Many travelers who explored Bugbug Village stay overnight at the Bukit Asah Bali Camp. But only few of them gone the extra miles to see its beauty from the shark perspective. Believe me, what you see from the hill is totally different when you do from the sea.
If you are new to cruising you better stay overnight at the BABC. This way you will, first, adapt yourself with the smell of the ocean, second, you will be more relax, rather than driving along the way from Denpasar and immediately to set yourself on the boat. The cruise will take roughly 2 hours from the starting point, which is the Virgin beach.
Even though we are using fisherman's boat to cruise the beauty, the safety is at highest. The boat is made of fiberglass but is crafted in classic fishing boat.
Grab your life jacket and pay attention to your guide of the day about the safety procedures.
What to see from the boat?
You will be pointed few caves after cruising a few minutes. The first cave got a round shape shallow pool where you can swim anytime after the cruise.
Just a few minutes later you will see another cave. This time the cave is longer in shape. Right next to it the rock formation is printed with a wording: Taman Harmoni Bali, which is the name of former authority that manage the BABC.
You are now cruising between the main area of BABC and the Whale shark island. In certain month when the moonsoon is coming the water rushed on its head that create a water blow, just like a happy Whale shark do.
We don't go in the island but rather go on the sneaky coasts.
The southern tip of the BABC, it's cliff, is very steep and rocky. But this doesn't prevent fishermen's enthusiasts to avoid going to its bottom. Our guide confirmed that sometime those fancy fishermen got a meter-long-fish, and that is the reason always go there.
Up the hill you will see some areas are jungles with sabana in between. If you are lucky you will see a farmer collecting grass from the most dangerous shoulders of the hill. He do this for his cows. By the way, they grow up there and used to it, so no worries.
Leave the fishermen and farmer doing their business. The nature offers you with coconut trees formation behind the black sandy beaches. Those trees are covering over half the village populations, while its kilometer-long Beach is very quiet; only few people are visible between the parade of docking fishing boats.
The erected plot of land on the other side is called Bukit Gumang (bukit: hill). Right on its foot is a big shrimp factory that employees nearly hundred of local villagers.
I was jealous with the couple who jogged along the Gumang beach. It was as if the beach were belong to them. If they finally married anytime after this moment then I can understand.
At the far end of the hill, about 90 meter asl, is clearly seen a temple with multi-color flags. I can imagine what the view from that temple would look like. I have no doubt that just by being there, with a little prayer where the smell of flowers and incense are mixed, you already in heaven.
This is your last stop and now let's wait for the sun to set.
On the western side of this Gumang, under the sunset point, is the most famous tourist area: Candidasa. This area is contradictive from the other side of the Gumang. There are umpteen of accommodations from a hostel to five star resorts; from a small warung that serves Tipat Cantok to those that offer Sirloin Steak, and, of course, there are public facilities such as ATM, stores, gas stations, just to name a few.
If you have already filled up your memory with picturesque scenery, this is the time to cruise back where we started. This should take even faster since we go straight without story-telling-session from the guide.[]