Our planning started way back in November and obviously the first thing to do was to book-off the flight tickets. And the second step was to make a rough itinerary so that we can settle on hotel bookings.
Next activity was shopping for the trip and all I grabbed for myself was a pair of clogs and couple of T-Shirts. As many experienced folks suggested, we carried handful of medicines as well which included 'Eldoper' as food poisoning was supposed to be most probable.
By Jan 19th we could barely sit at work out of excitement. I contacted all the agencies whom we were depended on to make sure bookings are intact. Our flight from Bangalore was on Jan 20th 11:25 PM and it was via Kuala Lumpur with 1.5 hours of lay over.
We landed in Bali by around 12 PM local time and the place welcomed us with mild showers. Our car rental agency staff was already available outside the airport. But, there was a slight goof-up since he had brought only one car. I called-up the owner and inquired. He apologized and sent another car in 30 mins. We checked with the car rental staff about sim connection and currency conversion agencies and he suggested to get those done outside of airport. He promised he will take us to the respective locations. Once the second car arrived, we asked them to take us to the nearest currency conversion centers and we got a portion of our USD holdings converted and payed for our cars. They said, sim connection outlets are available everywhere. So, we decided to venture out to explore Bali. Our target was to head for Ubud as soon as possible. I drove one car and the other car was driven by Dilip and with the traffic we got split in no time and we had no means of communication! :)
We roamed around and found a street where there were a lot of sim card selling tuck shops. We struck a deal with a shopkeeper for 10GB data loaded card for 200K IDR. Myself and Manish took one each and tried Whatsapp call to the folks in the other car and they had already taken sims and had headed for Ubud. We took some quick snacks from a super market, fueled up the car and cruised to Ubud. It was 30+ kms long drive. Surprisingly, 103.20 FM channel was playing latest Hindi songs. Crossing Kuta limits was a challenge because of the traffic. Beyond Kuta, it is all narrow village roads and the drive was amazing. We reached Jagi villa area by around 5 PM and the other car had already reached. The hotel is accessible only by walk or two wheeler. Car needs to be parked 500m away and the villa hosts were extremely warm welcoming and they came in their scooters to pick us and our luggage up. In 15-20 mins, we reached our villas and the folks who came in first car had already taken a plunge in their pools. The 500m long journey was amidst a lot of villas, hotels, spas and paddy fields. Entrance of our villa was facing a wide paddy field and it was green every where. Even the walk way between the individual villas were lush green!
Soon we got settled and got ourselves freshened up. There was a hotel named Masari very near to our villa and we decided to get our dinner from there. Placed order for Nasi Goreng (fried rice) and for 3 vegetarians in the group, we educated them not to add egg/chicken/or any non-veg for that matter! And in another 20 mins, food was ready and we brought it. We were super hungry! And to our surprise even though they prepared it veg, they had added a half boiled egg on top of the rice body!
We thus made this tough realization that it isn't easy to get vegetarian food! Since Niraj had his 15 months old baby, he did bring some rice and dal with him and our villas had associated kitchen. So, an express kichadi was prepared. I donated the egg in my meal to Dilip and had my rice. I have this extreme craving for exotic food and I couldn't resist that! :P
As all of us were extremely tired, we decided to push our itinerary plan on visiting the Tegenungan falls to next day. We conveyed the aunty at Villa about our breakfast preferences and went to bed.
This temple again has a very wide market at the temple exit. But since some shopping were already done at Gunung Kawi, not much time was spent in the shops. We discovered one instant noodles which is a vegetarian one with one shopkeeper and she prepared it for us. Almost all of us had it and it was delicious!
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| The panoramic view from the peak! |
This day was the most tiring day of the entire itinerary as it was about Mount Batur Sunrise Trek. I made the deal with the agency I mentioned above for
65$ package which is a combo with trek. Combo included either trek + white water rafting or trek + natural hot spring! Myself and Niraj along with our wives opted for hot spring option and the other two couples went for rafting. As per the package itinerary, agency staff had come to pick us up at 2:30 AM in two cars. One for hot spring team and the other for rafting team. After 90 mins long drive, we were at the foot hills of Mt. Batur! That reminded of my very first trek to Kaurav Kunda!
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| Volcanic steam from the peak |
Two trek guides were waiting for us - Madi and Puttu! They handed us torches and soon got our feet moving towards the trails. It was easy initially and the climb started getting steep. Niraj had some tough time with his baby and slight drizzle multiplied the hassle! After almost an hour's walk, there were off-rider bikers offering drop service to the peak. So, Aparna and Poonam who were finding the walk tough were asked to take those and the bike cruised through the trails to the peak. Bike ride costed us 150K IDR per head and the ladies were close to zenith and I took lead with Madi from there on! We joined the ladies ahead in another hour and it was already day break. But, because of cloudy sky, sun rise wasn't visible. But the view panoramic view of Batur Lake, Mount Abang and Mount Agung was breathtaking!
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| Foggy and Smoky view |
While waiting for the remaining fellows, Madi explained us Mount Batur's history. The last ferocious eruption happened in 1953 and we could see the lava flow remains on one side of the mountain! In 2000, it did spit out some serious smoke but no lava flow happened. And soon we reached the peak and we felt accomplished! Cool breeze gave us instant energy and Puttu got us some black tea. She also provided us with breakfast which was part of the package which included bread, energy bars, chocolates, omelettes and fruits like Snake Fruit, Banana, Orange, Rambootan etc! Once done, we ventured out to explore the huge crater and the volcanic steam. It was an experience beyond words!
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| Another steam emit point |
We spent some good amount of time and then realized it was getting late to take the return downward journey! Soon it started raining and that made our return walk treacherous. Almost all of fell at least once in the slippery grounds. It took us almost 1.5 hours to reach the start point and rains had stopped by then. We took pics with the guides and the cars took groups in two directions.
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| Cave on the top, said to be 7kms long |
Our choice, hot spring was like 10 mins drive from there and we had some snacks we packed while boarding the cars from our hotel. Batur Natural Hot Spring provided us a warm welcome with locker keys, towels, welcome drink and complimentary snacks. They had many pools where the hot streams were redirected through well defined pipelines and it was super cozy! Pool water bodies were luke warm and stream pouring in were hot. I just sat in the pool right below a stream and relaxed. After a tiring trek, such an experience seemed heavenly.
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| Batur Natural Hot Spring |
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| Team Pic! |
We spent almost two hours in there and got ourselves recharged. Our driver took us back to the hotel by around 2 PM and we made the payments and soon slept off. Folks who went for rafting were not expected to be back at least till 5 PM. So, we decided to visit Sacred Monkey Forest later in the evening post couple of hours long sleep. By around 4:30 PM, rafting folks were back super tired and went to bed directly. We on the other hand woke up and started our short drive to Monkey Forest.
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| Conserved Forest in Monkey Forest |
Monkey forest had an entry fee of 50K IDR and the place didn't seem worthy enough to pay that amount. We could only spend 45 ins in there. Only good part about the place is the preserved forest inside which was lush green. After clicking some pics and exploring the whole place we stepped out and thought of visiting the Ubud center town. Finding a parking spot is a tough job in Ubud center! After two rounds around Ubud, we parked our car in
Central Parkir and walked to the palace area.
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| Mom and her kid! |
Niraj and Poonam wanted to attend the dance performance depicting the Hindu epic
Ramayana which happens every day at 7:30 PM at Ubud palace premise. Cost per ticket was
100K IDR and we opted out of it. We left for the hotel and remaining folks were still asleep. Aparna and Poonam wanted to go to a spa nearby to get some massage done. Mean while, I woke Dilip up and we went for a full body Balinese massage costing
130K IDR per head! It was very soothing and much required for that day.
Day 4
Our target for the day was Ulun Danu temple, a 40 kms away destination from our hotel. So, our plan was to leave as early as possible. 40 kms drive in Bali would easily take 2+ hours because of the narrow roads.
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| Ulun Danu Temple view form the gate |
We did one straight drive without stops and we reached the place without much unexpected delays. The place is on an higher altitude and hence place was covered in fog and cool! The temple is on the bank of a lake and it was very scenic. Temple was reasonably crowded with tourists and it is a wide spread area ideal for photography! There were post marriage photo shoots happening there. Temple compound consists of a botanical garden as well!
We walked around, clicked pics and enjoyed the ambiance.
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| Ulun Danu Temple |
We had some noodles and quick snacks from Mini mart outside the temple gates and decided to hit our hotel.
Folks who hadn't taken massage the previous day wanted to give it a try. So, myself and Aparna were jobless and we decided to take an Uber to Ubud center to checkout Ubud Art Market. Ubud Art Market shuts down at sharp 6 PM and we were there by around 5:15 PM. We could browse through the shops, click some pics and get immersed in the ambiance. Prices were on the higher side and shopkeepers weren't entertaining bargains. I could strike a deal with one lady who was desperate to make some sales. Bali T-shirts which she quoted to be
180K IDR worth was settled at 40K IDR and I felt proud of myself!
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| Ubud Art Market |
We walked across Ubud. Evening was very attractive and the calmness which we could savor. We didn't feel the tire even though we walked for more than an hour!
Remaining folks once done with massage, got bikes for rent at
30K IDR and reached Ubud center. Niraj and Poonam decided to attend the dance performance, I pushed Aparna to take up pedicure service for 40K IDR to ease her feet pain and rest of us made this plan to checkout the Kerala restaurant - Dapur Malabar!
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| Hogging on Kerala cuisine |
Every one except me were craving for Indian food and Indian restaurants like Queens of India were badly expensive! Dapur Malabar was priced reasonably and we placed our orders once Aparna was back. While we were at it, heavy downpour started and we were literally stuck!
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| Campuhan Ridge Walk |
Niraj, Poonam and Adrith got stuck at Queens of India restaurant after the show and they managed reaching Dapur Malabar to find a way to reach home! Our priority was to take ladies and Adrith to hotel. We had to do some circus to get car there and then transport every body and the rented bikes back home. That was a rough night!
Day 5
Our last day at Ubud! Before checkout, we had Campuhan Ridge Walk plans in the morning. As per many blogs I referred to while making the travel plan, Campuhan Ridge Walk was a morning do event. So myself, Aparna, Manish & Anusha were only ones who were ready to take it up. Start point of the ridge walk was 2 Kms walk from our hotel and we decided not to take vehicles. The ridge walk was through lush green meadows with brilliant views. We were extremely glad we did it. We could see Mount Agung spitting smoke at long distance.
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| Magnificent views from the ridge |
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| With our hosts post checkout |
There were many tourists and natives doing early morning jogs and not even for a second we felt tired. We completed the walk in almost an hour and we were back at the starting point by the time it got sunny. We grabbed some energy drink from the Mini Mart nearby and rushed to the hotel as the folks there had plans on doing checkout as soon as possible and visit Art Market while leaving Ubud. We did an express packing and checked out of the villa by 12:15 PM. Our hosts dealt the settlements decently and they helped us get our stuff to our cars and made sure were all fine.
We drove to Ubud Art Market and parked our car in Central Parkir. With a lot of shopping expectations as per many blogs everybody stepped in only to get disappointed to see the rates and shopkeeper's attitudes.
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| Ubud Art Market |
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| Tegelalang Rice Terraces |
We didn't do a lot of shopping except for few souvenirs and also walked around to see Pura Taman Saraswati Temple beside Ubud palace. Clicking few more pics in and around, we decided to bid adieu to Ubud and made up a plan to make a quick visit to Tegelalang Rice Terraces. Roads leading from Ubud center to Tegellelang was extremely beautiful with craft shops on either sides! One would need an entire day to visit to cover the street!
Tegelalang Rice Terraces had a weird concept of getting entry fee of
10K IDR from tourists even if your intention is just to click pics from the road! Rice terraces are by the street and for the tourists are charged 10K IDR worth fee to cross the line limits marked on the entry and exit of the zone. If you are passing by in car, nobody cares. Since that appeared preposterous to us, we decided not to pay and just click some pics while in car and then move out of the place. But narrow roads ate our time in turning back.
On the way back, we came across an array of coffee plantations specialsed in Luwak Coffee! Luwak Coffee about which we know from the movie 'The Bucketlist' is an Indonesian speciality. Luwak is a mangoose like animal which maknly feeds on ripe coffee fruits. The coffee seeds doesn't get digested in it's bowel, but undergoes a kind of fermentation and is expelled out alomg with feces! These are then collected, processed and made coffer powder. We definitely wanted to give it a try even though it costs 50K IDR for an ounce! Coffee did have a special strong aroma and is worth tasting! We were soon back on drive to Kuta area where our next villa booking was made.
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| Ubud Art Market |
But the traffic enroute costed us immense amount of time and by the time we reached Villa Fendi in Seminyak, it was 6:15 PM. Villa was very spacious and with 4 bedrooms, 1 spacious kitchen, wide centre hall and clean swimming pool. We fell in love with the property instantaneously. We didn't make any plans for the evening except for relaxing. None of us were happy about leaving Ubud and reaching a city by the way. But considering the food options like Mc Donalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King etc most of the folks were excited! So, we decided to step out to get some food packed. Myself and Aparna found a Vegan restaurant. Remaining ones decided to explore Burger King and Pizza Hut in Seminyak Square only to find most of the items were either beef/pork made. With some struggle, they could find some Chicken options and we were back in our Villa by around 10:30 and we had our dinner by the pool playing some Hindi songs.
Day 6
If you've gone through the itinerary pasted above, there was no plans made for Day 5 and surprisingly nobody noticed until end of Day 4! :D
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| Kuta Beach |
Essentially, we got a bonus day! So, we were a bit lazy. Villa Fendi provides us a maid who would attend to usvery day in the morning and she would cook breakfast for us. For day 1, breakfast was provided by the Villa. Second day onwards, we got to supply the groceries and the maid would cook for us. Maid prepared bread toast, french omelette and mushroom gravy for us and we made a slow start for the day. By around 11 AM, myself, Manish and our wives started and directly went to BeachWalk mall next to Kuta beach. Niraj, Poonam, Adrith, Dilip and Ashwini wanted to visit Inverted House and 5GX and they were to meet us at Kuta.
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| Ayam Nasi Goreng |
We parked our car at BeachWalk mall and took a walk by the Kuta beach. In contrary to our expectations, beach was dirty. There were a huge number of shacks offering surfing assistance and we never intended to attempt it. We continued our walk observing tourists attempting surfing. We moved on to Legian street and decided to have lunch there. Found a small restaurant offering vegetarian Nasi Goreng and we never had a second thought. Manish went for Chicken Nasi Goreng and I would take a perfect Nasi Goreng picture there!
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| Fraudster!! |
By then, the other folks had reached there and they as well had their portion of lunch. We had to make some USD to IDR conversions as we were running of money. We ended up finding a tuck shop offering 13550 IDR for a USD and running average rate was 13200! We decided to try him and to our surprise, he was trying to fool us! He was such skilled at fooling people that he was dropping notes with us noticing! Fortunately, we could detect fraud before we lost our money. We learnt a lesson the hard way. It is always better to go to a dedicated conversion center rather that going to a part time conversion agent!
There was this shop in Legian street where everything was priced at
100K IDR. The shop had first copy of many brands in bags/wallets/shoes/clogs. Manish and Niraj did a big time shopping there. Dilip and Ashwini wanted to do scuba diving and we found an agent who offered scuba diving at
40 USD rate. This was the cheapest we have come across. Since Ashwini didn't know swimming, he insisted not to take scuba diving and instead opt for under sea walking. He took Dilip's details and promised that the pick up van would arrive at 9 AM next day. Our next target was, Kuta Art Market. Legian street was rich in shops with rude shopkeepers! Kuta Art Market is located in the adjacent street! Seeing the market content and the costing, we were super excited. We did our T-Shirt and other cloth shopping there. And there was this shop with everything priced at
10K IDR and that was kind of heaven. We did a clean sweep and Kuta Art market was almost like one stop shopping destination for us! We went straight to our room and called it a day.
Day 7
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| Uluwatu Temple |
Scuba diving guy had come to pick Dilip and Ashwini at sharp 9 AM. Our maid prepared Nasi Goreng with egg and Vegetarian Behun Goreng for us along with bread toast. After the filling breakfast, Dilip left for water activities and remaining 6 of us left in one car to
Uluwatu Temple. Uluwatu temple is in South Kuta and the drive was treacherous with the traffic. We felt like home! :P
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| Distant view of Uluwatu Temple |
Reached Uluwatu by 12 PM and it was sunny. Uluwatu temple is on a cliff with bright blue waves below. There is a lot to walk around and we covered every nook and corner. Clicked
some good number of pics and spend some time there. There were lot of Chinese tourists there with guides clicking selfies around.
By the time we started from there it was 3 PM and we had to reach
Pura Tanah Lot before sunset. Pura Tanah Lot a.k.a Sunset Temple is famous for the outstanding view during sunset. And google maps was showing exact 2 hrs of drive. Little time to waste!
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| Tura Tanah Lot |
We drove as fast we could and hit Pura Tanah lot at sharp 5 PM and it had started drizzling. Our hopes on witnessing sunset went down immediately. The place was damn crowded. Surprising every single one of us, the market associated with the temple had the cheapest pricing we came across in Bali. We regretted on the fact that we are only visiting the place now. Had we known about this place we would have planned all of our shopping here. We rushed to the temple to see the temple standing solid in the rough tides.
Place was alarmingly windy and it was an amazing experience to witness the beauty. Because of the horrid winds and rains, we couldn't even witness the sea withdrawing making way to the temple!
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| Pura Batu Bolong |
Pura Tanah Lot and
Pura Batu Bolong are temples among the seven ones which were built along the Bali shores in such a way that each of them were at visible range from the adjacent one!
By time I was done clicking pics around, everybody else had already left the temple to browse through the market. T-Shirts which I bargained down to
40K IDR from
180K IDR at Ubud Art Market was available at
15K IDR!! They even found a vegetarian restaurant where we would have some heavy and tasty snacks. Dilip and Ashwini had reached the place by then and they joined us for food and shopping. Manish and Niraj wanted to buy some paintings and they could strike some awesome deals there.
Day 8
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| Collected sea shells |
Our last day at Bali and our return flight was at 4:05 PM and we had the forenoon session with us. Myself and Aparna decided to make any early morning drive to some beach we hadn't visited. Pandawa beach was what was in our minds. Dilip and Ashwini as well decided to tag along. We left the villa by around 7 in the morning while other folks were still asleep. They had plans to visit Legian street for one final touch to the shopping itch.
Pandawa beach was 27 Kms away from our Villa and since it was early in the morning there was only a little traffic. Beyond Kuta city limits it was all remote roads to reach the beach. It was super calm beach with very coarse sand. Colorful sea shells and corals rich beach was an eye-candy and water was very clear and we spend almost an hour there walking around and collecting sea shells.
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| Clear Pandawa beach tides |
We even found some tiny hermit crabs there. That again was a first time experience. I would definitely recommend this beach over Kuta Beach or Seminyak Beach if your intention is to have some relaxed time and click some pics. Kuta and Seminyak beaches are generally crowded and have rough tides which are only good for surfers. We left the place by around 9:30 AM as I wanted to make some purchases from the supermarket to carry home. I bought couple of Nasi Goreng mix and super spicy noodles for home. Those should help me savor the Balinese taste for sometime after reaching home. We did our checkout at 12:30 PM and drove straight to airport. Our car rental agency staff were already there waiting for us to collect the cars back and everything went smooth.
None of us actually was in a mood to get back to work. Memory waves of Bali days were striking back to back and we definitely had a super relaxed and rich vacation as we wanted! Vacation did such clean wipe of the work tension and responsibilities that, I had to sit and think for sometime about my work login password! :P
Things to remember:
1. Go ahead and drive in Bali. This could make your trip cheaper.
2. People are extremely well cultured and tourist friendly! Entertain them back. :)
3. Target your shopping needs with Pura Tanah Lot Market/Kuta Art Market/Gunung Kawi Temple Market.
4. Make prior deals before arriving at Bali and remember to polish your bargaining skills like never before.
5. Do currency conversion only with established conversion centers present in almost all streets.
Don'ts:
1. Natives stick to traffic rules and don't honk unnecessarily. Better abide to that culture and keep the Indian driving culture back at home.
2. Places are maintained clean. Let it be as it is and manage your garbage appropriately.
3. Don't go for currency conversion or sim connection in Ngurai Airport as those are costly options.
Handy Details:
1. For water sports activities, this contact should help - Bali Dolphin (+62 812-4626-5409)
2. Recommended stay in Ubud - Jagi Villa
3. Recommended stay in Seminyak - Villa Fendi
4. Car rental services - Nuris Car Rentals
