Travelistar: Nusa Penida the Left Over Paradise (part 1 of 3)

Kelingking Beach at Nusa Penida, Bali

The Paradise Lost

The stories goes when God decided to destroy His last remaining paradise on earth 11.000 years ago. It was the Sundaland, which geographically now known as part of Indonesia and Malaysia, the Island of Sumatra, Malaya Peninsula, Borneo, Java and the lesser Sunda islands (small islands compound including Bali and the Nusa Tenggara Islands). Some say it was Atlantis, the sunken and highly civilized continent, Eden in the East says other. For whatever they may call, the Sundaland was the most possible place to nurture life and human civilization during the last Ice Age or we call it as Pleistocene Era 11 millennia ago. Other places especially the northern and south hemisphere of the earth was covered by thick ice.

Sundaland was rich with active volcanoes, as it is now. The ancient Super Volcanoes like Toba, Tambora and Krakatoa, believed to erupt at the same time around 11.000 years ago. This triggered mega tsunami and made most part of the earth covered with thick cloud. As the cloud came upon the ice, it melted down the ice cape and rising the water level around 60 meters. The event then sunken part of Sundaland and created what is now Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo Island with the small islands on the east of Java.

The current territory now is mostly belong to Indonesia where paradise really exist. Who doesn't know Bali? a perfect escape for millions of people just to relax and enjoy time. The number one Island for holiday rated by some travel magazines over and over again. What we do not know is that, Bali has three small islands on its southern territory, namely Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Penida. The last name is the biggest island of them all.

The Sundaland

The Journey Begins

I went to Nusa Lembongan long time ago, during trip organized by the company I worked for. Only to enjoy turtle breeding site. What I didn't know was that the neighboring island of Nusa Penida has so much natural beautiy to offer. Early of June 2017, I went to Nusa Penida to witness myself the natural beauty that have been shown on Instagram so many time. It was like booming on Instagram, as traveler, I couldn't possibly miss those places. So I set my trip together with my travel mate, just the two of us.

We literally arrived in Bali at midnight, the bad thing was that, Uber is not allowed to pick up passengers in Airport territory. So I took initiative to walk around to avoid airport taxies and set meeting point with the uber driver just outside the airport fences. Problem came out when the driver could not locate our location, so he went around and around the airport in order to find us. It took more than one hour waiting for Uber. I couldn't just cancel it, coz using normal taxi will charge us much more expensive than using Uber.

Once we're in the car, I got a little bit relieve. Another problem showed up when the driver could not find the alley he supposed to drop us. So we make U turn to find that particular alley. As we decided the drop zone, the alley shown on map was part of big hotel. So frustrated with the night, we ate at the nearby KFC to regain our strength and calm down our mind.

So we continued our way walking. It was a very dark and small alley, looks like the setting of a horror movies, where big trees and darkness surround us. I didn't want to get my mind filled with horror stuff, just trying to get a clear mind and hoping to find the hotel I reserved online the day before. As we walked deeper in the alley, we found only houses with very limited lighting on front. We walked following the direction of the map shown in GPS, only to get wrong address. My mate already became emotional at this particular time and started to blame me. So I blame him back for not giving solution for our problem. Finally we took the turn that wasn't shown on the map and found this damn hotel. Luckily the gate was unlocked so that we could get in and knocked the host's door. I, by heart, cursed that night to be the worst night ever, during my trip so far. I don't mind walking around the jungle in the middle of the night as long as there is a guide or a friend whom I trust to be expert doing such trip. But that night is so tiring and frustrating.

The next morning, we continue walking to the meeting point, the Sunrise Beach at Sanur. Breakfast is a must for the boat trip we didn't know how long it would be. As I met the guy called Bli Nyoman, the tour operator, he passed me two fastboat tickets departing to Nusa Penida Island, which only take around two hours journey time.

I met another Bli Nyoman, the tour guide and driver, once I step foot on the Island. He took us to the hotel, The Mel's Homestay, which was in the tour package for 1 night. After the toilet time, I met the hotel owner, Mr.Kadek, a very friendly guy, and a couple of Bule. We did the chit chat and joke around for several minutes, just to get my welcome drink finished. I didn't realize how Bules could get my jokes at that time, or maybe they just pretend to understand and laugh around so that I wouldn't embarrassed myself. Who knows?

Kelingking Beach far view

The Karst Cliff at Kelingking Beach

Klingking Beach

We departed at arround 10.00 am to our first destination, known as Kelingking Beach, some say Klingking. Kelingking literally means the small finger. Maybe it's how it looks like, I wouldn't know. Groups of other tourists, both local and Bules, were already there. But it didn't ruin the scene as they just go around taking pictures with the amazing background, the Kelingking Beach. It is actually a beach that is under a very unique shape of karst cliff facing the Indian Ocean. Maybe the early man who visit this place imagined the shape of the cliff that look like a small finger. For me, it is more like a branched small finger. Anyway, it is beautiful as hell.

This is the iconic picture of Nusa Penida Island. It is similar to the famous Zakynthos Island, the Shipwreck cove in Greece, just different in size and colors. I never been to that place, but the pictures are everywhere on the internet. It is like telling us, we don't need to go so far away in order to see such similar beauty. Indonesia has it all.

There is a semi man made steps down to the beach. So I walked down to see a better picture. The closer I get to the beach the better sighting I found. So we took pictures in many pose. It was half way down to the beach, I thought I wouldn't go further down as I will struggle hard for getting back up. I thought this place is the only one that we need to step down in order to get a better view. I was wrong, but at least not in the same day.

Nearby coastline at Kelingking Beach

Me and the stunning view

Broken Beach and Angel's Billabong

Next destination would be the Broken Beach. You read it right, it's Broken Beach, not Broken Heart or Broken Angel. Only around half an hour away from the Kelingking Beach. Another famous spot in Nusa Penida. I thought these two destinations are in one spot, I was wrong again. The beach is literally broken. It is a rocky coastline actually, where some part has collapsed creating a circular shape ravine about 8 - 10 meters deep with one big hole connecting to the ocean. Lead the upper side of that hole intact which looks like a natural bridge.

The same tourists were already there, I think Nusa Penida is not as famous as other destinations in Bali, say Ubud or the Kuta beach. It has only been two years where many tourists started to visit the Island. Local tourists especially. If we see hundreds of Bules in the same area in many parts of Bali, we could only see teens of them in Nusa Penida. Most of them rent a motorbike in order to go around the Island. Unlike us, we prefer a car to go around the unknown places. With the driver of course.

I didn't know that the other famous spot, Angel's Billabong, is just nearby the Broken Beach. So we walked in around 10 minutes to the Angel's Billabong. I have no idea how to describe the word Billabong, I will leave you with your own research regarding that word. Angel is already in English, no need to describe it further. I wasn't sure how to connect the word Angel to this particular place. It is a niche that formed a natural pool, like infinity pool in some resorts, where the pool connects directly to the open ocean. If the wave is not too high, we can literally swim on it. Just don't think to swim during the high tidal time, you might end up dead dragged by the huge wave, like the one we were seeing that time. I, personally, wasn't really amazed by the place. Only for the shake of being there, was my purpose of visiting.

Broken Beach at Nusa Penida, Bali

Sea side of Broken Beach

Crystal Bay

Enough with Angel's Billabong, we continued our trip. Next is Chrystal Bay on the west coast of the Island. This beach supposedly beautiful and enchanting if we came earlier. Unluckily, we arrived at the afternoon. So the sun is already on the west horizon, makes the water reflect the sunlight like a mirror. I like the tosca or turqoise beach, it didn't happen. So I just sit around and drink coconut water as if I'm in tropical beach, indeed I was. I wasn't so curious with the sunset at Chrystal Bay, coz I got exhausted by the trip. So then we decided to drive back to the hotel.

The different between Indonesian (including me) and Bule tourists is that, Indonesian visit the touristic place just to get the pictures, and once they feel enough, they would leave the place and go to another. Bules, on the other hand, just stop there to enjoy the view as much as they can. If possible, they would go to the beach, sit on the cozy couch and relax from the morning to evening. Do the chat with locals and drinks coconut water, like they were in paradise.