The Two Faces of Bali

Bali is a heavily touristed island that is similar to the holiday islands of Europe in many ways. There are areas of cheap bars and drunken behaviour like in Ibiza or Magaluf and there are places that are quiet and have resisted the changes that mass tourism brings. Finding the right place for you is the challenge !

We arrived and immediately discovered the horrendous traffic that is the hallmark of rampant tourism and lack of infrastructure. Taxis are relatively cheap in Bali but getting anywhere takes at least an hour even for journeys of only 10km.

After our hectic time in Vietnam we needed a few days to relax, so we picked a nice hotel on the beach in Kuta, which is only a short distance from the airport. The hotel was pretty big with two restaurants, a cafe, large grounds, a lovely big pool and bizarrely, a tattoo parlour.

What we discovered is that Kuta is to Australians what Magalouf is to us Brits, an inexpensive holiday destination. There were rows of Aussie bars and tattoo shops advertising cheap beers and 3 for 2 tattoos, all competing with each other.

The beach in Kuta has a large tidal range, but the tide brings with it lots of debris and rubbish which a small clean-up crew try to keep on top of but largely fail.

Kuta wasn’t really the peaceful retreat we were seeking after hectic Hanoi, but we were lucky to be in such a large hotel for one particular day of our stay – Nyepi Day. This is the Balinese day of Silence, their New Year’s Day, which they take very seriously. You are not allowed to leave your home (or hotel) on this day and should refrain from loud noise (including speaking or laughing), music and television. There is also no internet available and curtains should be kept drawn so no light can be seen from the outside. Fortunately our hotel let us use the pool and laid out a buffet dinner for us to help ourselves.

The plus side of Nyepi day is that the night before features Ogoh-Ogoh parades where the local communities build statues of demons that are then burnt to symbolise the destruction of evil and the purification of the island.

The statues themselves are huge, many metres high, and some have sound effects and moving parts. There is a competition where votes are collected for the best statue of the year.

After Nyepi day was over and we were able to move freely again, we caught a taxi to the Sanur region where you can take a ferry to the islands. We were heading for Nusa Lemobongan, which is about 30 minutes from the mainland.

Sanur itself has a beach, which is a favourite with locals at the weekend.

At Sanur, we stayed in a little guesthouse just 100m from the port for an easy transfer the next day but despite its proximity to the port, it felt like a real oasis of calm and we spent the afternoon chilling by the pool.

The ferry to Lembongan had airline like chairs inside and was very hot and stuffy. The journey out was pretty rough and not very enjoyable but it wasn’t too long before the island drew into view.

To our surprise we realised there was no dock here and we were going to land on the beach. The boat pulled up as close as it could to the shore and we all clambered down off the back with the waves breaking beneath us. With the rough weather, we had to time the climb down with the waves to avoid a soaking but even so, we both ended up quite wet and this is the side of the island protected by a barrier reef. It’s all part of the fun though and when it’s this warm you dry off pretty quickly!

The hotel we had booked was only a 100m walk down the beach from where we landed so we didn’t even need to put our shoes back on to walk there. We were soon checked into our room, with a beautiful view from the balcony overlooking the beach. The hotel even had a small infinity pool right on the beach, amazing really for only £20 per night.

This was a welcome change of pace from Kuta. The island of Lembongan is really chilled out and this was the laid back Bali we had been looking for.

The hotel had beanbags right on the beach and it was the perfect location for a sunset beer or two. Finding a restaurant for dinner was easy as there are a number of small places along the beach – no need to even put shoes on to get there, but you did have to eat early, many were already closing up by 8pm! Our favourite restaurant by far was a Japanese place right on the beach, Warung Pacific Lembongan. The family who run it are incredibly friendly and the food is amazing, they even do freshly baked cinnamon buns in the afternoons. Needless to say we were frequent visitors!

While on the island it wasn’t all lazing on the beach – we hired a couple of scooters to explore the island. Our first stop was the mangrove forest, where we hired a kayak to explore the narrow tidal channels through the roots of the plants. This was where we got our first soaking of the day as we managed to capsize the kayak!

Who knew that mangrove roots are so strong and springy. When we lifted a low lying branch to get through a narrow channel, it sprung back hitting us and tipped us over – luckily the camera was in the dry bag at the time. Seeing as we were already wet from head to toe, once we made it through to the beautiful beach we decided to stop off for a swim. There is also fantastic snorkelling off the shore here, which we discovered on a boat trip on another day.

Just as we were getting into the kayak, before the capsizing, we saw a baby turtle swimming by our feet!

Once we had dried off we returned the kayak and scooted around the back side of the island where there is a small yellow bridge – known unsurprisingly as, The Yellow Bridge – which allows foot and scooter traffic to cross to Lemonogan’s sister island, Nusa Ceningan. This is the smallest of the three Nusa islands.

At the tip of Ceningan Island is a small restaurant built into the cliffs overlooking the sea from where you can cliff jump (for a fee), although not the day we were there as it was too rough. This was our second soaking of the day.

As we sat at a table close to the edge watching the surfers, a giant wave crashed against the cliff and drenched us – we weren’t having a lot of luck staying dry today! Having moved tables, we stayed for a leisurely lunch to dry off once again, before heading back to discover more of Lembongan.

Here we stopped off at a couple of beautiful beaches, Mushroom Bay and Dream Beach and also visited the Devil’s Tears, where the rugged coast is pounded by waves and an undercut cave swallows the waves and then breathes back a cloud of spray with a hollow booming sound.

Soaking number three of the day was on the scooter ride back to our hotel when we got caught in a tropical downpour which flooded the narrow roads back. Definitely a day to remember.

As well as its beautiful beaches and laid-back vibe, Lembongan is also know for its diving, so I took advantage to fit in a few sneaky dives while we were here. All the diving is boat diving and there aren’t a huge number of dive sites around the island but the dive sites they have provide good quality diving.

The two stand out dives were Mangrove point and Manta point.

Mangrove point is a drift dive that can be a wild ride, depending on the tide. The hard coral reef is in very good condition and there is a ton of fish life. Although nothing particularly big, except for turtles.

Manta point is a fairly long boat ride away and is off the island of Nusa Penida. It is a manta cleaning station, which depending on the season can be quiet or fairly busy. I was lucky and on the day of my dive there were around 15 mantas being cleaned.

The biggest of the Nusa islands is called Nusa Penida. This is about a 20 minute ferry ride from Lembongan and is a much bigger and wilder island. This is a mountainous island with the majority of the interior undeveloped. It is 202km² compared to Lembongan’s 8km² .

We decided to take a ferry over to Penida where we had arranged for a driver to pick us up. The roads in Penida are pretty rough, and their aren’t many of them so they are very busy with tours and it takes a long time to get anywhere.

Our first port of call was Broken beach which is a small bay separated from the sea by an arch. The views of this bay are spectacular and it was made even better by seeing three mantas at one point swimming around in the protected bay.

Just outside the ‘bridge’ is the very popular snorkelling area of Manta Bay and we stood on the cliffs for a while just taking in the views and manta spotting before our driver came to hurry us along.

Our second stop of the day was Kelingking beach in a headland shaped like a whale, which you can see from the cliffs above. There is another stunning beach next to Kelingking which is only accessible by boat or a big staircase, so it usually deserted.  The viewing area for Kelingking was home to a family of cheeky monkeys who were as busy watching the tourists as we were watching them.

After lunch our driver took us to Crystal Bay which is a nice beach on the island, although it was quite crowded as all the tours go here. We got to spend a bit of time on the beach to relax and swim before we had to head back to the ferry to pick up our ride back to Lembongan.

I’m glad we visited Nusa Penida but the traffic was crazy and it didn’t have the laid back feel of Lembongan – the downside of having spectacular highlights for day tours from the mainland !