Bali – Wander and Explore

Tabanan Trip

Published on 21st Nov 202030th Nov 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

I always wanted to go to another region in Bali, not only Canggu, Ubud, Seminyak and Kuta. One of my friends, Yudhi, suggested me to have a staycation in Tabanan, which is one of the regions in Bali. He was originally from there so he knows a bit more about where we can go and what to do there better than I do. Jatiluwih Rice Terrace was the main spot we visited. We also spent the night fairly close to there.

Jatiluwih Rice Terraces

If you only know about Tegalalang rice terraces in Ubud, Jatiluwih rice terraces are larger and in my opinion have a better scenery. Located just 10 minutes away from Tanah Lot, or about 1-1/2 hours from Canggu area, Jatiluwih rice terraces comprise over 600 hectares of rice fields following the flowing hillside topography of the Batukaru mountain range. Pointed as one of UNESCO World Heritages since the site has been able to maintain the local culture heritage in form of water irrigation system managed traditionally called by SUBAK. These are well-maintained since the 9th century.

You could do many things in the Jatiluwih rice terrace areas. From cycling, to jogging or just taking pictures like us! If you wanted to go here by motorbike or cars, parks are available but not many. Jatiluwih rice terraces are completed with the hygiene standard (wastafel and hand soap) and you still need to wear a face mask when you are around a crowd of people. Don’t forget to bring an umbrella if you come during a rainy season and watch your step, it could be slippery.

There are several cafes, restaurant and local warungs to visit if you feel hungry. The range of prices depends on the type of place, starting from IDR 30,000/pax for local warungs to IDR 150,000/pax for a fancier one. Choose your budget wisely or check tripadvisor before you come to have lunch. That is what I usually do 🙂

We spent the night in a Two Bedroom Pool Villa that I found in airbnb, called The Saren. It has an industrial minimalist concept that makes the bedroom look clean and comfortable. It’s basically a Two Unit of One Bedrooms in the first and second floors, which are separated by stairs outside. It’s more of a fit for a group of friends like us, a family with grown up kids or 2 couples who are traveling together. I don’t think it’s fit for a family with little kids since it doesn’t have direct access to each other’s room. It also sells as a separated room if you only book for One Bedroom instead of two. The rate was really affordable. $51/night and we got a private pool! You can book your stay from airbnb and if you are a first timer, you get a free $17 credit for your account 😀

We wanted to go to Pantai Nyanyi (Nyanyi Beach) which is located just 5 minutes of walking from our Hotel but due to the fact that we woke up late, lol, instead of going to the beach, we went to the sleeping buddha statue in Pupuan region. It’s a 1 hour of driving from our staycation place. That driving experience to reach it was insane! You are not only driving straight in a big street, but it was a winding road. We went left, right, left-right and I was about to throw up until finally we arrived! Yeah!

The statue located inside the Vihara Dharma Giri, a Buddhist temple in Pupuan, Tabanan. This temple is open to the public for free, however, visitors are expected to give donations to be used for the maintenance of the monastery. This applies to local and foreign tourists. Please keep in mind to wear something proper to the temple, no shorts and you must remove your footwear when you are in the temple grounds. In addition, you also have to use closed clothing from the waist down. However, for visitors who do not carry appropriate clothing, a cover cloth will be provided by the temple administrator. There are doggos around the temple too, they are sooo adorable. The temple was so quiet and so peaceful so try to come and visit 😊

I hope you like this post and I will try to be more productive and write more this month 😉. I wish the world will heal faster so everyone can travel again freely soon 😊

With love,

Ayu, xoxo

First Trip to Bali

Published on 26th Jan 202025th Nov 2020 by wanderandexplore88

Ayu and I met online, as we had said in our earlier post, All About Us. I wanted to meet Ayu in person so I bought a ticket to Bali, Indonesia. Overall, the trip was amazing! So many beautiful beaches, cute little shops on the side of the streets and many, many other places to visit.

So let me share about what I’ve done in Bali. Not much because my girl needed to work during the weekdays 😪. But, well, I’m going to talk about the trip with her to Ubud and GWK. The first place we visited together was the Rice Farms in Ubud. It was a fairly hot day, although I’m used to the humidity since I currently live in North Carolina in the US. Walking through the farms felt relaxing. The calming green rice plants everywhere you looked had such a peaceful atmosphere. There was also a swing that you could go on with additional cost and some instagrammable photo spots for free. We stopped for lunch at a place called Tebasari. It was the first time I got to try some of the Indonesian spicy food, and it was deliiiciiioous!

Before I went to Bali, my brother told me I “have” to go to the Monkey Forest, so we went. It was actually a lot of fun watching the monkeys! The way they wrestled with each other, climbing all over and eating their little bananas. Inside the forest there were sacred temples that were usually open for the public during big ceremonies, but not everyday so correct me if I’m wrong. They had many statues of distorted creatures surrounding them.

Ah, after we left the Monkey Forest, we went to a restaurant called Bebek Bengil, for an early dinner. Bebek Bengil means Dirty Duck in English. Although the duck wasn’t dirty, it sure was delicious! (And spicy too!)

The last place that we visited was a place called Garuda Wisnu Kencana. This place, located in Jimbaran, is on the southern side of Bali and is just 30 minutes away from Ngurah Rai Airport. The Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue is about 400 feet tall, which is almost 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. We arrived in the late afternoon around 4pm when the last show of the Kecak dance was about to start. We only took a few pictures in front of the statue because we were in a rush to get to the Lotus Pond Area to see the Kecak Dance show. The show was pretty fun because it was not only a normal Kecak Dance where all you see are guys singing “cak cak cak” with a girl dancing in the middle and ending with a fire dance. Instead, we were able to see the dance about the Garuda Mythology aswell.

Kecak Play

If you are in search of a tropical island for vacation I would recommend going to Bali. Just be prepared to eat reeeeeaaaal spicy food and rice almost every meal!

Nusa Lembongan

Published on 8th Jan 202025th Nov 2020 by wanderandexplore88Leave a comment

If you would ask what our favorite part of Bali is, we would say the first would be Ubud because of the real Balinese vibes. The second is Nusa Lembongan because it is small with beautiful views. The third is Canggu because of it’s young vibes with many good places to enjoy the foods and sunset.

Let’s leave Ubud for the moment, we wanna share about Nusa Lembongan. It is located in the southeast of the Bali island, you can access it by speed boat only, about 30 minutes away. The cost? Depends on which speed boat you use. We use the mid class which is not too expensive but with the “okay” kind of feel to the speed boat. Not special, I must say, but for IDR 200,000/person round trip for Indonesian ID and IDR 350,000/person round trip for foreigners that is fine. Check and make your reservation from Glory Fastboat if you wanna try.

There are not many choices for high end hotel in Lembongan, although if you don’t have a high budget (like us 😂) there are many good bungalows and hotels that you could choose starting from IDR 300,000 – IDR 2,000,000. It varies depending on the season too. We chose a hotel not too far from the beach called Bukit Taman Cottage. We got it for IDR 675,000/night. The staff and owner were awesome! If we could suggest something to you, please choose the hotel around the northwest coast and not a hotel that has more than 10 minutes of walking to the beach. Why? Because almost all of the beach clubs and tourist attractions are located along the northwest coast and it’s not easy to access them if you can’t ride a motorbike. The best option that you have for transportation is by motor bike, which costs around IDR 75,000/day. You can get the rental once you are arrived in Nusa Lembongan, (and seriously, there is always someone offering you to rent their motorbike when you’ve just arrived). If you travel with family or kids, you can call a taxi. It is not a usual taxi in the city, No. It is a small pick up truck that has seats and a roof on it. Almost every famous restaurants and beach clubs have their own taxi pick up service that you can call, just ask your reception and they will help, sometimes it’s free and if you want to get a taxi to the place that has no free pick up, the cost for 1 taxi is IDR 100,000 one way. The last option is golf buggy and is more expensive than the other two. The cost for 4 seaters is IDR 1,000,000 for a day, although it’s different for every rental agent. Please take a note, the road is daaark at night, not much light except from the people’s houses so just be careful if you ride a motorbike or drive a buggy.

View from our cottage

Where should you go once you are in Nusa Lembongan? There are plenty of places that you could visit. For us, 3 days are enough to explore. The first day you could enjoy the beach club and sunset. The second day you can go for snorkeling, mangrove tour and then go to yellow bridge and see some pretty beaches. The third day just spend the rest of the time to explore the part of the island that you didn’t see and go photo hunting.

We were there for 2 days and 1 night only and due to that time, the weather was too hot. Gosh, can’t believe that was 33° C. It was so humid. Ayu was dying on that day. We mostly spent our time in beach clubs and swimming. But since Ayu went there before without Jacob, we are posting some pictures of her when she was in Mangrove Tour. I promise we will go snorkeling the next time we go there again. We went to 3 places to hangout. The Deck is a cafe near the harbour (only 7 minutes of walking to get there) and basically, you can see the beautiful view of the strait from there. There is the Sandy Beach Club that you can visit too, we were there from 4pm to 8pm (hahaha 😂don’t judge us, we just wanted to chill out and enjoy the sunset). The last one is Ohana’s, also one of the beach clubs there but our favorite is still Sandy Bay if you want to talk about vibes but if it’s food we’re talking about, we would choose The Deck.

So, have you decided to go there with your friends, family or loved one? We would like to hear your experience there!

xoxo