After 15 weeks of traveling Bali was our well deserved break before going back to Germany.

We almost had a week to rest, so we spent most of the time at the pool, the beach, in cafes and restaurants. I can’t remember being so lazy for such a long time. But, of course, we had to do some exploring at least for a little bit, so we decided to take a day trip to Nusa Penida, a not yet so touristy island nearby.

We had six days on this beautiful island and stayed the whole time at Lullaby Bungalows in Uluwatu. It was a recommendation from a friend and we really loved it there. The bungalows were great, there was a nice pool, friendly staff and many great cafes and restaurants as well as Padang Padang Beach in walking distance - what else could you ask for when you just want to relax and live the life?

Details

Visit: May 2nd - May 9th 2020

Season: Dry Season

Start / End: Denpasar

Transport: Private shuttle services, walking

Uluwatu

As you can imagine from what I’ve already shared about this trip we didn’t do much in Uluwato. Of course we went to Padang Padang Beach a couple of times and I did take some photos of one of the beautiful sunsets there. We also went to Thomas Beach (of course we did!), but that’s about it. I did try to take some images of the milky way, too, but the view was not the best from our accomodation. The rest of the time was designated for reading, swimming in the pool and having great food at the great cafes and restaurants. Some of our favourites were The Mango Tree Cafe and Nalu Bowls Bukit where we went a couple of times, but we also liked OM Burger and Suka Espresso near Thomas Beach.

Nusa Penida

So we booked a day trip to Nusa Penida to not just chill at the beach the whole time and it was a great experience. It was an all inclusive trip, meaning a driver would pick us up at the accommodation early in the morning to bring us to a boat which would then bring us to Nusa Penida. There we would have another driver that shows us the island a little, until we would get back the same way in the afternoon. This is a good option if you want to drive yourself in Bali or Nusa Penida. Especially Nusa Penida is a little tricky as the roads were not paved and there were so many huge potholes I stopped couting quickly. While Bali is probably a challenge because it’s so busy, Nusa Penida is rather about the road conditions because tourism infrastructure hasn’t been build yet everywhere. In case you’re wondering: Everything worked fine logistically, so I would probably do it the same way, or maybe make it a two day trip staying on the island for one night so you could see a little bit more than the famous (but beautiful) tourist spots.

First we went to Broken Beach (Pasih Uug), which is called like that because there is an arched tunnel (making the cliffside a natural bridge, I guess) in the cliffs which allows water to flow into a pool like cove. You can walk around the cove to get different views of the cove and the cliffs of course. What you can also fine here is Angel’s Billabong, which is a crystal clear tide pool which cascades into the ocean. You have to consider the tide of course, if you want to go inside the pool. We didn’t have the time to do that and of course we didn’t check the tide before because it was a fixed schedule for our trip. It looks amazing, though!

Next stop was probably the most famous place on the island: Kelingking Beach. It’s famous due to the T-Rex kind of shaped rock next to the beach. Of course it was crowded and we were a little shocked about the line people were standing in to take a photo at a specific spot, the instagram spot if you will. It may be good for a selfie because you can easily sit at that spot, but that wasn’t for us. You can take nice photos from a lot of different places around, so no need to stand in line, especially if you have to wait for people doing a lot of shots. There was a couple taking pictures of each of themselves and then with a watch and so on, probably for an instagram campaign or so. That takes time. Anyway, so there is not just the classic shot of the T-Rex rock, you can also get some nice images photographing directly down to a beach which looks like a drone shot actually. Of course, you can go down to the beach, but be aware that it probably takes some time and the stairs looked quite steep. We, again, didn’t have the time to do that, our guide actually didn’t look that happy when we came close to the stairs. Before our next stop our guide showed us another lookout nearby to get a different angle of the cliffs and the T-Rex rock to photograph.

Our last stop was Crystal Bay to enjoy swimming and relaxing on the beach for a couple of hours (2-3 hours I believe) before heading back to Bali. There is also a temple right on the water. After another hour or so taking the boat shuttle back to Bali we arrived shortly before 6pm at the harbour that we left at 8am in the morning. Considering the busy drive back to our accommodation that was quite a long trip but totally worth it.