Continued from Part 1, Part 2.
A welcome late start to the day at 10 AM to Goa Gajah – elephant caves. Unlike what the name suggests, there’s no relation. It involves some amount of climbing, and wearing a sarong that they provide, and you are rewarded with some interesting visuals including a bathing area, and what would’ve been a nice little stream if only tourists didn’t insist on leaving it dirtier than how they found it. Ganesha idols can be found in quite a few places here.
The next destination was Ubud, which is quite a popular base for many tourists who are more inclined towards art. But we had a simian pursuit in mind and were dropped at the Monkey Forest, with oral and written warnings on taking care of hats, cameras etc and what to do if a monkey decided you were a tree. This was a photo treat as we walked around clicking monkeys in various poses – contemplation, saying no to paparazzi, relaxation, family moments, spa treatments, junk and natural food consumption etc.
Lunch had been arranged at the famous Bebek Bengil Diner (Dirty Duck restaurant) Awesome crispy duck in which we could easily crunch through bones if we so liked and with excellent sambal and other side dishes that just added flavour after flavour. My only faux pas happened when I slurped the water melon right at the end without realising that the spicy sambal had seeped in during the meal! I almost choked to death. D tried to get me killed another way by pointing me to the ladies rest room, but i saw the symbol just in time!
Ubud market was next, crowded, hot, winding mazes on two floors. Intense bargaining is a must and you can pick up knickknacks of all sorts, including Angry Birds paintings! We bought some gifts but mostly roamed in and out. It might be a good idea to get out of the market and explore curio shops outside as well. The next stop finally introduced us to one of Bali’s biggest attractions -a spa. (part of the package) This one was reasonably good, though it had seen better days. One of the attendants even regaled D with stories of her financial woes. I felt this was probably the invisible poverty that existed, ‘forcing’ people to spend their days massaging other people.
By this time, we had conveyed to our tour operator that we would take care of all dinners save one. We had discovered a Bali cuisine restaurant on Karthika Plaza and were dropped off there. Kunyit Bali had very friendly and helpful staff, excellent ambiance but the experience was killed by food that was an oilfield in disguise. We had ordered a 3 course set meal called Bali Megibung with chicken, fish, pork and veg appetisers, a clear soup, a main course with chicken, pork, fish, prawns and sausage. There were 4 kinds of desserts including sweets, but either we were too stuffed to enjoy it, or it was the oil, it just didn’t work. We were left Rp 341946 poorer.
We had discovered a tonga ride the previous day and decided to test it out. A small distance cost us a steep Rp 100000. This was the figure our driver had asked us to expect too, after negotiation, so we got the horse to take us back to Tanaya. We also discovered a new route, though the last part was a series of humps that almost knocked us off the cart! Most of this was thanks to Jalan Legian being a one way. The place is a mini Bangalore in that respect!
The next day, after breakfast at Tanaya, (part of the tariff) we set off for Turtle Island to see yep, turtles. We were wearing a ready-to-get-wet set of clothes and had a spare set ready. But despite the boat trip, we didn’t get wet at all. On the island, it wasn’t just turtles at various stages of the life cycle we found but iguanas, bats, a python, various kinds of birds, all of whom kindly posed with us in pics! For the umpteenth time, we heard (from the guide for the island tour this time) that he was also a Hindu. In fact, the boat operator even had the Gayatri Mantra as his ringtone!
The next stop was Nusa Dua, almost a gated place that housed the Bali versions of some of the most famous hotel chains in the world. Very hi-fi place, this. The beach was quite beautiful, though the rich crowd was also obviously guilty of littering. We found a nice tree to laze under and snoozed to Mallu songs played on the mobile. 😀
Lunch was at what seemed a branch of Ayam Betutu Khas Gilimanuk and consisted of the increasingly boring duck and side dishes combo. Immediately after that, thanks to some good advice from our guide, we visited one of the Krisna Oleh Oleh outlets which, apparently, was a regular haunt of locals, but was also the best place for souvenirs which wouldn’t force you to mortgage your house. We ended up doing a fair amount of shopping there. Later we realised that it was open 24 hours!
On the way to the Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) Cultural Park, we also saw a neat rendition of Arjuna and Krishna at a highway circle. At the park, wall graphics related the story of Garuda. The Park also had a huuuge statue of Vishnu, with a very Bali kind of face. 🙂 There was also a show happening every hour, another version of the Barong dance that we had seen earlier. The unending fight of good versus evil, just like the one I was waging against a headache! We stopped at the cafe to have a milkshake, and it was only late that I realised that they had a Cendol! 😐
Dreamland beach, now known as new Kuta beach, was supposed to be next, but we ended up at Padang Padang, famous for its appearance in Eat, Pray, Love. 🙂 I did none of these, and snoozed off again to get rid of the headache, while D walked around and took some wonderful snaps! The entrance to this place is worth a mention, a tunnel like thing made of limestone that comes down from the road. It’s not a big beach and was pretty crowded, but that couldn’t take away its inherent beauty.
Uluwatu was up next, quite a superstar in the itinerary in its own right. Since Turtle Beach had allowed us to keep our clothes dry, we did a change of clothes routine inside the car, even as a guard suspiciously looked in the direction of the shaking car. 😀 We quickly climbed towards the temple complex, and caught some monkey acts and breathtaking views before rushing to the Kecak performance, in an amphitheatre of sorts. There was already a crowd when we got there. The storyline was a warped version of the Ramayana – the Sita kidnap episode, but for some reason Garuda replaced Jatayu! In parallel, I was also trying to capture the sunset from amidst gigantic zoom lenses. The performance itself had its moments, especially the slapstick routine and when some of the cast made it interactive by jumping into the crowd, talking in English, posing for photographs and dragging unsuspecting tourists on to the stage and making them dance. Meanwhile, the sunset was magnificent, just like the guide had predicted, when we had insisted on catching it at Tanah Lot.
Dinner, the only one we took as part of the package, was at a restaurant in Jimbaran. Seafood stuff, nothing phenomenal, with a live band which performed at each table, and then, in a very unsubtle way, left a hat on the table for a tip. The good part though, was that dinner was on a beach. Watching waves is always a calming experience for me.
We asked to be dropped off at Jalan Melasti, which ran perpendicular from Legian, because wiki said there were tons of shops there. We didn’t notice any and returned to the hotel disappointed, especially since the Starbucks closed just as we were about to go in! The next day, broad daylight showed that Melasti indeed had shops packed away in rows after rows off the road, but thankfully, it was standard fare. The next day was to be the last full day at Bali, and we were clear about our plans. 🙂
The menu (click to enlarge) is to the point, so don’t expect to see casual mentions of noodles or butter chicken anywhere. We decided to start with a Grilled Beef Burger and a Whole Thigh, and add to it in case we felt hungry. The Burger was excellent, crisp on the outside, superbly ground meat inside and helped by a tasty sweet and spicy sauce. The French Fries deserve a mention purely for the flavour that they brought to the table. Cheesy, mildly salty and overall a great complement to the burger. The Whole Thigh is served with a veg salad and garlic bread. Though it was quite decent, I’d have liked the chicken grilled a bit more. Since we were still hungry, we also got ourselves a Grilled Chicken Fillet Burger which was as impressive as its beef cousin. Continuing the theme of the restaurant, the desserts are also grilled (fruits). But we had a movie to catch and therefore skipped.
A batik gallery was next, and after the silver workshop that followed, we begged off the wood carving center which was on the itinerary and moved to Lot Tunduh village for some paintings. Very interesting stuff, but seemed too costly for our meagre wallets! On hindsight, we could’ve bought at least a small one – Tanah Lot or a local Rama/Sita version. In case you plan to, do some heavy bargaining. The rice fields at Tegallalang Village were up next. Picturesque stuff, and we trekked a bit, refusing help from kid guides, before it suddenly started to drizzle. We were then off to Kintamani, Mount Batur (an active volcano) and its neighbouring lake.
A coffee plantation was up next and we managed to see (well, the later parts at least) one of the world’s most expensive coffee being made – 
The last official item for the day was the Tirtha Empul temple, which had a 
Though we had a dinner option in our package, we had asked for a package without, but there was still some confusion. So we decided that we would take a call the next day and would buy our own dinner. And thus back in Kuta (where Legian is located), we dropped in at 
We reached the beach around 6. Thanks to the sub zero car temperature and the journey, we had to use what was euphemistically called a toilet there. Scarred! And someone had the temerity to charge money for it going by the sign, though they seem to have backtracked on that! It was just before sunrise when we set off on one of the many boats out for the same purpose. Typically one person per plank with about 6 planks and some kind of wooden structures on both sides would describe the boats. The Japanese were out in full force!
We returned in about 2 hours, appetite whetted, and quickly went for breakfast at the neat and clean Melamun Hotel nearby. It was run by an Australian lady who had been here for over 4 years now. She soon started chatting with us, and asked us where we were from. She had apparently been to Bombay once, when it was still called that and had found the in-the-face poverty too tough to handle. She said that in Bali, the poverty was a little less obvious, something that I’d ponder over and agree with in the next few days. Two sumptuous Continental breakfasts cost us Rp 80000 and kept us well nourished till lunch.
Stop 2 was the Banjar village – hot springs being the attraction. This time we had to pay to pee as well as store the extra set of clothes. The water was lukewarm actually and we thrashed about for a while in the 1-2m deep pool, with local college kids (some of them ogling from outside the pool) and a few foreigners – one couple with a baby, before moving on. The next stop was the Gitgit waterfall, which included a 500m walk. Quite a nice sight, and it began drizzling as we walked back.
The Ulun Danu Temple and Lake Beratan in Bedugul was next, an extremely click-inducing venue. The Japanese were relishing this and it was fun watching the various experiments in poses. They had their uses though, since we got them to take good snaps of us together. 😀 This is also a kid-friendly place and we saw several animal shaped boats, which D refused to let me try! There was a good restaurant on the premises with an awesome view of the lake, but our destiny was elsewhere.
The penultimate stop for the day was the royal Taman Ayun temple, which seemed to have just finished hosting some event as we got there. We got the feeling that this was what it had been relegated to, a pity since it seemed a calm, serene complex, despite the bustle of the event paraphernalia, and with gardens and forest areas behind it. Entry into the actual temple was also restricted to temple staff, so we had to satisfy ourselves with snaps from the outside.
In our research, the name Karthika Plaza had kept cropping up, and confirming that it was walking distance from our hotel, though a long walk at that, we asked to be left at the Discovery Mall there. The mall was like any other mall with known brands, eateries and versions of our own clothing retailers. On this street is the famous Bubba Gump restaurant which plays Forrest Gump on its screens in endless loops! But for dinner, we chose another name that had been praised much – kafe Batan Waru.
