Ballin' Out In Bali, Indonesia: Part Two
- Bryan Johnson
- Apr 20, 2023
- 16 min read
Katie put together this little map so you can tell, from a quick glance, all of Bali we explored! In her first post, we landed at Ngurah Rai International Airport and then traveled up to Ubud, where we spent the first few days exploring the jungle areas of Bali.
Now I'm picking up with the rest of our trip: to Nusa Penida and then Uluwatu.
Saturday, April 1: Nusa Penida
Axe Stone Fast Cruise
Our Saturday morning started early with a 6:45 am pick up by Axe Stone Fast Cruise. After the 45-minute car ride to Sanur, Bali, we finally made it to the port. Then we endured an hour wait, where we finally boarded our fast cruise over to Nusa Penida at 8:30 am.
The boat made the 14-mile journey over to the small island in roughly 45 minutes; Katie also didn't get seasick in the choppy water. She's finally finding her sea legs! Once we made it to Toya Pakeh Harbour, we were met by two people waiting with our names on signs! One was there to take us to our hotel and the other was for our scooter rental. I sent Katie in the truck with our suitcases to check in to our hotel, while I paid the other gentleman and picked up our scooter! After getting the scooter and doing a quick test drive, I followed Katie to our hotel!
Sanctum Hotel and Dive - Nusa Penida
While Katie did most of the planning for the trip, I was responsible for arranging our short stay on Nusa Penida. Katie and I haven't been scuba diving in nearly three years (our last dive was in October 2020 in CA), and Indonesia is known for having some of the best diving locations in the world, so diving was a BIG priority for this trip. Katie found Sanctum Dive on Nusa Penida and asked me to arrange the lodging, dive trip, scooter rental, and round-trip rides to-and-from the port. Fortunately, Sanctum Dive offered its own lodging just a mile up the road from the shop, so for only $17 per night, we jumped on it!
Yep, you read that right, $17 for our dive hotel! Now this is the cheapest place we have stayed in Asia, beating our $24/night unmanned hotel in Fukuoka, Japan! After dropping off our bags and forcing the room lizard back into the bathroom, we jumped on the scooter ready to explore the island. Other than the wildlife roommates, this hotel was pretty great for $17- we weren't disappointed!
Angel Billabong
Now, I'd like to preface, I've never driven a scooter; they've always been known as "liquor cycles" in North Carolina, so I never really wanted to be associated with the stigma. In southeast Asia, these scooters are extremely popular, and with the extremely narrow roads and lack of cars on Nusa Penida, it just made sense to rent a scooter.
One thing we weren't warned about was how bad the roads were. There were numerous portions of the road where there was no road, it was just one giant pothole. So when you put together the fact that I've never driven a scooter, neither Katie nor I had helmets, and these were some of the worst roads known to humankind, it made for a slow journey.
Back to the story! Our first stop of the day was at Angel's Billabong! As we approached the parking lot, we were stopped by two locals who told us that it would cost 10,000 IDR per person to enter the Billabong (total was about $1.33.) Now neither of them were wearing official shirts or showed any credentials, so they could just be complete frauds scamming every tourist out of $0.66, but whatever. We paid the "entrance fee" and made our way to the scooter parking area.
For those that don't know what a billabong is, it's a pool that's created on the beach or in rocks when the tide goes out. The Billabong itself wasn't extremely impressive, but the cliffs along the coast and the crystal-clear water were a sight to behold and got us really excited for our dive trip tomorrow!
Broken Beach
In the same area as Angel's Billabong was Broken Beach, a small beach surrounded by cliffs with a really cool, natural, stone archway looking out towards the ocean. Unfortunately, there was no way to access this beach, or Katie would have definitely put her butt in the sand and insisted we sit there for the next three hours! But again, look at those teal waters!!!
After checking out the sights, we grabbed a quick lunch at Warung Angel Billabong! We enjoyed our fried rice, chicken satay, and french fries (yes french fries,) while soaking in some sun and enjoying the beautiful coastal cliff views! We also lucked out with lunch under one of the cabanas, where we enjoyed a nice breeze coming off the water!
Check out the video below to see what I'm talking about with these narrow, winding roads! The passing cars made me extremely nervous, so much so, I was willing to sacrifice Katie's ACL in order to prevent us from getting smoked. See the video below to get what I'm talking about.
Don't worry, Katie is fine, but she's not letting me live down the fact that I "tried to kill her" on the back of a scooter.
Kelingking Beach
Our next stop was Kelingking Beach, also known as Dino Beach! We were stopped again by a couple of locals to pay our 20,000 IDR entrance fee...still have no idea if this is legit or not, but is it worth fighting over $1.33? Kelingking Beach is one of the most unique beaches in the world due to the cliff being shaped like a T-Rex with its mouth open. Katie and I loved the panoramic views from up high, but we decided it wasn't worth making the 30-minute trek DOWN a set of makeshift stairs in the middle of the sweltering Bali heat to dip our toes in the ocean....if you go down, you must also make the journey back UP!
After the beach, it was back on the scooter to head to the other side of the island to try and find a beach to enjoy! Along the way, we went through numerous villages with rundown homes with no windows or electricity; it definitely put our privilege in check as we complained about paying a meager $3 to check out a couple of beaches just a few hours earlier.
After an hour scooter ride, we made it back to the north side of the island where we checked in with Sanctum Dive to ensure we were good to go for our dive the next day! After filling out our waivers for the dive, we decided to enjoy the beachfront property that the dive shop offered.
After spending a few hours soaking up some more sun (peep my sunburn) and reading our books, we decided it was time for dinner.
Mambo Beach Cafe
For dinner, we landed at Mambo Beach Cafe, just up the street from Sanctum Dive. I enjoyed a few Thai Teas while Katie took advantage of the Happy Hour buy-one-get-one drinks! After enjoying a great beachfront dinner, and saving a stray dog from a tick the size of a golf ball, we headed back to our hotel.
Nusa Penida has some of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen, but the island life is a little rugged. Between the poorly-maintained streets, the housing situation, and the countless stray dogs we saw everywhere, Katie and I agree that this island gave us more of the "real" Indonesian vibes that are lost to the tourist industry of mainland Bali.
Everyone who reads our blogs thinks that we take these glamorous trips and everything is great, but sometimes things can get a little dicey for us. For example, as we were heading back to our hotel, I noticed in one of our side mirrors that a man on his scooter made a U-turn to follow us. I kept an eye on my rear-view scooter mirror and noticed he followed us all the way to our hotel and stopped his scooter just up the street and jumped off as we were parking.
Fortunately, there were a couple of guys there who worked for the dive shop that stopped the man and talked to him. Now, I have no idea what this man's intentions were, but it definitely seemed shady and spooked us. I messaged the dive shop owner to confirm that there would be some workers staying on the property with us, and we were assured that we would be safe and the hotel was manned 24/7 by staff. After a few hours of nervousness and Googling crime trends on Nusa Penida, I finally fell asleep (Katie was asleep before the sun went down.)
It's just a good reminder that we are tourists when we travel and to be vigilant. This was one of those times when Katie was blissfully unaware until we parked the scooter and made it through the hotel's front gate I explained what we (might have) just avoided. Whew.
Sunday, April 2: Dive Day!
Sanctum Dive
The next day was another early morning since we had to be at the dive shop by 8:30 am. After filling out more waivers and getting our dive bag together, we were able to enjoy the beautiful morning views of Mount Agung, an active volcano on the island of Bali, as we enjoyed complimentary cups of Balinese coffee. Katie was also quick to assume a relaxing position in one of the hammocks!
After the rest of our dive party arrived and got ready, we jumped on our boat and made our way to Manta Point on the southwest side of the island. As we made the 50-minute boat ride, we passed by Angel Billabong and the Kelingking Beach that we visited yesterday! Both these views looked a lot different from the ocean side!
Katie usually gets very seasick while diving; fortunately, the dive shop provided each of us with a Dramamine prior to heading out, so Katie was able to keep her coffee and cheese crackers down during the 50-minute boat ride. Praise God because when she's miserable....well I endure alongside her. You know, holding the hair and all.
Manta Point
Our first dive was at Manta Point, known to be a hotspot for Manta Rays! Led by our French dive guide, Sarah (who was absolutely fantastic), we made our way down to 60 feet below the surface to see if we could spot any Mantas. Unfortunately, we didn't see any Manta Rays, but we did see plenty of Stingrays. I wanted to punch one of those water pancakes just to let them know Steve Irwin still has shooters out there, but after I took one good look at their barbs, I decided it was better not to risk my own life to seek revenge.
After surfacing and getting back onto the boat, I was greeted by gasps from Katie and Sarah once I removed my mask. I had two black eyes because apparently, I wore my mask too tight. I knew my mask was pretty tight once we made it to our maximum depth, but I didn't know it was bad enough to burst a ton of blood vessels in my face. Well, good thing for Katie is I wear glasses, so people won't think I'm a battered husband married to an abusive spouse!
At least this time I remembered to put the battery in our GoPro, unlike our dive in Hawaii in March of 2020, (which Katie doesn't let me live down) so we were able to get tons of great photos and videos! Check out our dive video from Manta Point:
Crystal Bay
Our next dive site was at Crystal Bay located on the west side of Nusa Penida Island. This was easily the best dive Katie and I have ever had! We saw all sorts of sea life ranging from clown fish, sea snakes, nudibranchs, stone fish, giant starfish, and our personal favorite, Crush the sea turtle!
While the sea life blew us away, we were also really impressed that our breathing was so calm that we lasted 48 minutes with our air tanks- making this the longest dive we have ever done!
Since setting our personal record for the longest bottom time of 48 minutes, by the time we surfaced, all the other divers were back in the boat and had already pulled off all of their gear! They were waiting patiently for us to finish up, but Katie and I were stoked to have lasted so long with our dive master, Sarah!
This also marked the first time Katie and I had successfully completed a two-tank dive; our first two attempts in Hawaii and California in 2020 were unsuccessful due to poor sea state and seasickness, respectively. (Hint hint: 5-foot swells ruined Hawaii's second dive, and Katie's inability to keep down breakfast ruined our 2nd California dive!)
If you think we are hyping up this dive, just wait til you see the film we shot at Crystal Bay:
Axe Stone Fast Cruise
After a wonderful two-tank dive trip, we hurried back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage, and made our way back to the harbor. After successfully dropping off our scooter and checking in for our boat ride back to Bali, we grabbed a quick bite of spaghetti bolognese and pizza for a late lunch! I was a little self-conscious about my goggle mishap from the first dive, so Katie snapped a picture of my black eyes that were (thankfully) evening out so I could see how bad it was. Katie said it was worse when we surfaced a few hours ago, but thankfully the color was evening out!
At 4:30 pm, we boarded our fast boat to Bali. For 45 minutes we braved a terrible sea state. I just knew our suitcase had flown overboard off of the top deck. Fortunately, we survived the trip and so did our luggage.
Once we made it back to the port, the catastrophe that was getting our ride (that we paid for from the boat company) began. It started with leaving the pier and having absolutely no idea where to go to get our ride. Fortunately, Katie recognized our driver from the day before, so we followed him back to the company's office.
After being approached by five different ferry people asking where we were going, we had absolutely no idea who was going to be driving us to our hotel in Uluwatu. Katie even asked the people in the office what was going on, and they seemed to have no record of us buying our tickets the day before.
On top of all of that, it began to rain, and the guy we thought would be our driver disappeared. After standing under a small awning for 30 minutes, we finally found our driver. Of course, he didn't park anywhere close to the office; that would've been too convenient. We dragged our heavy suitcase through numerous stinky puddles, unknown to us what made the water so brown, for about half a mile before we made it to our driver's van. We then piled in with three other passengers, our suitcase barely fitting in the backseat with Katie.
Katie was sure to leave the boat company a 1-star review on Google, purely because of the debacle and disorganization of securing our ride to the hotel. I even asked if it was possible to give a no-star review.
The Seaglass Villa: Uluwatu
Back to our fun-filled vacation! We checked into our amazing villa in Uluwatu. With a private pool, great air conditioning, and a bottle of wine ready we were beyond happy with our stay at Seaglass Villas! We ended our evening by dunking into the pool and packing it in early for the evening!
Monday, April 3: Best Mondays are Spent at Sundays
Sundays Beach Club
The following morning we slowly made our way out of bed and jumped in a Grab to head to Sundays Beach Club, located on the south coast of Bali! We were sure to get there right at opening at 10:00 am to grab a front-row beach bean bag! Sunday's Beach Club had a fancy resort attached to it, but we paid the daily use fee and then made our way down the cliffside to the beach club! While on the pricier side at $35 a person, Sundays was worth every penny. Plus, half the entrance fee was for food and drink credit, so we took full advantage of the cabana boys that waited on us all day long!
We spent the entire day enjoying food, drinks, and walks along the beach to collect coral and sea glass! It was so peaceful and relaxing and exactly what we were looking for after an eventful two days on Nusa Penida.
We stayed at Sundays until 7:00 pm, where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and bonfire on the beach! We then took another Grab back to our villa where we enjoyed another pre-bed dip in our pool!
All I can say is there's no better way to spend a Monday than at Sundays!
Tuesday, April 4: Uluwatu
Our Tuesday morning started much less glamorous.
Koperasi Simpan Pinjam "Guna Artha Mesari
We booked our return flight through VietJet Airlines, and Google Flights let us down by booking our connecting flights as separate tickets, forcing us to buy Vietnam visas just to clear customs and check-in for the second leg of our flight. Our visas were approved with only a few days left on our trip, so we needed to find a print shop to print our visas before our flight home. The owners of Seaglass Villas recommended a small local print shop in Uluwatu; so after paying $0.13 for our printed visas, we were ready to take on the day!
The Loft
Just up the street from the print shop was a highly recommended breakfast spot called The Loft. After enjoying a carnivore breakfast bowl, banana waffles, and some really interesting iced coffees, we made our way to our next destination: Single Fin Day Club.
Single Fin Bali
Our friends Meg & Stego visited Bali back in October and recommended Single Fin as a place to visit in Uluwatu. We started by sitting at the bar enjoying a few drinks as we watch surfers get barrelled below. After an hour or so, we moved to the poolside where we enjoyed an afternoon of food, drinks, swimming, and reading our books!
While Single Fin was nice, we would tell anyone visiting Uluwatu to take the longer drive over to Sundays; that was by far our favorite day club we visited on this trip!
Uluwatu Temple
That evening, we made our way to Uluwatu Temple where we were scheduled for a 6:30 pm Fire Dance Show. As we donned our sarongs and entered the temple, we noticed numerous signs warning us about the monkeys roaming the property. The signs weren't kidding either; as we were walking around the temple, a monkey ran up a lady's back and snatched the glasses right off of her face as she was trying to take a picture. Boy, that would've been a quick way to ruin my trip!
After seeing these brave monkeys I was ready to go sit and wait for the show. I didn't want to lose my glasses on the last day of the trip!
Kecak & Fire Performance Uluwatu
After a quick tour of the temple, it was time for the Fire Performance. Before the performance began, I noticed a German man sitting in front of us was looking at dental models on his cell phone using exocad (a digital dentistry system that is used to design crowns & other prosthetics.) I was definitely peering over his shoulder watching him analyze and design prosthetic cases straight from his cell phone; how cool to see another dentist from a different country working remotely from his cell phone in Bali! The Navy doesn't have that kind of technology!
The performance began at 6:30 pm and had no instrumental music, it was entirely from the vocals of the sitting gentlemen repeating the kecak (sounds like "ketchup) over and over again. The dance told a very popular Hindu story of a princess who is kidnapped and eventually saved by her husband. The performance was based on the same story as that of a show we saw while visiting Bangkok. The dance was good, but the sunset views from the cliffside amphitheater were amazing.
Katie took a short video of the beginning of the Kecak Fire Dance so you could hear their chanting!
It was another late night back to our hotel, but Katie and I agree it was well worth it! We know how to travel and cram as much culture and sight-seeing into a trip!
Wednesday, April 5: Homeward Bound
Ours Uluwatu
For our last day in Bali, we decided to relax and have a later start. We began our day by having one final swim in our pool before showering and packing our bags. We checked out of our room at 10:00 am and stored our luggage in the hotel store. We then made our way to Ours Uluwatu where we enjoyed an awesome breakfast!
After trying to avoid the heat by jumping from shop to shop, we made a pitstop for some gelato!
Ngurah Rai International Airport
After an amazing trip to Bali, it was time to head back home! We organized a ride through our hotel for a 2:30 pm pick-up to take us to the airport.
As we arrived, we were greeted by Leon, our Ubud tour guide, who gifted us with the Indonesian translation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. During our tour with him in Ubud, Katie mentioned how we try to collect Harry Potter books in local languages during our travels, but we couldn't find an Indonesian copy. Leon told us he would look at the bookstore by his house and let us know if he could find it. AND HE DID.
We tried to give him our remaining cash for the book and for driving all the way to the airport to give it to us, but he insisted that it was a gift to remember him by! Leon is so awesome and his tour was definitely one of the highlights of our trip! We will definitely recommend him to anyone visiting Bali! Katie was nearly in tears at Leon's generosity! What a wonderful memory!
After checking in for our 5:30 pm flight, we made our way through immigration and security and headed straight for an airport lounge! After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we made our way down to some of the stores where Katie let me buy a couple more batiks!
After spending most of our four-hour flight watching downloaded Netflix shows, we finally landed in Hanoi. Part one of our flight journey is done.
After clearing immigration & customs, we made our way upstairs to check back in for our 2:00 am VietJet flight to Fukuoka, Japan! On our way up to the third level to check in, we were stopped by a security guard trying to tell us that this was the international terminal and was for international passengers only; I was thinking, "look buddy, do we look like we're Vietnamese, of course we're international travelers." After having to coax him into understanding we were flying to Japan, he finally let us on the escalator to the check-in counters.
After waiting in a nearly one-hour hellscape of a line, we finally checked in, dropped off our luggage, and went back through immigration and customs. I got a chuckle from the immigration officer as he pointed to my entry and exit visa stamps having the exact same date on them. Yep, we paid $52 for Vietnam visas just so we could check in for our next flight. At least our flights were cheap!
We then headed to another airport lounge where we enjoyed a late dinner and charged up our cell phones. Our AmEx cards may not be the best travel credit cards for points, but they come in handy with their priority entrance at elite airport lounges! Katie and I enjoyed a few glasses of wine, hoping it would help us sleep on the last flight back to Japan!
Thursday, April 6: Finally Back in Fukuoka!
Fukuoka Airport
After another four-hour flight from Hanoi to Fukuoka, we had finally landed on some familiar territory. Katie and I quickly made our way through immigration, just to get stuck at baggage claim. Apparently, the baggage carousel was broken, but rather than moving our flight's luggage to the available carousel next to ours, they decided that two men could just push all of the luggage through the flaps and stack it on the ground. After a ridiculous 40-minute wait for our luggage, we got through customs and purchased bus tickets. We were finally homeward bound.
After a two-hour bus ride back to sleepy ol' Sasebo, we were finally home where we were welcomed by the best pups in the whole world! Nothing beats coming home to wet noses and wagging tails! Now that our wonderful trip to Bali is complete, it's time to focus on the next big task at hand, packing up our house to move to Spain! Be sure to stay tuned for more updates!
Thanks for following along.
Yours,
Bryan
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