After two mornings of waking up at 2 - 3 am, we did things slower on the third day. We had room service for breakfast, and the delightful thing was the chambermaid came to our villa to prepare our morning breakfast. Fresh out of the kitchen, it was a nice service provided by Mutiara Bali Villa.
We did water sports in the morning - being kited by people and flying in the air, and went on the banana boat. Though we chose not to enter the water on the banana boat, we were nonetheless drenched.
Bali built a highway connecting the airport, main town and conference parts of the island together. It was a pretty big engineering feat. The highway was completed a couple of years back, when Bali was holding an international conference. The highway cuts the travelling time into half, from our hotel to the water sports ground.
We had lunch after the water sports - Babi Guling (translates to roasted pig), and then we went to a new attraction in Bali, a blow hole.
Blow hole viewing around the seaward side and be drenched by the waves every 15 to 20 minutes. We took a video and observed a rainbow too :)...
And I managed to catch a rainbow without the video. All on iPhone 5S..
After the blow hole, we went to the cliffs to take a look at the sunset. This place has become a favourite site for couples to take wedding photos.
You can also view planes landing from this spot.
Sunset is nice. We went to another temple for the sunset, and watch a fire dance performance.
So the next and last day we went free and easy, just some shopping, pack up and going home.
One last picture - Bali airport. Till the next time!
So for the second morning in a row after we arrived in Bali, we woke up early. This time it was at 2am instead of 1am, and by 3.30am, we were out of our hotel and on the way to see dolphins! Our driver stayed with us on Day 2 until 7pm when we returned to the hotel. Due to the trek up Mount Bartu the day before, the car was left in a dirty state with soil from our shoes. So imagine he had to clean up the vehicle and take care of his children before coming out on the next morning. He only had an hour and a half time of sleep but it's ok because while we go out looking for dolphins, he'll find a place to rest.
He took a cut over the mountains to reach the coast up north of Bali, where the dolphins are. The roads were pretty winding and thank goodness we reached safety. In general, people are pretty safe drivers in the rural areas of Bali.
This was the jetty where we arrive to, but no we are not going up the jetty and taking a large boat. Instead, we're taking a small one (sanpan, to be exact).
Yup and off we go! Can't see the boat from the we-fie we did but you can see how it looks like in the picture below.
And we caught a glimpse of sun rise as the boats speed out into the seas to where the dolphins are. There are perhaps as many boats as you can see the dolphins out there.
Take a look, just a glimpse of the dolphins we saw at 0:40 in the YouTube video below. Do note dolphins don't jump up high in the air like Free Willy~ hehe..
So after looking at the dolphins, we went to a water fall. Bali is unique in a sense that you get to see mountains, volcanoes, wildlife and other geographical formations in a single place. Reminds me of the geography text I did in secondary school. Pretty unique island.
The falls are small, but it's pretty tall. I'd estimate the fall to be about 600m height. The water is really cold so we didn't go into the water.
Nice to get beaten under the water fall!
After the falls, we took a small detour up a slope to the lakes below. There are a few inland lakes, and in addition to Lake Bartu we saw yesterday, there are twin lakes.
After the lakes, we went to a strawberry farm nearby. Unfortunately the strawberries aren't very sweet. It's probably the soil, I don't know.
At the entrance of the strawberry farm.
Then after the pit stop at the farm, we went temple visiting - the floating temple near where we were.
They have antelopes in the temple. The female one is feeding when we were there.
The temple in the distance in the picture below is the floating temple. There's a moat around the temple but it's dry now. During the wet season (between November to April), water fills up the moat and the temple appears to "float" on the water. But it's not the travel season as the place would be wet. Pretty sticky to move around.
And we had lunch at the restaurant near the temple. After that, we went to visit the rice terraces, which is a UNESCO heritage site.
Honestly, I felt the smaller padi fields we went by on Day 2 looked nicer than these big ones. Perhaps it's also because they're not planting much rice at this moment. It's either harvested or just seeding at the time we were there. They also grow corn, wheat and vegetables, to "rest" the soil and keep it fertile. Different crops take up and deposit different nutrients in the soil.
After the rice terraces, we ended the day with a visit to Tanah Lot, another floating temple. Located on the coast, the temple "floats" when the tide rises, i.e. twice a day, instead of once a year. We didn't stay until the tide rise though, cause it would be midnight by then.
That's it for Day 3! Shiok trip so far~ N.B. I didn't mention it was spotted with my toilet trips due to the lymphatic massage I did on Day 2.
This isn't the first sunrise we saw on a mountain top. The first was in Alishan back in Taiwan. This time it's Mount Bartu, and a volcanic mountain at that.
So we woke up 2am in the morning and spent 2 hours on the road. Through the darkness of the night, we sped towards a small village at the foot of the mountain. You have to (and you should) pay the locals to guide you up the mountain. The base of the mountain is dotted with tomato and onion farms, and it's wise to bring along a windbreaker even though you won't need it after the sunrise and descend.
The climb itself - there isn't much of a climb until the last half an hour, was cooling. Mostly you had to trek, and it's a relatively straight path. There are so many tourists climbing the mountain, and with the torches lighting up, it seemed like a mini milkyway on the path up the mountain. As the slopes were steep - very steep -, and it was dark, we did not take photos.
So after a tiring 3 hours and many 5 min breaks, we finally reached the top.
Waiting for the clouds to disperse and the Sun to pop out into the sky.
Then we grabbed some breakfast (which is a hard boiled egg, banana and some bread), and started exploring the top, together with the monkeys.
Got smoked by the steam from the vents.. After all, the volcano is ACTIVE. The last eruption was about 50 years ago, and urban legend states the mountain erupts about once every 100 years. We'll see about that.
Tablet showing the height of Mount Bartu, which is about 1,171m above sea level. Monkeys bear testament to the height~
Down we go, and over looking Lake Bartu. It's an inland lake where farming activities were carried out.
Looking back at the mountain, it reminded me of Scotland. Didn't seem it was Indonesia.
We did spa after the descend, with the intent to remove fatigue from our bodies. But we chose lymphatic massage. This video shows, roughly I suppose.
So you can imagine us being touched for an hour and a half, and I got touched by a male masseur @.@.. It did not even relieve me of fatigue, but made me enter a healing crisis the next day, imagine 5 toilet trips of diarrhoea.
Then next we went to a coffee plantation, where they also make Luwak coffee. Luwak is the cat in the picture below.
Luwak is a nocturnal cat and it only feeds on coffee beans and some vegetables. The poo (with the beans) is washed, roasted, washed and roasted twice more, before being grounded into powder. I gave it a try and it's acidic. If you're a fan of Vietnamese coffee, you'll like Luwak coffee. Otherwise, don't bother.
So after the coffee plantation trip we passed by some rice fields, had dunch (dinner + lunch), and a bit of street shopping, before returning to the hotel. Needed to rest for another day of early rise (3am departure).
Just last week I went on a holiday to Bali with my wife and her friends. Bali is an island located on the east side of Java in Indonesia. It's an volcanic island with two active volcanoes, namely Mount Bartu (about 1,700m) and Mount Agung (above 3,000m). The trip, though tiring, was spiritually enlightening, and made me wonder how I was able to survive the physically exhausting aspect of it.
We landed at Denpasar Airport, which was newly furnished. It can be comparable to my homeland's Changi Airport - a combination of modern facilities, architecture and efficiency in bringing tourists from the planes to the roads. While leaving the airport, we were greeted by an unique structure.
So actually Bali isn't a Muslim majority place. The locals are mainly Hindi, due to influence from their trade with Malacca and India dated hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of years in the past. Bali has a monarchy, not with any ruling or legislative power, which forms part of the attractions Bali provides as a tourist destination. About 60% of the GDP in Bali comes from tourism.
Tourists can also see many statues around the city. They are mainly located in the middle of major road junctions. Unlikely big cities where traffic lights are commonplace, the roads in Bali are arranged (uniquely) in T or Y-junctions, and the statues mark the center of the junction to help divert how the vehicles should move.
And yes, Bali is a relaxing place. Laid back and chill, worry free, and people sell petrol in bottles~
So we landed on an afternoon and the first day was spent walking around Seminyak where our hotel was located. We stayed at Mutiara Bali Boutique Resort Villa, which was a cosy villa where hotel staff will come to your villa to prepare your breakfast in the morning. Freshly made breakfast with a tingle of Balinese love :)...
A summary of our itinerary for the rest of the trip is as follows:
Day 2 - trek up Mount Bartu, spa at Teksu Spa, visit to coffee plantation, food at Ubud organic farm
Day 3 - spotting dolphins off North coast of Bali, visiting a waterfall, then the UNESCO labelled rice terrace, and a temple by the sea
Day 4 - did water sports in the morning, then off to a strawberry farm and another temple at the twin lakes, followed by a performance accompanied with the sunset at another temple
Day 5 - laze in the villa, collected feelings and last minute shopping before flying back to Singapore
