Sightseeing in Bali

0 Comments

There are so many things to do in Bali that it is really hard to pick what activities to do.

If you walk around town you will see hundreds of booths offerings many different tours that it actually becomes overwhelming because you don't really know how to narrow all the choices down.

I was so lucky to meet Jessie who had been to Bali before and we decided to hire a driver who would take us to some of the main spots for Rp700,000 ($60 for the day). I think in Bali the way to go is to form your own group and hire a driver for the day and tailor a tour that suits your needs.

We started the day by going to a traditional Balinese dance show.

The Barong, a Balinese mythological creature, with the monkey.

Then we went to Goa Gajah or the Elephant cave temple. The name is very misleading as there are no elephants in there. While visiting this temple everybody have to wear sarongs to cover their legs and shoulders.

Inside the cave there are representations of the Gods: Brahma (the creator), Visnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer).

The temple is surrounded by beautiful plants making you feel like you are walking in the middle of the forrest.

My favorite part about this temple was getting the blessing from one of the ladies at the temple. When we entered the temple she gave each of us a flower, then she tossed some holy water on top of us, and finish the blessing by placing some wet rice in our forehead.

By then we were starving and we stopped for lunch. The spot was beautiful! Once again in the middle of the forrest surrounded by beautiful trees.

Our lunch spot

The crew!

After a relaxing lunch we had to keep going and we headed to Gunung Kawi or rocky temple.

Oh my! Bali is super hot and the humidity is crazy so visiting this temple was extra hard since we had to go up and down a whole lot of stairs! We did not look pretty, my skin was shinny, my hair was extra curly but it was worth it.

The story of this temple is that it is a memorial for King Anak Wungsu and 5 of the rocky temples are for the queen and their children, and the other 5 for his concubines.

Time to go up!

We quickly went Tirta Empul, the holly spring temple, where Balinese Hindus go for ritual purification. In the middle of the temple there is a pond that gives out fresh water and then people can go into the pool and do their prayers and get blessed.

The natural spring

Beautiful statues and decorations.

People can feed the Koi fish!

I never knew this but there is an animal here in Bali called a Luwak that eats coffee beans and then poops the beans. Somehow somebody figured out that if you pick up the poop and clean the bean it makes excellent coffee!

This area is well known for their Luwak coffee so we went to a coffee plantation to try it.

This is a Luwak

Roasting the beans

Two different kinds of beans: Female and Male. Males produce a darker and stronger bean!

Free tasting of very sugary coffees and teas

Fancy way of preparing Luwak coffee... $5/ cup

Before going to see the sunset we stopped at Kintamani for a beautiful view of mount batur and lake batur.

Since I get car sick easily I sat in the front and I very much enjoyed watching people and the motorcycles.

The way they transport balloons

Carrying a kite!

At least this kid has a helmet!

We ended the sightseeing at Tanah Lot temple with a beautiful sunset!

Yeay! We survived our long day!

Bycicle tour
I really wanted to take a bicycle tour in Ubud so I took a brochure from the front desk and asked them to book it. BIG MISTAKE! I should have done it myself and read trip advisor!

The tour wasn’t all that bad but it wasn’t what i was expecting or how bicycle tour I’ve done before have been.I was the first person to be picked up and then when we were waiting for the 2nd person the guide asked me to not share how much I had paid because others didn’t get the same price as me. Ok, I thought it was weird since I paid the brochure price but it’s Ubud, maybe other people are paying Rp50,000 more, no big deal.

First stop… Luwak coffee and “breakfast”

After we ate the guide sent us to the shop and stayed with one of the guys. After they were done the guy came to me and asked me how much I paid and told me he was charged RP870,000… Rp 550,000 more than me.
Immediately I told him that that was not the price and that we should ask how much everyone paid. After we got to Kintamani and we got the bikes the guy complained to the guide saying that he was sold a different tour with better bikes, intemediate level, off roading and he even showed the website with the information. The guide looked at the info and said “Yes, this is your tour!”
The guy came back to me and told me this and it just made me mad because the guide purposely took advantage of this tourist and asked us to lie. I was not happy about it.

The tour started by going down a super steep rocky hill! It was so super scary!!!! A woman even fell and refused to keep going so they put her in the van and she joined us on the flat part.

I thought the tour was going to be all beautiful cycling through the rice fields and the towns but instead it was more than ½ the time in tiny roads that were very rocky and tricky to bike on… my booty was beyond sore from all the jumping up and down! The guide never stopped to explain anything (other than to show us a traditional Balinese house) and he didn’t even give us time to take pictures but since some people were really slow I just stayed in the back, stopped as much as I wanted as long as I knew I could catch up with the last person.
I enjoyed the ride and was happy to be looking at this side of Bali but it was very fast paced and felt like I needed more time to take it all.

Look at that road... it surely was bumpy!

After the ride they took us for lunch and I kept telling the guy to talk to the guide (this was the 4th time I pushed him to go talk to him and told him what to say) but he always came back with whatever excuse the guide gave him.
I just couldn’t anymore, I felt that this situation was so unfair and it was really bothering me. I pride myself on being an honest person and everyday I teach that, no matter what children have done or said I ask them to be honest, I make sure that they know that they won’t be in trouble as long as they are truthful about what I am asking. Honesty for me is one of the basic principles of humankind… I also think I have a sore spot when it comes to honesty due to my family of origin so this one I had a really hard time processing what was going on.

The whole lunch the 6 people sitting at the table were discussing this issue and seeing how we could help. I grew up as a very self asserted little girl and i don’t take crap from anybody, I had enough and I walked to the table where four of the guides were, including ours. I started by saying that we were all discussing the issue of him taking money from one person of the group and that we thought it was unfair and that we were all writing a one star review on trip advisor! haha. Immediately he started to argue and I said that I just wanted to share with him some things and I went on and said that from the beginning he knew he was taking advantage of one person and asked all of us to lie and keep quiet about the price. I went on to say that his behavior was not a reflection of Balinese culture and for sure not good karma. I also said that I paid Rp100.000 (~$8) more than other people in the tour and that it was ok but to take Rp520,000 on purpose from somebody was stealing and that it wasn’t ok. The “arguing” went on, I was very respectful but very disappointed on the company and the tour guide. I went back to the table and 5 minutes later the guide had the audacity to come to us and scream that he didn’t want to see us talk about this again and that we were going! Mmmm… Excuse me?!?! You are mad at us?!?! The whole thing was ridiculous and I immediately told him that he didn’t get to be mad at us nor scream at us, that he did something wrong and we all found out, and that we weren’t happy with the way things were handled. It was a very quiet bus back to Ubud!
This whole situation made me think of Kohlberg’s study about Heinz dilemma and looking at people’s moral development. I feel like tourists have ruined part of the Balinese culture because no matter where you go in Ubud the people are trying to take advantage of you and it’s horrible. I have talked to so many travelers and they all said they never know how much to pay for things because everybody is ripping tourists off. In a way bartering is common in Asian countries but these people have taken it to a whole different level. They have created this very ugly interactions between them and tourists that makes me uncomfortable because I never know what is fair for a price or who is being truthful. It is truly not a nice feeling to have when traveling.

Tegalalang- Rice Terrace

These are super famous rice terraces about a 20-30 min drive from Ubud.

I decided to go but didn't have transportation so one of the girls at the travel office suggested to go on Go-Jek, the uber for motorbikes. I downloaded the app, got a driver and got dropped off at the rice fields for Rp20,000. I asked the driver if he could wait and he said that it would take too long but that I could use the app to go back to Ubud.

I explored the rice fields and took a lot of pictures for about an hour.

Before I started to walk up I decided to check the app for a driver, the app kept saying "No driver found!" I did this for about 30 mins until I reached the street. I kept updating the app and started looking for a taxi but no taxis around. When I asked shop owner they would say "no taxi but I find you one for Rp150,000" and I tried to negotiate but they wouldn't! They knew I had no other option but I wasn't going to pay that much! I didn't even have that much on me and who knew who they would call to come pick me up!

I literally walked to each end of tegalaland and found nothing! It had been more than an hour and I needed a plan B (other than walking, which would have taken more than 2 hours per google map in the 12pm heat!) My next move was to ask a tourist with a scooter to bring me down but everybody was in pairs! Then I saw a couple with a driver (meaning they had empty seats in the car) and I explained the situation and even their driver said "here no taxis!" I asked to drop me off anywhere closer to Ubud and if they would pass the big statue that would be perfect and they were super kind to give me a lift... Who would have though I would be hitchhiking in Bali! Haha

About Post Author

Andrea

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!