Day 9- Departure day

Saying good bye it is hard for me but I put up some more snaps of the trip.

Enjoy reading!
I hope to see you on one of our Intrepid trips soon.

Day 8 - Back to Ubud

This morning we left Lovina at 9am: we going back again to Ubud. Its to take about 3 hours if we not stopping on the way. But after around 1.5 hours drive, we stop at Lake Bratan - not too sure how high from above see level but I think between 1500 meters to 2000 meters. We stopped at the view point where we could see the view of the lake. This lake has a very important temple for Hindu religion in Bali, as the Hinduism here believe that the God of the water is here actually living in this lake. Every day almost there is a ceremonial offering for their God. The day we arrived there was a ceremony. It was very interesting...Also they play the traditional music during the ceremonial. But for me when the first time I got here to this place, personally my impression is that this area is a real mix of religions. Hindu, Islam and Buddahism.Why? Because in one complex, there are 3 holly places where those religions pray. But I never heard there is any conflict between religion! That is actually a good example for us. We are different but if we respecting to each other, we will be living in peace! Just like here in Lake Bratan...

This place is just beautiful and it is one of the most famous tourist destinations especially for the locals. For people who have never been here, just check the pictures on 50.000 Indonesian money - the picture is of here!

We head now to Ubud.  Once here some of my group went out for shopping as Ubud is great place for someone who love shopping or if they would like to buy some gifts for their friends or family.
Our last night here...For me personally it is the lowlight on the trips I lead. In 9 days I am starting to really know everyone, we get close but I now have to say 'Good bye'.

I just wish, this holiday for them will be one of their best holidays and that they wont forget it in their lifetime. I wish they will be back again to Indonesia and having good time again together. Just still so many islands they need to see and still so many places to discover!!

Guys, personally I would like to say 'TERIMA KASIH BANYAK' for joining the trip with me and hope to see you again in other trip.  Such a perfect trip: perfect food for perfect people!

Day 7- Lovina

After we had breakfast, its about 10am we left for Seririt market and also the waterfall and hot springs. First we ride to Seririt market where we will see the local markets where almost all the local people buy every thing from this place. All the price is local price! (Not like in the tourism area which is they double up the price1) This market we could get anything we want. Mostly they sale here is food, fruit, electronic, clothing....etc. We spend about 1 hour to see around the market and some of my group bought some fruit and cloth. They said "Its so cheap the price!!"

Then after we visited market, we went to Munduk waterfall which is take about half an hour and we had to walk about 20 minutes. We passed through local farming area along the way to get to the Munduk waterfall such as clove, cocoa and coffee plantations. We got to water fall after we walked on down hill and 'wow!'...There was the beautiful waterfall and it about 40m high. It is possible to swim here but not with my group, they just got some pictures and enjoyed the view. Then after we went to coffee place where the local Bali Coffee processing and we sat there for about half hour and try the coffee. When we left, some of my group bought coffee roasted for to take it home. Then we went for lunch where the location is in the perfect view of the rice terrace. But I took them there not just cos of nice view but also good food! Some of my group were commenting this place: "Perfect view, perfect food!"

From there we went to Banjar hot springs and all my group went out for swim and they just love this place! We could do the massage by hot spring, where they have to stand in one of the pool has higher "hot spring waterfall". Such a nice place to visit and swim. We back about 4pm to hotel and some went to get massage to finish off the day...

In the evening we went to Intrepid friend house, where she cook local Indo-Bali food, such as tuna satay, chicken satay, tempe, tofu, gado-gado and many others. All the group enjoyed the food and some of them were saying the best local food they ever try! We stayed here for about 2 hours, then we went out for drink, not till late as we have to leave early tomorrow morning for Ubud!

Day 6-Menjangan Island Snorkeling

Today everyone was so excited for the activities we would be doing: snorkeling to Menjangan Island!
After breakfast, we left Banyupoh for the island which only takes half hour. Soon we got to the harbor, we order take away local Indo food for the island later after snorkeling. Also we order some drinks and we put in the icebox,  as, we love cold drinks! The weather is really good and not windy, so it is the perfect time for snorkeling.

Took about half hour to cross to the island, everyone really can't wait to jump into the water. As soon as we got to the island, everyone just put their stuff on and got ready to go! But our poor local guide is here and he tried to give some information how to snorkel, such as: Don't touch any reef, not feeding fish and be careful with how we steps as otherwise we may destroy the reef which take so many years to growing up again. Everyone understands and here we come......

"Woooow" is first word we said.  What a beautiful underwater world! Lots fish with so many beautiful colors and the reef is full of lif. So very attractive in color too. There is so much table coral! We swam from the beach and as soon as we put our face (with snorkel on for sure..) just about 2-3 meters deep, we could see the underwater world. We swam a bit further out, about 10 meters from the seashore and we could see the wall or drop where most of the underwater world beauty is. The drop its about 50 meters. we could see also some people had went out for diving.

We snorkeled for about 1.5 hours, it was such fun and just incredible to be underwater. Back to the beach and we had our take away yum indo lunch. We had a rest for about 30 mins then we back again to snorkeling. This time we saw school fish and clown fish or what we call Nemo! So cute  to see them, we saw it for real not just in the movie! We spent about one hour snorkeling and we headed back to the boat and back to the harbor. Had a shower before we got on to the van and took about 1.5 hours we back to Lovina. And in Lovina we will stay for 2 nights. So much fun!

After the climb!

I usually take the group after the climb to hot springs, which is the optional but this group prefers to go back to hotel, shower and leave for Lovina which is take about 2-3 hours. There we had lunch and after we head of to Banyupoh where we can do things like snorkel or dive on Menjangan (deer) island. We are now we are at Banyupoh which is on the beach and we really looking forward to see the underwater world tomorrow.

Here are some more snaps from the climb!

Day 5- We climb Mt.Batur - Banyupoh

I woke up at 2am this morning as I was worried we would be late! I didn't mean to wake up that early but I just couldn't sleep again as in 1.5 hours me and my group would start to hike the Mt.Batur.

I went outside to check the weather and we were at the high land of Kadisan. I looked at the sky and I was so happy when I saw millions of stars and also the half moon was shining. Wow! At 3am, some of my group woke up and asking me if we go climbing or not! I told them, "Look at the sky buddy!" -  everyone was so impress as the was weather really good.

So at 4am we started to hike. All the group was fine to hike at the 1st and 2nd half hour. I check everyone how they feeling, they said " We all fine". We looked down where we were walking, even we couldn't see the path where we were walking but because behind us still so many people climbing and everyone had torch/ flash light, so we could see all the light moving to our direction.
The last half hour was the hardest for some group but they made it to the top finally. To climb this Mt.Batur is actually not too long, lets say if we have only 2-3 time break and even we go slowly but we all keep moving, we will be at the top & it will take about 1.5 hours. But from my experience  not all of them they can make it in 1.5 hours. It was a great feeling when we were on the top. Some people were on top already and while we were waiting for sunrise, the wind blowed a bit strong, so for me and most of the group was bit too cold! We brought our jacket or jumper, so it was fine. Only one guy from California, he said this is lovely, not hot and not cold! he was wearing only short and t.shirt. God, no way for me, I was freezing!!

But at about 5.30am, we could See the sun start to rise...slowly but surely, the colour looked so beautiful and cos the weather really clear, we were able to see the Mt.Rinjani in Lombok! Everyone was so impressed with the sunrise colour and the view from the top, nothing really I could say but just say "Oh My God..." So lucky with my group now as the sunrise we had was including one of my best!! One of my group was filling up the memory card of her camera and she needed to buy a new one again soon. After we had enough watching the sunrise, we went the crater just to look only, only a few mins here and after we start to walk down. It took about 1 hour down to make it. Everyone was talking about how beautiful the sunrise was and also the view from top was stunning!! They said it was worth to get up at 3am and that the climb was fun too!!

Day 4 - Sideman

Today at about 8am we had breakfast while we enjoying the stunning view of Sideman. The Mt.Agung view was good but not too great as its bit cover by cloud. The weather was sunny and nice (we love bali!)

We started to walk around Sideman where we would like to see deeper of Sideman and to see the farmers at the rice paddy field. We walked first to the rice terrace and not just the rice plantation we saw but also we saw the chilly, peanut and the flowers plantation that the people use usually for offering when they pray to their God. My group was so impressed when they saw the peanut plantation as they never know how its growing up - some of them thought the peanut is grows hanging....! Ha that was very funny actually for me but I could understand in a Western country they do not grow peanuts. I think what they think maybe peanut coming from tin or box....hehehehe!

After then we start to get in to the rice plantation are which was bit uphill. Last night was raining and also we were walking on a small path, so its was bit hard as it was bit slippery and muddy! We passed the hardest area and had to rest for little while & had time to take the pictures as the view from this point is so nice! We continued on for 1-1.5 hours, and we made it to village street to see the temple.

 Before we get in to temple, we had to wear the sarongs as it is the way the Hindu respect for the holy temple or to respect their God. Again as the location of the temple very up hill, the stunning view was so beauitful!! All my group loved it!

From there we went down to the river to have swim, it was worth to have swim as its was hot after walking. After we enjoyed a typical Indo lunch where we got rice, noodles, tempe ( soy bean ) tofu and chilly sauce. We call that kind of food  'Nasi Campur Bungkus'. They wrap it in banana leaf and we didn't use the spoon but we use our hand to eat that food. Love it, all my group was enjoy the food.

Afterwood we head back and start packing and ready to go for Kadisan Village which is the location of the Mt.Batur. On the way home we get to see a lovely view of the lake and I point which mountain we will going to climb next morning at about 3.30am!!

Tomorrow its time to rock and roll!! 

Mt.Batur: here we come, please give us the most beautiful sunrise we have ever seen!

Day 3 - Ubud, Sangeh Monkey forest & Sideman

This morning after breakfast, we start at 9am & left Ubud for bike ride to Sangeh monkey forest. would take about 2-2.5 hours biking.

I le the group know  we do not race but we would like to enjoy of the countryside, so we didnt need to be fast to ride and any time when we show something  interesting we could stop anytime we want. It is not a race!

All my group were confidence to ride, so we then we ready to "rock and roll"! It was nice, they love it but when we just ride for just 10mins, we had to stop as suddenly rain really heavy! (ah Bali!)

My group loved it as we showed so many things and the view of rise paddies was amazing. I explained how the rice was growing up amd along the way we saw also the heron bird -  it so nice to see those bird when there alot together. We saw one lady carry the bamboo bucket on her head without her having to hold onto it & it did not fall. What good balance!

We then drove to Sangeh Monkey forest where we had lunch at Local Warung with very simple food but it was so very nice! We then headed to Sangeh monkey forest where there were so many Macac monkeys. It was fun as some of the group were trying to sit in the ground and the local guide was trying to make the monkey hope onto my group members! We headed onto to a weaving sarong home industry to see how they make the sarongs. They were making the Ikat sarong which is the most expensive sarong in Java.

It was then onto Sideman  & group just loved this place. The village is very quiet and the view of the rice terrace is stunning. When there is very clear weather we will be able to see  Mt.Agung which is the highest mountain in Bali. It is about 3100m above the see level - impressive!

Day 1/2 - Bali Adventure Trip!

Today is the 2nd day of the Bali Adventure trip! At 9am we had the group meeting where I gave information on what the travellers are expecting during the trip and what they they can do to respect the local culture and every thing what we need to know during the 9 day trip.
This group has 6 people. I have three Americans, one British, one New Zealander and one Japanese traveller on this trip. Seem they be fun group as even in our meeting they always smile and laugh when I told them about what to expect in a funny way!

Let me tell you what we did for the last two days:

Day 1: We went to the night market where we could try the local food with very cheap prices! So many choices of food here at night market: vegetarian, chicken, beef, satays and some of the fruit salad and other amazing sweets. This is the place where mostly only locals come for dinner if they have no time to cook. Some of my group were trying the chicken satay with rice and after just decided to wonder around. My group all tried the suckling pig and MOST of my group love it!

Day 2:

After our meeting, our local guide 'Made' was ready to take them walking around the city of It takes between 2-3 hours and is an easy walk. The weather was lovely and the panorama of Ubud countryside is beautiful.

We pass the Alang Alang area (wild grass which some local people use to make their roof ), the artist village where they make handy craft and paint to sell later in the central of Ubud. Our guide 'Made' was explaining so many thing while we walking around. Two of the group members were interested in doing whitewater rafting so off they went! The rest of the group just had a relaxing afternoon in the sun.

At 6pm, I met with all of them and we went to see the Kecak dance which is one of the most famous dances in . We have a local story about the dance which is what we call 'Ramayana'. Its kind of Romeo and Juliet in a Western country but this is actually a happy ending! There is no orchestra here but they use their amazing voices as the orchestra. All of my group were so impressed with this dance.

The performance was about 1.5 hours than we went out for dinner where I took them to local 'Warung Padang' - this food is originally from  They enjoy the food but it was bit spicy as this food very famous for its spice! Went back to hotel about 10ish had a drink and headed to bed. Tomorrow will be the big day that we will get to go deeper into Bali!