Nusa Penida

Like the other post says, on the Tuesday of my week in Bali with my parents, we took an overnight trip to Nusa Penida. Nusa Penida is an island off Bali, a half-hour boat ride away. In every other sense, it's part of Bali; it's part of the province of Bali, and the people are Balinese-speaking Hindus. However, it's virtually tourism-free, has a drier climate, and the people are poorer than mainland Balinese.
We got to the harbour at Padangbai harbour bright and early to buy our speedboat tickets for Rp20,000 each. Instead, we paid Rp50,000 each. This is a common, sometimes-fair-sometimes-not phenomenon later described as "skin tax," if you get my drift. We took a packed public speedboat across the strait, with some cool views of the 3,142 metre Gunung Agung behind us.
Soon afterwards, we arrived at the FNPF's bird sanctuary on Nusa Penida. The sanctuary's primary focus is the Bali starling, one of the most unbelieveably endangered animals in the world. The last census counted a total of six birds remaining in Bali. Six! The FNPF sanctuary rehabilitates, retrains and releases starlings formerly kept in zoos or as pets, and has so far successfully released about 50 or 60 (Dad will correct me I'm sure) starlings on Nusa Penida. The sanctuary is also home to Java sparrows, lesser sulphur-crested cockatoos, Mitchell's lorikeets, and a very impressive kind of hornbill (forgot what kind). After meeting Ketut, our guide for the day, and Fauna, the sanctuary's lovely three-legged dog, we hopped in a truck for a day around the island.
Our first stop was for a view along some rather bloody spectacular coastline, with certainly the tallest cliffs I've ever seen. Next, we drove to the release site for the starlings. Birds from the sanctuary are transferred to the release site - basically a huge aviary, built to blend in with the surrounding countryside - to get them accustomed to their surroundings before being set loose. It's pretty cool, really.
From the release site we took a steep hike down into the valley, heading towards the sea, to an awesome natural spring. Mum and I took a swim, and it was fantastic, of course. I've never swam in fresh water like that before; so clear and deep and wonderful. From there, we took a short scramble down the beach, admired the enormo-cliffs, then took the steep trail back up to the release site again.
Our next stop was a weaving village. We saw some nice weavings, hand-made with natural dyes, but the asking price was more than any of us actually had, so it was no sale.
Lastly, we stopped at a empty temple where a pair of starlings was known to be nesting. We spotted them eventually, and thanks to Ketut knowing precisely where the individual starlings lived, we managed to to see eleven starlings over the course of our trip. That's 11 out of maybe 60 in the whole world, which I reckon is pretty awesome.
Back at the sanctuary, Mum and I took a stroll along the beach (conveniently across the road). which was entirely taken up by seaweed farms. The seaweed from those farms is used in shampoo or cosmetics or somesuch, rather than for sushi. We had several friendly "selamat soreh"s (good afternoon), and a few odd looks, too. That's Nusa Penida for you; a part of Bali where you still get foreigner-stares.
There was some kind of ceremony happening that night (frankly, though, there's a ceremony every other day in Bali). From the nearby temple, we could hear singing, chanting, and prayer recital all night. As in, really all through the night and into the morning without a break. So I couldn't get to sleep at the bird sanctuary because the chanting at the temple was too loud.
Kuta this ain't, people.