The Beauty of Nusa Penida

Bali, I believe, is the place everyone will never get tired of visiting. It’s amazing how the more you vacate there, the more you’ll find something even more mesmerizing blatantly hidden from you during your previous visits. For me, Nusa Penida was that moment this year.

I had been told that Nusa Penida was beyond stunning. Since endorsements intrigued me easily when they came from the people I interacted with daily, I put the name of this island on my bucket list. Little did I know that good words, even combined with cool Instagram pictures, couldn’t do this place justice. Nusa Penida was everything I hoped for and more.

Starting our early morning waiting for the boat to be ready, we wandered a little around Matahari Terbit beach, looking for breakfast. There were quite a lot of food stalls to choose from, but the three of us, in unison, headed off to what we thought would be our best pick. To this day, I’m still not so sure about whether it was spring rolls or something else, but let me assure you that the dish in question was a serve.

Our boat was finally ready at fifteen past eight. It turned out that Nusa Penida was only a boat ride away. In about an hour, all passengers were welcomed at the island by the cleanest ocean water I had ever encountered in my entire life.

In the good hands of our local tour guide, we traveled around the East side of Nusa Penida consisting of Diamond Beach, Raja Lima, the famous Molenteng Tree House, and the Teletubbies Hills.

***

Diamond Beach is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen that will cost you around IDR 75.000 to enter. It was a little bit unfortunate that the weather during our trip was way too hot that we decided not to trek down the beach. Just remember that if you fancy a picture, please be patient and follow the queue.

Not far from Diamond Beach, Raja Lima is where we can see the same scenery from a closer angle. Our guide also informed us that Raja Lima is called the Thousand Islands. One more thing you should note: In case you find a broken sunglass on your long way down the stone stairs, please know that it's mine. I lost it somewhere around the stairs.

Located in the higher spot of Raja Lima, the Molenteng Tree House is famous for its photogenic spot for us tourists. If the queue in Diamond Beach is long, the queue here is far crazier, albeit it costs us IDR 75.000 to take pictures with the duration of two minutes top per person. I was lucky that during my trip, I needed to only wait for about an hour to get a handful of cool pictures.

Last but not least, our guide brought us to the less famous Teletubbies Hill. From him we knew that most travelers found the hill a bit tedious. The commentary proved itself with the fact that the place seemed deserted, save for our little group and a couple from Singapore that we had shared a seat with in Raja Lima.

Ah, here we go again—an adieu to a beautiful place I long to visit again someday. The beauty of Nusa Penida is worth more than a few short strolls, that's for sure.