The Program in recent years has become: a few days in Sanur to unwind, then somewhere we haven't been before, then a few days in Ubud to... er, unwind. This time, after Sanur, we had a couple of days at Puri Alam in sublime Munduk and three days at The Haven in sybaritic Seminyak, followed by five final totally lazy days in the coccooned comfort of Alam Jiwa in Ubud. The place we hadn't been before was to be Nusa Penida (thanks, GaryD et al). However, istri didn't fancy bouncing around poor roads on the back of a small bike and staying in dodgy losmens. My pointing out that this was largely how we'd spent our honeymoon all those years ago and wasn't that wonderful was not received particularly well. Hence I booked a few more days at the Griya Santrian, and left her to her massages, spa treatments and other girly devices, and headed over to Nusa Penida, sendirian.
On the slow boat from Sanur, Rp70,000, it was calm seas and a pleasant trip. At Toyapakeh, not much was happening but I found it easy to get a scooter for Rp50,000 a day. I ride a largish road bike at home and have only ever been on a scooter once before but once I got the hang of the automatic transmission and the fact that the left hand lever wasn't the clutch but would somehow vaguely slow the bike when pulled, it was all good. I hit the road and throbbed on to Sampalan, via a few side road detours to check the scenery and test the little Yamazonda's ability to go uphill. The Nusa Penida Inn is a tiny two-room establishment not far from the waterfront in Sampalan, run by a young port official who's trying to tap the tourist potential of this island. Rp 100,000, clean, basic, fan, no AC, no breakfast. Nasi Campur for lunch at a waterfront warung was Rp12,000 (with teh) and quite tasty. I headed off on the pocket nonrocket to taste the island's other delights. It's a small island and by the time I realised I'd missed Karangsari cave, I was way past it. On this dry island, in the dry season, it rained. Big, fat, juicy tropical raindrops. But only for 20 minutes - and half an hour later, I was dry. Except for the crotch but, hey, it's the tropics. Before long, and with some conflicting directions from locals, I found myself in Tanglad, where there are said to be interesting textiles. I parked the diminutive Kawazuki under the Banyan tree and waited for the local lads to appear and phone the Man. In due course he appeared and naturally would be pleased to show me his weavings. His little daughter was delightful but his istri was unimpressed (Ada bule ini, she said, and disappeared). His single ikat sarongs were disappointingly unoriginal. I then urged the petite Suzusaki towards Batukandik and the nearby waterfall, reputed to be an interesting feature. I found numerous desas, unmarked on my map, the residents of which were all eager to give me more conflicting directions. Many times. After well over an hour of riding back and forth on appalling roads with enormous potholes which threatened to swallow my tiny Hondaha, I gave up and headed on past Bukit Mundi to Sakti. On again through Toyapakeh on the mighty midget Yamasaki, filling up with over Rp7,000 of bensin and back to Sampalan - all in about five hours.
The day was not yet spent so the compact scooter bore me east again and this time I succeeded in finding Goa Karangsari. This is a serious cave. After climbing a really challenging set of steps, you discover a temple overlooking the sea. A guide will take you into the cave. You squeeze down into the dark through a narrow aperture, crouch and waddle under a low rock and are presented with a cave perhaps 15 metres high, 30 metres wide and over 200 metres long. Past dimly lit carved deities, towards the end there is another small temple within the cave, attended by a pemangku, acolytes and pilgrims, and the cave then opens on to a verdant valley, stunningly beautiful in the late afternoon sunlight. Back to the Inn, where the young boss stopped sweeping the already immaculate garden and asked if I would like a beer (well, YES), then went up the road and got it for me. Dinner at the night market was very good soto ayam and pretty fair sate ayam, Rp20,00 the lot. In the morning I had to phone the owner to come so I could pay him before I left to catch the early (slow) jukung back to Sanur, Rp55,000.
The return journey was rather distressing because among the passengers was a woman with her intellectually disabled daughter who had a traumatic crossing. The daughter, who was perhaps 12 years old and had 5cm and at least 15kg on her diminutive mother, was seasick and became hysterical. She spewed, spat, cried, clawed and at one stage tried to leap overboard. I went to catch her but was beaten to it by one of the crew, who was spat on for his effort. She calmed as we approached the shore. We all have our problems but some have to cope with a greater burden. Back to the Griya, counting my blessings.