And despite it's high tourism traffic, it wasn't difficult for me to find the less traveled areas of Bali in an attempt to get a taste for what all the island had to offer other than beaches and resorts (which are fabulous, don't get me wrong).
My Bali vacation has easily been one of the top highlights of my time abroad so far, and the bottom line to all of this is: GO! Bali is very diverse and will provide whatever kind of getaway you are looking for. I made it a point to see as much of Bali as I could in my short visit, and like most people who visit, I want to go back! There's so much of the island I didn't see, even though I spent my 6 days in 4 different regions of Bali. This will be a longer post, so I will split this into two parts; the first covering the first 3 days in Ubud and Kintamani, and the second covering the last 3 days in Padang Bai and Kuta. So let's get started!
Ubud
My first stop was the Biyukukung Suites in Ubud, a nice little accommodation in the heart of Ubud and nestled among a few rice paddies. Relatively cheap, but with great service and actually one of the better rooms that I stayed in over my trip. I had a wonderful conversation with the owner of the hotel for a good hour; discussing Singapore, America, Obama, world traveling, and life. Surprisingly wise words and a very friendly man, I highly recommend his place!
Ubud is a great center for arts and food. Hundreds of craft shops and cafes line the streets, and with it's central location in Bali, many stay here and schedule tours and travel to other parts of the island. I can't exactly share what my main reason was for coming to Ubud, as it involves a gift for someone who will read this, which I'm trying to keep a surprise. But, I will hopefully mention it in a future post, and if you have any questions, just message me. But if you find yourself asking "Huh, I wonder if I should do this thing in Ubud that looks pretty cool and is highly rated?" Do it. It's cool.
Aside from my secretive motives, I was also coming to try one of the highest rated coffee shops in Bali, and as someone who loves coffee and lives in Seattle: Wow. Easily some of the best coffe I've had. (and the iced coffee with a martini shaker? So smart, why haven't I thought of doing that?) In fact, when you're this close to Java, it was hard to have bad coffee in Bali, but this place took the cake for not only coffee, but atmosphere and style. It reminded me a lot of cafes in Bellingham or Seattle, just with crazy good coffee. (no hate, Northwest Washington, I miss your coffee, but this stuff was excellent)
(Best Coffee in a Jar I've ever had)
After a day in Ubud, I headed over to the Kintamani region. To travel in Bali, many use scooters or motorcycles. There are shuttle buses available, but run only once or twice a day at times that were not good for me (specifically early morning. I consider 9am early.) Bicycles can be used for shorter distances, but as I was covering most of the Eastern half of the island and I can't drive a motorcycle, I stuck to taxis and chartered transports. Compared to Singapore, taxis are very cheap, use the blue ones if you go. Private charter is what I used for most of my travels and it was very easy to find in all of my hotels and cities. It was also easier for me to schedule them when I wanted and while I had to pay another 10 or 20 dollars more at times, it was worth it for me.
In fact, while on my drive from Ubud to Kintamani, my driver took me to a great coffee shop where I got to try Kopi Luwak. It was great, even though I was very skeptical at first, wikipedia it and you'll see why. My driver no doubt got compensated by the company to take me to these places but in the end what does it matter. He even helped me schedule my climb in Kintamani, which was the main reason I traveled to that region.
Kintamani
I came for the volcano. As most who visit this region do, Mt. Batur is hard to miss here; it's the most active volcano on the island and one of the best climbs next to Mt. Agung (which takes multiple days and was unfortunately closed during April. Highest mountain in Bali though). There are a lot of issues on travel sites with climbing Mt. Batur, as you are forced to pay for a guide. The mountain trek is monopolized by one guide company who has grown accustomed to physically forcing trekkers to pay outrageously high prices for a guide. Some try without and their interactions with the agency and the guides can be borderline violent and ruin the trip, which I wanted to avoid. As it was something I really wanted to do, I was ok with the price (I paid close to $60 USD, which seemed about the average for my group, but I heard of people who got everywhere from $30 to $90). If you come expecting to be over charged, it really won't be an issue, and the currency exchange rate really helps put a damper on financial woes here.
I didn't let petty scams ruin the trip, and in my opinion the experience was well worth the money. My climbing group was made of 3 other travelers, we all met on the trip (except for two who met in another part of Bali) and together, we all came from 4 different continents, which was very interesting. Meeting people can be the best part of traveling and conversation was excellent between all of us and our guide, a local college student, was very friendly. We started our trip at 3am and climbed for 3 and a half hours to reach the summit by sunrise, and what a sunrise it was. The view was gorgeous and lent to many excellent pictures (I'll restrain myself to two, but there's more on Facebook). What was exciting to me was that not only did it provide an excellent view of the island, but you could see the coastlines of the entire Eastern half of Bali from that height, as well as Mt. Rinjani on the neighboring island. To add to the view of the neighboring islands and ocean was an excellent view of Mt. Agung and the scorched earth near Batur which was stained black from past eruptions. It was well worth the early morning and the hike. Not too difficult a climb, especially if you've had experience trekking or summiting before, though if I had climbed the mountain in the heat of the day, I might have had a little trouble.
(Just before Sunrise, Lake Batur and behind the near mountain you can see the top of Agung)
(Obligatory Sunrise photo, in the distance on the horizon line you can see Mt. Rinjani faintly)
Climbing Mt. Batur was easily one of the biggest highlights for my trip and got me even more excited about hopefully climbing more mountains and volcanos in the region. I stayed the night at Lakeview Hotel on the lake near the mountain, which boasted excellent views as well and afterwards headed off to the small coastal village of Padang Bai and the second half of my Bali vacation.
To be continued...
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