LittleSandyBeach

After a slightly bumpy, two and a half hour flight from Singapore we landed into Bali! The airport is very modern and has grown into a massive international airport. It’s extremely pretty with lots of Balinese aesthetics.

We had a 30 minute Grab ride to our accommodation in Sanur, which is a seaside town on the west coast. We stayed just for 2 nights to catch up on some sleep and prepare for a month exploring this new country!

Our bungalow was only a short walk away from Sanur Beach, that has a lovely walk along the coast with many restaurants, bars and resorts.

We also stumbled across the Sea Turtle Village which is a conservation program ran and funded by the nearby Hyatt Regency Hotel.

We walked about 30 minutes up the coast and came across a lovely new shopping centre called ICON Bali. It was only opened in 2024 and is also in the traditional Balinese style mixed with modern touches.

We found a lovely restaurant called Medin Bali Cafe and Coffee where we had a great meal for about £4 each. We’ve been shocked by how reasonable the prices have been as we thought due to the massive popularity of Bali prices would’ve gone up.

After being fully rested it was time to get exploring. We headed to the nearby Sanur Harbour to catch a ferry to the small island to the west of Bali called Nusa Lembongan.

It took about half an hour to reach Nusa Lembongan. It was very quiet on the ferry with only about 10 other people. That was until the music started blasting from the boat’s speakers, nothing like a party on a ferry! Expecting a platform to get off on we were both in socks and trainers which we quickly had to take off as we found out the drop off point was directly on the beach!

Nusa Lembongan is one of three islands that make up the Nusa Penida district. It’s small at about 8 square kilometres with a population of around 5,000. There are roads but they’re very small and the main mode of transport is mopeds apart from a few pickup trucks acting as taxis.

We checked into our lovely bungalow which was £8 a night each which included breakfast. They had a lovely pool and we even had an outside bathroom! As it’s the rainy season at the moment it’s fun in the evening when there’s a thunderstorm!

Every morning we noticed the locals put out small banana leaf parcels around their properties which we found out are called Canang Sari. It’s one of the daily offerings to thank the 9 divines for the peace in the world. When there is a death in the family or community the offering is paused.

One of the biggest attractions on the island is Devil’s Tears which is a dramatic coastal blowhole which sends huge sprays of water into the air.

There are many extremely nice beach’s on the island, one being Pasir Beach at the very north of the island and also Dream Beach at the very south.

Apart from tourism, the locals on Nusa Lembongan make a living by farming seaweed. Due to the shallow water between the island and the neighbouring island of Ceningan it’s the perfect place to grow it. In 2016, due to pollution and water quality all the farmers stopped as it became unviable, however the industry restarted in 2020 and continues to grow.

To get over to Ceningan Island the only way is the Yellow Bridge. The original bridge collapsed in 2016, sadly killing 8 people during a festival however it was rebuilt shortly afterwards. It’s very thin and you can either walk across or go on a bike.

The main attraction on Ceningan Island is to head to ‘Blue Lagoon’ at the very bottom of the island where you can watch crazy Australian tourists surfing.

We sat on the cliff edge in a bar where you can see so many fish swimming around and we were also very lucky to see a turtle coming up for air just off the coast. Unfortunately we failed at getting a photo but it did happen!

Just a 5 minute walk from our bungalow was a lovely coffee shop called Tales Bookcafe where we exchanged a few books and tried out their Starlink Ultra Fast internet. Pretty cool to have on a remote island!

Across the island there are lots of temples as the main population is Balinese Hindus. They are all very black in colour as they are made out of dark volcanic stone.

We had a great time on the island but it was soon time to move onto Nusa Penida, the largest of the group of islands. We went to the yellow bridge to catch our ‘ferry’… Well it was a small speed boat that got a bit bouncy! Luckily the journey was only 15 minutes so not too long!

We’re staying at Lungguh Penida Hut, which is a small homestay ran by a family. It’s very remote up a mountainous track making it very quiet. There are only 5 huts and luckily for us there is nobody else here so we have the grounds and pool to ourselves!

This is 97,000 IDR (£4.27) each a night…. They text in the evening to ask what we want for breakfast and at what time which is included in the price…! They even deliver it to our hut!

We’ve obviously extended our stay for a total of 6 nights as it’s definitely the best place we’ve stayed. Just now as writing this the hosts cut down a bunch of bananas behind the pool and gave us 4! We’re in love…

Nusa Penida is a much bigger island so we’ve got lots to explore!