Nusa Penida is one of the small islands that belong to Bali. It is a small rural island recently opened to turisme and it has already been very popular thanks to their cliffs and beaches. The nature coexists with harmony with people so their reefs are quite weakthy. Nowadays, specially the north-weast coast, it has been a bit corrupted by the turists and there are a lot of hotels and dive-centers.
The Fast ferry journey story
Our journey to Nusa Penida didn't started really well. The company we hired to take us from Bali, ofered a transport from our hotel to Sanur beach. However they never really contacted us to tell settle the meeting time. We managed to phone them while beeing at Ubud and arranged the meeting at the front of our hotel at 15 hours.
Even though we arrived there 30 min earlier no taxi stoped to take us. We waited and waited until we decided to call the company. Apparently the taxi had already arrived and left without us. They told us to look for another transport and that the ferry had to leave at 17 hours. The staff of the hotel tried to help us find a taxi but no one answered, they were full! We went out to the street and hoped for an empy taxi to pas over there. Finally we were lucky and got into one of them. As we were heading to Sanur beach, our driver told us that if we found traffic it would be quite difficult to get there on time, and we already knew how the traffic is at Bali.
We got lucky by a second time, and no traffic were found at that moment. We tried to contac the company to tell them we were heading that way and if they could try to wait for us. However they never picked up the phone, only answered by whats app saying that the departure time was setled. Finally we get to the beach just in time to see our ferry starting engines and leaving. We headed to the company really angry becouse of what hapened and after arguing for a few minutes they agreed to get us into another ferry that headed to Nusa Penida about 30min later.
Have in mind that if your boat departs from the beach you will have to walk with your luggage until you get to the boat! I recommend you wear shorts or swuimsuit and the most important thing, no heavy luggage! You will laugh for sure at people who don't know this.
After renting our scooters just at the harbour we rushed to our hotel, left the luggage there and discobered the surroundings a little bit. Whe choose a simple but nice ghesthouse, the Exotic view cottage, at the north coast as our base from where we will discober the rest of the islant. The owners were very nice and helpfull, and the rooms were perfect for us. There is even a nice beach just in front of the hotel.
Finally, after all that had happened, our three days trip to Nusa Penida was about to start. We had planned the days a little bit, however, we kind of changet it on the road.
Goa Giri Puri
It was quite late at the afternoon, however, we decided to try our luck to explore. We got underway and headed to Goa Giri Puri as it was quite close to our guesthouse. When we arrived, they were almost closing it, but fortunately they led us get in.
Goa Giri Puri is a temple located inside a rock. At the parking you will find some locals who rent a Sarong for 5.000 IDR. In Nusa Penida you have tu put on a Sarong even if you have long trousers or skirt, not like at Bali. The entrance will guide you to a steep steps with awning that head up to the mountain. This walk is really funny and a little bit scary as plenty of monteys jump over the awning!!
When you get to the top, a man will bless you with some holy water to your forehead, and you will be able to get into a small crack in the rock. The entrance fee is by donation so we each paid 20,000 IDR. It was like walking into a scene from the movie Alice In Wonderland, from feeling too big to squeeze through a tiny hole in a rock to feeling like the size of an ant once inside the cave where we could find an altar and some locals praying with an insense smell.
The day had just passed very fast and it was time to get back to the hotel, have a shower, rest a little bit and find a nice place for dinner. The road across our hotel was full of restaurants so we got the chance to decide wich one to chose. Lucky us we get to meet two nice spanish girls at the same hotel and have diner all together.
Atuh beach and Diamond beach
Atuh beach is one of the amazing beaches of Nuse Penida and the first of our planning. As many other places at Nusa Penida, the beach is shelted by two cliff, one at the east and the other at the weast of the beach.
We got up early in the morning ready to start our journey. As I have been saying the roads around Nusa Penida are quite rough so be sure to bring a helmet, just in case. We arrived at the west cliff of the beach with low tide and had to descend through a steep path to get there. As it was very early in the morning we enjoyed hunging around almost alone for a while.
Finally we head to the east cliff, where we found a easier path with some stairs, that would lead us to the another amazing view.
From the top of the cliff we got to see the Diamond Beach wich is also very beautiful. From the same path you can have a walk to the view point at the other side of the beach. It is a nice walk I recomend it if you have time.
At the comeback, as we were already tired from going up and down we decided not to go down at the Diamond beach for a swim. Instead we took it at the Atuh beach, as we arrived there now with the high tide.
Suwehan beach and Teletubbies Hill
The next place of the Island was waiting for us to be descobered so we took again our motorbikes to resume our journey. The roads where incredibly beautiful even though it were a dirt track and our butts bitted a little bit.
After a while, we arrived to Suwehan beach, just in time to see it before the hight tide swallow it all. There was a small restaurant close so we had a late lunch there while resting a few time.
When we got our strenghts back we resume again our journey. This time we were heading to the center of the Island, to Pura Puncak Mundi while we enjoyed very much the views from the Teletubies Hill.
The landscape was very awesome. The feeling of the wind and the sun over our faces made the journey even better. We crossed some small towns on our way that were really beautiful. They also had a lot of traditional decorations on the streets with bambú that are called "Penjor" in honour of the Hindu God Galungan.
Pura Puncak Mundi
Following the road up we finally got to the top of the Mundi Mount, the highest point on the Nusa Penida Island, we found the Pura Puncak Mundi temple. As allways, the Sarong is mandatory to get inside the temple, however the temple watchers allowed us to get inside with large pants and handkerchiefs over our legs.
Sacred ceremony in this temple is comes once every 210 days, namely on Umanis Anggarakasih Prangbakat. Worship process in this temple is done for 3 times. The first whorship is done at Beji temple and then Kerangkeng Temple and Puncak Mundi Temple.
From here, you can enjoy the cool breeze and the soothing atmosphere while watching the beautiful scenery of the island, and the monkeys running around.
The sun was still shining with the afternoon lights, we had enough time to hung out a little more. Not so far from where we were, there was the Peguyangan waterfall, that was planned for the last day. So we headed there.
Peguyangan waterfall
The Peguyangan waterfall is located at the east coast of Nusa Penida. First of all, the parking has a 5,000 rupiah fee and then you will need to hire a sarong from the parking attendant. The necessity of the sarong for tourists is quite in question as a lot of people don't wear it and even the locals shows in underwear at the bottom. However, if you want to get inside you will have to pay 10,000 rupiahs for it. Consider it a as a fee or something and put the sarung on.
After crossing the entrance there is a small path that will guide you to an iconic blue stars that goes down a cliff. Even tough the blue stairs don't fell unsafe they are completly built on the cliff. Don't try it if you have dizziness! The up and down of those steep blue stairs is a workout. However, there are a spectacular coastal cliff views waiting for you to be discovered.
The hike down takes about 20 minutes. The sacred temple is based on the water blessing. There are three spouts, the believers must shower underneath each of them, and then use the fourth main spout to finish. This is how they clean themselves and receive blessings.
At the end we find the pools that have the purest of water, it looks incredibly clear! The rock pools are tiered down until they eventually flow out into the ocean. It's an amazing pure area with incredible views.
The walk back up the stairs was totally an effort. Even though, the sun was already setting down, we got totally covered in sweat. There is a small warung at the parking area, where we took a refreshing juice. Feeling a little better we got back to our apartment with the last rays of light.
If you want to continue reading about the trip click to Nusa Penida Island part 2. To know a little bit more about Bali click at The magic Bali Island.
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