Our backpacking trip: Abril 25 - 26 / April 25

Vamos para Nusa Lembongan, una isla al frente de Bali, asi que debemos ir a Padang Bay para coger el ferry que nos lleve.

El 25 de Abril empezo con un reto. Me voy a tratar de llevar el punto de coger un bus de servicio publico en Bali. Le hemos preguntado a casi todo el mundo en el pueblo pero parece que todos esta amangualados para no decir nada y mantener el secreto mejor guardado en Bali; siempre nos mandan para los que ofrecen servicio privado. Las opciones son: el famoso conductor privado o “genio local” como se les llama en Ubud en todas las pancartas donde piden prohibir UBER o GRAB; pero el costo es de IDR400,000 (USD32). La otra opcion es un minibus organizado por una de las empresas locales, el costo es de IDR150,000 por persona, asi que serian IDR300,000 por los dos (USD24).

Salimos del hotel un par de horas antes de que salga el minibus privado, asi tenemos plan B en caso que no podamos coger el Beemo (bus local). Esperamos pacientemente en la acera y pasaron varios ofreciendo transporte… por supuesto conductores privados pidiendo la modica suma de IDR400,000 y sin querer hacer ningun descuento. Finalmente vimos un pequeño colectivo de color rojo. El señor paro y nos pregunto para donde ibamos, le dijimos que Padang Bay y le preguntamos que cuanto cobraba… para nuestra sorpresa pidio IDR300,000 por los dos. No llevaba ni un pasajero y queria hacer lo de una semana en un solo viaje con nosotros. Por supuesto tratamos de negociar en IDR150,000 pero el no bajo de precio asi que le dijimos que muchas gracias y se fue.

Después paramos otro y este conchudo pidio IDR400,000… despues de negociar se bajo a IDR300,000 pero no mas. Tengo que decir que este tenia un pasajero traduciendo asi que no se cuanto queria la traductora por sus servicios.

En este momento ya estabamos que tirabamos la toalla… bueno, Marcela la habia tirado desde que salimos del hotel.

Como nos pudimos dar cuenta, el Beemo es bastante frecuente. Varios de ellos pasaron y pararon pero el precio era mas o menos el mismo sin bajar de IDR300,000 y ya que son lentos, incomodos y sin aire acondicionado era mejor tomar el minibus privado por la misma plata.

Ya nos habiamos montado las mochilas al hombro e ibamos caminando hacia la parada del minibus privado cuando paso otro Beemo y paro a preguntarnos para donde ibamos… le respondi que para Padang Bay. Nos pidio adivinen cuanto… IDR300,000; o ya estaba cansado de oir el mismo precio asi que le ofreci IDR100,000 (USD8) por los dos y me empece a alejar. Ya me habia entrado la frustracion porque sabia que nos pedian alto por ser turistas y para proteger los “genios locales”. Una parte de mi ya habia desistido de la idea del transporte publico en Bali. El conductor del Beemo nos grito diciendo “okay”. Yo ya estaba un par de metros lejos del colectivo asi que me devolvi a verificar que fueran IDR100,000 (USD8) por los dos y me dijo que si. Montamos las mochilas e iniciamos el recorrido a Padang Bay. El camino estuvo entretenido, no mucha gente se monto al Beemo ya que el habia hecho suficiente plata en el dia con nosotros.

En la mitad del camino nos transfirieron a otro Beemo que nos lleva hasta Padang Bay. Cuando paramos en la bomba de gasolina le pregunte a un señor local que iba en el Beemo con nosotros cuanto habia pagado y me dijo que nos habian cobrado “pecio de locales” porque el habia pagado IDR55,000 pero habia tomado el Beemo antes que nosotros. Nos dijo que habiamos negociado muy bien con el conductor. Cuando llegamos a Padang Bay y le pagamos al conductor Marcela se sorprendio que hubiera sido lo acordado y me dio punto a mi… asi que vamos 1-0 contra los Beemo en Bali. Creo que mi determinacion cobro frutos, no mucho en lo monetario (bueno, hubieramos pagado 4 veces mas si hubieramos tomado el conductor privado o 3 veces mas con el minibus) pero hacer ver que si hay servicio publico en Bali y es accesible para los turistas.

Llegamos a Padang Bay a las 10:30am y compramos el tiquete para el ferry que esta programado para salir a la 1:00pm; sin embargo como todo ferry en Indonesia nunca se sabe. No nos montamos al ferry hast alas 4:30pm. Cuando estabamos a bordo nos dimos cuenta que iba para Nusa Penida, en vez de Nusa Lembongan (no salen ferry desde Padang Bay a Nusa Lembongan)… asi que hubo un pequeño cambio de planes, afortunadamente no habiamos reservado hotel en Nusa Lembongan pero tenemos que encontrar algo en Nusa Penida para pasar la noche. Nos tomo un poco mas de una hora en llegar a Nusa Penida, del puerto caminamos al hotel The Mel Homestay, nos registramos y comimos.

Como no veniamos para Nusa Penida no sabiamos mucho a cerca de la isla, pero Kadek, el dueño del hotel The Mel Homestay nos dijo de varios lugares que podiamos visitar. Nos ofrecio alquilarnos motos pero no nos sentimos comodos manejando moto en una isla que no conocemos, pero queriamos ver esos lugares de los cuales el nos habia mostrado unas fotos muy bonitas. La otra opcion que nos ofrecio fue, porsupuesto, un conductor privado. Negociamos el precio por medio dia y salimos a eso de las 12:30pm.

El primer lugar que visitamos fue el templo Giri Putri. Después fuimos a Bana Cliff, unos acantilados muy bonitos en la parte sur de la isla. Despues fuimos a la playa Kelingking Beach. Despues fuimos a Angel’s Billabong y el Pasih Uwug o Broken Beach. La ultima parada fue en la playa de Crystal Bay viendo el atardecer.

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We are heading to Nusa Lembongan, so we need to head over to Padang Bay to catch the ferry to take us across.

April 25 started with a challenge. I am determined to crack down on the public transport in Bali. We had been asking around but nobody says anything about it, everybody refers us to the private transport (remember I said it is the best kept secret in the island… well, it seems to be until now). The options are: the famous private driver or “local genius” like they call them in Ubud on all the signs forbidding UBER and GRAB from operating; but it will cost IDR400,000 (USD32). The other option is to get a minibus organized by one of the local companies, this will cost IDR150,000 per person, so a total of IDR300,000 for the two of us (USD24).

We got out of the guesthouse a couple of hours before the minibus goes by so we had a plan B if we could not get the Beemo. We waited patiently by the side of the road and got several people offering to take us… of course private drivers wanting IDR400,000 and not discounting a single penny. We finally saw what seemed a small run down minibus, red in colour. He stopped and asked us where we were going to, so we said Padang Bay and asked how much… to our surprise he said $300,000 for both of us. He was empty, he had not passangers so he wanted to make what he could potentially make in a week in just one trip. Of course we tried to negotiate at IDR150,000 but he would not go down form his price. We said “no thank you” and he left.

We then stopped another one and he asked for IDR400,000… after negotiating he came down to IDR300,000 but no more than that. I have to say that this one had a passanger translating so I am wondering how much the translator wanted for her services.

At this stage we were ready to give up… well, Marcela had already given up even before we started. I was determined!

As we found out, the Beemo is quite frequent. Several of them stopped but the price was about the same without going down IDR300,000 and since they are slow, uncomfortable and do not have air conditioned we were going to take the minibus from the private company.

We had already carried our backpacks and were walking to the minibus stop area where another Beemo stopped and asked us where we were going… I responded Padang Bay. He asked for the surprising amount of IDR300,000; at this stage I was tired of hearing that number so I offered IDR100,000 (USD8) for both of us and started walking away. I was frustrated because I knew they asked that much because we were tourists and to protect the “local genius”. Half of me had already given up on the idea of public transport in Bali. He yelled at us saying “okay”. I was a couple of meters already away from the Beemo so I came back to verify that it was IDR100,000 (USD8) for both of us and he said “yes”. We loaded our backpacks and off we were to Pandang Bay. The trip was entertaining, not too many people boarded the Bemo as he had already made enough money for the day.

Half way we were transferred to another Beemo that will take us the rest of the way to Pandang Bay. Once we stopped to fill up I asked a local guy that was in the Beemo with us how much he paid and he said we got “local’s price” because he paid only IDR55,000 but had boarded the Beemo earlier than us. He told us that we negotiated good with the driver. When we got to Padang Bay and paid the driver Marcela was surprised that it was what we agreed and gave me a 1-0 score against the Bemo in Bali. I guess my determination paid off, not much monetarily (well, we would have paid 4 times more with the private driver or 3 times more with the minibus) but to crack down the code on public transport in Bali.

We got to Padang Bay at 10:30am and got the ticket for the only ferry, which is scheduled to leave at 1:00pm; however like every ferry in Indonesia, it is unknown. We did not board the ferry until 4:30pm. Once on the boat we found out that it was not going to Nusa Lembongan but to Nusa Penida… a slight change of plans, I am glad we had not booked a hotel in Nusa Lebongan yet. It took just over 1 hour to get to Nusa Penida, from the dock we walked to The Mel Homestay, checked in and had dinner.

As we were not coming to Nusa Penida we did not much about the island so Kadek, the owner of The Mel Homestay told us about a few places we can visit around the island. He offered motorbikes for rent but we did not feel comfortable driving them around the island, however the pictures he showed us were very nice so we wanted to see those places. The other option he offered us was, of course, a private driver. We negotiated the price for half a day and left around 12:30pm.

The first place we visited was Giri Putri temple. We then headed to Bana Cliff, beautiful cliffs on the south part of the island. We then headed to Kelingking Beach. We then headed to Angel’s Billabong and Pasih Uwug or Broken Beach. The last stop was Crystal Bay to see the sunset.