having my name on a ticket. In about 30 minutes we were in Sanur. We collected two Dutch people from a hotel. As we went to the ferry terminal, we got held up by a triple funeral procession for about ten minutes. Hundreds, maybe a thousand, people passed in teal, white and black clothing with instruments and food offerings. The coffins were on tall ornate floats that apparently they burn.

Our driver took us to a Scoot Travel office where they issued a ticket and organised transfers on both sides - very good service and it took the worry out of it! We were then taken down a dirty alley to the blue sea twinkling ahead. We waited on strange teal tiled park benches on the side of the ocean.

The ferry was late by 30 minutes and an angry tourist start yelling at the staff when he banged his head on the boat - even though there was a huge sign in bold across the boat saying 'mind your head'. The trip took a surprisingly long time, the island didn't look far but it didn't get any closer either! The swell was huge and the ride was bumpy.

It took forever to dock on the soft white sand with clear turquoise water. A tuktuk dropped us at our villa entrance but we must have missed the sign because we ended up walking back to the beach and entering through the bar.

After our private villa in Seminyak, this place seemed a bit ramshackled with dark cool and clean rooms but sandy paths outside and a basic bar on the beach. But after having an iced tea, mi goreng, spring rolls we got into the rhythm of the place.

The staff were attentive and helpful, booking snorkelling for us and as we ordered cocktails. We swam first in the pool and then in the ocean which was unbelievably warm with huge hunks of coral.

After a daiquiri and blue lagoon at sunset, we wandered up the beach and saw the majestic volcano rising out of the otherwise flat land. The sand was coarse to walk on, so we stumbled unromantically past locals playing volleyball and stray dogs play-fighting.

The volcano rising in the distance

There were lots of resorts like ours with the Seminyak pretension. We had dinner one of these with two guys playing La Bamba and other crowd-pleasers on guitar. I had Pepes Ikan, fish in banana leaf, but our private chef Nyoman's was better.