…I'm off now... Bali - Indonesia (Stage 9)

Where has the time gone... As I headed towards Indonesia, I realized that my Southeast Asia trip was coming to an end in two weeks. But before I succumbed to the painful certainty, I took lots of fun, action-packed, and beautiful experiences and impressions with me on the last stages of my journey.

I landed late at night at Denpasar Airport in Bali. While withdrawing money, I got into a conversation with a German couple who wanted to spend their honeymoon in Bali. Since the lovely couple was also traveling to Ubud and offered to give me a ride, I made an arrangement with their escort service. Perfect, I had friendly conversation partners on the ride and was chauffeured to my accommodation at a reasonable price. There, a very special person was already waiting for me, and I was excited to see her. Susan approached me with a smile. She had a much longer journey ahead of her, as she came directly from Berlin. We stayed for 5 days at a guesthouse operated by the very friendly Putu family (Putu's Paradise Guesthouse). It was hidden in the countless, quaint streets of the city, surrounded by a beautiful garden of palm trees, flowers, and hundreds of plants. Our little bungalow was located there. Every morning and evening, we sat comfortably on our terrace and watched the cheeky monkeys help themselves to anything edible. The uninvited guests came from the Monkey Temple. The Putu family's little dog was busy chasing away the intruders. But they sat calmly on the wall and pavilion in the garden and were undisturbed by the barking. Susan and I had the best banana pancakes for breakfast every morning. Since the bananas in Bali are freshly picked from the tree and super sweet compared to Germany, the pancakes were unbeatable. There were also guests from Germany in the neighboring bungalow who spend their holidays in Bali and at this accommodation every year. That's what I call loyal guests. No wonder, with this excellent area and very loving and open-minded hosts.

On the first morning in Bali, we set off to the "Monkey Forest", strolled past ancient temples, and watched the monkeys living there, hopping around on the trees and old buildings. The artistically designed Hindu temples of Bali amazed us again and again.

In the evening, our hunger led us to the narrow and cozy alley "Jl. Gootama", where one local restaurant (Warung) lined up after another. The Balinese cuisine left nothing to be desired. Various delicacies were served on banana leaves. I melted especially for the peanut sauce. Susan and I went there every evening. We tried out various Warungs. We didn't leave any of the restaurants with disappointed stomachs.

Now we needed a vehicle to explore the beautiful corners of Bali. Putu provided us with a functional scooter and helmets that were way too big (at least they didn't fall off our heads). Her dog, an enthusiastic scooter passenger, wanted to join right away :-)

We fought our way through the chaotic traffic of Ubud (fortunately, I was well prepared for Asian traffic after Kathmandu and Vietnam) and reached the rice terraces of Tegalalang. Incredibly touristy, but worth a visit! Every angle needs to be captured photographically. The green color plays in the vast slopes and a sea of rice plants and palm trees burned into the retina. After an extensive walk through the terraces, you could still enjoy the view and soak in delicious peanut sauce in the restaurant above.

Afterwards, we drove to our next destination: the spring temple Pura Gunung Kawi Sebatu. In this temple, the locals perform religious rituals in the holy bathing pools. Here, too, we were impressed by the artistic sculptures and royal tombs. The next visited temple, "Goa Gajah", also known as Elephant Cave, was not exactly the blast. Only the sign: "Entry for women with menstruation forbidden!" was quite amusing... However, if you walk past the temple and down the stairs, you will come to a small, beautifully landscaped garden with a small waterfall.

The next day, our destination led us to Bali's small volcano: Gunung Batur. It is located in the far north of the island. Getting up early, fortified with banana pancakes, fueled up the scooter, and off we go. On the way there, a Balinese suddenly drew our attention while riding his scooter next to us. He indicated that the police were conducting checks on the main road to rip off tourists, among other things. He recommended us to wait a bit longer in a café until the controls were usually stopped. We followed him and he took us to a coffee plantation. This one was so hidden that we would have never found it alone. Various types of tea and coffee were produced on the plantation. The special feature was the production of Kopi Luwak, also known as "cat coffee". The keeping of the Asian palm civets (southeast Asian civet species) was very questionable, but it was interesting to see how the coffee was produced there in a traditional way. The operator was very friendly and offered us samples. Whether the local scooter driver just wanted to lure us to the plantation or protect us from a police check, it didn't matter to us. We made an interesting discovery and bought their delicious lemon tea. Fortunately, there was no unpleasant surprise with the police on the further journey. The first view of the volcano and the adjacent Batur Lake already amazed us. You can only go up to the crater with a guide. So we drove down to the valley to a tour operator. After we had reduced the overpriced tourist price with some negotiation skills, the guide led us up to the crater. We made quick progress, the guide seemed to be in a bit of a hurry. But when you consider that the guide earns only a ridiculously small fraction of our money, it is understandable. Thanks to our fitness, he at least had a higher hourly wage with us, and there was a tip on top. However, the cost was worth it. The view from the volcano was breathtaking. It looked amazing how the cooled lava fields spread over the valley and into the lake. Up there, at 1,117 m, hot rocks were steaming.

With a big smile on our face, we decided to take another round with the scooter around the volcano in the valley before zooming back up to the main road. In the north, we were presented with a completely different picture of the Indonesian island. While in the south, tourism and consumption burst at the seams, the locals in the north visibly live in poverty and don't feel any economic gain... A picture that is reality in many parts of the world.

Now it was time to get back up from the valley. The road became so steep that we demanded everything our scooter had to offer in terms of horsepower. It felt like we were almost going backwards at one point, so we had to drop some baggage: So get off, Susan! :-D
With tearful laughter, we finally arrived at the top. The scooter, Susan, and I survived.

We spent our last day in Bali looking for beautiful waterfalls. I found the "Yellow Waterfall" or as the locals call it: Air Terjun Kuning on the internet. It is not far from Ubud. To get to the waterfall, we descended steep, mossy stairs and fought our way through the jungle thicket. It looked as if no one had been here for a long time. We actually noticed that hardly any tourists find their way here. We were the only ones. It offered us a heavenly place of peace and serenity. A rarity in the southern part of the island. We sat down on the rocks, enjoyed the view of the waterfall, and got lost in long conversations. You could easily spend the whole day here. In order to discover another waterfall, we left the beautiful place early and drove to the Kanto Lampo Waterfall. The water splashes on many small rock formations, creating a beautiful backdrop for this waterfall. But no luck... there were so many visitors here that the waterfall was drowned out by hours of posing by all the busty, highly styled, and specially trained ladies... Well, Susan and I swam a bit further along the river towards the waterfall and briefly amused ourselves with the exaggeratedly splendid spectacle. Conclusion: Beautiful, but overcrowded.

Although Bali is known as a commercial and tourist-oriented holiday region, it has some beautiful and worth seeing spots, especially around Ubud and in the north of the country. The artistic temple complexes, the streets lined with wonderfully scented incense sticks and flowers, as well as jungle-like forests and lush green rice terraces, give Bali its charming appeal.

However, Bali cannot offer the same surfing experience in the Indian Ocean as its neighboring island, Lombok. And so we are drawn to the Indonesian island of a completely different kind...