Nusa Pendida: Shit happens sometimes 💩

 

After our amazing time in Ubud, Ron and I decided that we wanted to explore a nearby island called Nusa Pendida for a few days. I had seen pictures of beautiful beaches, cliff edges, and sunsets on the island and I had visions of exploring and hitting all of the beautiful destinations; but life had other plans and sometimes you have to adjust.

Since the island is less touristy than the mainland, we really didn’t have the option to couch surf or stay at a hostel since there was only one, so we booked a highly rated Air BnB room with a local family on the north side of the island. When we first arrived, the host was so kind picking us up from the boat port and making friendly conversation. We arrived at the property, and he showed us to our room and with a quick goodbye he was gone.

At first inspection, the room was ok, but when we looked at the bed we discovered not chocolate on our pillow but poop. 💩
We were definitely grossed out that there was poop on the bed, but we are very understanding and flexible travelers for the most part, so we thought maybe the room had been empty for a while and a bird or something had gotten in. I went outside and thankfully found the owner and requested another pillow. Although we were grossed out, we decided to shrug it off thinking that we had sept in worse conditions. To clear our minds, we went for a walk to the beach and grabbed some lunch on the sand.
After about an hour and a half or so we returned to our room and when we opened the door there was a nice fresh present of poop on the bed again. 💩Not only was there poop on the bed but little poops all around the room…But wait… There more…. upon closer inspection of the bed it looked like there were old “poop” stains all over the sheets that we had not noticed before. 🤢We still weren’t sure what kind of animal this was, if it was a mouse or rat or something else, but for that much poop to happen while we were only gone for a short amount of time meant that clearly there was a rodent problem. We were out.

I messaged the host right away that we needed to speak with him but he did not reply. I went outside and tried to find the host but he was nowhere to be found. With it getting later in the day, and already exhausted from the long haul to get to the island, we knew we didn’t want to sleep in poop for the night so we started looking for a new place to stay.
After an hour or so of messaging hosts looking for last minute accommodations close by, we got a reply from a very nice gentleman saying that he had availability. I tried messaging the host again before we left but there was no response so I simply sent him a message explaining our situation and why we could not stay.

Unfortunately, our new host was still working and would not be able to come get us so Ron and I packed our bags and got ready to make the 2 hour walk to our new accommodations. Just as we started walking, we received another message saying that our host could pick us up at a nearby cafe; 🙌🏻perfect timing. A short while later our new host and a friend arrived on scooters to come take us to our new accommodations. With a few exchanged pleasantries, and our backpacks situated, we jumped on the back of the scooters and had our first scooter experience abroad on Nusa Pendida.After about a ten minute ride, we arrived and it was perfect. A clean room, clean bed, beautiful property and no poop!!

By the time we had arrived though, we were exhausted and stressed out, so we called it a night and relaxed with a few board games of chess and Oreo snacks.

The next morning we were greeted at 8 am with a wonderful breakfast of banana pancakes, fresh fruit and tea.

It was the perfect start to our day because Ron and I had a big day planned to explore the island. Putu our host, had rented us his scooter for the day to get around since renting a car on the island was quite expensive. By the time we had run to the store, got gas, and were ready to go, the sky did not look happy at all, but we still decided to take off. About 10 minutes into our journey it started raining, then it started pouring. It was pouring so hard that Ron could not see a thing driving, and we had to pull over.

Standing in the rain, under a small tree, we weighed our options for the day and decided that it would probably be best to head back to our room because the sky looked mean and we were new to island navigation. Our worst fear was getting caught on the other side of the island in a downpour and not being able to make it home.

We made it back safely and decided to call the day a wash and just take a “chill day”.
Thankfully the rain let up enough for us to scoot out and get a late lunch at a warung (local restaurant) nearby. The food was delicious and lifted our spirits a little. The day was spend wandering a few streets in the rain since we were already soaked, playing chess and backgammon on the bed, talking, laughing and lounging. This was not at all what we had planned for the day, but it was still a nice change of pace to relax.
The next morning we woke up again to a wonderful American breakfast this time of an egg sandwich, fresh fruit and tea.

This time we were determined to explore the island. We set off on our first destination to the famous Broken Beach.
This was a test in our marriage because usually I am always the driver and Ron navigates but since we were on a motor bike and he was the experienced one, our roles were switched. At first the roads were smooth sailing until we made a few turns and the road turned into a complete shit show. Loose stone and gravel, pot holes that were knee-deep and steep hills to navigate up and down. I would have to say my husband was like a natural at driving and making our way around the treacherous roads. He went slow and kept us both safe.

The rest of the day was spent exploring beautiful beach sights like Angel’s Billabong, Broken Beach, Kelingking Beach, and Seganing Falls.

 

Even though all of the sites were filled with tourists, we were able to find one special site that was all ours, but we had to work for it.

When we first arrived at the top of the cliffs of Seganing Falls, we saw that it was a long hike down, but there was no one else at the top of the cliff and there was no formal parking lot swarming with scooters, so we decided to make the hike down.

At first, we were fine just following a gravel path and some stairs, until the hike turned into rock climbing and scrambling.
At points, we were walking on a cliff’s edge and then balancing on bamboo sticks sticking out of the cliff because the actual cliff’s edge we were walking on had completed eroded away. ( and we wondered why this was the only site of the day that we didn’t have to pay to get into 😳- major liability 😂😂

 

To be completely honest, I had one or two panic attacks hiking down the cliff. Not many pictures were taken because I was so freaked out and just concentrating on being and safe and making it down, but I was determined. Thankfully, when we got to the bottom the panic attacks and anxiety was all worth it. At the bottom there was a tiny Waterfall stream coming from the cliffs above us and trickling down the large rock spilling right over the edge into the ocean.

Not only that, but the views were breathtaking with the crazy ocean current  and waves crashing into the rock we were standing on and the cliffs surrounding us. There were two other girls at the bottom enjoying the scenery, but thankfully they didn’t stay long and made their way back up the cliff. Once they left, it was so peaceful, just the two us enjoying all of the natural wonders around us.The small Waterfall emptied into a natural pool on the rocks before spilling out into the ocean. The water was clear, cool and refreshing after our sweaty hike down the cliffs.

We could have stayed there all day if the sun wasn’t beating down on us frying our skin. By the time we were ready to leave, two other couples had made it down to the falls and we figured we would give them their time there as well. We started our hike back up the cliff’s edge, but this was not something I was looking forward to.

I made sure Ron captured a few pictures going back up of me basically rock climbing the side of the cliff. With Ron’s help encouraging me, I only had one panic attack climbing back up and once we emerged at the top I joked that we were now professional rock scramblers
( partially true).

The motor bike ride back to our home was quick and simple now that after one day, Ron was a professional at navigating the rocky roads. We stopped at a beach side Warung on our way back home to enjoy one cold coconut and dinner on the beach before calling it a night.

 

The next morning we were greeted with one more fabulous breakfast before heading back to the mainland.Now Ron and I had already prepared ourselves for a rough ride back on the boat since it was a stormy day, but we had not prepared ourselves enough. When we climbed into the boat it was a much smaller boat than the first one we had come to the island on. When the engines started up and we took off, every little wave we hit, the floor shook and rattled. Even the seats that were mounted to the sides of the boat were clearly coming unhinged and pealing away from the walls. When we started hitting the big waves, I was almost sure at one point that the floor was just going to drop out from underneath us.

What made the ride even better was the one local at the front of the boat with multiple facial expressions every time we hit a wave with anything from exaggerated panic, fear, a cackling giggle, or a nod of approval to the rough seas. Either way he was a bit of comic relief to the rough ride. Unfortunately not all of the passengers had such a great time as the local in front of us was puking her guts out on the floor 🤢Just chalk it up to another travel experience. Either way, we made it back to the mainland safely!
Although we didn’t get to see everything we wanted to on the island, we still had a great experience and some good chill time together. Now it was on to our next adventure with our couch surfing host in Seminyak!