Pandawa Beach, The Beach Inspired by War Winners

Pandawa Beach

Pandawa

I'm not sure why this beach is named in such way. Pandawa is the name for five Brothers that went to war with their cousins which were considered as Villain called Kurawa in the Mahabharata epic. The story is the symbols of Good vs Evil where the Winners in the end, Pandawa, symbolized the good and Kurawa played the opposite role. Anyway, still I can't answer the question in the beginning of this paragraph.

The beach lies on the south tip of the Paradise Island, Bali. It was hidden by the limestone hills. It is impossible to reach the beach if the local government did not make the roads by demolishing part of the limestone hills. As we all know, The Island of Bali depends so much from its tourism as non-tax domestic income. As world class tourism destination, the Balinese must aware of anything that could become tourism objects, like this beach for example. Anyway, I've never heard about the Pandawa Beach untill a year ago.

My vacation in Bali was nothing but a surprise. When I went back from shopping, my neighbor asked where I would go for Christmas holidays. I said I might go to Malang and he said that he will go to Bali by driving alone, then he offered me and my roommate to join, how could I say no! So it was a sudden trip, we depart at 00.30 a.m. West Indonesia Time, and arrived in Bali at 10.30 a.m Bali time (central Indonesia time) after one and a half hour on ferry crossing Bali Strait, then continued another 5 to 6 hours drive to reach the beach. Since we used the Waze app, a GPS application, the driving hours got longer than expected.

Pandawa Beach is close to the other newly famous beach, the Melasti Beach. I didn't know until I went back home to Surabaya. Four o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at the Pandawa Beach. The road offers unique beauty of limestone hills, the newly built gate to the beach made of limestone crafted beautifully in Balinese style. 

Since we arrived late, I thought there would be less visitor, I was wrong. There were still visitors arriving to the beach, I found many of them enjoying the view from the road side nearby the cliff. We stopped there too to get pictures of our own. From this point, we could see the beach from far view, it's beautiful, the straight line borders between blue ocean water and the beach white to yellowish sand stretched 1 km west to east.

On the other side of the road we can find the Statues of Pandawa and their mother Dewi Kunti. Started by the statue of 2 meters tall Dewi Kunti then Dharma Wangsa or Yudhistira, Bima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sadewa in Balinese style of stone-craft. Each placed on the man-made cave on the cliff-side. Enough with the photos we took on this site we move down to the beach. From the start I didn't want to get wet so I didn't change my trouser. But the wave were quite big, so I get wet half of my body. I prefer to swim in the calm water like in Gili Labak. I have childhood trauma on the south beach of Jogjakarta where I almost swept away to the ocean by the similar wave. Though it look more save here.

I saw my friends enjoying their time playing around in the water. We argued a little when I proposed my friend to get ready for another spot, Uluwatu, to watch Kecak Dance and to see beautiful sunset. He refused, he said that he rarely go to the beach and he really enjoy playing on the beach, so I stopped arguing in the end. I got starved so I bought food on the foodshop nearby. When I sat on the beach couch with huge umbrella, someone came to me that I need to pay for 50k in order to enjoy the beach on the couch. Wow, I had to pay for just sitting there? of course I refused, then I sat on the sand and enjoy my coconut drink and snack I bought.

I'm not really a fan of this beach, coz the wave do not allow me to swim. But, it is a good experience just for the shake of "have been there". The beach is quite famous, so if people asks have I ever been to the Pandawa Beach, I'd say yes I have.

At 05.30 p.m we depart to our hotel in Seminyak, the Maxone hotel, at Jl.Petitenget Seminyak, Bali. We booked on our way via Traveloka App. We enjoy the night in Bali eating the hot Penyetan nearby the hotel. So hot until I got sweat a lot. There are a lot of nice cafes on Seminyak, and of course a lot of Bules. Only that there's no Christmas signs at all, it was like a normal daily holiday.