Another Chinese New Year is here again so
it is time for another holiday, well I’ve been back at work for a full two
weeks since Christmas, so well overdue I would say. CNY is one of the main
holidays in Malaysia and there is a mass exodus, ‘Balik kampung’, when KL
empties as people head back home to their village for the holiday. Some expats
say they love this as KL is nice and quiet and they stay put for the long
weekend break. Would Emma and Steve be found trawling around KL’s shopping
malls during a 5 day holiday? Think you know the answer to that one.
We thought we would have one last trip to
Bali before we leave Asia and Air Asia had duly obliged with cheap flights once
again. We were a bit worried as we had enjoyed our previous visits to Bali but
friends who had been recently said it is getting really busy. Never mind, you
can always get away from the sheep, sorry crowds and find a quiet spot even in
the most touristy of places. Our plan
was to head straight to Ubud to do some cycling and walking if the weather let
us before exploring the northern coast, which we hadn’t been to before.
On arriving at Depensar airport, after an
hour or 2 delay, our worst fears were beginning to come to fruition. The queue
for the visa-on-arrival was huge! Plus they now want $25 for a visa instead of
the $10 7-day visa of previous visits. Then we had to join the surging masses
to get our bags scanned, but I guess after the Bali bombings of recent years
they do need to be careful. Having only carry-on luggage didn’t really help us
and it seemed an age before we were finally spat out into the warm Bali rain.
Got a taxi to Ubud at the counter no problem ( 195,000 Rupiah) and we were soon
on our way to being stuck in a traffic jam.
Starting to think that Bali has out-grown its infrastructure, but at
least we were almost there and at about 11 o’clock we eventually arrived at
Sama Sari Cottages. We thought we had booked a place a bit out of town, but it
turned out we were down a quiet lane not far from the centre of Ubud, and infact,
very near Nick’s Hidden Cottages where we had stayed previously. Sama Sari had
our reservation and we soon checked into the room and headed out in search of
food.
Not a lot was happening in down town Ubud
at this time of night but we found a place on our lane called Cafe de Artistes,
it looked lovely and more importantly they said they could rustle up some makan
and even more importantly, an ice cold Bintang beer. Kept it simple by ordering
nasi goring, which turned out to be probably the most expensive fried rice I’ve
had in Asia. Still it was actually very nice and well worth the splurge. Turned
out the restaurant was recommended in our guide book at a place for a treat, so
at least Emma can’t be moaning that I never take her anywhere special! Back to
Sama Sari for a balcony night cap.
Sama Sari turned out to be a good choice,
we had a huge room with a balcony overlooking a padi field with all mod cons (accommodation
on Bali seems to be still very good value even if food, beer/wine, activities
and transportation seems to have escalated since our first visit, yeah I know I
still want all prices to be the same as 10 years ago!!!). Rain was falling so
we retreated to the balcony after breakfast to wait for a break in the
precipitation. The plan was to hire bikes and go cycling but that had to be
revised to a lazy morning which wasn’t such a bad thing in my book as the night
cap had turned into a top hat and sombrero too.
When
the rain finally eased we went for a stroll into Ubud town, along the way we were
greeted with the offer of a taxi every 5 paces, no wonder there is so much
traffic on Bali, every man and his dog has got a taxi. As we got closer to the
centre around the place and market, the traffic increased as did the crowds. It
is official, Ubud is no longer the nice quiet respite from the Bali of Kuta
beach. We were getting peckish by now so upon seeing Ibu Oka, we decided to try
it. I had wanted to try the famous babi guling, or sucking pig for a while as
it is a traditional Balinese dish. This small warung was shown on ‘No
Reservations’, the tv travel/food show with chef Anthony Bourdain. From the
programmes it is clear that Tony has a penchant for porcine, so if it good
enough for him then it must be ok for us. Seems like every other tourist had
seen the show too, however, there was a healthy line of locals waiting for
take-away, so it must be the real deal. All the outside tables were full so we
headed inside and sat Balinese style on the floor. We ordered the standard
dish, which includes several parts of the porker with rice. Emma was glad that
some of the more choice bits weren’t included but she still got stuck in
despite not being a huge meat eater and she enjoyed the succulent meat. I
thought it was fantastic and the crispy skin and blood sausage were a
favourite, as was the spicy sambal that accompanied it. Ok, so it was a bit
touristy, but well worth it and the price was also very reasonable, so they
hadn’t let tv fame go to their heads.
The weather was still pretty grim so we
wandered around the shops but our hearts weren’t in shopping as we had done our
yearly shop in KL the week before. The rain kicked in harder so we had to
retreat to a restaurant with a lovely view of a padi field, and oh, they had a
happy hour just starting. The plan to book a trek up Gunung Batur was fading
into a distant memory. You can fill in the blanks yourself.
The next morning was still overcast so we
were glad that we hadn’t got up at 2.00 am to climb Batur! At least it wasn’t
raining, so after brekkie we hired bikes from Sama Sari ( 25,000 Rupiah for the
whole day – bargain) and headed off to find the ‘real Bali’. The plan was to
head north of Ubud along quiet country roads to the ancient temple of Gunung
Kawi. We found what we thought was the road out of Ubud and battled our way
through the traffic. We continued for ages along traffic clogged streets and
realised we were in Goa Gajah. This is shown as a separate town on the map, but
in modern day Ubud is has merged into one. At least we were heading in the right
direction, surely soon we would be out of the urban sprawl. We turned onto the
road towards Tampaksiring which looked like a small track on the map, we were
kept company by a constant stream of buses, trucks, cars, motorbikes and bemos.
Thought we might be safe from the taxi touts on our own 2 wheels, but no, we
had several offers of a lift. We saw several groups of tourists who had paid
for a ‘Bali countryside cycle tour’, and we were delighted to see that they
were on the same roads as us. The only difference seemed to be they had a guide
and a helmet and no doubt the bottle of water that is included in tours and is
such a clinching factor when deciding whether to take a tour or not. We were
happy with the 200,000 Rupiah we had saved per person ( minus the 2,000 for a
bottle of water mind).We finally found the small road leading to Gunung Kawi
and headed into an oasis of calm.
After stealthily bypassing the sarong women
we paid our entrance fee ( 15,000) and headed down the steps towards the
temple. Or should I say we walked down through a market selling all sorts of
souvenir tat. To be fair they didn’t try to push it too much and soon we were
in a fantastic lush jungle setting. There were actually more stalls than
tourists and we had a great time exploring this amazing ancient temple. The temple is located along the sacred
Pakrisan River and is believed to be tombs for kings and queens dating back to
the 11th century. We spent an
enjoyable hour or so exploring the ruins and watching the Balinese people pray
at this religious retreat. Before leaving we had a splendid spot of luncheon at
the cafe situated in the grounds which has fabulous views across the temple
complex, vegetation and distant misty mountains.
Of course we never like going back the same
way, and this goes double when the route is not a pleasant one, so we were more
determined than ever to find a more relaxing way back to Ubud. Fortunately we
stumbled upon a small road which weaved its way through vibrant green padi fields, past
temples and villages all the way back to Ubud. This is more like it, the ‘real
Bali’. It was a brilliant bike ride with just the odd motorbike to disturb the
peace and the majority of the cycle was down hill, how good is that? There was
a festival going on in one village and they had decorated the road for miles
either side of the village with offerings, it was an incredible sight which
must have taken ages to set up. When we finally got to the village, there was a
whole army of women in the market area making up the offerings.
The country lane ran into Ubud and we got
stuck in traffic so it took an age to do the last 1km back to the guesthouse, despite
the poor start it was an enjoyable day out and Gunung kawi is well worth a
visit and doesn’t seem to be on the tour bus schedule – yet! We finished the
day off with a lovely Italian meal as we’d had our fill of rice and noodles,
before watching the football back at Sama Sari. City beat Spurs 3-2 in the last minute of injury
time to stay top of the league, so the perfect end to the day.
The next morning we arranged for a taxi (
yeah I know, lucky to get one in Ubud) to take us to Pemuteran ( 500 K). We
hadn’t been to the North of Bali so we were excited to see more of the
island. The road up to Bedugul was
fairly busy and we got stuck in a tourist bus jam at one point, not really sure
what they had all come to see. As we drove up into the hills we had good views
of the volcanoes in the distance but we soon got so high up that we were
literally in the clouds. We drove past Lake Bratan before leaving the main road
to shoot down a small back road. It was a lovely trip with views down to Lake
Buyan below as we headed towards Munduk. Now this really is the real Bali,
Munduk is a small village with fantastic views of the mountains and lots of rice
growing going on. In the village there were a few guesthouses and places
offering treks and tours etc. If we came back to Bali and the weather was
favourable, this would be a great place to base yourself, guess it is a bit
like Ubud when we first visited 10 years ago. We soon dropped down from the
hills and hit the main road at Siririt before travelling along the coast to
Pemuteran. The taxi driver dropped us off at Adi Assri resort and arranged to
pick us up in a couple of days to take us to the airport, same price so can’t
argue with that.
The resort was lovely, pretty big, but all
the cottages are set in immaculate gardens and are quite secluded. It was also
really quiet as it was off season so not many of those pesky small things that
can ruin your peaceful holiday. We had a nice lunch in the resort’s restaurant
by the pool before chilling on the beach. Pemuteran is a small fishing village
and the sand is black from the volcanoes in the region, so it wouldn’t win any
best beach awards but it is nice and our sort of place. Not sure why Bali is
thought of as a beach paradise, as all the beaches are not a patch on Thailand,
East coast Malaysia or the beach mecca of Sri Lanka (not biased of course). I
decided to try a spot of snorkelling as this section of Bali’s coast is reputed
to have the best snorkelling and diving in Bali. You can snorkel off the beach
or take a trip to Pulau Menjangan ( Deer Island) which is a part of Bali Barat
national park. I fancied a free trip off the beach to see what it was like
first, Emma declined as the sea was a bit choppy and chilly. The best bit of
reef is in front of Taman Sari resort and there are even signs to guide you to
the best place to enter the water so you don’t damage the coral. They seem to have
a good reef preservation campaign going on here and they have created an
extensive range of artificial reefs which were pretty impressive. There are
also natural reefs and I saw a huge array of different corals and fish,
including a lion fish which is always cool to see. The visibility wasn’t great
but we were ‘off season’ so I was happy with the snorkel. Not sure if it would
be worth paying for a trip. We took a walk back along the road through the
village and discovered that there were lots of small restaurants to try. We
stopped for a drink at a Badini’s bar and restaurant and soon the heaven’s
opened. Trapped in the pub again, and we really were trapped, not just our age
old excuse because the road quickly flooded to knee deep, or waist deep for
Emma. I had my snorkel so guess I could have swum for it but we decided to sit
it out. Didn’t stop chucking it down for ages so we had to make a move
eventually as I was still in my swimmers and it really was getting cold.
The weather brightened up considerably the
next morning so we decided to check out Bali Barat National Park. The office
where you can arrange trips and guides is located about 13km from Pemuteran in
Labuan Lalang so we thought we might cycle there, but alas no bikes for hire.
Next plan, get a bemo, as we walked out of the resort gate 2 flashed past, oh
well bit of a wait methinks. As it turned out it wasn’t long before a jalopy of
a bus trundled along and we hopped on. I asked for Labuan Lalang and the bus
crowd laughed uproariously, guess my Bahasa Indon pronunciation isn’t as good
as I thought. Still it did appear to be going where we wanted to go and we only
got charged 2 or 3 times the price.
At
the HQ a chief rushed over to the information centre when he saw us and was
very helpful. We asked about the snorkelling trip to Deer Island but he didn’t
recommend it as the seas was too rough. We decided on the mangrove tour
instead, which is what Emma really wanted to do anyway. It seemed a bit pricey
at 550,000 for 2 people but we went for it as we really wanted to see something
of the park while we were in this neck of the woods. Turned out to be a good
choice. We were driven to a part of the coast not far from the main ferry
crossing to Java and jumped on a small fishing catamaran. The mangrove area is
really extensive and we pottered about the calm clear waters for a couple of
hours venturing in between the mangrove spotting bee- eaters and kingfishers. A
really nice relaxing trip far from the madding crowds of Kuta and Ubud.
We spent the rest of our day relaxing by
the resort’s pool and eating some tasty Balinese food at the lovely garden
restaurant at Tirta Sari Bungalows. The food was presented in incredible plates
made out of various types of vegetation which they use for the temple offerings
and at half the price of our resort.
We enjoyed our latest trip to Bali, but I
think that for us on our fourth visit, Bali has grown too rapidly and has way
too much traffic and tourists for a small island. However, it still has its
charms and you can find tranquil, beautiful mountainous places such as Munduk,
get a peaceful temple all to yourself at Gunung kawi and enjoy a quiet beach
stay at Pemuteran. The real Bali is still there, you just have to search that
little bit harder.
Travel Information
Uma Sari Cottages Ubud – lovely small place
on a quiet lane but 10 mins walk to the action. http://www.umasari.com/index.html
Adi Assri – really nice resort in
Pemuteran.
http://www.adiassri.com/index.html
