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Nusa Lembongan Bali Hotels & Villas

Short Informations About Nusa Lembongan / Nusa Penida

Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan are Bali’s three “sister islands” — situated in the deep, whirling straits separating Bali from Lumbok. Nusa Ceningan, the smallest of the three, is little more than a tiny rock with a single village that snuggles cosily between the massive highlands of Penida to the east, and the coral beaches of Lembongan to the west. The three islands differ radically from the rest of Bali, consisting of barren limestone highlands covered by cacti and shrubs. Physically, they have much more in common with the southern Bukit Peninsula and the islands to the east of Bali.

Water is scarce, so the only crops grown here are maize, cassava, beans and tobacco. It is common in the small villages to see cacah - strips of raw cassava drying in the sun before being steamed as a substitute staple for rice.

The islands are very sparsely populated. Nusa Penida (usually called Nusa) has 25 villages scattered along its shores and in the highlands. Access is difficult, as transport is ant well-developed and roads in the highlands, winding and uneven, are just beginning to be paved. Everything comes by boat from Bali, including cattle, motorcycles and even bulldozers (which are knocked down, transported and re-assembled).

Houses, built with limestone blocks on the Balinese pattern in the lowlands, are more like Lombok’s one-room huts on the plateau. They always include a family shrine (sanggah), as most inhabitants are Hindu Balinese. However, in the main town of Toya Pakeh, many people call themselves “Muslim Balinese” — by which they mean a mixture of Malay, Sasak, Bugis, and Javanese migrants — settled here for generations. They have their own mosque, and Sasak cloth traders from nearby Lombok live semi- permanently in this desa Islam.

Most highland farmers work in terraced dry fields and breed cattle. Cows are brought to market aboard jukung to be slaughtered in Denpasar. On the coast, people live by fishing, transporting passengers and goods to and from Bali, and, more recently, by cultivaing seaweed. The seaweed — the large green kotoni and the smaller, red pinusun is exported to Hong Kong for use in the cosmetics industry. On shore, one finds coconut and cashew plantations.

Women help their husbands in the fields. They used to spin cotton and weave cepuk (rough checkered cloths used for life cycle ceremonies) on backstrap looms, but this has almost disappeared over the last 15 years.

Daily life is hard. Rainwater is collected in huge tanks for supply during the dry season and on the southern cliffs of Penida, a spectacular bamboo stairway has been constructed to gather water from natural springs just above the sea. Electricity is not yet available in the highlands, and education, job and entertainment opportunities are scarce.

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