In the course of several excursions to Nusa Lembongan, I managed to try just about everything on offer from simple relaxation to the active, adrenaline-producing pursuits. All companies offer snorkeling tours of the reef and provide well-maintained gear. Bali Hai has a reef-side, moored pontoon equipped with a water slide to play on, as well as a smaller floating dock for snorkeling. The other companies organize their tours from the beach side or directly off the boat you came on. On calmer days, the reef was accessible, clear and active. It is a nice area to snorkel with plenty of underwater sights to keep you entertained. However, when the ocean swells are high, companies discourage snorkeling, as the reef is too cloudy to see anything.

One of the highlights of these excursions was a first attempt at parasailing, with Bali Hai. After the initial jerk of the rope being released, it was a smooth rise with the parachute being towed behind a small speedboat. I was a little apprehensive about this experience, but soon the calm whoosh of the wind in my ears and the views of the whole scene, including a spotting of a school of dolphins prancing in the water below, made it an almost transcendental moment that I wished could go on much longer.

At Nusa Lembongan it is easy to get distracted with all the water activities on offer, but it would be an oversight to miss a small peek inland to the small nearby village and the seaweed cultivation areas. Wakalouka hosted a tour to the other side of the island where the shallows between Nusa Lembongan and its smaller sister island Nusa Ceningan house the underwater fences where the seaweed is grown. We visited a small processing area to get a closer look at the gelatinous and plastic-looking varieties of colorful seaweed, which is harvested and sorted primarily for export to Japan, Hong Kong and Europe and which provides a stable income for the island population of about 3,000 people.

The village itself is a small, well-maintained Balinese village with a hilltop temple and the quirky tourist attraction called the underground house. The underground house is a bizarre architectural feat created by one passionately driven man with a chisel and a Mahabharata-inspired vision. It is a dark and dank rock-hewn maze of crawl spaces and rooms, identifiable as bedrooms and a kitchen by the furniture shapes also carved into the rock. It took about 15 years to complete and villagers have honored the creator with a life-like statue and shrine near one of its seven entrances.