Balina Beach

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About five-km beyond the turnoff to Padangbai, and after the village of Manggis, is a small steel bridge. About 500 meters beyond, turn right down a small lane to Buitan village. This is the heart of Balina, a simple, quiet resort with scant sellers, few tourists, a nice wide black sandy beach, tame waves, no treacherous currents, and seldom the sputter of a motorbike. Though similar to Beach Inn-style complexes found all over Candidasa, Sanur, and Kuta, this simple, quiet resort is in the middle of a fishing village. All the amenities of Candidasa are accessible by ‘bemo’ four km to the northeast, while the urban center of Amlapura lies 18 km to the northeast, and the metropolis Denpasar is a 1.5 hour’s drive.

Water Sports
Balina is known for its diving excursions in a marine reserve offshore. If you reach the beach by late afternoon, you can go night fishing with local fishermen using lanterns. The Balina Diving Center has an impressive team of five instructors supervised by a PADI Open Water dive master; he can also arrange fishing and outrigger sailing trips. Dive trips, instruction, and snorkeling are offered every day starting at 0900. Minimum two people, except for the three-person minimum to Nusa Penida and Menjangan.

Snorkeling and scuba diving rates, including transport, instruction, equipment, lunch, and tax, depend on the destination. Some places of water sports: diving at Blue Lagoon, diving at Nusa Penida, diving at Pulau Menjangan, snorkeling and diving at Tulamben, a stunning shipwreck 40 km northwest of Balina and at Cemeluk, near Amed to the northwest and diving at Pulau Kambing, off Balina. Strong and dangerous undercurrents at the south end of the island can carry you up to 500 meters out of your way. Sharks frequent the area; a few foreigners have gone down here and never come up.

Accommodations and Food
The best midmarket place to stay is 34-room Puri Buitan, east of the Balina Beach Bungalows on one of east Bali’s most beautiful, safe beaches. Definitely worth the price if you’re looking for easy living-nicely furnished rooms with hot water, swimming pool, great snorkeling, shuttle service to Ubud, plus the personal attention of proprietor I Made Patera. Puri Buitan’s motel-style units are clean and tidy. Add 15.5% tax and service to the price.

The restaurant overlooking the pool has a full menu of so-so food reflecting heavy Italian patronage. Also snacks and toiletries. Remain connected to the real world via the international telecommunications office in front of Puri Buitan. Guests can easily walk up the road and grab a ‘bemo’ to Candidasa to get something to eat. Contact Box 444, Denpasar 80001

More upmarket is the 58-room Serai Hotel (tel. 62363-41.011, fax 41.015) on a secluded beach amidst a beautiful coconut grove. Although designed by the same architect, who designed the Amankila, this hotel appeals to a younger, upwardly mobile set. The low-rise Western architecture blends well with natural surroundings and typical Balinese pavilion-style public areas. What sets the Serai apart from other Balinese establishments is that it’s under Australian management who understand better what guests require.

The Nelayan Villages (or Balina Beach Bungalows, Box 301, Denpasar, tel. 62361-41.002/005, fax 41.001) offers accommodations with private verandas and baths set amidst palms and rice fields. Forty-one Balinese-style bungalows range from small two-bed units and family units (best views). Extra 15.5% for tax and service are added to the price. Prices include continental breakfast; credit cards honored, postal service, moneychanger, safe deposit boxes, good parking, pool, gazebo bar, luncheon service, “Bali Night Dinner” with barbecue. Ideal for the sports-minded, as the Balina Diving Center maintains its office here. Drawbacks: expensive, terrible restaurant meals, and they don’t smile much.

At the nearby Java Restaurant the food is somewhat better and certainly more reasonably priced; also runs a small homestay. Fishing families will offer you drab rooms in the ‘kampung’. At the opposite end of the scale, Balina’s most conspicuously upmarket hotel is the Mandra Alila, with 80 rooms. The luxurious beachside Serai Hotel, tel. 62366-41.011, fax 41.015, built in the imposing Pacific Rim architectural style, is in the same class. Although the rooms are motel-style, they are spacious and well appointed. The swimming pool is near the beach under coconut palms.

Nearby accommodations include Sunrise Bungalows, tel. 62366-41.008, in Buitan, consisting of 10 bungalows. The nicest rooms are on the second floor in the back, with lots of windows overlooking palms and garden foliage, with the bay in the distance. Beach between two concrete jetties with good snorkeling. Full-time security; small restaurant. Ketut has a car, speaks good English, possesses a wealth of information, and caters to a regular and devoted clientele. Mailing address Box 287, Denpasar 80001, Bali.

To the west is the even more isolated Ampel Bungalows in Manggis village-beautiful seascapes, nice gardens, restaurant. You’ll get a simple, clean room (no hot water or electricity) and an exceptional view. The verandas are lit, with oil lamps provided in the evenings. There are no nearby restaurants, but proprietor Wayan Pastika Adijaya willingly arranges transport to the closest in Candidasa or Balina Beach. To get here go past Manggis and the turnoff to Amankila, where the road winds down to the coastal flats heading to Candidasa; the turn to Ampel is 300 meters before the bridge (see sign on right, if coming from Manggis), about one km before Balina Beach. Any ‘bemo’ driver can find the place.

Hotelier Adrian Zecha’s Amankila is another world. Only about two-km from Padangbai, heading north past the stone mangosteen monument, is this spectacular resort palace, set on a high cliff facing the Bali Strait. The 400-meter-long “restricted access” salt and pepper beach lies below an old temple spotlighted at night. Built in a luxuriant grove of frangipani, palms, and other local mature trees, some 35 spacious suites, linked by walkways to the restaurants, pools, and beach.

All are exceptionally well designed, with extreme attention to detail. The structures may look heavy and blocky (someone wrote that they were looking for the graffiti!) but are actually ecologically correct, built to preserve and encourage drainage via natural waterways and streams. No TVs, as guests are expected to relax in an atmosphere combining unobtrusive luxury with informality.

Enormous areas are dedicated to public space, including a “staircase” of three pools at different levels; seven suites come with their own pools. Visit the decadently elegant Library Museum, the sumptuous Beach Club with its thin 45-meter-long pool in the midst of a coconut plantation. Nonguests may frequent the Beach Club and the beach. Nice little restaurant (superb fish and chips) and the best lap pool on Bali. Barbecue is every Tuesday and Friday night; ‘kecak’ dances are held Wednesday, ‘baris’ on Saturday. Reservations c/o Amanusa, Nusa Dua, Bali, tel. 62363-41.333, fax 41.555.

Getting Away
The man at Kios Melati, just up from the Puri Buitan, rents vehicles for guests. You may also charter vehicles for the airport, Kuta, or Nusa Dua. In the high season, a shuttle service may be in operation with shared rides to Ubud, Sanur, Kuta and the airport. For much cheaper public transport, go up to the main road and flag down a ‘bemo’. Kios Melati also develops film in one day.

The area west of Balina around Manggis is really picturesque, with the sea on one side and mountains on the other. Walk 1.5 hours through woods and gardens to Ngis via Manggis; Tenganan is a two-hour walk from Ngis.

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