BALI - Arts, Nature & Senses

Recently I manage to book a flight ticket to Bali, Indonesia at the very last minute decision mainly due to my annual holidays taken without any plannings. The trip was on a bit of premium cost considering the holidays period from 28/12/09 to 31/12/09. Here's a breakdown of the itinerary of places I've visited and not forgetting the snapshots of BALI island which really brought me back to arts, nature and senses.

DAY 1 - UBUD (28/12/2009)

I've arrived at Ngurah Rai International airport with a slight delay and manage to check-in at Ubud at about 3:00pm. A loud noise was heard during the flight taking off from the Air Asia flight, AK362 and we were informed that there's some technical issues with the landing gear. There goes the remaining hours of joy during the 3 hours flight filled with concerns. Thankfully, it was a safe flight to the destination, BALI. Upon check-in, I quickly unpack and headed to Ubud surroundings just to glimpse the towns and hoping to get some info and day tours for the following day excursions. I've seen some nice photos taken from cafe lotus when I was doing some travel findings. After some 15 minutes of walk, I stumbled over Cafe Lotus right across the road 'Jalan Raya Ubud'. I gotta say it's quite expensive for my budget to have a meal there but nevertheless the Pura Taman Kemuda Saraswati temple is worth the rupiah.

After having my late lunch, I've tried to gather as much infos as possible and hoping to get a reasonable bargained day tour but to no avail. The reasons to get a day tour is because it's very much cheaper to see more places at a short period of time or stay in BALI. I'd made this decision considering bemos, bikes and self driving which pretty much has its limitations. If you know your locations around Bali, taking a bike is the best bet or perhaps self driving. However, you'll need an international license just in case you are stopped by police.

My last resort of getting my day tour came to light when I realized that I've gathered a bunch of brochures and leaflets when I arrived in Ngurah Rai. After much bargaining over the phone I've settled for 800K rupiah for my 2 days tour. Usually, tour packages do not take single private tour because the agency will be making a loss. Luckily, with much persuasion in malay language and partly due to various competitions from tour agencies, they have agreed on the price.

DAY 2 - KINTAMANI & BESAKIH TEMPLE TOUR (29/12/2009)

The following day started with a brief breakfast and off we go with tour guide, Mr.Wayang and driver, Mr.Gusti at around 8:30am. We headed to Tohpati for batik painting and Celuk for gold and silver smith crafts. Both were handicrafts of BALI and comes with various designs for shoppers. We were then visiting Batubulan village for the Kris and Barong dance with a short stop to see some stone carvings. The dance performance was quite nice with some humor injected into the play to keep things interesting to the audiences. We also visited Batuan the home of painters and I've gotta say the paintings were way too pricey. It cost at about USD2,300++ for just a mere size of 1' X 1'.

After much arts and crafts displays, I gather my charged up artistic mind and head for Tegenungan water falls for some nature. It was said as the biggest waterfall with approximately 10 till 15 metres but not the highest compared to Gitgit. We were then presented with Bedulu the 11th century elephant cave. For a start, yes it's a cave and I gotta say it's the smallest cave I've seen so far probably 8 metres in length with altar on 3 sides.

The next visit was Seribatu with its coffee, tea and cocoa farm. I managed to taste 4 types of both the coffee and tea but not the luwak coffee though. There goes my whole morning and the next thing I knew, I was swept away to Kintamani for my lunch. The main highlight here is the Mount Batur active volcano and lake Batur overlooking to Mount Agung as the backdrop. It was simply the most breathtaking view in BALI. Before I was in Bali, I scavenged as much updates on Mt.Batur as possible considering that it's an active volcano. I won't want myself to be in the middle of the 'Dante's Peak'. The news I've gathered were rather not forthcoming  a week before I board my flight to BALI because Mt.Batur has 90 activities within a day compared to 1 activity per day on a normal condition. I've gathered my bravery and thought maybe this could be once in  a lifetime view at an active volcano and perhaps the chances of eruptions maybe quite close. With a bit of luck, I might get to see some smoke billowing out from the crater and maybe not the eruption I hope. ^__^

I still recalled Mount Mayon erupted days before my visit to BALI and the vivid Yellowstone scenes from 2012 fueled the excitement to Kintamani volcano. However, the tour for caldera and crater trekking were closed and I guess I'm happy to settled for a lunch overlooking the majestic volcano and its surroundings.

The next intinerary was Besakih Mother temple or Pura Besakih situated on the slopes of Mount Agung. This is the major attraction for tourist and local Balinese prayers alike with annual festivals carried out around the year within the Agama Dharma Hindu complex. Finally, my last stop of the day was a visit to Bukit Jambul rice terrace and some glimpse of the country side.

DAY 3 - BACK TO NATURE (30/12/2009)

After some 9 hours non stop tour of my 1st day, I woke up the following day with much excitement because it's pretty much a tour about nature with lakes, beach and waterfalls. We started with the 1 1/2 hours drive to Bedugul with its Beratan lake and Ulun Danu temple. The temple is surrounded by hills from Pucak Sangkur, Batur, Beratan, Tapak and Watukaru Mount. I can see the clouds enveloping the mounts as though the mount has reaches its peak within the Beratan lake. The tour continues with a visit to Pacung rice terrace view and followed by Buyan and Tamblingan lake. The lakes were simply serene and it's the nature at its best in BALI.

We were then whisked to Banjar village, the hot spring bathing place. The hot spring water was as green as the grass and a quick deep of my feet could not really feel much of the needed heat I desire. Mr. Wayang then introduced me to an upper level which was several steps where a shrine for praying was situated with a small basin like catchment. The water was very clean, clear and a definite source of the hot spring. For some reasons I cannot fathom why the public hot spring was green in colour.

Anyhow, there goes the whole morning and we headed north to Lovina, the black sand beach for lunch. Finally, my last visit of the day and the tour was Gitgit waterfall, the tallest waterfall in BALI at 35m high. I reached there probably about 4:00pm after 1 km walk along some dozens upon dozens of arts, crafts, paintings and souvenir shops along the way. It was a pleasant surprise to reach the bottom of Gitgit falls without any tourist there. I took several shots and walked slowly towards the falls. The immense shear power of the falls can be felt with the water splashing towards me as I walked closer. I doubt at first whether I can even stand beneath the stones under the falls but after a while of steadily steps of movement, I've succeeded. The water was cool, clean and and it's really a breathtaking senses standing underneath Gitgit. I was quite surprised that most tourist did not take a dip underneath the falls despite the falls was quite an adrenaline rush for some and even Mr.Wayang has not tried it himself.

DAY 4 - HOME SWEET HOME (31/12/2009)

It has been another of my rush holidays and how the days past so quickly in a flash. I took an early breakfast and took some photos around my place in Ubud and boarded my flight AK363 back home to Malaysia on the new year eve. It was a cloudy day and our plane hit several rounds of the clouds. We were having some nasty shakeout with the air stewardess literally flip and screamed. Well, nothing happens after that fortunately and we all headed back to Malaysia safely.