Bali, Indonesia
Covid has stopped tourism for a good while now. Finally, it is time to travel again and hence, the reawakening of this travel blog. We are starting it out easy by visiting nearby places first. This trip was done together with my dearie as a mini-moon. Bali has no lack of beautiful sceneries, a tropical island complete with mountains, rivers and lakes. While travelling around Bali, I slowly realized how big the tourism industry is in Bali. In this one trip, we tried new things and experienced new exciting flavours that sparked the creativity for new recipes. We really forged many beautiful memories that would not be forgotten for time to come.
Dearie and I ended work shortly after lunch. She made her way back after all errands were completed and we packed hurriedly to go to the airport. Our flight flies from T4, so we had the chance to meet my father. He met us at the newly opened Burger King, although he didn't join us for dinner. After we finished, we checked in for a smooth flight to Denpasar. We got some instant noodles from Circle K and grabbed to our first hotel: Hikari Guesthouse. It was already late when we are ready to sleep. I did not take any photos for today, because I didn't regard this day as an actual touring day.
22 July 2023, Seminyak > Ulun Danu Beratan > Tanah Lot > Seminyak, Cloudy
After having a pretty good rest at the guest house, we went outside to explore the area to find a breakfast spot. After walking around for a bit, we decided on a very local Warung, because we wanted to try their local food. It was really cheap, a bowl of fried noodles for less than a dollar. A plate of fried rice for about a dollar. The taste is very homely Indonesian too. After that, we went back and explored the guesthouse a bit. Turns out this guesthouse used to do glamping on the rooftop, but it might have died down due to covid. After preparing for our journey for the day, we met our driver Adhe in front of our guest house, and we began the journey up north towards Ulun Danu Beratan. We stopped halfway for lunch, but it wasn't great. We also stopped at some IndoMart along the way to get some comforting drinks. We reached Ulun Danu Beratan in the afternoon. We first made a stop at Handara gate, but upon realizing that we needed to wait half an hour just for pictures, we turned around and left. Now, for the real temple on the water. It is actually very touristy and crowded. We walked around amongst the crowd and took as many photos with as many angles as we can before leaving the place. Our next destination is Tanah Lot, which is quite a drive back down south. We made it back before the sun set. We took some photos at the entrance before going into the area to explore. There are many shops along the way to the Pura itself. The Pura itself is on a rock that seems to be impervious to erosion from the crashing waves. Even the land at the backward side of the rock is already eroded, but the rock that the Pura sits on is still quite tall. Perhaps, that is a reason why the locals built a Pura on this very rock. It was low tide when we were there, and we were able to traverse around the whole terrain. We took many beautiful sunset shots here.
In this shot, you can see the Pura standing on the rock, surrounded by eroded lower land. When it was finally dark, we made our way up to find some shops. We had dinner among sandflies, although we had a great view for dinner. It would have been an amazing experience if not for the constant harassment from the flies. After dinner, Adhe drove us back to our guesthouse. We made a stop at some local Warungs to get some food because the portion for dinner was too little. There is one shop that sells very awesome fried chicken, complete with delicious (a tad too spicy for me) sambal, for a very reasonable price. After our supper, we rested for the night.
23 July 2023, Seminyak > Kintamani, Cloudy
Dearie ordered in Grab food from a local Warong. We ate inside the hotel room before packing for day. Our first stop was UC Silver Gold. It is actually a large shop that sells silver and gold. It wasn't super awesome, but, there is a rather awesome museum beside it. A 720 kg silver dragon was on display. It is even in the Guinness World Record for the biggest dragon made entirely from silver. Many precious stones were also on display around the museum. After we are contented with photos, we continued our journey. We made a special stop at Pura Puseh Desa Batuan. The highlight of this Pura is the stone carvings. We were rented a sarong to wear into the Pura. To dearie, it is coming back to a place she visited, but now with me. To me, it is another interesting place for photo taking. After this, we went to Bebek Tebasari Resto for a late lunch. This meal is perhaps the best meal that we had in this trip. Of course, I had the bebek cooked in Balinese spices. Dearie had fish wrapped inside banana leaves.
To top it off, we were seated in a gazebo with a view of the padi fields. The harmony of the spices for both dishes was just perfect. It is then I realized we have unlocked a new form of enjoyment: having a meal with an awesome view. Not sure whether it is the view, or the food that made us enjoy the meal. Perhaps the view made us enjoy the food better, or perhaps it was both. After the satisfying meal, we continued our journey to Kintamani. We reached Kintamani early, but chose to go straight to our BnB at Lakeside Log Cabins. The environment surrounding this BnB is really awesome.
This was the view right outside of Lakeside Log Cabins. We spent quite some time taking photos and enjoying the beautiful views. We had our mujair nyat nyat dinner peacefully in the BnB and rested early for the night, in preparation for the next day.
24 July 2023, Kintamani > Ubud, Cloudy/Clear
We were woken by many engine revving sounds before five. Or maybe we did not sleep well because we are anticipating the Mount Batur Sunrise Jeep tour. Our private jeep driver waited for us early in the morning. His name is Ricky, and he drives a black jeep, which we soon realize is a unique colour. We climbed onto the back seat of his jeep and set off in the dark. Along the way up Mount Batur, many jeeps were also seen climbing up in the same path. Soon, a queue started to form. We arrived mid-way up Batur with many other jeeps. It is now then I realize how touristy this activity is. We got off the jeep and explored the surroundings to find a good spot to enjoy the sun rise. Alas, when the sun rose, there were clouds along the horizon, obscuring the sun. However, everyone cheered when the sun finally peeked out from the clouds. I found it strange that we are celebrating a sun rise. Nevertheless, it was a unique moment. A while later, a fog grew on the mountain and made the sun rise a very cloudy one. Ricky helped us to take photos of us together with his jeep. Ricky is not just a skilled jeep driver, but also an awesome photographer. He brought along a smooth reflective surface and helped us to take photos that have the illusion of being above still water, hence having a nice reflection. Amazing guy. Our next stop is the Black Lava. This place is a barren landscape full of young black stones.
There is a certain charm to having a jeep traverse such a terrain. Ricky used the stones to make a pile of rocks with a hole in the centre, then took photographs through the hole, using stones to make the frame. It is really an awesome idea, but only phone cameras can make this effect look nice. My camera just have very blurry stones around the frame. Our next stop is the Batur Natural Hot Spring. After getting changed, we immersed ourselves into the spring water together with many other tourists. Too touristy. I was a bit skeptical of the cleanliness of the water, while dearie lamented on the water being not hot enough. We didn't stay inside for long. We had brunch with a lake view, but together with a lot of houseflies. Not too pleasant. After that, Ricky drove us back to our BnB. At the BnB, dearie took out the drone and took some aerial photos with it. We packed up and left the BnB. We extended our 'taxi' by asking Ricky if he can bring us to Pura Jati and drop us off at a cafe on the top of the ridge, to which he agreed. Pura Jati is often confused with Pura Segara Ulun Danu Batur since they are next to each other. Pura Jati does not allow foreign visitors, but Pura Segara allows. Ricky immediately understood that we meant Pura Segara and he brought us there. This Pura is a unique visit because it is not touristy at all. After giving some donations, we were given sarong to wear and then we entered the area. We were very glad that we chose to come here. There was only one other pair of travelers there when we arrived. This allowed us to take very beautiful pictures, like the one at the beginning of this post. Again, Ricky told us where all the photo spots are, and also helped us to take many beautiful pictures. After taking photos till our heart's content, we left the place and went back up to Kintamani town. We were very thankful for such an awesome private jeep driver, we even took a selfie with him. Here, we met Adhe and he drove us to Warong Jowet for mujair nyat nyat lunch. Yes, this fish again, because this is a local Kintamani specialty. We had the fish with the view of Mount Batur.
This is Mount Batur. You can even see the black lava. What a way to end our visit to Kintamani. After lunch, we drove down towards Ubud. We made a stop at Penglipuran village, a local Balinese village that has opened up for tourists to visit. We took a few photographs here before continuing the journey to Ubud. We stopped at Babi Guling Bu Desak Pejeng to buy Babi Guling takeaway. We reached our next accommodation at about 6. Here, we bid farewell to Adhe. This night, we are staying in a private villa called Adyuta Private House. The very nice host carried our luggage all the way throughout the walk to the place and showed us around his villa. This place is really beautiful. It comes complete with an outdoor pool, kitchen, hot tub and toilet. We walked around the villa to familiarize ourselves with the surroundings before sitting down for dinner. The Babi Guling is not too great, perhaps because it has turned cold. We then took a bath in the hot tub before resting for the night. I got sunburnt today... but, what a fully packed and eventful day!
25 July 2023, Ubud > Sanur, Clear
I slept in because the villa is so comfortable. After having a quick breakfast, we went to have a morning swim in the pool.
The water is cold, and it took a while before we were acclimatized. It was just a short swim before we realize that we have to check out soon. We will definitely miss this villa. After checking out, we walked around and stumbled upon a cafe. We had our lunch here before calling for Gojek to go to our Sanur hotel to check in first. Smooth trip to Sanur. We checked into Palm Garden Hotel, applied sun block and went out to walk along Sanur beach. There are many resorts, hotels and restaurants along Sanur beach. It was windy and the sun doesn't shine directly over the beach during sunset.
We even found a swing by the beach, and dearie went to play on it for a while. We enjoyed the walk, and finally decided to have dinner in a new restaurant here, called Costa by Monsta. The food here is great. We had an awesome dinner on the beach with a sea view. Again, we were not sure if the view actually made us enjoy the food even more. We ordered cocktails to go with the food. It was truly a magnificent experience. When we were done with the mains, we felt cold, so we moved inside the restaurant. We ordered some shots in an attempt to get high. It was mildly effective. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and rested for the night.
26 July 2023, Sanur > Nusa Penida > Sanur, Clear
This day is a long day. We bought the West Nusa Penida Tour with snorkelling from Klook. Today's post would actually be an uncensored and unsponsored review on this popular tour trip. We woke up early and made instant noodles at the front counter of the restaurant. We got a driver to pick us up in front of our hotel, and he brought us to the jetty. We were asked to wait at a cafe before the ferry tickets were distributed. The groups of people going to Nusa Penida were huge. We waited patiently for the people to arrange us. Finally, we got up the ferry and we rested along the trip there. Nusa Penida was farther than I imagined. We put on sunblock when we arrived since it was a bright clear sunny day. We met our driver for the land portion of the tour. We were grouped together with a Thai girl and a Korean girl for the car. Our first stop is Angel's Billabong infinity pool. It was about half an hour drive from the pier.
The colours in the pool sure is unique, but the whole place is already filled with tourists like us. We did not spend too much time here before making our way to broken beach, which is actually just walking distance nearby. Broken beach is quite a remarkable landform. A large hole was made in the rocks due to erosion from the sea. A beach formed at the water's end inside this catchment. Dearie commented that this is even more unique than Angel's Billabong. Truly spectacular landform.
After taking some mandatory shots here, we continued our journey to the famous Kelingking beach, T-rex shaped rock. You might find many advertisements of Bali showing this very same rock.
The photo speaks for itself. See the T-rex? It is really remarkable. However, Nusa Penida as a whole is very touristy, and it was very difficult to get good photos. It is possible to go down to the beach, but since we were in a tour group, this was not an option. We took as much photos as we can with the allocated time and continued with our tour. Lunch was part of the package, at a restaurant on the island. It was terrible, won't elaborate more. After lunch, the driver took us back to the pier. We were then told to get ready for the next part of the trip, the snorkeling. We got changed in the toilets nearby. There were about eleven of us for the snorkeling trip. We walked down the beach to go up to the snorkeling boat. The first stop is Gamat Bay. We were rookies at snorkeling and struggled with the snorkeling fin while inside the water. It took us a while to start enjoying the whole experience. This snorkeling spot is beautiful. Dearie took many videos under water.There were corals over the sea bed and many small fishes swim around us. I got tired very quickly, likely because of the snorkeling goggles. After about 15 minutes, we were called back to the boat. I began to develop a headache, so I decided to skip the next spot. The boat drove us to the next stop, which is called Wall Bay. Brave dearie went down by herself with the rest. After resting for a bit, I recovered enough to take out my camera to take some photographs of dearie snorkeling.
I managed to get her without the other people. Just look at her enjoying herself! It was her first time snorkeling and I could see that she thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. She kept her phone in front of her and took many videos of the snorkeling experience. They soon swam back to the boat. Then, the boat took us to the third spot. I was unable to catch the name of this spot. but it was more out in the open sea. It could be Ceningan View. I recovered enough to participate for this spot. Dearie and I jumped into the water together. Not sure why I could not forget this scene. The water is quite deep here and we could not see the bottom clearly. Some of the people in the group managed to spot turtles around here, but we didn't. Again, I quickly tired myself out with the weird headache. Soon, we were called back to the boat and we went back to the shore, ending the snorkeling trip. We showered and got changed and waited for the ferry to take us back to Sanur. In all, it was an awesome, but touristy trip in Nusa Penida. We went back to the hotel for a quick shower before coming out again for dinner. The dinner spot was pre-decided, a restaurant near our hotel that has live band. The food wasn't super awesome, so we decided to walk to Costa to have a second serving of dinner. We also ordered shots in an attempt to get ourselves drunk, but it just wasn't strong enough. After that, we went back to the hotel and rest. What another fun-filled day.
27 July 2023, Sanur > Denpasar > Singapore, Clear
We were given a free breakfast from the hotel, courtesy of the hotel management. In fact, the hotel staff were really very accommodating to all our requests. After breakfast, we took Gojek to go up slightly north to go walk around a local beach market. While trying to find the beach market, we stumbled upon a turtle conservatory and hatchery, so we went inside to have a look.
This was an adult, but there were also many cute little baby turtles. We finally found the beach markets, but they were mostly closed in the morning, so we walked back to the main street and walked south along it, hoping to reach a shopping mall that dearie have went before. We stopped by a Havaianas store, but ended up not buying anything. We finally reached the mall. Here, we bought many souvenirs and snacks to bring back to Singapore. We took Gojek back to the hotel, packed up and checked out. Not wanting to miss the local Balinese food, we went to a restaurant called Lidah Lokal, selling Indonesian cuisine. It was a really long wait for our food, one that made us anxious since we have a flight to catch. Just when we were giving up the wait, the food came. The barbequed fish was really very good. However, it did not satisfy dearie since it wasn't strictly Balinese flavours. We ate hurriedly and went back to our hotel to collect our luggage. We then got Gojek for the trip to the airport. It was a smooth trip back to Singapore. This wraps up our memorable trip to Bali. We had a really chill trip and enjoyed the whole journey. For me, one big takeaway from Bali is actually the music that was played in many restaurants and places that we visited. I have been listening to Bali music as I wrote this blog entry. I will miss Bali. Till our next trip, scheduled in November: Japan.
