Stories & Photos from Emmons & Toby's Travels Around the World
Exploring Nusa Lembongan and Swimming with Manta Rays
We spent a wonderful few days on Nusa Lembongan, a lovely, tiny island half an hour offshore from mainland Bali. Due to our limited internet, we’re focusing on sharing photos from this bit of our venture at this time, with captions to guide you through our what it’s like to visit this little piece of paradise. We stayed at the mountain-top hotel of Poh Manis, traveled with a local guide to the nearby Nusa Penida for snorkeling on coral reefs and swimming with manta rays (!!!), walked the sands of Dream Beach, and explored the rocky crags of the Devil’s Tears, where the water shoots up through porous, spiky rocks and you can find great views of the sunset disappearing over the horizon.
The reception area and restaurant of our hilltop hotel, Poh Manis. It’s open-air, but you might not be able to tell due to the bamboo sheets hanging from the roof to protect from overnight rain. They roll these up to reveal a great view!The view from the infinity pool next to reception, at sunrise. That’s another, even smaller island called Nusa Ceningan across the water.The hotel dog, Koko/Kiku! Quite friendly.There was a hotel bird, too.A nice finial (the little ornate bit on the corner of the roof) plus jungle and volcanoOur room, a little freestanding cottageClose up of the view across the water, from close to our cottageAnother view from just outside our cottageOn our way to a few snorkeling sites (in a colorful outrigger boat!)
The birds near our hotel like to bathe on the edge of the infinity pool — very cute!
Some of the pretty spectacular cliffs and caves we saw from the boatPretty coral!And huge manta rays!! (12-15 feet wide?)It was hard to keep up with them, so most of my shots of them are from the back (but look at those elegant wing-like fins!). On a more unfortunate note, there was a fair amount of garbage where we found them, as this photo shows a bit… sad for the mantas.After snorkeling, we went to a couple of beaches and seaside cliffs close to sunset. This one (Dream Beach) had a surprising number and variety of really pretty little pieces of shell.A lot of rock supported by just a little “foot”!Looking down a sheer cliff at a (well-camouflaged) crab. The perch for this shot was a bit precarious!
Swirling water at the Devil’s Tears, a rocky outcropping known for its enormous, crashing waves and swells.
Pretty strange, pitted/spiky rock formations hereWith a lot of snails on them! (sometimes on top of each other, as you can see)Sunset at the Devil’s TearsHappy at the end of a grand day outThe yellow bridge to Nusa Ceningan, next to where we took a boat to our next destination. There are also a lot of seaweed farms close by.
Our time on this island and snorkeling nearby was one of our favorite parts of the trip so far! A great mix of peaceful, exciting, and beautiful.
E'n'T Adventures: A Travel Blog 
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