Nusa Penida was our next stop after a quick four nights in Ubud on Bali. As we are slow traveling, we wanted to give enough time to travel between places on the islands (and Indonesia is made up of 17,000 islands, with 6,000 that are inhabited). To make it to Nusa Penida, we had to take a two-hour taxi to the port, then an hour boat ride, and finally a a 20-minute taxi to the hotel. If the weather is bad, the boat may not travel (so go in the morning we were told, as the water is usually calmer then). Dramamine really helped, but whoa it knocked us out.
If there are any traffic accidents, or traffic in general, which there often is on Bali, that can delay a trip too. We arrived at our Penida hotel in one piece with no travel delays, but the roads in Penida are not good, and ours was up a winding road that could not feasibly be walked. Lucky for us, the hotel was really nice, and the view was spectacular.
The view of the mountain on Bali was so cool and was not always obscured by clouds, like in the picture above. When planning this trip, we had Bali as a good spot for some rest and relaxation after 11 weeks of non-stop city travel and exploration, from Seoul to Hong Kong to two months in China. But Ubud was busier and less relaxing than we had expected, and we welcomed the isolation our hotel provided in Nusa Penida.
We actually only left the hotel grounds once in our week stay, and it was wonderful stay at that. They had a large, open air studio where Jesse practiced yoga, and we had a couple of massages (only $12 USD for an hour). It was also large enough we even were able to practice our dance moves. It is shoulder season here, so we were the only ones in the pool for most of the week. Below are a couple of the statues on site, and a frog who would greet us each night after dinner, but only then.
Penida is a Hindu island and part of Bali province, and while Indonesia is mainly Muslim, there are many Hindu statues here and on Bali.
The beaches in Penida are not easy accessible as many require a treacherous walk gripping the side of a cliff while hanging on to a thin rope to access a small beach with lots of adventure/social media tourists. We are not so adventurous, so we chose the beach that could be accessed from the parking lot on flat ground, named Crystal Bay. It was a short stretch of beach with pretty blue water, a lot of boats anchored off shore, a few beach bars with old sun chairs and umbrellas, and a temple complex.
We walked the whole beach back and forth a few times, and found a seat in the shade on the seawall. It was underwhelming but pretty peaceful, without a ton of fellow tourists.
We also tried our first fresh coconuts, and we could even eat the fleshy parts inside with a spoon; it had a spongy, slick, texture, but not in a bad way, and it tasted better than we expected.
The temple complex was not huge, and it was closed for some reason.
We also had to pay to use the (gross) bathrooms, and even pay to use the hose to rinse off our feet; it wasn’t a lot of money, but it also did not add to the experience. We left the beach and had lunch at a Warung (an Indonesian restaurant that serves exclusively Indonesian food) where we ate some excellent fish right off the grill.
After lunch we stopped at a couple clothing stores, which were quite expensive, but since there aren’t many stores on the island, this wasn’t unexpected. We made a stop at the convenience store and loaded up on snacks and drinks; since we could not walk down from our hotel to the main street (and honestly, there wasn’t much to see). The hotel was able to hire a car for us for the day to take us to the beach and lunch and the store. It is not as glamorous as it sounds; the car was a beat-up van but with working A/C, as that’s the most important factor in a car on the islands. Now that we had our provisions, we completed our only trip away from the hotel while on Nusa Penida.
Another reason we did not venture out was the superb restaurant on site; it was Mediterranean inspired, and we saw and spoke with the owners, who were European themselves, and wanted to provide different food than Indonesian. We tried just about every dish (and a few twice) during our stay and not one was even subpar, they were all great. So it was very easy to wake up to this view:
head to the pool,
then clean up for dinner (Here are some of the dishes of which Jessica posted more about here):
before gazing up at the stars, for the week.
It did rain a few days, and one night was a huge thunderstorm that was so loud and the lightning actually blinded us for a second. But it really provided even better skies.
We felt very lucky to get to enjoy this beautiful place for as long as we did; but alas, time flies, and soon we were on our way back to the harbor, ready for our next island. The harbor was hot as we waited with fellow tourists for the boat; it ran late, but most things do here.
There was a small shrine there too.
We finally boarded the boat, bound for the Gili islands; first stop, Gili Air!
Phil's WayPastCool 