We just got back from a trip to see Nengah's family in Nusa Penida. How great is their front porch wall paint?
Nengah's whole family was there for the ceremony. It was great to meet everyone and Theo was so happy to play with Nengah's little brother and two cousins again!
The whole island of Nusa Penida is a bird sanctuary. It is one of the few places in the world where you can see the Bali Starling in the wild. I learned at the TED x Ubud conference that there has been a lot of work to build up the economy in Nusa Penida and encourage people to become protectors of the rare birds. The Starlings used to be poached for about 1,000 US$ a bird but there survival in Nusa Penida shows the efficacy of conservation work. We didn't see any Starlings this trip but we did see these unfortunate birds who had been caught by some locals. We also saw lots and lots of chickens.
The next day Nengah's brother took Michel and I on a long motorbike ride, up steep inclines and around gravel covered blind turns through the mountains of the Island. Nusa Penida is a beautiful little island full of palm trees and Balinese who are still generally surprised to see foreigners. There are no hotels, westernized restaurants, souvenir shops or even spots to rent motorbikes on Nusa Penida. We arrived at a beautiful beach. We had actually seen the beach before, from the boat when we were scuba diving off manta point. It's an amazing beach; white sand, strong current and empty apart from a few cows being taken for a walk and several locals headed to a nearby temple.
Friday we woke up at 4am to catch the boat and head back to Sanur. We saw a beautiful sunrise, drank some sweet coffee (chocolate milk for Theo) and michel was thrown up on by a sea sick Balinese baby. I loved the boat we took back does't it look like we are all on John Lennon's Yellow Submarine?
