The rainforest of the deep

We arrived to Bali to find it nearly deserted. There were at least 3 tourist-heckling locals for every traveler. We were perplexed until a waitress explained that tourist numbers have been very low since the Bali bombings, which we hardly even knew about. Luckily everything is very calm and peaceful now, but tourists don't seem to have got the word yet. Having just spent a long time in the tourist-heckling city of Siem Reap, we decided that we would be unable to unwind at all here, for every 30 seconds (literally) a local person came up practically trying to force us to have a manicure, pedicure, massage, buy a batik, buy a this or a that...it was no use explaining that we had already spent everythign we had just getting to Bali! So we consulted our ancient, dusty guidebook to see if it could be of any use.

We decided to head for one of the smaller islands off the coast, where the locals gain their livelihood primarily from seaweed farming, not tourism. This sounded great and led us to tiny Nusa Lembongan, an enchanted tropical paradise filled with Hindu temples, white sand beaches and loads of seaweed. It turns out that the seaweed is a key ingredient exported to Japanese cosmetics companies for face creams, blush, etc. It was a stretch to think about how the stinky green masses drying out on he shore would someday end up on the cheeks of a Tokyo fashion maven! But seaweed farming was fascinating to witness. From sunrise until 10 am, the Lembongans worked in the "field" created by the low morning tide, full of row after row of seaweed of different shapes and colors. But mid-morning, the sea swallowed the weed back up to nourish and grow it until the next day's harvest.

But Nusa Lembongan had more to offer than seaweed farming. Brian and I rented a motorbike and sailed throught he verdant rolling hills of the island from one deserted ebach to the next. We even rode a rickety swaying bridge over to the next island, Nusa Ceningan, where we rode until reaching the end of the road in the backyard of Wayan, a young guy with an amazing cliff-top property overlooking the sea. He showed us the many crags and crevices of his land before encouraging us to buy him one of his own beers (at the tourist rate) and unburden us of most of our cash for the private tour we had unknowingly allowed him to give us. Ah well, the scenery was awesome.

And I experienced a completely new perspective through snorkelling. Brian and I went on a half-day boat trip to four different sites. Each time, we jumped into the uniformly blue, wavy sea to find an underwater rainbow of life exploding with color and diversity. There were countless varieties of fish and coral and anemone, most of which were totally new to me (except some which I remember from that one underwater screen saver). Coral reefs like the one surrounding Nusa Lembongan truly are the rainforest of the sea, vibrant and unique and endangered. This was a breathtaking experience.

Yesterday morning we took a public ferry back to Bali, complete with vomiting children and a huge dead fish under my feet. We took a bus to Ubud, the cultural capital of the island. We are comforted by the abundant art galleries and organic food cafes that remind us of Portland. Excuse me for it is time to explore this new place right now!