NEW! TRAVEL JOURNAL: BALI
In September 2019, Jacqueli and Joubert Tulleken set off for an adventure in South East Asia. Their first destination was the Indonesian island of Bali.
The first chapter of Jacqueli and Joubert Tulleken’s journey through South East Asia.
T he Republic of Indonesia consists of thousands of islands home to more than 267 million people – the fourth biggest population in the world. More than half of those people live on Java, the biggest island, but most tourists visit smaller Bali, with its rice paddies, beaches and culture.
You can see or learn something new every day in Bali, or you can just choose a beach and do nothing. The island is popular with surfers, digital nomads, honeymoon couples and yoga fans – there are more than 500 yoga centres on the island.
Most tourists first head for the southern part of the island, which offers something for every taste and budget. The busy town of Kuta is known for its nightlife and is often the first stop on a beach holiday. Family resorts and five-star hotels line the 5 km-long Kuta Beach. The towns of Seminyak and Canggu are north of Kuta. Here you’ll find stylish clothing boutiques and trendy cafés that serve smoothie bowls and vegan ice cream. In the late afternoon, the chic beach bars are packed with tourists drinking sundowners.
The south is where we went when we first visited Bali in 2016; this time we wanted to explore the north, where it’s quieter and the people live a more traditional lifestyle. In the north you can see ancient Hindu temples (known as puras), active volcanoes, waterfalls and terraced rice paddies.
We had taken the whole of 2019 off to travel. By September, we’d finished a six-month overlanding trip through southern Africa and we were excited for a change of scenery. We didn’t have a permanent home at that stage – it was cheaper to live in Bali than to hire a place in Cape Town! We also had plans to travel to Vietnam with friends in October, so Bali in September just worked.
It took about 24 hours in total to get from Joburg to Bali via Dubai. Bali is six hours ahead of South Africa – we touched down at Ngurah Rai International Airport at 3 am and walked out of the airport into the balmy, tropical night. Hello, island life!
Day 1 – 2: Ubud in the jungle
The airport is just south of Denpasar, the biggest city in Bali, but our destination was Ubud, the cultural focal point of the island. First we took a taxi to a hotel in nearby Kuta, where we rested for a few hours before catching another taxi to Ubud.
Ubud is in the centre of Bali. It’s where Julia Roberts met her new lover after she fell off her bicycle in Eat Pray Love. Rice paddies and tropical valleys surround the town – the humidity is so severe that your clothes cling to your back all day. The town is full of artists and wellness enthusiasts, and there are art galleries and vegetarian restaurants everywhere. We arranged for accommodation in a traditional homestay. The Balinese people we met were friendly and generous. Cito, the owner of the homestay, went out of his way to make us feel welcome. Upon arrival, we each received a freshly cut coconut with coconut water to drink. Although Bali is only about 80 km from north to south and 140 km from east to west, travelling takes much longer than you’d think – the island is densely populated and traffic jams are common. The easiest and most affordable way to explore is on a scooter or motorbike. Cito
arranged a 150 cc Honda Scoopy scooter for us, which we dubbed Scoopy for short.
It was time to experience the culture. We walked to the Ubud market, about 800 m from where we were staying. Incense is synonymous with Bali because you smell it everywhere on the streets. As a gesture of thanks, small offerings of food, colourful flowers and incense are placed on the ground in front of houses, shops and Hindu temples. You have to look where you’re going when you’re walking around!
In the market, we wandered past stalls selling fruit, art, woven baskets, jewellery and wood carvings. We haggled with some traders and bought incense and batik cloth.
Back at Cito’s homestay, we jumped onto Scoopy and left town in search of a café to have lunch.
It’s easy to travel in Bali on a budget, especially if you avoid Western-style restaurants and hotels. At the local restaurants, known as warungs, you seldom pay more than R80 for a meal for two. The lunch spot we ended up at was Warung Bintang Bali, where we sat at a high counter overlooking a rice paddy and palm trees. We ordered gado gado, a warm salad with tofu, cooked veggies and a peanut sauce. On our second day in Ubud, we rode Scoopy to Campuhan Ridge Walk early in the morning. Entrance to this short, lush trail is free – it’s like taking a walk along Sea Point Promenade in Cape Town as there are many walkers and runners out and about.
Ubud is like a retreat where travellers can rest and focus on their health. The name is apparently derived from the Balinese word “ubad”, which means medicine. There are plenty of yoga classes, spa treatments and meditation courses offered in town.
I treated myself to an affordable spa experience while Joubert attended a “sound healing” session in a place called Pyramids of Chi. It takes place inside a big pyramid-like structure almost three storeys high. Joubert joined about 15 other people – the instructors use sound and vibrations emitted by Tibetan singing bowls to apparently boost your natural healing process. It makes you relax; some people even fall asleep. Joubert sat in the garden for half an hour afterwards to gather himself. He said it felt as if he’d woken up in another world; his body felt lighter and his mind was clear.
On our last night in Ubud, we filled our backpacks with clothes and camera gear and stored the rest of our luggage with Cito. We’d be travelling as light as possible on Scoopy because we were worried that it wouldn’t have enough oomph to get up and over the mountains in the north…
Day 3: To Munduk
Rather than a few big highways, Bali has a network of hundreds of narrow tar roads winding through rice paddies and towns. From Ubud, we first had to head west before we could turn north to our next destination: Munduk. We bought a local SIM card and used Google Maps to navigate the maze of roads. Reception was good everywhere we went.
Along the way, we pulled over at the colossal but deserted Hotel Pondok Indah Bedugul. In Ubud, a waiter had told us about this ghost hotel. Construction began in the 1990s but was never completed. Apparently, workers who died during the construction now haunt the half-built remains. Local residents refuse to enter the building.
Well, of course we went in. Our footsteps echoed in the empty, dusty corridors. The roof was collapsed in places and the walls were covered in graffiti. The view from the veranda was epic – the reason why the hotel was built here in the first place. Ghosts? None that we encountered…
Even though Ubud and Munduk are only 64 km apart, the ride took us three hours. We were now in the highlands of Bali, known for hiking trails, coffee plantations and waterfalls – it looks a bit like the Hogsback area in the Eastern Cape.
Our backsides were sore from hours on Scoopy’s seat so we stretched our legs at the Twin Lakes viewpoint above Lake Tamblingan and Lake Buyan. They used to be one big water mass until a landslide in the 1800s split them in two.
While we were taking in the panorama, we looked for a place to spend the night. We had a rough itinerary, but we hadn’t booked any accommodation beforehand. We browsed booking.com for an affordable room with a private bathroom, breakfast and Wi-Fi. Our options were limited, but Wi House met our criteria for Rp220 000 per night, about R220 for both of us. (Rp is the symbol for the Indonesian rupiah, which is sometimes shortened to IDR. See page 127 for a breakdown of our costs.)
For breakfast, we had flapjacks and fruit with local coffee. Bali coffee isn’t filtered – the ground beans are mixed with boiling water. Then we hopped back onto Scoopy and rode to the parking area of the Red Coral Waterfall for the 20-minute walk to the waterfall itself.
Red Coral is part of the Munduk Waterfall Trek, which takes you to four waterfalls. It’s a popular day outing from Munduk and there are different route options for people of all fitness levels. It’s a good idea to start the hike early in the day, especially if you don’t want to wait your turn to take a selfie at a waterfall.
Day 4 – 5: Lovina and the volcanoes
After our visit to the waterfall, Scoopy took us 41 km further north to the sea. When we arrived in the coastal town of Lovina, the hunger pangs hit so we bought spring rolls and beer at the first warung we saw. Afterwards, we rode to the seafront and had barely come to a stop, when a guy pulled up next to us on his scooter to ask whether we were looking for a place to stay.
Peak tourism season in Bali is from June to August. By September, businesses are desperate for a last bit of income before the rainy season. We followed the man to Astina Hotel, where we found a room to suit our budget.
We cooled down in the hotel pool and later went for a walk on the beach just a few hundred metres from the hotel. Rows of boats were anchored – during high season they take tourists out to see dolphins. The promenade has lots of restaurants, but few of them were open. We said cheers to the pink sunset with a cold Bintang beer.
The next morning, we turned inland again, heading for Mount Batur. We filled the tank at a small café. Fuel is affordable (about R8 per litre) and every second shop has a sign advertising pertamini (petrol). If they don’t have a hand pump, fuel is sold in one-litre bottles.
Then we tackled a couple of serious uphills: Within 37 km, we climbed 1 350 m to the top of a mountain pass. We should never have doubted Scoopy!
Mount Batur (1 717 m) and Agung (3 031 m) to the east are both active volcanoes in the interior of Bali. Batur’s last major eruption was in 2000; Agung spewed smoke as recently as 2017.
At Mount Batur, you can go on organised hikes early in the morning to climb the mountain (it takes three hours) and watch the sunrise from the edge of the volcano. We did the hike on a previous visit in 2016 – it’s one for the bucket list!
We stayed at Volcano II Guest House in a village at the base of Mount Batur. Dinner was nasi goreng, a hot, flavoursome rice dish served with a fried egg. To keep costs down, we usually ate nasi goreng in Bali – or a similar noodle dish called mie goreng. We quickly learnt how much these two dishes should cost. If they were pricey, we knew we were looking at the restaurant’s tourist menu and requested the local price list.
We had a fitful night’s sleep, our muscles sore from all the bumps in the road. But we were here for adventure so we weren’t complaining.
Day 6: The terrace of Tegallalang
From the base of Mount Batur, it’s 30 km downhill to Tegallalang Rice Terrace. Along the way we passed many kopi luwak coffee shops. If you watched the film The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, you would have heard of kopi luwak – it’s the most expensive coffee in the world and has a unique taste, thanks to the role that civets play in the “production process”.
How it works: Civets visit the coffee plantations at night and eat the beans, which they can’t digest. The beans are later collected from their scat – these beans are sought-after and known as kopi luwak. Prices range from about R700/100 g to more than R10 000/100 g.
We weren’t about to splurge on civet-poo coffee, so we continued to Tegallalang Rice Terrace – a UNESCO World Heritage Site. If you’ve ever seen a nice photo of a rice paddy, it was probably taken here. Rice is still grown in the traditional way: The terrace is irrigated using a sustainable system called “subak”, which was developed more than a thousand years ago. We arrived at 7 am to avoid the crowds. We climbed up and down the terrace looking for photo opportunities – Instagrammers love this spot (search for #tegallalang). The best time to take photos is early in the morning or late in the afternoon when soft light filters through the palm trees.
On our last night in Bali, we found a room behind a warung overlooking the rice paddies. It was the perfect place to end our scooter tour of the island. The next day we returned to Ubud, dropped Scoopy off at Cito’s and retrieved our luggage.
The north had been awesome. We’d enjoyed an authentic experience of traditional and day-to-day Balinese culture, which is often lost in bigger towns in the south. And riding 300 km on a scooter made every day feel like an adventure!
Next issue: Jacqueli and Joubert travel in Vietnam.