Nusa Penida * 20 & 21.05.19

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While I was still on Bali, I already started to make plans to go to the island Nusa Penida. I created a group on Couchsurfing, asking people to join me on this adventure. Several people reacted, but one girl (Corinna) and I started to make concrete plans together. We talked a few days before but only met in real life the same morning we took the boat.

As soon as we arrived, we rented a scooter together and went to a guesthouse near the pier to book a room. During the boat trip, another guy (Philipp) posted in the group that he would like to join. We waited for him to arrive while we had breakfast at the guesthouse. Soon after he arrived we left because there were quite some places we wanted to visit and we only had 2 days.

First we went to Broken Beach and Angel Billabong. These places were right next to each other. The road to get there was incredibly bad and scary though! At some points the roads were super steep and were covered with loose sand, stones and many holes. My shoulders and hands actually hurt from leaning back and squeezing the breaks. BUT it was worth it! Angel Billabong is like a charco (natural pool) and because you can't enter the water, you can see the bottom because the water is so clear and still. The Broken Beach is an arch where water from the ocean comes through.

Our next stop was Kelingking Beach (the dinosaur head). I think this is the most famous spot on Nusa Penida and when we arrived this statement got confirmed immediately. WOW! It was súper crowded. Lots of people were waiting on the steps to go down while making millions of pictures. Others just came for the picture from above, but I guess there's a spot from where that picture is best taken because also there was long queue. If you didn't figure out yet through my other blogs.. I do not like queues. So we went looking for another spot from where we could take a picture. We turned right (away from the crowds) and walked next to the cliff and through the bushes and yes, we found a spot! The view was absolutely breathtaking and I would've loved to go down to the beach, but as I mentioned earlier, we only have 2 days and a lot more places to go, so after a while we kept going.

The Peguyangan waterfall was our next stop. Before we could climb down, we had to rent sarongs at the entrance. They built a temple next to it so you can't wear shorts. It was a bit of a task climbing down these incredible steep steps with the long and stiff fabric these sarongs are made of. The blue steps hanging on the side of the cliff were very thin and separated, so you could see all the way down. It was beautiful but even for someone who's not afraid of heights it might be a bit scary. On our way down, I saw a few manta rays swimming in the ocean underneath our feet. These animals are so amazing! I would've loved to go snorkeling with them, but my budget didn't allow me to. I called Philipp to point them out and we both stopped and watched them for a while. Then we realized that Corrina didn't see us stop and was much further down, so we quickly caught up with her. When we finally arrived at the waterfall, there were only 2 couples down there. It surprised us since the other spots were so crowded. Maybe not everyone dares to go down the steps? Or maybe we just came on a quiet moment. We walked around the temple and a few slippery steps down the waterfall to get to some "holy water" bathing pools. The water was super clear and I was more then happy to take a well deserved fresh dip. You can imagine the way back up was tiring and when we reached the top again it felt like I never even took a dip in those pools.

From there we drove to a sunset point and we júst made on time to actually see the sun going down. We then went back to the guesthouse to freshen up before going to a restaurant nearby. It was called "the Krusty Krab" and everything was in spongebob theme. Very funny!
Just after ordering our food, the electricity went down and we sat in the dark. It didn't bother us though and invited a guy who sat alone at the bar to sit with us. Later, a girl (Stephanie) who reacted earlier on the group I made on couchsurfing joined us too and brought another guy with her (Jeswin). It ended up to be a very fun night. Right after finishing our food by candlelight, the power came back on.

The next day, Stephanie and Jeswin joined us on our adventure. We went to the east of the island, passing the "Teletubbie Hills" to get to Suwehan Beach. Again we had to climb many steps to get down to the beach. This time they were concrete steps so not as scary as the ones we climbed yesterday. When we reached the bottom of the steps, we found out it was high tide and the waves came up until the cliffs. The beach we wanted to go to disappeared for the next couple of hours, so there was no other option than to climb back up. We all laughed about it and went on to our next stop: Thousand Islands viewpoint and Atuh Beach. The road to get there was horrible. I think it was the worst of all. We were all breaking sweat and I'm still amazed the scooters made it and that none of us fell off.

At our next stop we were stunned by the views. The water is so blue and the contrast with the little islands made the view really beautiful. Later we walked down to Atuh beach. From above we saw a few baby reef sharks playing in the bay. When we got down to the beach we all stripped down to our swimming clothes to get into the water. It was so nice and refreshing! I really didn't want to get out, but we had to if we wanted to get back to the pier on time to catch the last boat back to Bali. Stephanie and Philipp didn't have to leave yet so they stayed on the beach. On our way back we managed to make one last stop at a temple. We only stayed for a short time because we had to get to the pier before 16:30.

I can say with confidence that this was one of the greatest moments of my entire trip. We had lots of fun with amazing people from different countries and we've seen beautiful places. I'm happy I've spend my last days over there.

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