The dramatic scenery of Nusa Penida…
Bali is the most popular destination in Indonesia, but over time it has become very commercialized, which has led many travellers to consider nearby alternative destinations such as Lombok – and the Nusa islands – which are only 30 mins boat ride away. We also wanted to experience something different, and decided to spend a week in Nusa Ceningan, Lembongan and Penida.
In order to get to the Nusa’s, one needs to get a speedboat to Nusa Lembongan or Penida. After doing research and reading several travel blogs, based on what we had read we decided to travel to Lembongan and spend 4 days on the smaller island of Ceningan, before moving over to Penida for 2 days. This proved to be not the greatest decision as most bloggers seem to have oversold the experience they had on Lembongan and Ceningan. We should rather have spent 4 days on Penida 🙂 Anyway, we read the reviews on speedboat companies and decided to go with Scoot, which is supposed to be the no 1 speedboat company in Bali. Cost was Rp 250 000/person after negotiation, including transfer from and to our accommodation on either side of the boat trip.
This proved to be not the best choice as Scoot used a smaller, much older and less stable boat than their competition and their drop-off left us stranded with our bags on the wrong side of Yellow Bridge on Lembongan – I had to walk over the bridge to Nusa Ceningan and get assistance from our guesthouse to carry our bags almost a km. Scoot is hard to recommend – you can get a ticket far cheaper on a bigger boat with other companies at the wharf in Sanur. We have learned to take much of what many travel bloggers write with a pinch of salt as most people seem to always try to put a positive slant on their travel experiences…Sometimes there are negatives which need to be highlighted in order to forewarn fellow travellers.
We stayed at Yellow Bridge Homestay as it was close to the departure point to Nusa Penida and on the main stretch of accommodation and restaurants on Ceningan. There are no taxi’s on the island to speak of, so for short distances one must either walk, or take the risk of hiring a scooter to get around. We avoided this option in the Nusa’s after hearing of the many scooter accidents that travellers get involved in every year…We saw examples of this wherever we went on the islands. So on Ceningan we walked everywhere, which was healthier and interesting.
Ceningan proved to be a chilled, cool place to spend a few days and our guesthouse was great, and even had a small swimming pool. It was located near several restaurants where we ate daily, although the quality of the food seldom matched the tourist prices charged. The trendier restaurants were popular with Instagramers with their swings and decor 🙂
My favorite spot ended up being a local Padang where we ate bakso soup with chicken balls several times for less than $1/bowl. Chicken satays cost another $1 for 8 sticks 🙂 Unbelievable value…
We took a 45 min slow walk to one of the only sites on Ceningan – the islands Blue Lagoon. Yes, it seems that many islands have a blue lagoon – this is probably the third one we’ve seen thus far during our travels 🙂 It was cool to walk half way around the island on the way to the lagoon and get a sense of what life on Ceningan is like.
The lagoon itself is quite small, but quite dramatic, with powerful waves breaking on the rocks surrounding it…The water is a dramatic light blue mainly because of the air bubbles in the water caused by the rough sea, and because it has a white sandy bottom. We spent around an hour there and got some really great shots.
Gede, our host at Yellow Bridge Homestay offered to take us to a traditional Barong ceremony in the village on adjacent Nusa Lembongan. We were transported there on the back of two scooters…It was a totally authentic experience attended mostly by local villagers with a sprinkling of foreigners…We had to wear traditional sarongs for ceremonial purposes…Tour groups pay up to $100 each to see similar performances in Ubud in a theatre-like setting. This was free and the real deal…
During the course of the ceremony we were quite alarmed by the behaviour of several women in the crowd. They appeared to have become possessed or enraptured, and cried out loudly while trying to reach the Barong, which is a dragon-like creature. Security guards and relatives tried to restrain and control them. Towards the end of the ceremony there were quite a few women screaming out and suddenly tourists and children were told to leave the area. It seems like something of a taboo subject to discuss, and till today we are not quite sure what was happening…
The following day we decided to take a long walk across to Lembongan to check out the famous Devil’s Tears rock pools and cliffs. It was a fair distance away, but again an interesting walk through the middle of the island which made us realize how dirty and overdeveloped Lembongan is already. We eventually reached Devil’s Tears and shot some cool photographs for around 15 mins.
Suddenly we were swarmed by hundreds of Chinese tourists – daytrippers from Bali, who descended on the area en masse, bumping us aside in their haste to get selfies as near to the edge of the cliffs as possible. Tour guides with loud hailers screamed at them to stay in safe areas, but many ignored their instructions. Any chance of getting cool shots evaporated in an instant, and we retreated to a food stall to grab some noodles and drinks for lunch. I commented to Akhona that this reckless behaviour would end in disaster one day.
We set off back to Ceningan following a different route along the beach and once again we realized that Ceningan was definitely a nicer place to stay than Lembongan with its crowds and inflated prices. On arrival at our guesthouse we relaxed by the pool, and about an hour later our host arrived and asked us if we’d witnessed the accident at Devil’s Tears…A Chinese tourist had fallen into the big rock pool and drowned…
After 4 nights in Ceningan we took a small local boat across to Nusa Penida for a two night stay on the largest but least developed of the Nusa islands. We stayed at La Nusa homestay, which was good value for money, with a very helpful owner who fetched us from the beach. We had already arranged a private vehicle for day tour at 09h00, and we set off to visit the most popular spots on the island in air-conditioned luxury when compared to the people we saw struggling along on the very bad, potholed roads on their small scooters…Our first stop was Kelingking Beach…
We had told our driver to go to the most popular spot first, which was a wise decision. We arrived probably 20 mins before the crowds started arriving and managed to get off a few shots at the main viewpoint before the Chinese tour group started pushing past the queue to get their pics. Our guide showed us another cool spot nearby where he took this great shot of us…
We realized that we had to stay ahead of the crowds, so we hit Angel Billabong next. It was already very busy and we were lucky to find parking. It is really a very cool spot, with an elevated crystal clear pool situated on a ridge which is kept filled with water when waves break over the edge during high tide. When this happens it is very dangerous as the water is sucked back out over the cliff as it recedes. Several people have died here either by drowning or after being smashed against the rocks below. Of course, that didn’t stop several idiots from trying to get an Instagram shot while we were there….Check out the video at the end of this post…
Our next stop was Broken Beach, which is actually a collapsed underwater cave. It’s hard to not be excited by the location when you first see it…We darted around like children searching for cool angles to shoot the land bridge from. It was very windy so I decide not to risk flying the drone.
We found Penida a really worthwhile destination and would spend at least 4 or 5 days here if we visit again. On our second day we joined a snorkeling trip which was supposed to include swimming with giant manta rays, but it turned into a wasted day as the sea conditions were so bad that we could not visit 4 of the 5 sites included in the itinerary. Instead of returning to port and refunding our money, the boatman tried to pull the oldest scam in the book – he returned to the bay where the port is located and then tried to offer snorkeling 15m from the shore as a replacement for what we had missed. Akhona and I refused to get into the water, but the other people on the trip fell for it, and ended up with a mediocre experience. We demanded a partial refund and got half of our money back…
Check out this video of people risking their lives for a selfie at Angel Billabong…About 2 mins after I finished shooting this clip a massive wave broke over the edge of the cliff and would definitely have swept the guy away who stood close to the edge if he had still been there…
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