Bali : February, 6th to 10th, 2014
Bali is an island that
lies 3.2 km (2 mi) east of Java (Indonesia), and is approximately 8 degrees south of the
equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the
island is approximately 153 km (95 mi) wide and spans approximately 112 km (69
mi) north to south, with
a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census.
Bali is the famed Island of the Gods, with its
varied landscape of hills and mountains, rugged coastlines and sandy beaches,
lush rice terraces and barren volcanic hillsides all providing a picturesque
backdrop to its colourful, deeply spiritual and unique culture. But the beaches are not always as beautiful as I thought it would be.
- The local money is the Rupiah (100,000 Rp = 6 €)
- There are European plugs (i.e. not American nor British plugs).
- There are European plugs (i.e. not American nor British plugs).
- Food: a chicken fried rice costs Rp 15,000 to Rp 25,000
- A driver is Rp 400,000 a day for a big car with air-con (4-5 hours a day)
(all pictures excepted maps and the blue cabs one were taken by my friends or by myself, all rights included)
- A driver is Rp 400,000 a day for a big car with air-con (4-5 hours a day)
(all pictures excepted maps and the blue cabs one were taken by my friends or by myself, all rights included)
We went to Bali as a group of four students. I think this is a really good group size to visit Bali: being 4 people it is not a problem to find hotel rooms - and you can even bargain saying that you take two rooms - and you can afford a driver (I mean renting a car), which is quite expensive if you are only two of you.
First, how to reach the island? From Singapore, the best way is to go by plane. It is quite cheap if you do not book the day before leaving. In Bali, the airport is supposed to be in Denpasar, but de facto, because it is in the suburbs, it is closest to Kuta. Be aware of it, above all for you return, if you have to take a taxi, ask an hotel that is not too far from the airport. One thing I must not forget: arriving in Bali airport, you will find a small office/agency that will propose you to take a taxi ticket. Do not buy this kind of ticket, excepted if you have many baggages. Doing so, you would pay almost the double of the real price. Instead of that, leave the airport to the road, it is only 5 min walking as the airport is quite small, and take a cab there. I recommend you to take a Bluebird Cab. It is the best local company, with English-speaking drivers, and normal fares. You cannot miss it: they have really sky blue cabs.
The trip !
Thursday : departure at 7:15 a.m. from Singapore, arrival at 10:05 a.m. Day in the Jimbaran peninsula at the very south of the island: Pura Luhur Uluwatu, small coastal roads on scooter.
Friday : Morning on the beach, and then trip to Mount Bathur in the North. Stop at Pura Tirta Empul and in a coffee plantation. Night close to the volcano.
Saturday : Trek to the top and around the crater of Mount Agung for sunrise. Then Tagallalang rice fields, and then Pura Ulun Danu Bratan. Night in Ubud.
Sunday : Ubud city, and then Pura Taman Ayun in Mengwi, and then Tanah Lot temple. Night in Kuta.
Monday : Flight to Singapore at 10:45 a.m.
DAY 1 We arrived at the airport in the morning, and took a cab outside the airport, and went to Jimbaran where we had booked an hotel: Jolie Hostel, Jl. Astina No. 23 Desa Ungasan Kuta Selatan – Bali (http://joliehostelbali.com/). It is a nice hotel, with a swimming pool in which you can cool off. We slept in a 6-bed dormitory, for 7€ each. People in this hotel are nice, there is wifi. The only problem is that it is a bit far from the coast: you cannot go to the beach by foot. You can rent scooters in this Hotel, recent ones, for only 50,000 Rupiahs, i.e. 3€ for one day. Oil is cheap on the island, and for an afternoon you might buy two litters of oil (in Absolut Vodka bottles ?!!) on your way. There are plenty of small shops that sell oil. If you do not feel like driving a motorbike in the messy traffic, you can take a cab.
I rent a scooter with one of my friend, and went to Pura Luhur Uluwatu (Pura means temple) and ate just before the entrance. It is a lovely temple on the edge of a cliff, with an amazing panorama on the sea and the waves breaking against the cliff. You have to pay to enter the temple, but it is not expensive: if I remember well, it was Rp 20,000 (with a sarong they lend you). About sarong, my advice is to buy one somewhere at the beginning of your trip: you may be asked Rp 100,000 for it but it is quite easy to lower the price until Rp 30,000. You will need a sarong in each temple, so it is nice to have one to avoid all the women trying to sell you one. It is also useful piece of closing in over air-conditioned areas. Back to the temple: there are many a monkey, and they are not wild anymore: if they see bananas in your bag or in your pockets, they will not hesitate to climb on you to steal them!
We did not stay so long in this temple, but there is a path on the top of the cliff you can roam if you want to enjoy the panorama. It seemed to be nice, but, for us, it was really too hot to stay under the blazing sun. Just a last thing. If you come by cab, tell the driver to wait for you, because there are not so many cabs there.
Then we wanted to find a beach to swim. For me, Bali was an idyllic islands with big beaches of white sand and clear water. Something like Bora Bora in fact. It is not. In the South of Jimbaran peninsula, you have almost no beaches, only water and cliffs and big waves (and you see many, many Australian surfers coming to enjoy the great spots). After a really nice scooter ride on small roads, we finally found a beach (after three stops trying to find one). Here it is:
This is a nice beach, not so big, but we had finally found sand! There were quite many people but it was not overcrowded though.
The water was not so clean and so clear, but it was okay. And finally the beach looked good.
We waited for the sunset there, and came back to the hotel.
DAY 2 Next morning, we wanted to chill on a beach, in order to get a bit tanned. We thought about going to Kuta beaches, but both the water and the sand are dirty. In fact, the only clean beaches are at the very south of Kuta' beaches, just in front of the big hotels. Basically, these hotels clean the beach in front of their terraces. We rented deckchairs and enjoyed a banana milkshake with a nice view on the sea.
Back to the hotel, we asked the receptionist to call a driver for us. We ate and met the driver early in the afternoon. He turned out to be really nice, deeply knowing the island and the things to do. It cost us Rp 400,000 for each day for the car, i.e. 100,000 each, which is quite cheap for a good big car (7 seats) with air-con.
Our goal for this journey was the Mount Bathur. We were told we could climb it for the sunrise. On our way we stopped at Pura Tirta Empul, a nice temple with Holy springs. It is an authentic religious place, and even a place of pilgrimage.
After This, we stopped in a coffee plantation, where we could try for free different coffees. They were all very goods coffees, and for Rp 50,000 you can try Luwak Coffee, coffee made with coffee beans eaten (and then dejected) by a little mammal, called Paradoxurus, commonly named Luwak. This is something you should try, at least to tell your friend you did that ! Our driver found us an Hotel and a guide to climb the Mount Agung.
DAY 3 Our hotel was not really clean, and fortunately we did not pay a lot for it. Either way, we had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. for the ascension. We had booked a guide the day before at our hotel. For a group of four, we paid Rp 800,000, so this is quite expensive. We did not bargain as much as we should have. You can have a better price, above all if you go to the office of the guides working for the government. It is still expensive, because they have to pay a huge tax for leading tourists to the top. We arrive at the top at : a.m. and our guide cooked the breakfast on hot spots of smoke emanating from cracks in the ground of the volcano. That was nice! Then we waited for the sunrise, but the sky was cloudy, so we missed it. After the sunrise, we walked around the crater, saw monkeys, had a great panorama on the lake, and went down. We arrived in our hotel at 10:00 a.m.
The next step of our trip was Ubud, a city in the centre of the island. Our driver led us ther, but before we stopped in Tegallalang to see the rice fields, and then to the North East to Bratan temple, a temple on a lake. This was a lovely temple, where we met really nice people.
At the end of the afternoon, we stopped in Ubud and stayed in a cheap but very good hotel.
DAY 4 In the morning, we visited Ubud: Monkey forest (a forest which is really full of monkeys), and then the city: Royal Palace, some temples, ... While we were visiting Ubud, one my friends went to KlungKung, in the East, to do some elephant riding. It was USD 50 for half an hour or USD 80 for one hour. Included: lunch, zoo tour. He found it really nice.
After half a day in Ubud, the four of us moved to Mengwi and then Tanah Lot. Tanah Lot is an amazing temple you have to see at the sunset. It is basically a small temple built on a big rock, in the sea, where waves come and break. You can take amazing pictures there. I guess everyone knows that, since there are many people there. The surroundings of the temple on the coast are nice also, there are many places where you can buy something to drink and wait for the sunset.
DAY 5 We took our plane at 10:45 a.m. and arrived at 13:25 a.m. in Singapore. End of our trip!
What we did not do:
- Snorkelling, because we had already done it in Tioman and because we will dive in Koh Phi Phi.
- Besakih temple, because this place is a real business run by local mafias who make you pay for each thing you want to see (you pay to enter the temple, you pay to climb the stairs, you pay to see some parts of the temple, ...).
- Surfing, because we did not know how to surf! Bali is a really good spot to surf.
If you have any question, leave a comment!








