A ride in the back of a truck, a 20 minute ferry ride, and 150 rupiah took us to the larger island east of Lembongan called Nusa Penida (Nusa means island). From there we were still a ways away from our final destination of Crystal Bay, where we were planning on stationing for a few days. There are a couple nice beaches there, as well as being a main starting point for island tours. Before we could make our way over, we needed to get some cash, as many places do not accept cards, including restaurants, tours, ferries, and taxis. It proved to be quite a debacle. The two ATMs nearby the port were for locals only and would not accept international cards. This proved problematic for us, considering we didn’t even have enough cash to pay a driver to get us to our hotel. We decided to postpone this problem until later, hired a driver for 100 rupiah ($7) and had the hotel front desk spot us the cash.
While deciding how many days to spend in Crystal Bay, upon arrival at the hotel Ben took a stroll down the dirt road to the beach to assess the situation while Nadine ordered fish curry from the hotel. On the way there, he found it to be quite exotic, with palm trees lining the road, as well as many animals that didn’t quite seem to belong. Pigs, cows, frogs, lizards, and deer were all spotted. The beach itself was in desperate need of rehabilitation, evidently having been overused by tourists and locals alike. However, it was relatively empty and was deemed worthy for a few days visit. On the walk back, it became increasingly clear that the hotel Nadine had chosen, Crystal Bay Bungalows was easily the best in the “town,” and one of the few with dining options. It was located only 400 meters from the beach, had a pool, AC rooms, and decent to poor WiFi, which is better than most in the area.
At a fork in the road, Ben went the wrong way and stumbled upon the homes of the locals. Zigzagging through the back alleys, he heard cheers, chants, and grunts from behind a cement wall. Although eager to return to the hotel to report his findings to Nadine, curiosity got the best of him. What he found was appalling…
He quickly raced through the woods to retrieve Nadine and show her what he had seen. Although neither of us support cockfighting, it was a once in a lifetime experience that we had to witness first hand. We stayed for two fights, one of which ended swiftly, and one which lasted at least ten minutes. The whole experience was sickening. The locals, all men, of ages ranging from probably 10 to 70, hovered around the makeshift ring and gambled on which animal would kill the other quicker. We were told by our hotel worker that this was not a regular occurrence, but only during the Dark Moon, which we call the New Moon, so once a month. In the town there were hundreds upon hundreds of chickens, roosters, and hens, some in cages, some walking around freely.
Although it was a cultural experience, it brought our spirits down :( We had watched the murder of two innocent roosters, one of which was running away nearly the entire fight. Feeling hopeless, we soldiered on to the beach to boost our spirits. Almost immediately we heard more noises coming from the road ahead. Within minutes we were greeted by some sort of Dark Moon celebration.
Just when we thought the excitement was over, we stumbled upon something even weirder laying on the beach: a decapitated monitor lizard! We were later told that this particular lizard had eaten one of the chickens of a local, who took his revenge by hacking off its head. The story was unconfirmed, but based on what we had seen earlier, we had no reason not to believe it.
Our day was far from over, we heard about a secluded beach just over the Crystal Bay Mountains. We walked over to Pandan Beach for a little R&R. Well worth it!
On the way back to the hotel, we met a tour guide and arranged for him to meet us the following morning and take us around the west side of the island, to designated spots we arranged together. He and his friend were super nice and engaging. We couldn’t have been more excited for the following morning.
It must be noted that when we negotiate the price and location with the tour guide the night before, things were really clear. We also informed him that we did not have cash and needed to be shuttled to the lone international ATM on the island. The man we had spoken to would be our driver. The van we were standing next to would be the vehicle we would ride in (with AC). The price was fixed. The locations were predetermined. We know that Murphy’s Law is often applicable when traveling in this part of the world, but this didn’t turn out to be the case.
In the morning, someone other than the man we had spoken to arrived at our hotel in a van different than the one we had seen yesterday. According to the new driver, he was the father of the man we had met yesterday, who could not be here today because he needed to attend the festival for the Dark Moon. Needless to say, the van the father drove was ten years older than the van from yesterday, and did not have working air conditioning. Of course the son from yesterday knew all along it wouldn’t be him who was driving, which annoyed us. At this point, we threw our hands up and agreed to go along for the ride for lack of other options. It left a bitter taste in our mouth, but again, we are used to this sort of behavior when dealing with members of the tourist communities. The locals are trying to make a quick buck and couldn’t care less about the treatment of their customers. Contrary to the United States, there is no Better Business Bureau around here, nor are there websites to write negative reviews since most of these guys are simply locals offering a service rather than an official company. For this reason they couldn’t give a damn about their quality of service.
It is not fair to say that the father was bad at his job, far from it. It’s not his fault that he had subpar English and wasn’t able to hold a conversation with us. The issue is that we didn’t sign up for it. We agreed to ride his with son, if it really was his son, who spoke near perfect English, had a fun personality, and a radiant smile. Of course it was all phony, but what isn’t in the tourism industry?
In the AC-less van the father showed us pictures of the various destinations we would visit that day, which was about the only consistency from our agreement the day prior. Our first stop was out of the way, as we needed to venture back into town to find a working ATM. No joke we stopped at 6-8 machines before we found the only one that worked for international cards, which was confirmed by online reviews. Murphy’s Law once again reared its ugly head, as the machine was out of cash, and there were four Indonesian workers replenishing the daily supply, who told us that they would not be finished for TWO HOURS. Why? Who knows? We sort of laughed it off, but our driver was showing his first signs of annoyance. He wanted to chauffeur us around and be done as quick as possible. His son, on the other hand, had promised us we would have his services until 19:00, so we weren’t in a rush. We left the ATM empty handed and the same figure-it-out-later mentality as the day before.
Our first scheduled stop was 2 mile hike down a steep path through a forest to a natural pool next to a beach, Tembeling Beach & Forest There are locals preying on tourists, offering them motorbike roads at a whopping $7 a person for a 10 minute ride, but we declined. We have working legs and intend to use them. Plus, we tend to find ourselves in places without workout facilities, so we take our exercise however we can get it. As soon as we headed down the path, it began to pour…and pour…and pour. Even more than in Lembongan earlier in the week. We were drenched within minutes, with water filling up our shoes as well. It felt really natural and beautiful. About half an hour later we finally made it to the bottom. There were two natural pools, two beaches, and man made rock formations. The final destination was underwhelming, but the journey itself was totally worth it.
Next we drove to Kelingking Beach, which is also known as Tyrannosauras Rex beach for obvious reasons.
Half a kilometer from Kelingking was Paluang Cliff.
Our fourth and fifth destinations were at the same location. Angel’s Billabong and Broken Beach.
The tour itself had finished, but the issue of payment was still outstanding. There were two choices: either make the 45 minute drive back to the international ATM and hope it was functional, or the easier option was exchange our Euros for the driver’s Indonesian Rupiah. We both had sufficient amounts on our persons. We proposed the idea, but the driver refused to exchange at a fair price, insisting on a poor exchange rate that benefits him three Euros. We tried to meet him in the middle of the actual bank rate and his rip off rate, but he either didn’t understand or outright refused to. There are no fair exchanges with in the tourism industry. Unfortunately for him, we made it clear that his son had told him we had his services until 19:00 and it was only 16:00, so off to the ATM we went. Sure enough, the funds were reloaded into the machine, and we were able to make a withdrawal, pay the driver, and have enough to pay the hotel when we left the hotel.
On the third day, we decided to hike over two small mountains and explore the area. Nadine found an article online that said there was a hidden beach an hour away, but was difficult to reach. With nothing but time on our hands, we laced up our sneakers, packed our bag with water, the underwater camera, and set off on foot. When we reached the first mountain and began to climb, a dog approached us from the opposite direction. He ended up following us the rest of the day.
After quite a long hike on hidden trails and steep paths, we made it to our destination safely. Puyung Beach. It was pure bliss. For more than three hours we had an entire beach to ourselves. Well, us and our new canine friend.
On the way back, apparently we crossed an invisible boundary. Out of nowhere, a pack of wild monkeys appeared one hundred yards in front of us, opening their mouths wide and screeching at us. Mobilizing quickly and moving in our direction, we picked up sticks to use as potential weapons in the event that we would need to ward off our fellow primates. Backtracking our way and creating a new path home, we survived the journey home incident free.
The tour and our time spent on the beach was enough excitement for a few days. Nusa Penida was a really pleasant place to visit for a long weekend. We were lucky to visit the island while it is still relatively underdeveloped.
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