I woke up early the morning of September the 27th, 2018, still with the excitement and joy of having become an Advanced Open Water diver. During my 3 days between Amed and Tulamben things had gone pretty well and I was just getting ready to drive to my next destination. I was told Nusa Penida (a small island right next to Bali) was an amazing paradise and I should really go check it out. I didn’t know it just yet but I would spend a total of 2 days in Nusa Penida, enjoying and surviving.
How to get from Bali to Nusa Penida?
After doing some research I found out that the fastest way for me to go there would be to drive from Amed to Padangbai. Once there, I should be able to catch a public ferry, where I could even bring my moto inside. That was supposed to be the fastest way for me. But, in your case, depending on where you are in Bali, you might want to check other alternatives. For further info on this, please, check this amazing post by Travelfish.
As you can see in the picture above, Nusa Penida is an small island between Bali and Lombok. Thus, you also have the chance to visit the island from Lombok. As I was saying before, I decided to drive my moto to Padangbai, where, supposedly, I would be able to take a public ferry to Nusa Penida. Like during the previous days, as I was driving, I was awing to the impressive landscapes.
After a little over an hour I made it to Padangbai. As soon as I entered the port area, plenty of locals approached to try to convince me to use their speedboats (rather than the public ferry). I avoided them and, after parking my moto, I tried to find my way to the public ferry’s ticket booth. After a while, I started to realise that there was something wrong. I asked some locals and they told me the public ferry was broken down somewhere far away from Bali.
I didn’t believe them in the beginning, mostly due to the harshness of their approaches while trying to get me into using their boats. As time went by though, I started to feel like they might be right and, my suspicions got confirmed after talking to a police officer next to a bank. He was surprisingly honest with me. He told me most of the locals would tell me anything to get me into using their services but, that being said, it was true that the public ferry was broken down.
The reason why I wanted to use the public ferry over the private speedboat wasn’t just because of the ticket’s price difference, but because I could bring my moto to the island. Without the public ferry, I would have to leave my moto in Padangbai, take a speedboat and, once in Nusa Penida, rent another motorcycle. And, that’s exactly what I ended up doing lol. Sometimes life doesn’t agree with your plans and either you adapt or… you cry, make a fuss and don’t change anything.
Thus, I went back to one of the many locals who had tried to sell me a ticket to take his speedboat. I explained him my situation and he told me I shouldn’t worry about leaving my moto in the port of Padangbai. The thing was that, even if I worried, I couldn’t change anything lol. Thus, after bargaining with him for a while, I got a round-trip ticket for 250 K.
As I was waiting for the speedboat to arrive, I heard some people speaking Spanish. I turned around and saw three girls. We exchanged some words and realised we all were from Spain. Their names were Vicky, Nazaret and Judit. They were on holidays in Indonesia and they were also waiting for the boat to Nusa Penida.
Day 1 in Nusa Penida: survival of the fittest
The ride took around 45 minutes. During that time we chatted for a while, enjoyed the views and got ready for a new island. After landing and getting our backpacks, I did some math. They were three and I was one. 3 + 1 = 4. They wanted to travel around the island. I wanted to travel around the island. We all had been told that driving a moto was the best way to check the amazing scenery. With all those thoughts in mind, I decided to go ahead and ask:
“So, what do you say if we rent a couple of motos and we check the island all together?
“Yes, we think it is a great idea”.
And, just like that, our adventure of 2 days in Nusa Penida started.
As soon as we started walking, locals started to approach us. They wanted to sell us something or give us a ride somewhere. It was my 6th day in Indonesia and I started to get used to it. I had already faced similar situations in Ubud and Amed, although, Padangbai had been the winner so far lol. The girls were staying at Pari Manta Cottages and I was staying at Hostel Nusa Penida. I paid 255 K for 3 nights with breakfast included in a shared room. I have to say that their place was cooler and also somehow posher. But, in my place there was a cool lounge and plenty of nice people lol.
We had landed at Buyuk Harbour. We checked our phones and realised that we were kind of faraway (by walk) from our places, specially from theirs. It was also extremely hot. Thus, we decided to bargain to get a taxi that would drop me at my place and that would drop them at theirs. They had been in Indonesia for longer than me but they hadn’t done much bargaining. I showed them the magic, we got in a taxi for a “fair” price and arrived to our hostels.
After leaving my stuff and taking a shower, I went outside to try to rent a moto. The hostel itself had some to rent but I thought the price was kind of high. I walked around, asked in some other places and the price was still pretty much the same. Eventually, after bargaining well enough with a guy, I managed to get a moto for 3 days for 200 K. The price was still higher than in Bali but the guy said that was a common situation. Nusa Penida is more isolated than Bali and it is normal that prices are higher. Or at least that’s what he told me lol. The name of this post is “2 days in Nusa Penida”. So, why did I rent a moto for 3 days? Well, because I wasn’t sure about how many days I was going to spend on the island…
Crystal Bay: the first glimpses of Nusa Penida
When renting a moto, they might ask you for a document or something to keep as a bail. In Bali I used my Blood Donor ID (yeah, I know right?) and in Nusa Penida I gave him my regular ID. It wasn’t a drama since I had my passport with me and I thought it was pretty normal to ask for a bail. After getting the moto I drove to the girls’ hostel. The road was narrower than the ones I had seen in Bali but the condition was good. The views of the water and the unmistakable figure of Bali as I was driving were pretty cool.
We all had some places we wanted to visit and, after discussing for a bit, we agreed to start with Crystal Bay. Vicky jumped on the back of my moto and Judit did the same on Naza’s. As I had already mentioned, I didn’t have much experience when it came to driving a moto. It was my 6th day driving one. It was my second moto in Indonesia, but it was my first time driving with someone on the back.
The road to Crystal Bay was kind of O.K. It was narrow and winding sometimes but overall it was affordable. I started to get use to having someone on the back of my moto and, without any issues, we made it to Crystal Bay safe and sound. The views on the way were pretty amazing. We saw plenty of palm trees, wooden houses, locals and tourists driving their motos (I hadn’t seen many locals walking so far during my time in Indonesia), the sea… As we drove we could also hear people and animals making noise, we could feel the spicy smell of the food… The overall feeling was just perfect.
There were some tourists at Crystal Bay, but nothing crazy. There were also a couple of bars and we decided to sat down in one to have lunch. The food was good. But the cold Bintang, under the heat, was even better 🙂 Once our stomachs felt satisfied, we went on the sand, laid down and enjoyed the peace, the ambience and the landscape.
I had brought my goggles and my snorkel (like I was and I would be doing during most of my trip in Indonesia) and I wanted to take a look at the bottom of Crystal Bay. I ran and was about to jump in the water like Mitch Buchannon… But luckily enough I decided to stop right before jumping. The bottom was full of rocks and corals. Watch out! The girls joined me as well but, unfortunately we didn’t see much. It was kind of windy and the visibility was pretty poor. The views from the beach though, specially the rock with the hole on it, were stunning.
Kelingking Beach: try to make it alive
After a couple of hours in Crystal Bay, we decided to go see the sunset at Kelingking Beach. We all had seen pictures of this iconic beach on the Internet and we wanted to check it out ourselves. Before arriving in Nusa Penida, my friend Diego told me that the landscapes were amazing, but the roads were kind of dangerous. So far, I hadn’t felt like that when it came to the roads. That, though, was about to change.
I’m not sure if when using Maps.me (an app I recommended here) you get to see more than a road to make it to Kelingking Beach. Unfortunately, I didn’t start using this app until I was in Java. We used Google Maps and, even if the road was taking us to Kelingking Beach, I wouldn’t recommend anyone the experience. I still remember it as if it was yesterday. I had seen “bad” roads in my life. My village, back in Spain, is a pretty small one. Thus, the roads are not the best. We have plenty of fields (like olive trees) and the access to them are far from great. All in all, never in my life had I seen something like the path we took to make it to Kelingking Beach. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures because I was too busy trying not to fall.
The road was kind of narrow, but that had never been a problem for me. I’m used to narrow roads back home. The real problem was that there was pretty much no pavement during most of the path. There was soil, rocks and now and then you would see some strips of pavement (or something like that) in the middle. There were plenty of holes, like if the road had just been bombed. The road was winding a lot and it was constantly going up and down, with very steep parts.
We met some tourists on the road who had to stop because they couldn’t keep on driving. We met some tourists who had hurt themselves by falling off the moto. Now and then we would also see a few locals, but not too many. And, the little ones we saw, knew a thousand times better than us the road and how to drive on it. I’m not sure how but, after what it felt like an eternity, the four of us made it safe and sound to the cliff of Kelingking Beach. I felt like, after having made it alive there, I would be able to drive a moto anywhere in the world.
Important update: a friend of mine had just been to Kelingking Beach and apparently the condition of the road has been greatly improved. The road is still narrow but it is fully paved. Thus, as of now, while driving to Kelingking Beach, your experience should be way smoother than mine 😉
We (finally) parked the motos and started walking down the path. There were a couple of bars and some tourists. We made it right on time for the sunset but we felt like we didn’t have enough time to go to the beach and then back up. Thus, we relaxed and celebrated the milestone of being still alive.
I have to say that, on the one hand, the way to Kelingking Beach was one of the worst times I’ve had so far. I was constantly trying my best not to fall and I was worried something happened to any of us. On the other hand though, the views from there were one of the best I’ve seen in my life, specially with the sun setting. All in all, I really encourage you to go see Kelingking Beach. But, if you can, avoid going on your own (you can hire a private driver) or avoid following our path (the one Google Maps showed us), you would thank me later. Without further words, enjoy the sunset at Kelingking Beach:
The sun was almost set and we had to go through the same nightmare again, but, this time, in the darkness. As we were about to arrive to the place where we had left our motos, we started to speak with a local. His name was Bony and I felt like he had been sent from the sky to help us make it back to our hostels alive.
We told him it was our first day in Nusa Penida and so far so good: we had enjoyed some amazing landscapes but we had had a really hard time when it came to driving, specially on the way to Kelingking Beach. We also told him we were thinking about going snorkelling, because we had heard the island had some pretty cool spots for that. He said he could arrange the snorkelling part, because he knew plenty of boat’s captains. He also happened to be driving back to the “developed” area of the island and offered us to follow him.
Unfortunately I didn’t record the road we took. I just know it wasn’t the same one we took to get there (the one from Google Maps). He was a local, so he knew the island like the palm of his hand. When we started driving it was already dark, but, thanks to him, we made it back to our area with way less effort and problems than during the way to Kelingking Beach. By the time we realised, we were already back at my hostel. After thanking him a lot, we said good bye and agreed upon meeting him next morning to go snorkelling.
We saw what it looked like a market right next to my hostel and we decided to go check it out. That’s how we learnt about the Night Market, which was opened every day from 06:00 p.m. The exact location of the market is this one: https://bit.ly/2L6lGcQ
The market had plenty of food stalls. There were tourists and locals all mingled together. There was a great ambience, pretty chilled. We tried plenty of different food. All of it was good and cheap. They had plenty of small fried bites. They also had rice and noodles. But, some stalls had some incredible deserts, some sort of cakes, which were delicious. I felt like having dinner there was the perfect way to end what had been an incredible journey. We had just spent like 10 hours on the island but it felt like a month, with all the different stuff we had seen and lived 🙂
Day 2 in Nusa Penida: snorkelling and driving around
After dinner I walked to my hostel and the girls drove to theirs. We had agreed upon meeting the next morning at 07:00 in front of my place. I was kind of tired and I went straight to bed. The first half of my 2 days in Nusa Penida was over 🙂
I woke up the next morning and, after having breakfast, I went outside to wait for the girls. Once we were all together, we drove to Toya Pakeh Harbour, the place Bony had told us to go to. We arrived to the harbour after 15 minutes or so. The harbour, at that time of the day, was already full of activity. There were plenty of locals with their businesses but also plenty of tourists. I guess we were all there for the same thing: snorkelling.
After meeting Bony and the rest of the group we jumped in the boat. We were like 10 people in total. We paid 200 K each for half a day, including five snorkelling spots, the equipment, snacks, food and beverages.
Snorkelling in Nusa Penida
It was a beautiful day, with some clouds on the sky but with a perfect temperature. The first spot we were going to check was the (in)famous Manta Point. That place is one of the most famous snorkelling and diving spots in Nusa Penida because of (as the name implies) the chance to see mantas ray.
Throughout the whole way we didn’t see pretty much any boat. That changed dramatically as we approached Manta Point. All of a sudden, as we were getting ready to jump in the water, we found ourselves surrounded by boats. I don’t know how many we were in total, but, for sure, we were too much. We happened to see some mantas, and the feeling was amazing. They are powerful yet grateful creatures, that swim in the water as if they were flying in the sky.
I was very happy about seeing such stunning animals. What I wasn’t happy about was the way it was all organized. And I don’t mean the excursion, but how Nusa Penida, or Indonesia, deal with this kind of tourism. On the one hand I understand that when there is something “cool”, everybody wants to see it. But, on the other hand, I don’t understand why they don’t arrange it in a better way. They could set a maximum amount of people allowed in that spot daily, or something like that. That’s something I’ve seen in other regions of Indonesia, for example.
The feeling of having to watch out every single second to avoid being hit by any of the people jumping off the boat or swimming to try to see the mantas was… crazy. I also thought it was somehow pathetic: plenty of human beings chasing animals. I guess that’s not so surprising, since, for a very long time, we’ve been doing just that… All in all, I was happy to see some mantas, but I didn’t like the way in which it was all done.
After Manta Point we moved to other snorkelling spots. I think most of the boats would be taking you to the same places. If you want to do something similar to what we did I guess you can find some agencies that arrange it for you online, but you could also go to the harbour we went to (or to another one) and asked the locals. I would say it would be cheaper that way.
One of my favourite spots (whose name I forgot) was full with fishes and corals. The colours were pretty beautiful and the water was crystal clear. In the other spots we didn’t feel anything similar to what we experienced at Manta Point. There would be just a few boats and the whole situation was way less hectic.
Throughout the whole morning, our companions for the day, the boat driver and Bony were really nice. We were admiring the landscapes from the boat while sailing, and from the water while snorkelling. We stopped to have lunch (which was very good, like always!) and, to finish the trip, we went to a place full of tunas. I hadn’t seen them before that close and they were kind of impressive. They were really big and had a pretty peculiar face 🙂
We returned to the harbour at around 14:00. We had spent between 5-6 hours snorkelling and it had been amazing. If you go to Nusa Penida, do yourself a favor and go snorkelling, or even better, go diving! I heard some people were lucky enough to see some Mola mola while diving in Nusa Penida. How crazy is that? After thanking Bony and the rest of the people for such a nice time, we walked back to the entrance of the harbour to find our motos.
Sebele Beach: yet another highway to hell
We had heard Atuh Beach was a must-see in Nusa Penida and we decided to go check it out. On the way there, the road was alright. Just to be clear on the roads’ topic: the road that goes all around the island is alright, and so the roads in the urbanized areas. The roads that take you to many beaches though are not proper roads, but soil paths full of rocks and holes. Thus, as we were following the road that goes around the island, we were alright.
A little after passing Pari Manta Cottages, we were surprised by people walking on the road. Little by little we started to see more people, and it was then when we realised they were having some sort of parade. There were so many that it was impossible to pass them. Thus, we had no choice but to get off the moto and start walking with them. After 15 minutes or so they finally arrived at their temple and we could continue with our way.
As I had mentioned before, we were using Google Maps. So, when we started to see some soil paths, we thought it was something like what we had previously seen on the way to Kelingking Beach. Remember I said I felt like after having made it there safe and sound I could drive anywhere in the world? I was wrong. The path to what we thought it was Atuh Beach was as bad (or even worse) than the one we had taken the day before. At some point it was completely crazy. It was like if the whole path was made of huge rocks, like some of the pedestrian streets you can find in the old town of some cities.
I couldn’t handle it anymore and I decided to get off the moto and leave it somewhere next to the path. It looked like I hadn’t been the only one doing that, since we saw more tourists walking down the path. We walked for quite a while under the hot sun and eventually we made it to the beach. It was then when we realised we were not at Atuh Beach, but at Sebele Beach.
The beach itself was not a big deal. It was full of rocks and there was pretty much no sand. The bottom though was a different thing. I went snorkelling and I saw plenty of beautiful corals and fishes. But this time there was a subtle difference: I had no fins. That hadn’t had been a problem for me the other times I went snorkelling on my own. But there, after having been snorkelling for a while, by the time I felt kind of tired and I wanted to make it back to the shore, I realised how much I missed having a pair of fins.
The current was kind of strong and it took me a tremendous amount of effort to make it back to the shore. It’s crazy how we sometimes don’t realize the value some stuff have. In that case I would had given anything to have a pair of fins with me 🙂 Back at the shore, as the current was getting stronger and we had found out we were not at Atuh Beach, we decided to leave and try to find the evasive beach.
Atuh Cliff: teaching Spanish to Gizna
It took us a while to redo the whole path back to the moto. Once there, since the way was still kind of steep, we had to walk for some more time with the motos by our side. Eventually, we were able to ride them back and we made it to a regular road. It was then when we clearly saw how we had mistakenly taken the wrong way. But, at least, we had discovered another beach in Nusa Penida 🙂
We finally made it to Atuh, but not to Atuh Beach, but to Atuh Cliff. It had a similar setup to Kelingking Beach: a viewpoint and the beach all the way down, after following a steep pathway.
We were kind of lazy after the effort at Sebele Beach and we didn’t go to the beach, but we stayed at the cliff. The views were spectacular. There were some sort of sofas and we sat there, enjoying a breathtaking landscape. We decided to celebrate the joy of being alive by buying some coconuts, and it was then that we met Gizna.
She was working at the stall and immediately she showed herself as a very extroverted and open person. After talking about our country of origin, she asked us if we could teach her some Spanish. She said the more languages she knew, the more succeed she would have attracting customers. It is in times and places like these that you realize the huge difference between how and where you have been born.
She didn’t have much, and that was the trigger to the eagerness she showed in everything she was doing. She was relentless. After teaching her some words, she would learn them in seconds. After those words, she would ask for more. Most of us, on the other hand, have so much access to any information we want that we take it for granted. I can’t image how many languages she could learn if she had our tools…
She also taught us some Bahasa. I learnt some of the words you can see in the useful words section thanks to here. We had an amazing time there. It was a nice feeling to be in such an unique place while helping out someone who really needed it and appreciated it.
We were having a nice time there but we wanted to try to see the sunset at a different place. Thus, after thanking Gizna for her time and wishing her luck in her future, we walked back to grab our motos. But, before that, we decided to spin at such an incredible place:
Chasing the sunset in Nusa Penida
We started driving without a fixed direction. We were just going with the flow. Without realising, we started to see more and more of the island, like if we were reaching the summit. The road was good for what we had seen. We saw plenty of smalls temples on the way, kids playing on the road and beautiful landscapes (nothing new).
We checked Google Maps and tried to use our brains to figure out where the sun would be setting. For some time, it felt like we got it. We had some sort of a good enough view of the sun and the island. But, because it was still kind of early, we kept on moving, trying to find the “best” spot. You know the saying “if you are too greedy you end up with nothing”? Well, that was what eventually happened to us. We kept on moving and moving and, by the time we realised, we couldn’t see the sun no more. Thus, the moral of the day was: don’t try to chase the perfect moment, but just the moment itself.
After admitting we had failed in our mission to see the sunset, we decided to drive back to the girls place. On the way though, we passed through a road which seemed full of live. We were kind of hungry by then so we decided to stop. We ended up having dinner at Ogix Warung, which was kind of touristic but with a good location. The food was good, specially after having spent the whole journey burning calories.
There seemed to be some sort of bars/pubs next to the Warung and we thought about going later to check them out. Before that, we went to Pari Manta Cottages to have some beers and enjoyed the pool and, by the time we realised, we were to tired to go anywhere else. Thus, we enjoyed the calm of the night, the cold beers, the refreshing water of the pool and, the nice company. Eventually, I said good bye to the girls and went back to Hostel Nusa Penida. Do you remember I said I rented a moto for 3 days? Well, it just felt like 2 days in Nusa Penida had not been enough and I would be riding my moto again next day. Vicky, Naza and Judit, thanks for such an amazing time in Nusa Penida! 🙂
