Nusa Lembongan Day 3, Trip to Nusa Penida with the Best Group of Girls

August 1st was my day trip to Nusa Penida! I booked this trip with Livia and her hostel so that we would for sure be together for the day and I am so happy I did that. I went out for breakfast beforehand, knowing I would need something hearty to get me through the day. I got a coffee, smoothie bowl, and sourdough toast. Delicious and filling. I then met Livia at her hostel at 8am, and we ended up waiting around 30 minutes because we were the last ones to get picked up. While waiting, we chatted with a couple from Oregon who recently retired and are now full time traveling the world, moving every two months or so to a new destination, living there, and then once content, finding a new place. How cool and hip of them, that’s my goal in retirement!

We got picked up, piled in the back of a pickup truck and were taken to the harbor, which happened to be in a mangrove a beautiful spot to port. We then hopped on a boat that took us to Nusa Penida beach, and from there we got in our van to venture off for the day. When we were assigned our van group for the day, Livia and I got paired up with another hostel, which so happened to host four other girls, making it a day trip for the girlys. We all banded together and created an inseparable group for the day, it was the best thing ever. We were all young, mostly solo travelers, and open to new friends and memories together. We had fun with our driver who let us aux the music and was blessed to hear Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and the fun summer pop songs to match the right mood for the day. I had an absolute blast with this crew, nothing more comforting than being given friends for the day and feeling as though you are doing it together and making memories with them. It was such a great day largely due to the people I was with.

We booked a tour to do the West side of the island, meaning that we got to see some of the most famous viewpoints of Bali. The roads were absolutely terrible, super narrow with potholes everywhere, thank goodness everyone had a settled stomach because even I was rocked by this drive. This was the main reason as well that I wanted to do a tour instead of attempt to see it myself, the logistics of getting around Nusa Penida are very difficult as there is no online cab service, the roads are too rough that you cannot drive yourself, therefore you don’t have many options besides a private hire, which is a bit out of my budget. This tour was perfect because now I have a new group of friends and the van driver was our chauffeur for the day. I think he loved us too which was all the better. 

Our first stop was to see Kekling Beach. If you think of Bali or ever seen a photo of it, you probably saw this place. It’s interesting though that this viewpoint is not on the island of Bali, but a separate island still considered part of Bali but a 30 minute boat ride away. 

Because everyone was drawn to the island for this very sight, that meant all were there to see it. It was absolutely packed. The island doesn’t have the best infrastructure and it has been bombarded with tourists that it doesn’t have the capacity either to make repairs. The stairs were steep, the trail got sketchier the further you went down, and you were swarmed by photo hungry tourists. The vibe wasn’t perfect which was quite disappointing, as this was a place I lived to see, and there were a thick mist in the air that diluted the clarity and quality of the view. But, we made the most of it and treasured the beauty to the best of our ability, blocking out the fact that we had to share it with the thousand other tourists that would pass by today.

We didn’t get to go down very far and I didn’t really want to, hearing horror stories about how terrible the stairs were and difficult it was to reach the beach, one which you couldn’t even swim at because the waves were so large. Plus, we didn’t have time anyways with the tour so I am glad that what I planned was the result.

Our second stop was Broken Beach and Angels Billbong. They were together at the same stop, just a five minute walk apart from each other. The waves came in crashing so hard that the water would hit the cliffs and splash up leaving a display for the many people watching from the marked off path. It was an amazing in person experience to see the explosion of water up into the air and the collapse onto the rocks below. 

Broken beach was very beautiful as well, we kept saying it was probably the waves that broke through the rock, wondering if that’s how it got its name. We took some photos there, enjoyed the view and blue blue water, and then finished our loop around the area to go back and marvel at the grandiose size of the waves rolling towards us. It was a moment in which nature felt more powerful than ourselves. Knowing that you’d get swallowed by the waves within seconds, a reminder of strength our world really does possess. Even so, it also was a moment in which you can witness a beauty greater than you’d know, and surprised that the world homes something as beautiful as this, wondering what else is out there that makes you lose your breath and skip a beat in your heart. 

We returned to the car after an hour of walking around together, the six of us mingling the whole time, talking to someone new each time we moved, typically whoever was next to you as that’s how wholesome, close, and dynamic our group was. 

Our next stop was lunch, we made sure to get a table to fit us all because we were not separating up our precious group. I struggled a bit to find vegan food, a rare happening in Bali but also understandable as this was a more secluded island (except for the tourists hotspots). Funny enough, I got the exact same lunch as the day prior, vegetable spring rolls and a plate of fruit. Delicious, but with all of the walking and sun exposure we had so far, I was still a little hungry, but I had packed snacks so I knew I’d be fine for now. 

We had one more stop, Crystal Beach. It was a more underwhelming stop for the day given the other sights we had seen, but it was still fun because we had an hour and a half at the beach. We went swimming, it was a bit wavey but completely manageable. We chatted in the water, and it felt so refreshing to be in the cool water after spending all day in the heat of the sun. We retreated to our towel and sat and chatted until the conclusion of our time there. We hopped in the van one last time to return to the port to take us back to Nusa Lembongan. 

When we got in the boat to take us back, we were almost to the Nusa Lembongan port until our boat got stuck in the water because the tide was too low and it could no longer float us to the dock. We all got out, and walked through the mangrove marsh to get back to the hotel transport vehicles. There was nothing they could do about the situation, it’s not like they could add water to heighten it high enough that the boat wouldn’t scrap on the ocean floor. So, we obligingly hopped out and trudged through the low tide area to get back to the parking lot. It felt like a school science trip because we walked on top of these viney plants, came across coral, spotted three starfish, and discovered new wildlife we had never seen before. I think, when in Bali would your boat get stuck because of low tide so of course you will happily walk in and find the good out of the situation. So I didn’t mind the minor road bump in journey home. 

Before going our separate ways back to our hostels, we made plans for dinner and we would have one last hooray together before half the group left the next morning for a new island. I went back to my homestay, showered up and then back out on the town for dinner. There ended up being nine of us at dinner, a band of solo female travelers that made my heart feel so full and happy to be surrounded by some cool and wildly similar people to me. A fun night indeed as we talked well into the night, returning to our home stays only out of fatigue from the long travel day. My time in Nusa Lembongan has turned out to be sweeter than I could have imagined and I am feeling beyond blessed for all I’ve been given and the favor granted to me on my trip.