Took a fast boat (40 minutes) to nearby island, Nusa Penida.
Penida is still technically part of Bali, however it’s population is much smaller and the pace of life is very wake-up-with-sunrise-and-rooster-crow and be-home-by-dark. Everyone was insanely friendly. Carmen and I got breakfast and the waiter ended up bringing us hot water and bandaids for our blisters/ scrapes.
We met Andy from NZ (NOT Australia), back at the other hostel in Kuta and he helped us arrange tickets/ plan the trip. We ended up renting motor bikes and exploring the island and the actual life changing Kelingking Beach.
Classic photo overlooking Kelingking- called “the T-Rex”. Getting down to the actual beach was an insane cliff decent with some bamboo handrails. Totally worth the death wish (until we had to climb back up) because the white sand and blue blue blue ocean was a dream. I bought a coconut and Carmen, Andy, and I swam for a few hours. The waves are massive crashers with a pretty strong current, but if you hit them at the right time you get somersaulted in the perfect, spiraling barrel and it’s more fun than any amusement park.
Dripping sweat after getting back up the cliff, we sat and watched the sunset and shared some music with local tour guides from the island. One guy really liked “Sway” by Rosemary Clooney so there was also some amateur karaoke. MARVelous DaY
The next morning Andy locked himself in the bathroom with Bali Belly and C and I explored Crystal Bay.
