Nusa Penida
What people seem to forget about Bali is that there is so much more than meets the eye when it comes to exploring. Having visited the island of Lembongan last time i was in Bali, I vowed that i would try and get across to another island to explore this time around. 'Nusa Penida' had popped up on my Instagram a number of times showing off some, not only beautiful places, but some amazing experiences you could get amongst so i decided to do a day trip over to the island to check it out! Nusa Penida Tours or nusa_penida_island (as i found them on Instagram) was the tour company i decided to go with when booking my day trip from Seminyak and after now having done the day trip, i wish I had gone for two or more! Lucky there is always next time. The team at Nusa Penida Tours were efficient. I emailed them at night and they responded the same night will all the information i required. I ended up choosing to do the below as part of the tour but there are quite a few option and places you can choose to explore / activities you can do across different sides of the island but i went with:
- Crystal Bay - Broken Bay (Pasih Uug)
- Karang Dawa View Point (Kelingking beach)
The Nusa Penida tours team picked me up from my hotel at 6 am the next day as it was approx a 40-60 min drive from Seminyak to the boat pier. They were a little late on arrival but nothing too drastic so i thought. When I arrived at the pier my taxi driver took me to get my ticket and then apparently i was running more late than i thought so i had to run to my boat to ensure i even got on it! I got pretty well soaked in the process getting onto the boat and had to sit at the back on a crate (due to being late) and wait out the 30 min boat ride to Nusa Penida.
Once I arrived I was greeted by my driver and the journey began. We of course started back on the water where i mixed with a group of people/travellers and we explored quite a few snorkelling spots getting to see and explore the 'Underwater Buddha' and then were blessed with the opportunity to swim alongside the gentle giants, the most exquisite Manta Rays. For moments my mind was empty and i was just in awe of these beautiful creatures that were swimming around me. They were graceful and just exquisite really. I have swum with them before and i would happily do it again, countless times over. It is one of my happy places indefinitely! Having got out of the water beaming and excited, ready to share the experience, i did learn that maybe some don't share the same excitement in little things and moments but that was okay, because this moment was just for me, something I wanted to do. It was an incredible experience! Getting back to shore it was time to explore further. My driver advised he wasn't that great at English but that didn't mean he didn't try his best and we made conversation as best we could with laughs along the way. If there is anything i could say about Nusa Penida and touring around it, please note that you will be doing a lot of 'bush bashing' or so we like to call it in Aus. A lot of the roads are broken and filled with pot holes so the drives can take that little bit longer than expected purely for safety. It took us approx an hour to get to our first destination - 'Karang Dawa View Point (Kelingking beach)' and my god wasn't the view just incredible. Next time i return I will try to stay for a longer time period as I found i did not get enough time to fully sit and take in everything as well as be able to take the time to walk down to the beach, but what i did get to view, i appreciated. It was a sight to see and i highly recommend checking it out. The water was pristine and you had the option of having lunch on site too which was reasonably priced and tasty. It is worth noting though that they do recommend you shout lunch for your driver too which of course i didn't mind doing. I think it was approx $4-$8 Australian dollars. It is also worth noting that there is a small fee for viewing these sites which they expect you to pay but don't necessarily tell you at the time of booking but again, the views are worth it (approx $5-$10 Australian dollars).
We then jumped back into the car for another lengthy drive, think it was approx another hour before arriving at 'Broken Bay (Pasih Uug)'. Again, I wish I had more time to sit amongst these views, so if you do plan on visiting this island i highly recommend a few days to explore as this was only one side of the island too, there is much more to see. Unfortunately due to time strains i did not get to go swimming in the natural pool either but these spots were so picturesque and well worth the visit. Isn't it funny how little you know about a place until you take the time to explore it further? I had always been to the main parts of Bali, the tourist spots, Kuta, Seminyak, little did i know how much more to Bali there actually was and is. Do your research guys, get amongst the real Bali. Anyway here is a shot of 'Broken Bay (Pasih Uug).'
We then went onto another stunning spot - 'Karang Dawa View Point (Kelingking beach).' It seems that the distance between most of these destinations is at least an hour so doing it all in a day is quite tiring. It's incredible and sad at the same time how some of the most beautiful places I have seen are untouched by humans. Check out this beauty of a spot below!
The last spot we went to was 'Crystal Bay' which unfortunately i didn't manage to get photos of. The driver said we had an hour here so i literally grabbed myself a coconut, my book and plonked myself on a bean bag in front of the beach and chilled out reading 'Who says you can't? You do' by Daniel Chidiac (which i highly recommend). After a full on day of driving it was just what i needed. We left 'Crystal Bay' at about 4pm to be back at the pier by 5pm. I tipped my driver after he dropped me off at the pier as i thought he was quite grand overall. He couldn't speak great english but he did his best as well as trying not to kill us on the broken roads and also offered to take my photo's for me which i thought was very kind. It was a 30 minute boat ride (again) back and i basically slept the whole way back before having my driver return me to my hotel at around 6/6.30pm.
Nusa Penida - do it. Trust me when i say you won't regret exploring this island and what it has to offer. I know i will definitely be back to explore other sides of the island.