Bali has sucked me into it's flowing energy.
I love the incentives in street corners with the little offerings made of jasmin flowers, rice etc., a whole family and two dogs riding a scooter, constant honking of car and scooter horns, smily people saying hi to you on the street, old ladies carrying huge buckets on their heads and still walking so gracefully, the fog in the mountains, the rocky way on a speed boat through huge waves to Nusa Penida, manta rays flying through the water like eagles, millions of colorful fish in Chrystal Bay, drift dives that make you feel like you're flying, new friends, the hot midday sun and the dark soothing nights<3
Three weeks have gone by without me even noticing how time has been flying! I stayed in Sanur for the two first weeks. Sanur is a smaller, more quiet beach in the South East of Bali. There are a few bigger resorts and small hotels/ hostels around, quite a lot of restaurants and dive shops but no clubs or nightlife like Kuta. I have managed to stay out of Kuta and will try to keep it this way until I need to go there to learn how to surf. I like Sanur very much, it has a nice vibe to it even though it is a tourist place. People are very friendly and the hostel that I'm staying in, BIG pineapple backpackers, is full of young backpackers and I've met loads of fun people staying here: everyone's sitting around the table, sharing experiences and tips on where to go and what to see or do. Social navigation is a great way to find the best places and prices etc.
After the two weeks I was supposed to go to Ubud but I met 2 Finnish guys and a French girl in BIG pineapple who started to talk about renting a car for a week and going on a road trip around the island. I got excited about the idea and decided to join them, which turned out to be a great choice! We rented a car from Sanur for 6 days, 180 000 IDR a day (around 18 USD), and our French sweetheart offered to be the designated driver for the trip. She was also the only one with international drivers license, and it turned out to be a good thing to have... got stopped by police a couple of times asking for license and registration, would've had to pay a fine if she didn't have the international one.
The road trip:
So the road trip started on 12.7. from Sanur, we went to the office to get the keys and to pay for the car and figured the owner had a pretty severe case of ADHD or something similar... he was knocking on the windows as we drove off, giving us one more final tip on how to treat the car etc. Pretty funny. So we started the journey with this cool Japanese family car by trying to find a gas station and figure out which fuel we're supposed to put into the car. Half a tank costs around 100 000 IRD (around 10 USD), so all in all renting a car is pretty inexpensive when there are 4 people to share the costs. Tank full we hit the road, Bob Dylan on the radio was singing "Hey Mr. Tambourine man play a song for me, I'm not sleepy and there is nowhere I'm going to "as we drove by rice paddies and headed up North along the coast.
Tirtagangga water palace:
Our first stop was Tirtagangga water palace, which was really pretty. Me and one of the guys were wandering around the palace and suddenly we found ourselves in a beautiful marble floored apartment full of absolutely beautiful hand carved traditional Balinese furniture and a view over the whole palace area and fountains and all. First we kind of hesitated to walk in but then a girl came to told us it's ok for us to step inside and come see the place... didn't take too long to realize it was someones private apartment. We looked around and noticed a photo of a guy with president Obama on the wall, the girl told us "that's the boss". So this dude owns a huge apartment in the middle of a Balinese water palace area. Cool. Also met the funniest character that we named Mr. Indeed when we were having Nasi Campur outside of the palace in one of the local warungs... a balinese middle-aged dude who smokes 3 packs of cigs a day with approximately 5 teeth and incredibly funny English. He spoke really well, was cracking jokes all the time and replied to everything "indeed" combined with a mischievous look under his brows. Made my day.
Amed:
This was an interesting place to stay to say at least. The town in spread along the coast and is so many kilometers long. The beaches in Amed are black as in all of the northern Bali because of the volcanic sand. We decided the best technique to find cheap accommodation is to park somewhere where there are a lot of guesthouses and home stays around and spread so each person takes one place and tries to haggle for the best price. Worked really well! Found a home stay with a room that we could all stay in (with an extra bed) for just 150 000 IDR (15 USD)! Me and one of the guys also went to Jukung divers to book our dives for the next day. He did a Discover Scuba in Tulamben and I did 2 fun dives in Amed.
So the next morning I jumped out of bed all excited to go diving again and we headed to the dive shop. Turned out I was the only diver for the morning in Amed and it was going to be just me and a local divemaster(: So we walked to the beach and got on the smallest banka boat I've ever seen in my life. Majestic Mount Agung was hiding behind a few white cotton candy clouds and the water was incredibly clear. I couldn't but smile. Then we went down and did an amazing 70 minute wall dive and went back to the dive shop for some coffee and a nap. The divemaster realized that I had 100 bar left after the dive and told me we could do an even longer dive next time. So it was time for the second dive and we started with the artificial reefs, stayed in front of a sea fan for 10 minutes just looking for pygmy seahorses (found around 20-25 of them!), then came to a wall and the current picked up so we did a drift dive until arriving to a shallow coral garden... ran into one small and one HUGE 2 meter sea turtle snacking on some coral. I jammed my tank banger between the corals and hung on to it and stayed with the turtle for a little while, then let go again and drift along with the current. Saw also huge star puffers, biggest lionfish I've ever seen, tuna, trigger fish and lots and lots more. Suddenly my divemaster turns to me, shows his computer to me and it says: dive time 100 minutes! He gives me a handshake and hugs me under water. I do a little happy dance and we continue diving for 6 more minutes(: That was both of our record dive and it was just pure amazingness, like 3 dives wrapped into one! <3 Still came up with almost 60 bar in my tank.
Lovina:
After diving we jumped into the car again and headed up North towards Singaraja and Lovina. Stopped in Amlapura to desperately trying to find a charger for my camera (forgot mine in Finland... epic fail) but failed. It was quite interesting, I think we were the only westerners in town and everyone was kind of staring at us. Continued driving up and everything was going smoothly until somewhere around Singaraja we got stuck in a huge traffic jam and it took hours to get out of it. At some point I jumped out of the car and got us some beer and snacks, one of the guys took out his tablet with a Bahasa Indonesia for dummies (or something similar) app and we started to learn some useful sentences... I think the only ones I can still remember are "where's the toilet?"and "how are you?". Need to learn more though.
So finally we arrive to Lovina and haggle for the best price again in a few places and get a room for 4 people for 150 000 IDR again(: Sweet. We stayed in a guesthouse with a german owner who's been living in Bali since the 90's. I fell in love with a tiny puppy that would come around the place all the time for food and cuddles, so cute<3 We went out for a little bit and Lovina was ok in the evening... next day it wasn't nice at all. During the day you could really feel how few tourists there were and how desperate everyone was to get your money. I guess the financial situation all around has affected the amount of travelers, even though it's peak season it's still quite quiet everywhere. So Lovina wasn't really my cup of tea, weird vibes. The only thing I really loved about Lovina was this small adorable puppy!
Candi Kuning:
Left Lovina early in the morning to drive to the crater lakes and mountains on the middle of Bali. The roads were like serpentine and the air got colder on the way. We had to turn off the AC, change out of our shorts and put on some long clothes. First we drove near to a waterfall and walked down a small path to get to it... absolutely beautiful. I've always been a fan of waterfalls!
After the break we continued driving to a small town called Candi Kuning. It was a really small village in the mountains with not much to see, but still really interesting. Had to wear my jacket because it was really getting cold and it rained all the time. Had some Bakso (kind of a noodle soup) to warm us up and went to find a place to stay. Again got a pretty good deal, two rooms for 200 000 IDR (20 USD) so 5 USD each. This was the only place where I've had cockroaches in Bali... everything was so moist because the air there is super humid all the time. Nothing dries and there's mold everywhere. This is when I got sick, started coughing all the time and wasn't feeling my best. It was an interesting place and fun to see but one night was definitely enough in that place.
Kintamani/ Batur/ Toyabungah:
Next morning we jumped into the car again and headed towards Mount Batur and a small village called Toyabungah. We stopped at a couple of temples on the way, I only went to see the first one though. A tiny local woman was taking money in front of the first temple with a small hand-written sign that said 15 000 IDR... didn't look very official but we paid still... and later we found out we could've just driven the car up to the temple from the other side. Well, she got her days salary after all(:
Toyabungah was a super small town right next to Mount Batur and a beautiful crater lake. Had some delicious fresh water fish for dinner and enjoyed a good nights sleep for over 11 hours. My cough started to get better and I wasn't feeling so fluish anymore. I couldn't do the climb up Mount Batur because I wasn't feeling healthy enough, but maybe I'll do it later on. Woke up in a beautiful scenic view of mountains, lakes and flowers and had some morning coffee with butterflies fluttering around me(: Pretty amazing. It's quite unbelievable how this small island of Bali can have so any different sides to it.
Ubud:
Our last stop was in Ubud where we stayed for two nights. After spending a few days up North in small mountain villages Ubud felt really busy and extremely touristy, but it still had a nice vibe to it. Did some shopping and went to the monkey forest... so basically was being a massive tourist for a couple of days(: It was fun. I think I need to go back to Ubud for a few more days at some point. We stayed at this awesome peaceful guesthouse with a beautiful garden near Monkey Forest. The forest itself was kinda fun, the monkeys weren't that bad as I thought they'd be, actually some of them were quite cute(:
Now I'm going to go do some shopping and figure out how to send some of my stuff back home(: Shopping here is great and cheap, I love the batik dresses and woodcarvings... today I'm going to haggle for a handmade leather handbag(:
I'll write a post on diving around Bali soon!(:
Love and light, Emma
I love the incentives in street corners with the little offerings made of jasmin flowers, rice etc., a whole family and two dogs riding a scooter, constant honking of car and scooter horns, smily people saying hi to you on the street, old ladies carrying huge buckets on their heads and still walking so gracefully, the fog in the mountains, the rocky way on a speed boat through huge waves to Nusa Penida, manta rays flying through the water like eagles, millions of colorful fish in Chrystal Bay, drift dives that make you feel like you're flying, new friends, the hot midday sun and the dark soothing nights<3
Three weeks have gone by without me even noticing how time has been flying! I stayed in Sanur for the two first weeks. Sanur is a smaller, more quiet beach in the South East of Bali. There are a few bigger resorts and small hotels/ hostels around, quite a lot of restaurants and dive shops but no clubs or nightlife like Kuta. I have managed to stay out of Kuta and will try to keep it this way until I need to go there to learn how to surf. I like Sanur very much, it has a nice vibe to it even though it is a tourist place. People are very friendly and the hostel that I'm staying in, BIG pineapple backpackers, is full of young backpackers and I've met loads of fun people staying here: everyone's sitting around the table, sharing experiences and tips on where to go and what to see or do. Social navigation is a great way to find the best places and prices etc.
After the two weeks I was supposed to go to Ubud but I met 2 Finnish guys and a French girl in BIG pineapple who started to talk about renting a car for a week and going on a road trip around the island. I got excited about the idea and decided to join them, which turned out to be a great choice! We rented a car from Sanur for 6 days, 180 000 IDR a day (around 18 USD), and our French sweetheart offered to be the designated driver for the trip. She was also the only one with international drivers license, and it turned out to be a good thing to have... got stopped by police a couple of times asking for license and registration, would've had to pay a fine if she didn't have the international one.
The road trip:
So the road trip started on 12.7. from Sanur, we went to the office to get the keys and to pay for the car and figured the owner had a pretty severe case of ADHD or something similar... he was knocking on the windows as we drove off, giving us one more final tip on how to treat the car etc. Pretty funny. So we started the journey with this cool Japanese family car by trying to find a gas station and figure out which fuel we're supposed to put into the car. Half a tank costs around 100 000 IRD (around 10 USD), so all in all renting a car is pretty inexpensive when there are 4 people to share the costs. Tank full we hit the road, Bob Dylan on the radio was singing "Hey Mr. Tambourine man play a song for me, I'm not sleepy and there is nowhere I'm going to "as we drove by rice paddies and headed up North along the coast.
Tirtagangga water palace:
Our first stop was Tirtagangga water palace, which was really pretty. Me and one of the guys were wandering around the palace and suddenly we found ourselves in a beautiful marble floored apartment full of absolutely beautiful hand carved traditional Balinese furniture and a view over the whole palace area and fountains and all. First we kind of hesitated to walk in but then a girl came to told us it's ok for us to step inside and come see the place... didn't take too long to realize it was someones private apartment. We looked around and noticed a photo of a guy with president Obama on the wall, the girl told us "that's the boss". So this dude owns a huge apartment in the middle of a Balinese water palace area. Cool. Also met the funniest character that we named Mr. Indeed when we were having Nasi Campur outside of the palace in one of the local warungs... a balinese middle-aged dude who smokes 3 packs of cigs a day with approximately 5 teeth and incredibly funny English. He spoke really well, was cracking jokes all the time and replied to everything "indeed" combined with a mischievous look under his brows. Made my day.
Amed:
This was an interesting place to stay to say at least. The town in spread along the coast and is so many kilometers long. The beaches in Amed are black as in all of the northern Bali because of the volcanic sand. We decided the best technique to find cheap accommodation is to park somewhere where there are a lot of guesthouses and home stays around and spread so each person takes one place and tries to haggle for the best price. Worked really well! Found a home stay with a room that we could all stay in (with an extra bed) for just 150 000 IDR (15 USD)! Me and one of the guys also went to Jukung divers to book our dives for the next day. He did a Discover Scuba in Tulamben and I did 2 fun dives in Amed.
So the next morning I jumped out of bed all excited to go diving again and we headed to the dive shop. Turned out I was the only diver for the morning in Amed and it was going to be just me and a local divemaster(: So we walked to the beach and got on the smallest banka boat I've ever seen in my life. Majestic Mount Agung was hiding behind a few white cotton candy clouds and the water was incredibly clear. I couldn't but smile. Then we went down and did an amazing 70 minute wall dive and went back to the dive shop for some coffee and a nap. The divemaster realized that I had 100 bar left after the dive and told me we could do an even longer dive next time. So it was time for the second dive and we started with the artificial reefs, stayed in front of a sea fan for 10 minutes just looking for pygmy seahorses (found around 20-25 of them!), then came to a wall and the current picked up so we did a drift dive until arriving to a shallow coral garden... ran into one small and one HUGE 2 meter sea turtle snacking on some coral. I jammed my tank banger between the corals and hung on to it and stayed with the turtle for a little while, then let go again and drift along with the current. Saw also huge star puffers, biggest lionfish I've ever seen, tuna, trigger fish and lots and lots more. Suddenly my divemaster turns to me, shows his computer to me and it says: dive time 100 minutes! He gives me a handshake and hugs me under water. I do a little happy dance and we continue diving for 6 more minutes(: That was both of our record dive and it was just pure amazingness, like 3 dives wrapped into one! <3 Still came up with almost 60 bar in my tank.
Lovina:
After diving we jumped into the car again and headed up North towards Singaraja and Lovina. Stopped in Amlapura to desperately trying to find a charger for my camera (forgot mine in Finland... epic fail) but failed. It was quite interesting, I think we were the only westerners in town and everyone was kind of staring at us. Continued driving up and everything was going smoothly until somewhere around Singaraja we got stuck in a huge traffic jam and it took hours to get out of it. At some point I jumped out of the car and got us some beer and snacks, one of the guys took out his tablet with a Bahasa Indonesia for dummies (or something similar) app and we started to learn some useful sentences... I think the only ones I can still remember are "where's the toilet?"and "how are you?". Need to learn more though.
So finally we arrive to Lovina and haggle for the best price again in a few places and get a room for 4 people for 150 000 IDR again(: Sweet. We stayed in a guesthouse with a german owner who's been living in Bali since the 90's. I fell in love with a tiny puppy that would come around the place all the time for food and cuddles, so cute<3 We went out for a little bit and Lovina was ok in the evening... next day it wasn't nice at all. During the day you could really feel how few tourists there were and how desperate everyone was to get your money. I guess the financial situation all around has affected the amount of travelers, even though it's peak season it's still quite quiet everywhere. So Lovina wasn't really my cup of tea, weird vibes. The only thing I really loved about Lovina was this small adorable puppy!
Candi Kuning:
Left Lovina early in the morning to drive to the crater lakes and mountains on the middle of Bali. The roads were like serpentine and the air got colder on the way. We had to turn off the AC, change out of our shorts and put on some long clothes. First we drove near to a waterfall and walked down a small path to get to it... absolutely beautiful. I've always been a fan of waterfalls!
After the break we continued driving to a small town called Candi Kuning. It was a really small village in the mountains with not much to see, but still really interesting. Had to wear my jacket because it was really getting cold and it rained all the time. Had some Bakso (kind of a noodle soup) to warm us up and went to find a place to stay. Again got a pretty good deal, two rooms for 200 000 IDR (20 USD) so 5 USD each. This was the only place where I've had cockroaches in Bali... everything was so moist because the air there is super humid all the time. Nothing dries and there's mold everywhere. This is when I got sick, started coughing all the time and wasn't feeling my best. It was an interesting place and fun to see but one night was definitely enough in that place.
Kintamani/ Batur/ Toyabungah:
Next morning we jumped into the car again and headed towards Mount Batur and a small village called Toyabungah. We stopped at a couple of temples on the way, I only went to see the first one though. A tiny local woman was taking money in front of the first temple with a small hand-written sign that said 15 000 IDR... didn't look very official but we paid still... and later we found out we could've just driven the car up to the temple from the other side. Well, she got her days salary after all(:
Toyabungah was a super small town right next to Mount Batur and a beautiful crater lake. Had some delicious fresh water fish for dinner and enjoyed a good nights sleep for over 11 hours. My cough started to get better and I wasn't feeling so fluish anymore. I couldn't do the climb up Mount Batur because I wasn't feeling healthy enough, but maybe I'll do it later on. Woke up in a beautiful scenic view of mountains, lakes and flowers and had some morning coffee with butterflies fluttering around me(: Pretty amazing. It's quite unbelievable how this small island of Bali can have so any different sides to it.
Ubud:
Our last stop was in Ubud where we stayed for two nights. After spending a few days up North in small mountain villages Ubud felt really busy and extremely touristy, but it still had a nice vibe to it. Did some shopping and went to the monkey forest... so basically was being a massive tourist for a couple of days(: It was fun. I think I need to go back to Ubud for a few more days at some point. We stayed at this awesome peaceful guesthouse with a beautiful garden near Monkey Forest. The forest itself was kinda fun, the monkeys weren't that bad as I thought they'd be, actually some of them were quite cute(:
Now I'm going to go do some shopping and figure out how to send some of my stuff back home(: Shopping here is great and cheap, I love the batik dresses and woodcarvings... today I'm going to haggle for a handmade leather handbag(:
I'll write a post on diving around Bali soon!(:
Love and light, Emma
The monkey forest photos: by Adelyne Albrecht
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