Bali Part 2

Aaaand here’s part two. Sorry it took me a little longer than expected, but here is the second half of my Bali adventure!

After the monkey forest in the morning, Mckenna and I were picked up by a driver, and we made our way to Amed! Amed is a small fishing town on the north east coast of Bali. Ubud is the place where tourists go to get away from other tourists, Amed is even less touristy, and more of a local town. After a three hour drive to get there, including another stop at a coffee plantation, we arrived.

Someone got a little sleepy on the way to Amed.

Amed Beach, with Mt. Agung, the tallest volcano in Bali, in the background.

We got into Amed at around 4:30, so we decided to walk around the town for a little bit, then grab dinner.

Food was even cheaper in Amed. A meal was about $5, and you can’t beat the views. After dinner we went back to the place we were staying, and planned for the next day.

The next day we went to Tulamben, a town about 20 minutes away from Amed, to go snorkeling at the USAT Liberty Shipwreck site. Since this was my first time snorkeling, I thought it was awesome. We got to see so many different kinds of fish (puffer fish, angel fish, clown fish, and so many more), as well as coral growing on the the ship. Unfortunately since we were in the water and didn’t have a waterproof case for our phones, I wasn’t able to get any pictures.

After a long day of snorkeling and hanging out at the beach, we went to dinner at one of the fancier places in Amed called Sail. While we were in the room getting ready to go to dinner, a nasty storm came through Amed, and knocked down a couple of trees, one of which fell on the main power lines. This knocked out the power for all of Amed, and the power didn’t come back until the next morning. We got to Sail as the sun was beginning to set, so as the night went on, it progressively got darker, to the point where the chefs cooking the food had to have someone hold a light over them so they could cook. It was actually a pretty cool dining experience, because the only light was from the candle at our table. The food was delicious too, so it all worked out.

The next morning we hired a driver for the day, and made our way to the south eastern part of Bali. The main place we were going to was Virgin Beach, but along the way we stopped at the Amlapura Market, which is a traditional market in Bali. All kinds of fruits, rices, and many other things could be found here.

A few of the different kinds of fruits.

The knives that farmers use in the fields.

The women in Bali carry things on their heads like this, and as it turns out, it is pretty difficult.

I had been looking for a rice hat to take back home, and they could be found just about everywhere we went in Bali. I decided to buy one here because it was pretty cheap, and I liked the one that I bought the most. After buying my hat, I wore it around for most of the time we were at the market. When we got back to the car to head towards the beach, Mckenna found a bunch of spiders inside the hat. If you know me well, you know that I HATE spiders. So while I was wearing the hat around the market, I had a bunch of spiders on my head. This was quite a terrifying experience for me, something that I hope never happens again. Besides the spider part, the market was really cool, and we also got Hawaiian shirts, which will make an appearance later in this post.

Trying on the spider infested hats…

Before knowing spiders were on my head.

After a short walk from where cars can’t go any further, we arrived at the beach! The beach was beautiful, and I will let the pictures do the talking.

We also did some snorkeling here, but again, I wasn’t able to get any pictures.

After spending most of the day at the beach, we went went out for dinner for our last night in Amed. We wore the shirts that we bought at the market, and had to get a picture as tourists with them.

We decided to eat at a Warung, which is a small family owned restaurant. It was nice to just hangout at the beach for dinner, and relax before we headed to Nusa Dua for our last day.

A pina colada, banana milkshake, two main dishes, and dessert for $11.

We left for Nusa Dua at 8am, and stopped along the way at  the Tirta Gangga Water Palace. You can read more about the palace here.

After we made it to Nusa Dua, we checked into the Marriott that we were staying in. (Thank you to Mckenna’s dad Doug for letting us use his points for a room!) After we checked in, we headed to the beach to eat lunch.

We didn’t do much in Nusa Dua since it’s kind of far from the things to see in the southern part of Bali, plus the weather wasn’t great, so we just took it easy and walked around the beach and the surrounding areas. Later that night after dinner we walked by a couple street vendors and Mckenna negotiated for her first time in Bali!

After sealing the deal.

Our flight left in the morning the next day, so we said farewell to Bali. It was such a fun trip, and I am so happy that we were able to travel together.

And that’s it for Bali!

Mckenna and I recently went to Universal Studios in Singapore, so keep an eye out for that post! As always, thanks for reading!

Bali Part 1

Hi everyone! I’m back from Bali, and in class again. Since I spent a week in Bali and have a lot to share, I’m splitting up my trip into two posts. This post will be about my time in Ubud, with my second post being about my stay in Amed. With Chinese New Year occurring two days before the first weekend of break, I got an even longer break since CNY is a public holiday in Singapore. This worked out perfectly for Mckenna too, because she was able to get time off work so we could travel together. Mckenna also has a blog about her travels, and you should definitely check it out (mckennabird.wordpress.com)!

We flew from Singapore with a connecting flight in Jakarta, to Bali. We had a 2.5 hour layover in Jakarta which sounds like a long time, but we needed every minute of it. Getting off the flight from Singapore, we had to get a travel visa which was $35, then we went to ask where to go for our next flight. We asked the airport information desk, and we were directed to the wrong terminal. The airport is set up pretty poorly, mainly because you have to take a bus in between terminals, and no one really has any idea what’s going on. After getting to our terminal to depart for Bali, we stopped to eat, then went to board. When we went to board, the gate that we were at had a different destination than Bali on the sign above the service desk. (This sounds like the plot to Home Alone 2) It turned out to be the right plane however, so we were on our way to Bali!

Flying into Bali.

After getting into Bali at 5, we arrived in our hotel in Ubud at 6:30. Ubud is about 20 miles north of the airport, and this is one of the popular places that people go to get away from the crowds in southern Bali.

First night at the hotel.

View from the hotel.

The hotel that we stayed at was right next to a rice field, so it was a pretty quiet place to stay, just outside of downtown Ubud. Our first day in Bali, we decided to explore around Ubud, so we visited a rice terrace and a coffee plantation to the north of Ubud. We visited the coffee plantation first. At the coffee plantation, we were able to see various plants that are grown in Bali, and we got to see the coffee making process. Bali is known for it’s Kopi Luwak (click here if you don’t know what it is…), so we got to see the process of that too.

Feeding a civet an arabica bean.

Beans after the civet poops them out…

After the coffee is roasted it’s ground using this wood stick.

Final product.

After seeing this process, we were given a sample tray of the teas and coffees that the plantation makes, and we purchased a cup of Kopi Luwak for $5.

The various teas and coffees we sampled.

Kopi Luwak.

The Kopi Luwak was actually very good. When I drink coffee, I usually put a ton of cream, sugar, milk, all the above) in it to make it taste better, and take away from the acidity of it. The coffee was full of flavor, but the acidity of it had vanished. It makes a great cup of coffee, and should be tried if you ever have the opportunity to do so.

After the coffee plantation, we went to a rice field just a couple minutes away. The field was breathtaking, and the pictures below just don’t do it justice.

The bridge that we crossed to walk around the terraces.

(Mckenna’s picture not mine)

View of the town where the fields were located.

The weather was getting poor, so this is where we turned back. But it never ended.

After visiting the terraces and the coffee plantation, we visited downtown Ubud for a bit, but went back to the hotel fairly early since we had to be up at 1:30am for a sunrise hike!

We were picked up at 2am to make our way to the base of Mt. Batur. Mt. Batur is an active volcano in Bali, it is 5,633 feet above sea level, which is pretty impressive since we weren’t far from the coast. We stopped to have breakfast which was sticky black rice porridge with coconut milk and carrot cake. (Perfect meal for a hike)

Breakfast.

I don’t have any pictures on the way up since it was still dark when we reached the summit, but I took plenty at the top and on the way down.

View from the summit.

Coffee at the top!

We also got breakfast at the top, which consisted of hard boiled eggs cooked by the volcanic steam, and toast.

Lava fields from the eruption of 1968.

The way down was much easier than the way up.

A temple at the base of the mountain.

We made it to the top at around 5:30, and got down around 8:30. We also made it back in time to get breakfast at our hotel, so it was quite a long morning for us. After a nap, we visited the city, and then called it a day. The next day we were leaving for our next destination at 1pm, so we got up early and visited the Ubud Monkey Forest. We got to the forest just after it had opened, which was a great time because there were quite a bit of tourists in the forest by the time we left.

The one and only time my iPhone camera has failed me. But it was such a cute baby monkey I had to post it.

The monkeys will take just about anything from you. (Another one of Mckenna’s photos)

The local dentist.

Mckenna and I brought two bananas into the park to give to the monkeys, which did not turn out well as I had envisioned. I had one in my pocket, and had two monkeys on me digging in each pocket, with one reaching for my phone. They will take anything that they can get from you, but it was fun to walk around all the monkeys. The sanctuary has about 600 monkeys, and none of them are caged, which I also was a fan of.

That’s all I have for this post! I’ll hopefully post my second half of the trip soon, but I have a pretty busy couple of weeks ahead of me with midterms, papers, and Mckenna leaving. But I will try to post the other half in a week or so, so bear with me! Thanks for reading!