Gangga Express, Bali, Indonesia

2Caryn Jen 5:00 PM Jul 6, 2019

Don't Take Boat from Here unless You are a Local!
I read about taking a ferry to Nusa Penida from Bali from a blog which says Caspla Bali offers IDR75k/pax for foreigners which is reallly cheap as other boat operators are offering IDR150k. So we went on a search for Caspla Bali, finally found it and they told us that they have not been operating for a long time, now it's Gangga Express at Kusamba pier. The guy was so kind he took his bike and showed us the way to Kusamba pier. I was thrilled because Gangga Express was IDR100k/pax, it's not 75k but still cheaper than 150k so that is a savings of 50k/pax I thought. Will explain why it was not at all a good idea at all and should have just take a ferry that departs from Sanur. We were staying in Paica Hotel somewhere in Kuta. My mistake was I did not check the taxi fare from Paica to Kusamba but only from Paica to Sanur. The taxi to Kusamba cost IDR167k and to Sanur cost IDR57k. Factor in the taxi fare we actually did not save but paid extra of IDR10k, it's not much but stillll and read further to why it's also a bad idea. Always make sure you check the taxi rate from the hotel to the pier to factor in all cost. We already bought the ticket before i check the fare so we didn't have a choice. And always make sure u take GoJek, their fares are much cheaper than Bluebird/Grab. Anyways we took the 12pm boat, waited to be called to board the ferry. We board the first ferry, but it's just a ferry to exchange boat. Means the speedboat to Penida couldn't come close to shore so we had to go to the first ferry then change to the speedboat. My explanation sucks i know :/ Our feet didn't get wet boarding the first ferry. The ride was about 20-30mins and we arrived in Penida Sampalan port. Bad idea because the locals that arrive here already have their own transportation. So foreigners like us are forced to take the bikes at whatever price they offer. I would think that going from Sanur you will end up at another pier with much more operator as it's the main one. *Going back from Lembongan to Sanur, we saw that Sanur has sooo many different transporation operator so their prices are more competitive as they had to compete with each other. Back to the story, a couple of bike operator hounded us, charding us IDR80k/day for the bike. We had a huge luggage so they were forcing us to take the van which cost about IDR100-150k one way to the hotel. Finally after begging for IDR200k/3 days and additional IDR25k for them to carry our luggage to the hotel, they agreed. Before all that I actually called the Krishna Cottage to see if they could help to arrange transporation but they were no help at all. He said he will also need to call 2 bikes to pick us up and each bike is IDR50k and their per day rental for bike is also IDR80k and at the moment all has been rented out. So it was a waste of time talking to the cottage. I had to leave my identity card with the bike operator to rent the bike. They did not give any receipt. I gave them my driving license which was easier to replace. We decided to leave one day earlier, and return the bike. We went back to the pier and look for the guy. It's quite unsafe because no receipt was given and we don't recognize which is the guy. We showed the bike to one of the guy there and he called the bike guy. He came with my identity card. We told him we are returning it earlier by one day, he was doing some mathematic calculation in his mind and gave us a number. We then walked back to the hotel.