Nusa Penida & Nusa Lembongan

Welcome to island life…

Nusa Penida

Nusa Penida is the larger (but least popular) island of a group of three islands off the coast of Bali. When we set out to go here, we didn’t know what we were about to stumble upon. But it turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip.

It all started with a great place to stay: a bungalow in a peaceful garden overlooking coconut trees (we’re both suckers for palms).

What immediately struck us about Nusa Penida was how green and quiet it was. After the rush of Bali, the sleepy island vibe was a very welcome feeling.

We stayed in Ped, just a short walk from the popular Full Moon Bungalows, where you can enjoy live music.

But starting to pop up along the coast are many beach bars. It was here, at Sanctum beach bar, that I fell in love with Nusa Penida completely. A super relaxed atmosphere, with band playing mellow music and good food; all while looking out over a pink sky and the sound of the waves lapping against the shore just metres from your beanbag!

Swimming with Manta Rays

Nusa Penida is great for the adventurer. One of the big draws of the three Nusas is the snorkelling and diving. Here you can see many fish and manta rays! This is a totally unforgettable experience!

We made two new Californian friends — Sachi and Teague — and chartered a boat to go snorkelling off the coast of Penida. On this boat trip we swam with clownfish among the reefs, and three manta rays!

(It should be noted for the record that the three others did most of the swimming, while I was “feeding” the fish. And by feeding, I mean, throwing up my breakfast in the ocean after a night of a few too many Bintangs. One to tick off the bucket list.)

The snorkelling was definitely some of the best I’ve ever done, with many fish to see and a reef that is actually kinda alive!

Kelingking Beach

Since visiting Shipwreck Bay in Zakynthos, Greece, I’ve been wondering if a beach would ever measure up to that. Shipwreck Bay is still number one, but Kelingking Beach in Nusa Penida reminded me of it. It’s a beautiful bay to look out over.

It is also possible to go down to the beach itself, although it’s a long and treacherous climb. When I say climb, I mean, literally rock climbing at some points. There are no signs telling you that when you start the descent. Of course, this would not pass health and safety standards outside of Indonesia.

Once you’re down there though, the sea is as beautiful as it is powerful.

In fact, we recently heard of many deaths occurring due to people being washed out at sea. And when you’re down there, help is far away. There is no phone reception or GPS.

Crystal Bay

By the time we’d had a full afternoon of climbing up and down, we were exhausted! So a relaxing swim was in order. There aren’t many beaches to choose from, but Crystal Bay provides an adequate beach vibe – and at least we could swim here!

Nusa Lembongan

The sad day came where we had to leave Penida, but we were excited to check out the more popular Nusa Lembongan. For us, this was a mistake. Lembongan is way more popular but has none of the charm. Garbage is visible on the side of the roads, with tourism taking a much bigger hold over the island in the most negative ways.

It didn’t help that the weather was cloudy. During those days, we found ourselves scratching our head as to how Lembongan clould be more popular (including literal truckloads of Chinese tourists being ferried around). The answer lies in the beaches. When the sun is shining, Lembongan has the beaches that Penida does not. Unfortunately for us, it was cloudy, so we spent the first day drinking our sorrows away in an expensive resort with a view over the beautiful (albeit cloudy) bay.

It wasn’t all bad. We managed to catch a sunset and even some brief beach time on the last day.

By the end, however, our time on Lembongan was overshadowed by something even worse.

Lombok earthquake

While we were on Lembongan, the unexpected happened: Lombok was hit with a second earthquake. The first deadly Lombok earthquake had occurred while we were in Uluwatu, but we didn’t feel anything. This time, we were on Lembongan eating dinner and the world started wobbling. I thought I was drunk or dizzy. It was the first earthquake I’d ever experienced in my life, up until that point.

We spent the following minutes downloading earthquake apps and trying to figure out how bad it was and if we needed to be concerned. Later on, we heard elsewhere on the island there was (false) panic of a tsunami.

We had planned to go to Lombok next. As we texted with our friend Dave on the Gilis and stories began to emerge of horrors of what was going on there, it became apparent our plans were scuppered.

This was the shadow that fell over our time on Lembongan. Instead of getting the boat to Lombok, we needed to reevaluate. So we picked a town along the south coast of Bali — Canggu — and headed there to figure out what to do next.