Nusa Ceningan

Nusa Ceningan

The next day we head to Sanur where we catch a boat to Nusa Ceningan for the next six days.

So far, I’m feeling pretty pleased with my awesome planning and choice of accommodation (although we’ve only stayed in two places).

The Secret Point Huts is no exception. We have two huts between the five of us, each with a beautiful outdoor bathroom.

Sitting on the edge of a crazy surf break where we can look sideways onto the waves, some of which are tubing. There is a pool and a beautiful white patch of sand where we can swim. At the edge of the point is the famed “jumping point” where tourists from the larger Island, Nusa Lembongan, come to jump off a little concrete platform into the surf, then get hauled back in with a buoy on a rope.

There is the coolest bunch of locals running a small bar and we go there nearly every evening to watch the sunset and have a Bintang beer.

We make a couple of friends from Byron Bay who are really cool. Hayley is a musician and Bryan is a surfboard shaper. They put us and our non starter blog to shame. Everything is Instagrammed and there are gig movies, surf movies, pictures of them tandem surfing and doing acrobatics. I’m thinking we might need to get into a bit more self promotion and lift our game!

The highlight of our stay is probably riding scooters around the incredibly rough roads of Nusa Ceningan.

I had big plans on our first day to hire a couple of scooters and take off. I don’t believe I’ve ever ridden a scooter before and by the look on Wayan’s face (who was renting them to us) I probably shouldn’t ever try.

As I lurched off up the drive and on to the main Island track with my feet scraping on the ground and wobbling violently I could hear him behind me shouting. We both agreed, after he thought I was going to drive off the edge of cliff into the Blue Lagoon across the road, that Roger should be the only one who rented a bike.

So Roger ferried us back and forth, I walked and sweated a lot of the way but got to meet a whole lot of people and dogs.

There is a narrow bridge that joins Nusa Ceningan to Nusa Lembongan and as well as a steady flow of single lane motorbike traffic, there are Chinese tourists with selfie sticks. It makes for a dangerous combination as tourists wobble their way across on their scooters and the locals come through fast and beeping.

It seems there are others who shouldn’t have been allowed to rent scooters either, judging by some of the driving we witness that afternoon. I get grumpy with being the only person on the two Islands walking and Roger lets me practice on the bike where the roads are smoother on Lembongan. By the next day, Jasper and I have circumnavigated the whole of Ceningan and seen some pretty cool things on the way. The roads are incredibly rough but the two of us have a lot of fun riding helmetless (helmets are not really an option) through the shady narrow lanes of the Island.

The cultural highlight is the final evening of our stay when we gather under the big Banyan tree in the central main street of Lembongan, mostly traditional family houses and temples, for the celebration of Kuningan which happens every 210 days. It is the close of the period of Galungan where the spirits of deceased relatives who have died and been cremated return to visit their former homes, and the current inhabitants have a responsibility to be hospitable through prayers and offerings. On Kunigan the spirits return home and things get a little crazy!

The most obvious sign of the celebrations are the penjor – bamboo poles with offerings suspended at the end which are all along the side of every road in Bali.

We gather in front of where the Gamelan music will obviously happen, and wait.

Within half an hour there are beautiful Balinese people all around us who sit almost on our knees then invite the rest of their family to sit until we have been pushed off and are on the ground. Quite a clever tactic and I like the fact there is no formality for tourists.

The procession up the street is amazing and the music more amazing still. After about 20 minutes someone near us starts screaming and goes into a dancing trance. People rush over to surround and support her while she shuffles her feet along the ground with hands in the air and her eyes rolled back in her head. Within half an hour there were around 20 people doing the same.

It was like our kids had seen it all before. Just an ordinary night out.

It was time to leave the Secret Point Huts. We are all feeling that six days is a good amount of time to spend somewhere. For one thing, after that much time, you’ve had everything on the menu!