Went to Bali sometime last year for a quick getaway! I can't remember exactly when... August?
It was a short 4D3N, which is frankly too short for Bali in my opinion! But we couldn't spare any more days away from work so... Itching for a beach holiday!
This post is a mixture of pictures from my DSLR (Canon 700D) & a GoPro 3!
The GoPro was especially useful for our snorkelling, which we did on Nusa Lembogan. More & more people are learning about these 2 small islands off the coast of Bali, called Nusa Lembogan & Nusa Ceningan. To get there you can book a boat from any of the day-trip vendors you'll see on the streets. We Googled a lot & found it wasn't particularly cheaper nor better to book from "official" boats online so we went ahead with the street vendors, who also include hotel pick-up!
I got the idea to check out these 2 islands after seeing's Sophia's blogpost on it!
She actually booked a private driver, which I wouldn't recommend because it's 1) quite pricey & 2) Nusa Ceningan can't take cars at all. It's accessible only by boat or a small bridge, so only by walking or by scooter! Our scooter only costs us about 10SGD for the whole day & it was pretty fun!
Once we arrived on Nusa Lembogan we went into one of the activities vendors & picked snorkelling!
There's a few snorkelling points on the island with varying features, e.g. manta rays.
However they're spread out over all the coasts so we just went with what was the most logical route for all the spots on the island we intended to cover. Do remember that the island isn't that developed so there are only a few major roads that connect all the spots & you need to factor in travel time!
Snorkelling was lots of fun!
I had done it once previously the year before, also in Bali, but that spot wasn't as clear & it was quite crowded with tourists doing the seafloor helmet walk. So I definitely recommend going to Nusa Lembogan instead rather than the main island!
The currents were quite manageable & I'm honestly a shitty swimmer.
You'll obviously be given lifevests, but I took mine off because I found it quite obstructive.
Also... doesn't look nice in pictures hahaha.
More on Nusa Lembogan & Nusa Ceningan with my DSLR pictures below!
We found a pretty value-for-money private villa with our own pool!
Found ours via Booking.com if I recall correctly, but the villa name itself is D'Sawah Villas.
The only inconvenient thing is that all these private villas are usually... IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. You don't imagine at all that you have a private pool AND the beach at your doorstep do you? Nope, those cost an arm & a leg. So most private villas are quite far inland & around your villa is probably... poverty & padi fields. Taxis are very reasonable so it's not a big issue but it's just a bit jarring & mildly guilt-tripping.
And also it means there's no food near you as these villas don't really provide room service.
Luckily we had a small convenience store opposite our villa so we had basics like maggi mee.
Not our villa, but the door to this one was open so we took a look!
This one was ours!
I think our pool set-up is much nicer! Each villa comes with 2 bedrooms & their own attached bathrooms, as well as a shared living & kitchen area. Good for groups! The other room was simply locked up during our stay & I'm pretty sure they don't allow sharing between strangers since that clearly defeats the whole "private" villa concept haha.
Went to check out Kuta beach the next day!
Too cute haha. Lots of stray beach dogs but they're pretty well treated by tourists!
Bali is very famous for lots of quirky cafes & good food but we didn't really bother to search & haunt down any of these food spots so yeah... I guess we missed out LOL.
Ok so the following day we got up bright & early for Nusa Lembogan & Nusa Ceningan!
There are hotels on these islands as well by the way, ranging from backpacker to upmarket.
Just take a look at these waters!
After snorkelling, we scooter-ed around the island to visit various other spots!
Went past this point which offers a great view of the whole island.
The F&B joint there is quite opportunistically named Panorama Bar.
I forgot where this was... One of their many gorgeous beaches!
But this beach would be more of a pick-up point for snorkelling trips & boat tours anyway.
Went to Mahana Point as it's a famous cliff-jumping spot!
I did it once before in Ibiza & it was pretty fun!
However here at Mahana Point (which is super hidden & hard to find by the way)...
You... have... to pay money to jump off the cliff...
Wtf right!
It's so stupid LOL like seriously it's literally a 100% free activity that costs the bar nothing.
I think it's reasonable to capitalise on the spot by charging overpriced food & drinks (expected) but not to literally charge me money for jumping into the ocean hahahaha.
Anyway once you jump off the route back up looked insanely troublesome as well so we couldn't be bothered. There's 2 jumping spots here, one is mild & the other is... super intense.
The mild one lands you in this pool!
Next up is another famous spot called the Blue Lagoon!
It's so crazily blue that I believe they colour it with blue food dye every hour.
No I kid haha. But it's so gorgeous!
There is a bar on the opposite side of the Blue Lagoon but I think getting down is pretty tough so this is more of just a picture spot! No swimming here.
After the Blue Lagoon we had to head back already to ensure that we get back on time for our ferry!
But along the way we stopped at some budget accommodations which looked cute!
"Less clothes more rum"
You can check out my Instagram video above for a short snippet!
The yellow bridge featured in it is also a touristy picture spot & is exactly what I meant when I said you can't access Nusa Ceningan by car because that bridge is the only way across!
Goodbye Bali & we hope we'll be back sometime soon!
