The East Bali - Padangbai and Candidasa Mantabq

South Bali attracts the majority of Bali visitors, but discerning travellers have long headed for the quieter towns of east Bali for relaxation in an attractive area.

PADANGBAIThe town bay at Padangbai has the Lombok vehicle ferry pier to the right and a neat range of mainly budget accommodation places lining the beach road on the left. The Blue Lagoon snorkelling area is the smaller bay far left and the white sand ocean beach of Bias Tugel can be seen just to the right of the main town bay (image Karangasim Tourism)

Padangbai is an enigma because despite its bustling ferry wharf where vessels to Lombok load and unload trucks, buses, other vehicles and people 24/7, it’s a surprisingly laid-back and appealing little town with a nice selection of budget and these days better accommodation.

Padangbai’s town bay from a now abandoned restaurant site on the northern headland. Note the ferry pier at top right of first shot . You can also catch scheduled small ferries to Nusa Peninda from nearby, plus Perama’s slow boat and several speed boats direct to the Gilis. Small boat owners will take you across to Nusa Lembongan for the right price. Note there is now an ATM inland from the pier on the main access road. The near-end of the bay has a strip of budget accommodation places, dive shops and restaurants along the beach road - accomm prices were around $us9 -12, some with, some without brekka on my latest May 09 trip. Some of the more popular include Padangbai Beach Inn 1, Padang Bai Billabong and the Topi Inn at the end of the road has finally been rebuilt (under construction my past 2 visits - several years apart!) There are quite a few others in town although those close to the pier could be a bit noisy in the early hours. The old beachfront fish restaurants I enjoyed so much on previous trips are gone - but this has definitely opened up the beach side of the road and given the restaurants on the other side good views (click to expand image)

The Blue Lagoon. If you continue up the steep hill which starts at the northern end of the town beach road and follow the signs you will reach this nice snorkelling spot in less than 10 minutes. Coral and fish life are pretty good by Bali mainland standards. Lots of people come around from town in hire-boats and from even as far as Candidasa which is visible about 8 km north. Quite a lot of work has been done here since my last visit - a retaining wall behind the narrow beach, tumbledown warungs replaced by attractive joints with beach chairs etc.

This is the Blue Lagoon region from a Gilis-bound boat. The town bay is over the saddle behind the sand. Those buildings high to the right are part of an flash villa resort new since my last visit - Blue Lagoon Villa

Just around the SOUTHERN headland from the town bay (but very difficult to reach by rock-hopping) is the nice white sand beach of Bias Tugel. Always popular on previous trips, I was surprised how few visitors arrived on the day of the shot. The ladies in the warungs are real keen to sell drinks/massages/etc but this is still a pleasant place to spend time. There always seems to be a decent shore-wash of waves, but I have never seen a surfable wave here.

The huge scale of the Korean financed hotel development behind Bias Tugel can be seen in the right half of this shot. The warung ladies told me the hotel could not purchase the beach - but I bet it puts a bunch of beach chairs and umbrellas there. The near-finished development at the end of the headland is Indian owned according to the ladies. Until the Korean hotel is finished, the best way to access the beach is to take the road over the hill south of town and cut through the hotel grounds. When this is closed off, stick on the road and continue to bear left at intersections etc. After about 15 minutes you will come to the end of the road where a bush track descends to the southern end of the beach.

CANDIDASA.
Candi is an attractive seaside town on the main coastal road in East Bali. The east coast curves here so that the section Candi is on actually runs closer to west-east.

Candidasa comprises 3 sections:

-Central Candi, the main street area which has a good range of services and plenty of accommodation of all standards both sides of the road.
-Forest Road - an area hugging the coast past where the main road turns inland towards Amlapura - far right side of map above and extending a short distance out of frame. More midrange places than budget here.
-West Candi - a strip about 2km long west of Central Candi on the approach from Denpasar/Kuta. The coastal road is up to 500m inland along here with lanes heading down to the mainly midrange/high-end resorts. This strip starts at Lotus Seaview one third across the map and extends left out of frame. Map from AsiaRooms

I’m no gourmet but people tell me there are a handful of fine-dining restaurants in and around town. There are certainly plenty of tourist standard eats-joints. This is no place for party animals, although live music is found at one of two restaurant-bars in the main street most nights.
There are plenty of money changers, at least one bank and there is now an ATM on the sea-side towards the Kuta-Denpasar end of the main street not too far from the Perama office UPDATE - JULY09 : Apparently this ATM only takes Indonesian cards!

Typical less expensive seaside place on the Central town strip. This is Temple Restaurant and Seaside Cottages . Note the stone pebble beach - apparently mining of the coral reef for building material some 30 years ago exposed the beach to erosion and the sand was lost. I noticed seaside places on the West Candi strip had patches of yellow sand although they were covered at high tide with waves smacking against seas walls similar to the above.

Seaside Cottages has a fine array of bungalows set in a neat garden area between the street front restaurant and the ocean front. Prices range from a ridiculously low 45k ($us4.50 at time of visit) for a backpacker-basic place to 350k for aircon, hot water and more. My 95k bungalow, second back from the ocean-front here, was a midrange bungalow in all respects except for cold water and fan-only. Hell, they serviced it daily with clean towels - for 95k! Not surprisingly, brekka aint included for this sort of money. Food in the restaurant was real nice, prices seemed competitive to other places I stayed this holiday - although this restaurant is one of those places which adds 15% govt and service charges to the prices in the menu.

Immediately across the main road is the well know Watergarden Resort. It has a reciprocal deal with Seaside Cottages where guests can use one's pool or the other's beachfront lounges providing they purchase food or drink. So for the price of a few Bintangs (only 17.5K each compared to the common 15k) I got to swim some laps and loll on the poolside lie-lows checking the specifications of jetsetter babes.

Watergarden is a real nice midranger with very attractive bungalows set up a hillside in lush garden surrounds. Each bungalow has its own lagoon immediately off the deck. I have a travel-agent friend who always stays here on Bali visits.

A favourite short excursion from Candidasa is WHITE SAND BEACH to the north. In actual fact I found the place a bit underwhelming - the quality of sand and landscape would not land it in my top 500 beaches and some of the half-dozen or so warung operators can be quite persistent in their quest for business. The most popular way to access the beach is to hire a boatman who will take you the 4 or 5km up the coast. I hired a bicycle at 20K a day and cycled there - motorcycle rent is not too much more expensive. Go up over the winding pass on the main road immediately north of town towards Amlapura - on the other side of the pass there is a long ribbon of a village stretching about 2km along the road. The 3rd and 4th turns a fair way into the village to the right are signposted VIRGIN BEACH (look for the blue signs) - either of these will take you down to the beach about 2-3km away.

Another popular excursion is a boat trip out to snorkel one of the 3 islands above. I did this about 10 years ago - fish and coral okay but nothing to get excited about. Much better is a trip to the more distant Blue Lagoon at Padangbai, which the boat guys are always trying to push. The islands in the shot are also popular for diving and there are several dive shops in town.

On my first trip to Candidasa I climbed the impressive hill behind the main street area for impressive views of town, the lagoon, the offshore islands and some nice valley areas further inland.

Also close to town is the traditional village of Tenganan, home to one of the last groups of original Balinese. This is reached by heading inland from the main coast highway up the signposted road a few hundred meters on the Kuta side of the main street - there is a bunch of motor-cycle taxi guys waiting at the corner to cart tourists the 4km or so to the village. I found the gentle gradient real easy on my hire-bicycle but the place appeared a bit arty and tourist-trappy to my liking, so I turned around and pedalled back.

Further from town and best reached with a car and driver or hire motorcyle is Tirta Gangga - another traditional village with nice views of attractive rice terraces and the nearby Water Palace which has great gardens, many pools including one in which tourists can swim.

Even more spectacular rice terraces and hill-v alley scenery can be seen by getting your driver to take one of the roads that loop behind Candidasa high up in the hills to the west. There are several turn-offs onto these roads on the highway to Amalapura and the loops will eventually descend to meet the coast road again somewhere south of Candi towards Kuta/Denpasar.

Another popular daytrip by car is to the Amed strip of quiet coastal villages along the western end of the north coast starting about 45 minutes north of Candi. Some very attractive scenery, good snorkelling, nice black sand beaches and pleasant restaurants along here. Good dive area too.

Google Images Karangasem has some nice pix o f the Water Palace, rice terraces etc.

GETTING THERE
In May 09 the fixed taxi price from the airport was 300k to Canidasa and 280 to Padangbai. This means one of the drivers who hang around Kuta touting rides should do it for maybe 50k less although most Candi accommodation quotes 300 to 350 for their pickup service at the time of my visit.
You can go by local public transport but this would mean changing bemos several times and would take all day.
Shuttle bus operators are the best low budget option for travelllers - Perama has several trips per day - usually Kuta to Sanur to Ubud to Padangbai to Candidasa.
Cost in May 09 to both destinations was 60k - current prices and timetable

I actually short-cut Perama by jumping on a motorcycle-taxi at Padangbai and fanging up to Candidasa for 20k. Perama has a stop-over of about 20 minutes.

Plenty of people come in to Padangbai from Lombok - slow ferry, Perama’s direct slow boat to the Gilis and the fast boats to the Gilis. I have also come across from Padangbai in the past with a bunch of surfer dudes in a chartered fishing boat. Quotes this latest May 09 trip started around 300 so you could probably do it for 250.