Originally I only asked Kadek for a day tour but then the driver convinced me to extend this to another day, he said that we still had a lot of places to cover, I first mulled this over then before the end of the first day tour I agreed. I agreed primarily because there were still places I saw on the internet that we haven’t gone to, ang tanga lang I couldn’t remember the name of the place that time, all I could remember was Tanah Lot and we haven’t gone to it during the first day.
And so for a second day in a row I geared up for a whole day of driving around the island, I knew that I had a long day ahead of me, yesterday I had lunch at 3 PM so I did indulge in breakfast yet again. And again the servers at the hotel’s restaurant thought of me as a local and spoke to me in Indonesian. I asked my driver the day before how to say “I don’t speak Indonesian” in Bahasa (language), he taught me that I had to say “Saya tiday bisa Indonesia”. That morning I tried it and the response I got was priceless it was always a cross between amazement and surprise, they always ended up saying “Oh!” haha.
Gitgit Falls in Singaraja
This for me was one of the most beautiful places my driver brought me to, yesterday was all about temples and this day we started with Nature. The drive is quite long from Seminyak but you wouldn’t be bored because of the scenery, along the way we passed by the 3 lakes, Bratan, Buyan and Tamblingan which were next to each other.
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| Nature trip, the falls are surrounded by a forest where you could here birds call and respond to each other |
I haven’t seen my fair share of waterfalls so this was overwhelming for me, malayong lakaran lang as you have to make your way down to where the falls are and akyatan pabalik. Sa entrance maraming magvovolunteer as tour guides but these are total scams, I was asked for IDR 800,000 but my driver told him that we could do it on our own. Just now I read on tripadvisor that some people were asked different rates like one was asked for IDR 300,000, never agree to these guided tours you wouldn’t get lost going down to the falls!
Unknown temple
The name of the next destination we went to escapes my mind I couldn’t remember but it was on the shores of either Lake Buyan or Tamblingan. I could tell that this was one of the less popular temples that tourists go to kasi for one walang entrance fee nobody was guarding it and wala din provisions for sarongs for tourists, just one of the perks of going with my driver haha! The temple doors are golden, too bad the doors were closed we couldn’t get in.
Ulundanu Temple (Temple in the Lake)
Now this is as popular as popular tourist destination goes, ang laki ng parking lot as in Mall parking levels na puno ng tourist bus. We got in for free! We got mixed with a large group and the people at the gates thought we were part of the group so they let us in haha.
This is one of the most pictured temples in Bali, lagi ko sya nakikita sa internet when I was searching for places to go, eto yung temple on the shores of Lake Beratan. Ang daming tao lang as in, it’s hard to get a clear shot of yourself behind the temple without including other tourists. May nag-aaway pa nga kasi yung isa ayaw makisama nagpipicture yung family she didn’t want to move out of the way even for just a second haha I heard her say “Go ahead, I have no problems standing here!” that just cracked me and my driver up.
The whole complex features both Hindu and Buddhist temples. May restaurants din, I thought we were eating here it was already past lunch time! And ang dami ding tindahan so alam mo na tourist destination talaga.
Jatiluwih Rice Terraces
My driver wanted to bring me up to Mount Batukaru, supposedly another old temple was up there kaso kulang na sa oras he wanted to get me to Tanah Lot by sunset because supposedly that was the best time to visit the place. We stopped by instead at a parking lot where you get a fantastic view of the Jatiluwih rice terraces. For me, this one’s better than the one in Ubud. Mas malaki sya and less touristy. Out of the way lang, the road was definitely on the sira-sira side, levels lang ng ilang roads sa provincial Philippines. Some stretches seemed to have been forgotten by the government, most were so narrow that you had to slow down almost to a stop when another vehicle is passing.
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| Jatiluwih Rice Terraces, such a quiet and sleepy town I could live here |
Tanah Lot
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| Tanah Lot at dawn, tourists winding down and view of the beautiful sunset |
Finally! This was also on my list of must go to places, Tanah Lot is said to be one of the most revered temples by the Balinese Hindu community. This was another one of those touristy places with grand – and I say grand parking lots and lots of souvenir shops. The view lived up to the hype ang ganda! My driver timed our visit here at sunset sayang lang it was cloudy that day di masyado kita yung sunset but it would’ve been a fantastic sunset had we seen it. Hapon na so it was already high tide, we couldn’t walk straight to the temple. The waves were coming in strong, I don’t think I’ve seen waves like that before in my life. By this time, sunset na diba, we still haven’t had lunch buti na lang may nagtitinda ng corn like one of those you grill, wasn’t the most hygienic of choices but my stomach was grumbling and I had to eat something.
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| High tide and strong waves kept the people from coming to the temple |
Souvenir shopping – Nanami/Nanamy Artshop in Seminyak
Syempre bilang Pinoy, no trip is complete without going souvenir and pasalubong shopping. My driver drove me to this place near my hotel in Seminyak called Nanamy. The receipt says Nanamy but my google search told me it was Nanami. Anyway, the staff were friendly they even asked me about the big typhoon in our country. This one’s a 2-storey building that has all the souvenir/pasalubong you could ever think of as in everything I kid you not. Tapos my driver told me this is the cheapest place where you could get the stuff at the locals’ price. The nice girl even gave me a 5% discount di ko lang alam if they give this out to everyone, bad thing though when I told them I’ll be using my card they said that they’d have to add another 3% for the bank, so in the end mga 2% net lang ang discount ko haha. Yung mga kasabay ko namimili mga hapon, and the staff all spoke fluent Nihonggo. That tells you how much money the make out of Japanese customers.
Drugstores
In the event that you’ll need medicine in this island, like I did. I knew that my acid levels were up so I needed to get me some Losec (antacid) before it spoil my remaining days in the island. If in Seminyak there’s a drugstore, by the way the locals call it a Pharmacy rather than a drugstore you’ll get better results when asking people this way, near Bintang Supermarket (see everything’s near Bintang!) called Med Mart Drug Store, this one’s comprehensive they have everything. Dito ko pa nga nalaman that another drug company makes the same medicine as Losec, Omeprazole din pero cheaper. They even have doctors on hand if you need a check up.
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| Med Mart near Bintang Supermarket |
Funny thing though, they have a whole aisle for sunscreen and another aisle dedicated for condoms! Haha hashtag alam na.
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| Had to take this one quickly while Ate went to get my meds, ayan may price pa! |
Med Mart Drug Store
Jalan Raya Seminyak No. 19 Kuta – Bali
0361-730977
info@mariosilverbali.com
Dewa Suarbawa aka The Driver
Here's a picture of the guy who drove me around, fantastic service. You get insider info and can get you a lot of discounts (if not free!) on entrance tickets. His car, actually it's Kadek's car smells nice and has Hindu offerings inside. He also brings bottled water for his guests and umbrellas in case there is rain. I think I blinded him by pointing my camera directly to his face hehe. Please do contact him if ever you need someone to drive you around Bali.
The places are far apart, there's no way of getting to them on your own not unless you rent a bike and tour the island on your own. But even that would take you a long time to cover the places we visited. Buti na lang walang traffic so the drive is fast.
You
can contact him through this number:
Dewa
Suarbawa
+62 81 936 216 644
He
doesn’t actually have his own car but he said he’ll just borrow Kadek’s car
whenever gigs like these would come by.
You
can also contact Kadek Suastika
Kadek
“Alung” Suastika
alungsuastika@gmail.com
+62 8174793556