Monday 28 May 2012

Nusa Dua

After some advice one evening from our friend Andy, we decided to head to Nusa Dua and pretend to stay at one of the posh hotels there and use their private pool and beach. Andy said he had tried it with some friends but they had all got asked to leave, however he was confident that we would be ok.

We rode to Nusa Dua which took about 30 minutes from Padang Padang and found a posh hotel called ‘Nusa Dua Resort & Spa’. Security is super tight here due to the threat of terrorism and we were stopped by the security guard at the gate. We told him that we were there to use the spa and were let in after he checked inside our bike seat.

We confidently walked through reception, smiling and saying ‘Hello’ to the friendly staff and made for the pool and beach area. Well, this place was simply beautiful and that was just the resort. The sea, the sand, the beach, everything was perfect, but...yes there is a but, because although it was pristine, it was also quite artificial, with workers even clearing away the seaweed line from the shore!

The beautiful beach and the seaweed that was soon raked away

We found a sun lounger (now we looked like proper package holiday tourists!) on the immaculately raked beach, and went for a swim in the sea. No one questioned us, not even when Ian had the cheek to take two of the huge complimentary hotel towels from the poolside. These actually helped us blend in with the other guests.

We really enjoyed our free use of the beach and pool but left in the early afternoon to get some lunch as it was too expensive for us to eat at the resort.

Tip: You can gain access to the Nusa Dua Beaches without having to go through the resorts like we did. There are three beaches that are separated by the natural coastline, the one in the middle being the smallest, which was where we were when we visited the resort. 

On a separate occasion, at Nusa Dua Ian went to go for a surf when we saw these strange figures. After taking some photos a lady came over to speak with us and told us that the statues were due to be sunk just off shore to enable coral to grow around them. Strangely enough, the day before we read in National Geographic about a similar sort of thing in Mexico, so it was really interesting to actually see these before they were sunk out to sea.

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