"Far far away, approximately a distant of 5500 km east, there is an island surrounded by seas, oceans, mountains, volcanoes, waterfalls, and greens. The island is the land of Gods where divine and spiritual power exists in every corner.
There are mountains towards the south of this island. When you cross those mountains, you are welcomed by turquoise green and blue waters with white sands on the shore."
When I was preparing my itinerary, I made a list of beaches I should visit in my short 4 days Bali trip.
Pandawa beach caught my eyes due to its unique name.
Pandavas were 5 princes from Sanskrit epic "Mahabharata," so should I assume that they visited this small island in Indonesia. In India, there are places such as Pandavas Caves, Capitals, waterfall, and many things related to them. But, That I understand.
How can a beach be named Pandawa, that too in Indonesia? We know that Bali is the only island in Indonesia which follow Hinduism. Maybe, for that.
Mysterious, Ha!
To cut the story short, I decided to give this Beach a try.
Where in Bali?
After reaching Bali, I found out that this Beach is located at the southern end of Bali.
Though the Beach has become rather popular nowadays still this is one of the unspoiled beaches in Bali. The Beach is situated in Kutuh village. This Beach is also known as Kutuh beach among the locals.
After my 2 days of the trip, I asked my driver to take me to Pandawa beach. It was a 1 hr drive from my location in Tanjung Benoa.
Why Pandawa?
The road to the Beach is carved between the limestone cliff and is very scenic. On its entrance, there are carved stone structures of Yudhistir, Bhim, Arjun, Nakul and Sahadev with their mother Kunti, (the same character from Hindu mythology Mahabharat), inside the left side of the cliff. Though they look quite different.
See, I was right. Hmm, the Pandavas must have visited this piece of land.
Yes, Entrance Fee
This is a kind of Beach where you need to pay an entrance and parking fee of 15.000 IDR. Car Parking will be around 5.000 IDR. There are four access points to enter the Beach. After we pay the entrance fee, we reached the highway, and then a few meters from there, we reached the parking spot.
View Point
On one side of the parking lot, there are stairs made that lead you to the viewpoint. From there, we got a mesmerizing view of the Indian ocean with its white coastline.
The beauty of the Beach
I was astonished by the blend of the color of the water. I don't know whether I can do justice while describing the color or not. It is the best example of "See it to believe it." The color of the water gradients from light blue near the shores, to slightly turquoise green, to turquoise blue and then finally to dark blue color. It's unbelievable.
Also, the water is crystal clear; you can see beautiful shells, seaweeds, variety of stones beneath the sea.
Despite being crowded, The Beach was clean like heaven, and the waves were calm. You can swim without fearing of ocean currents.
It is the kind of Beach that comes straight out from your drawing books.
Around the Beach
Food:
We took a walk near the shores and stopped in one of the shack nearby. We rented a sun lounger, which is about 50.000 IDR for an hour, from one of the food stalls. If you don't want to rent, you can bring your own mat and can take sunbathe.
It was quite sunny and warm, we ordered a coconut. To my surprise, the coconut was huge and heavy; at least I have not seen it before.
Then there are numerous Food stalls serving a wide range of food and drinks that include Fried Rice, Noodles, Asian Wok, Western Food.
Beverages range from cold drinks, sodas to fruit juices.
Activities:
This Beach is excellent for families to spend time with. Apart from swimming, there are canoe rides and various other water sports.
Canoe price ranges from 50.000 IDR to 20.000 IDR.
Also paragliding was another activity which caught my eye. It is bit costly. It starts from 1,696,093.91 IDR.
Balinese massage:
Like most of the other beaches in Bali, this Beach also provides with a Balinese massage. There is a place known as Pandawa SPA, which gives you excellent reflexology.
The cost will vary from 40.000 IDR to 130.000 IDR depending on the quality and timing of the SPA.
Other facilities:
One thing I liked about this Beach is that there is the availability of toilets, changing rooms, a place to bath, and all of them have clean water.
Timing:
The Beach is not open for 24 hrs, the timing for gates to remain open is from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. You need to coordinate with the administrator of Beach if you want to go camping, gala dinner, etc.
Facts:
1 IDR (Indonesian Rupiah) = 0.00472710 INR (1 Rs is 211.00 IDR)
Do try the coconut water.
I really enjoyed my time at the Beach.
Yeah..., I found it. A beach where Mystic blue waters meet the white sand.
Next time, when you visit Bali, do visit Pandawa Beach if not visited before.