Nusa Penida

Sam was awake early as he had found a gym in a nearby village so headed there first thing. He arrived to find the gym open with no one inside and a ceremony going on next door. It was a basic “spit and sawdust” kind of set up with everything you would need (minus some air con). Before starting his session he decided to go outside and watch some theatrical “samurai” looking dances and listen to the local music (AKA chaotic drumming).

However he soon realised he was the only foreigner around and there were a lot of eyes fixed firmly on him. Unsure if there was any local etiquette he returned to the gym to train till someone either arrived or told him to leave! After about half an hour (chaotic drumming still going on in full force) someone arrived to quickly say “sorry sorry, in the ceremony, sorry sorry, you pay now yes?” He paid his £1.40 and was then left alone to train as the locals transported their song and dance in the back of pick up trucks to the temple down the road.

Back at the hotel he returned to find me in my all too familiar position - on the toilet. My prayers for a 24hr bug were not heard! After a quick breakfast in the restaurant we headed on our scooter to Diamond Beach. The beach was beautiful but it was another tourist heavy destination. Luck was partly on our side as the tide had just started to go out and therefore no one had ventured down to the beach, so we pretty much had it all to ourselves! The trek down was extremely steep and there were tactically placed ropes to cling on to to stop you falling over the edge. Almost immediately Sam spotted a washed up paddle and became extremely attached to it. Of course this paddle was then my responsibility to hold on to whilst trying not to be sick and also not fall off the back of the scooter!

We then headed to our next accommodation which was an amazing hut on the edge of a cliff with a very cool garden setup. It was extremely exposed to the wind and had a toilet with a view. The entrance to it however consisted of a very narrow 700m single track concrete path, which took Sam a lot of effort to not fall off the edge of. His CBT will be a breeze after this trip!

After some lunch and another stop on the toilet, we headed to the thousand island view point. More steps and more turmoil for my stomach. But a very nice view nonetheless - and this time all to ourselves! After a few pictures and a fly of the drone we called it a day and headed back for dinner. I had toast and “butter” which certainly didn’t taste like butter and Sam had an Indonesian feast which he was very pleased with. We attempted to set up the outdoor cinema but sadly failed, so resorted to watching the Umbrella Academy on Sams phone.

10 minutes after lights out, we were startled to what sounded like an old woman chanting behind our hut! Upon further exploration it seemed it was of course the local ceremony blowing in the wind, not wanting us to miss out. Still only half convinced we weren’t about to be sacrificed my the local tribe, we attempted to go back to sleep ready for another day of action.Read more