Day 8 -- Nusa Penida, Indonesia

6/16/2023 Friday

Itinerary:

• Nusa Penida West Side Private Tour
• Kelingking Beach
• Broken Beach
• Angel's Billabong
• Crystal Bay

I have been looking forward to this tour today as I have read many good things about this island, Nusa Penida as well as saw some really nice pictures posted. Again, I have booked this private tour beforehand and since we have to take a ferry to the island, the driver will be at our hotel super early at 6am. There are 3 different tours for this island, east side or west side and with/without snorkeling. Since Madison didn't want to go snorkeling, so we only opt for the one without snorkeling so that we have more time to visit each spot. We also picked the west side of the island as they have more of the beautiful spots that we are looking for.

Some people actually spent a few days here so that they can go around the entire island and do more snorkeling but since we don't have enough time, so we are only taking a day tour.

We didn't get a chance to eat breakfast since the lounge was not opened this early. After picking us up, the driver drove us to the Terminal Port of Sanur which was about a 20-25 minutes drive. He parked at a lot which made us crossed a quite busy road and I was pretty scared as the drivers there do not let pedestrians pass, so we kinda had to run to cross the road, After we crossed the road, we went to the office to get our ferry tickets and a badge so that they can let us know which ferry to take. If you would like to get some breakfast, there is a very small convenience shop that you can buy some food.

The ferry station was a few minutes walk from the office and once we reached the ferry station, they scanned our tickets and we walked towards the ferry. We had no idea which ferry to go to but just keep going straight and watching their eye contact to see if they will call us. Finally, one of the ferry called us to come and we boarded the ferry which could carry maybe about 100 or so people.

As soon as the ferry was full, we were on our way to Nusa Penida and the ferry ride took about 40-45 minutes. On the way there, the tides were mild so I was feeling fine but on the way back, the tides were very rough and I could feel some motion even though I had already taken the motion sickness pills.

The tour guide was waiting for us when we arrived at Nusa Penida holding a sign with my name. He took us to the parking lot and started driving to our first stop, Kelingking Beach. This place is one of the most instagrammable spot. The popular T-rex cliff is what you will see most people take pictures here. Since we only have limited time here, we couldn't walk down to the beach as it will take about 1 hour roundtrip to walk.

The tour guide started lining up as there were other tour guides taking pictures for their tourists. Once it was our turn, he started taking many pictures for us and even some videos.

Next stop was Broken Beach which is about 30 minutes away and the road condition here was pretty bad, so the ride was very bumpy. Again, the tour guide took many pictures for us here and I really appreciate it as it's hard to have many family pictures. Also, he has better picture taking skills than Anthony :-)

After picture taking, the tour guide told us that we have some time to walk around before going to the next spot. Mason and I walked around to take more pictures.

After taking more pictures, we met up with our tour guide and walked towards to Angel's Billabong for more pictures. 

We didn't stay here too long as it was getting too hot under the sun. So, we walked back to the parking lot and the tour guide took us to the local restaurant for our lunch which was included with the package.

It was nice to be finally under the shade as it was pretty hot in the 80s. We rested a little bit after finishing lunch before proceeding to our last spot for the day, which is Crystal Bay. Even though it was not too far but it still took us about an hour to reach there since the road conditions in Nusa Penida is not good and roads are narrow, so it takes a long time to go from one place to another.

The water here is very clear but we don't see the blue or turquoise color that we see in many other countries that we have been to. This is where most people go snorkeling and we can see why. We didn't stay for too long as we didn't bring any swimwear to swim since we didn't know that we were allowed to spend a couple of hours here as that wasn't clear in the tour description. We texted our tour guide and told him that we want to leave early as there wasn't much to do at the beach and it was hot, so we met him at the parking lot and he took us back to the port so that he can get us the early tickets to return to Bali. In the meantime, he also called our driver in Bali so that he can pick us up at the Sanur port to take us back to our hotel. The tour guide took a lot of pictures for us and I am really happy for that but the only thing I wished he had done was to explain the history of each spot that we visited as I tried to ask him but he couldn't say anything. 

Everything went seamlessly and soon, we were back at our room enjoying the nice AC. We rested for a while before venturing to the lounge for Happy Hour for some appetizers and drinks.