Nusa Penida 💚

On this morning, I went to Nusa Penida. I had been looking forward to this small island, which is located southeast of Bali, for a long time.

When I bought my ferry ticket at 10 o'clock in the morning, I was excited to see what awaited me on this relatively non-touristy island. Unfortunately, the ferry did not arrive at 10:30 am as I was told, but instead, it arrived shortly after 1 pm and departed from Padang Bai at 2 pm. During the 4 hours of waiting, I fortunately met some people who made the waiting time much more enjoyable. When we finally arrived at Nusa Penida after over an hour of crossing, I checked into the hostel. It was already late, so there wasn't much to do. I met two Germans, Anna and Jonas, who were considering checking into the same hostel. However, they decided to stay at a different hostel but gave me a ride on their scooter for dinner. The two of them had been traveling in Southeast Asia for half a year and had great stories to tell. While we were talking, we realized that we had even sat next to each other at White Sand Beach in Padang Bai. What a coincidence! 😄

The next day, I decided to visit Atuh Beach. It was 16km away from my accommodation, and according to Google, it would take just over 3 hours to walk there. So I started walking and explored some beautiful beaches and villages along the way. Unfortunately, it was really hot, and the first few kilometers were along the coast, which was really nice and a bit windy. But then the path led me serpentine-like through the jungle up the mountains. Luckily, I had the luck of getting a ride from locals who were also heading in that direction. And finally, I arrived at the wonderful Atuh Beach. What a beauty! It looked stunning from above, but once I climbed down the steps, I was greeted with an amazing view. It was simply a magnificent beach where I spent several hours. There, I also met two new Germans, Marcel and Pia, who gave me a ride back home. It was really kind of them and especially a small rescue because there was a quite pushy local who really wanted to take me home, but I had a strange feeling about him. And it's always good to trust your instincts. When I was safely back in my accommodation, I was about to go out for dinner when Tobi (another German) came around the corner and wanted to check-in. We decided to go out to eat together. There, we also met Jonas and Anna again and decided to do one of the well-known snorkeling tours as a group of four.

The next day, Tobi and I first went down the west coast on a scooter, where there are some great beaches and coastal areas. So we saw Crystal Bay, Broken Beach, Angel's Billabong, and the highlight, Kelingking Beach. Fortunately, we arrived early at Kelingking Beach, so we had enough time to go down and up the steep path to the beach. It took us about 45 minutes to go down, but only about 20 minutes to go up. It was really exhausting in the glaring sun and with the makeshift handrail made of sticks. Once we were at the bottom, we refreshed ourselves in the sea. We deserved it. On the way back, we had something to eat at one of the small warungs (local restaurants), and we were really happy to be back on proper asphalt. Because the roads, especially to Broken Beach and a bit to Kelingking Beach, were sometimes really difficult to drive on, as they were sometimes made of gravel, sand, or had extreme potholes.

The next day, our snorkeling tour started at 8 am. We had 4 spots in our tour. The first one was the famous Manta Point, and I can't describe how wonderful it was to swim with these friendly giants. The mantas were about 3 meters tall and calmly and slowly swam right underneath us. I will probably never forget this encounter ❤. After that, we went to another spot where we could see wonderful corals and colorful fish. At the third stop, we could observe a Buddha and some other statues underwater. This was really interesting because it was something completely different, but the current was also very strong there, so we had to kick a lot with our fins. After that, I was so exhausted and stayed on the boat with some others who seemed to feel the same way. At this stop, we saw some fish again, some of which were quite big, but we didn't really miss out on anything. Anna, Jonas, Tobi, and I were really hungry, so we went to have something delicious to eat. After that, the four of us decided to drive to Crystal Bay because from there, you can reach a somewhat remote beach via stone steps. We spent half the afternoon there, swimming and resting. It was a really beautiful but also exhausting day. In the evening, we visited the night market, where there were many delicious local dishes. This was a really successful last day on Nusa Penida.

Nusa Penida is still very original and beautiful. I am glad that I had the opportunity to discover this little adventurous island before it becomes as touristy as Bali.

#Bali #atuhbeach #kelingkingbeach #brokenbay #angelsbillabong #manta #underwaterbuddha #snorkeling