mytravelfootprints: Lost on an Island of Sea weed farmers…Elsie Gabriel.

Lost on an Island of Sea weed farmers….

Elsie Gabriel.

I have always been asked that question…If you were ever stranded on an island what would you do….. well watch women work on their sea weed farms, hear the thrill of kids betting on grasshopper fights in a tiny box full of holes, watch fishermen bring in loads of shiny silver fish, dive deep under the sea and live like a mermaid with all the colorful fish in the ocean and only surface to get drunk on fermented coconut water and fresh air!!!!

Hehe..yeah you have to see this Island to actually believe me…

Only 8 square kilometers and there are about 7,000 people living on the island year round. Nusa Lembongan is a beautiful island off the main coast of Bali.Indonesia.What can I say I had a hard time wanting to really come to civilization…..

I got off on an island called Jungut Batu during a Bali Hai cruise and didn’t want to come back…..

Jungut Batu villagers work as seaweed farmers for which they get hefty sums of money from the cosmetic industry. Seaweed is used for medicines, food stabilizer, cosmetic and gelatin for ice cream. The chunk of the income for the population is derived from seaweed farming. The locals farm ‘Euchema Cottomi’ a specie of ocean algae, by tying the sprouting algae shoots to farming plots with rope and flat wood stakes embedded in the seabed. It takes one month to grow to a size able to be harvested and then three days to sundry. Normally during the harvest the new sprouts are returned to the bed to begin the new crop, and then new sprouts get collected from the seabed. The dried seaweed is kept in large storehouses until it is taken to the mainland and sold for export to America, Denmark, Japan and Holland.

White stretches of sand as far as the eyes can see, very remote and filled with jungles. Community life comes alive when fishermen come home from the sea. But once on the beach again you can snorkel and dive all day long. I forgot my suntan lotion on that trip I remember and surfaced looking like the Queen of Spades!! So don’t forget your sunscreen and hat……everrrr………… when doing an island trip….

pics copyright@elsiegabriel

pics copyright@elsiegabriel....My travelfootprints......

I had to be carried on all fours to get back on the cruise again to the main Bali shoreline!! Jus kidddin, I had my pockets full of sea weed and feet full of sand……what more could I ask for than a mind full of memories of a lovely island filled with such innocent children where I guess the digital world would take another couple of years to make them lost techno addicts…..

Really…..I can still hear those crickets chirping inside those bamboo boxes with tiny holes fighting their way to survival…and the eye balls of those little boys hanging out keeping a close watch as to who would win? I wonder what they bet on…more sea weed???