Bali - Day 6 - Mount Batur Volcano!

For our final day in Ubud we thought we’d set our most adventurous itinerary yet with a trek up in the central mountains of Bali. We were a bit dubious about making the trip because the morning’s weather was looking a bit overcast, and Lonely Planet reckoned it wasn’t even worth taking the drive up there in bad weather as you wouldn’t be able to see a thing, it also said the journey would take us about two hours each way and we were already developing some pretty impressive looking bruises on our behinds. However, LP also said you should never hand a banana directly to a monkey and we survived that challenge – so we decided to continue to fly in the face of LP and set off early for the venture up there. 

It was a bit chilly for the first half an hour as we ascended the mountain, but then the sun broke and made it a rather pleasant ride. We passed through coffee country and our friends at the Kopi Luwak plantation, then we hit fruit country – hundreds of brightly coloured fruits laid out in market stalls all the way to the top. Also, shows much LP knows as well as we made it up there in an hour (at a safe speed Mum…)

The Volcano and crater lake of Mount Batur (1717m)

As we reached the summit we caught a glimpse of the volcano on the horizon – it was a pretty impressive sight, so much so that James got distracted and sped through the checkpoint where your supposed to stop and buy a ticket, meaning we then got shouted and chased by an angry Balinese man until we realised our error and stopped to pay – only to see about 30 Balinese kids speed through the checkpoint on scooters. Ah, so that’s how it works…

We pulled over at the first convenient spot to take some photos of Mount Batur – it’s a pretty awesome sight with obvious old lava flows all down the left hand slopes. It’s still a live volcano and while we were there you could see smoke kicking out from the western side.

Unfortunately, the one thing LP turned out to be spot on about is that the Mount Batur area is possibly the worst place in Bali for hawkers. We hadn’t stopped for five minutes before a guy on a motorcycle pulled up next to use and started peddling his wares. We were doing pretty well at resisting, but then he pulled out the phrase ‘lovely jubbly’ and James was powerless – purchasing one of his paintings of the volcano (they were pretty good) and he at least managed to haggle him down from $20 to $5!

But literally every time you stopped to admire the view you were instantly surrounded. We even stopped for a beer at one point (well, we stopped for lunch until we realized it was an extortionate all you can eat buffet all the tour groups get lead into) with some pretty awesome views – only to find a couple of sellers had set up camp in the doorway to catch us as we left!

Scenic beers

We could see from up high that there was a road that circled around the edge of the lava fields on the eastern side (away from the smoking section!) so we decided to escape the tourist trap and take a scoot to the base of the volcano where we’d heard there were natural hot springs.

The scoot down was a bit hairy and at points I was worried Lucille wouldn’t be able to cope coming back the other way! We had to dodge a couple of guys at the turnoff trying to wave us down, and one who tailed us on his bike (apparently the guys at the top will try to flag down tourists with the premise of being tour guides) and also a crazy lady who kept wondering out in front of traffic at the bottom trying to sell you something – we almost hit her twice! But once we were down there it was pretty awe-inspiring. (despite James’ complaints about the inconsiderate person who chucked a load of ‘dirt and small rocks’ over the road – only to realise it was actually volcanic ash!)

Unfortunately any natural hot springs there once were had all been turned into flashy (tacky) looking resorts with hot spring swimming pools but it was definitely worth the scoot down there get a better view of the crater.

We decided to start the scoot back to Ubud – we’d read in a couple of places that there was a little warung opposite the palace that offered the best version of Bali’s national dish – suckling pig – for only $3, but they only opened until 4pm. We’d managed to miss it every other day and James was determined to get there on our last day.

We were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves as we departed Mount Batur – we’d done pretty well at exploring the island during our week there and this was an awesome way to finish it off. However, we should’ve learned by now that when things are going pretty peachy it usually means there’s something looming around the corner…and sure enough as we sped out of Mount Batur, wind in our hair we saw it – a police cordon across the road just in front of us, with nowhere else to turn.

Now, we’d been pretty good about making sure we had everything we needed to be able to scoot around in Bali – despite James’ protesting about forking out $35 for an international drivers permit I’d nagged him long enough for him to cave – having read on every online forum that if the police pull you over without one they can pretty much ask for whatever they like as a bribe and there’s nothing you can do about it.

The lake from within the crater

Unfortunately – having paid the $35 for our IDP we’d promptly left it on the shelf back in Brisbane.

Sure enough he pulled us over and asked to see our papers, and James and I shot each other the look of doom as he gingerly pulled his UK driving license out of his pocket. Instantly the guy kicked off about how we needed a local license to be able to drive in Bali, making a bit of a song and dance and then sending James to speak to his ‘friend’ a bit further down the road.

Looking over the lava flow to the peak

Cop "You know you need International License to drive in Indonesia?!"

James “Yeah, we’re really sorry - we’ve got one but left it behind I Australia…”

Cop “If I come to your country – I cannot drive on Indonesian License, you come here you cannot drive on UK License!”

James (in his head) “That’s because you all drive like fucking maniacs.”

I started to follow and he told me to stay put – he must’ve seen the terror in my face as he instantly changed tact and said ‘don’t worry, it’s no problem – just need money!’ before he started quizzing me on our holiday plans with a big smile on his face, like he was my best mate!

Fruits!

Eventually James was released and made his way back to me and Lucille rubbing his fingers together as the international signal for ‘we’re being bribed’. Our LP of 2008 said bribes could be up to 100,000 IDR ($10) but inflation has obviously taken its toll on the island as we came away 250,000 IDR poorer!

On the way down we consoled ourselves with the fact that it would give us some ammunition for the next blog, and our hostess Trish had said even if you DO have your IDP on you they still invent some kind of reason for a fine anyway. The two westerners who’d been pulled over behind us looked like they were in that boat as they protested waving their IDP in the air!

On the plus side at least we made it back to Ubud (just) in time to visit Ibi Oka and his legendary suckling pig – which, as it happens, was pretty amaze-balls.

We’d had a pretty amazing time in Ubud (despite our run in with the law) and we were both a little bit sad to say goodbye to our trusty steed Lucille, although the thought of lounging on a beach for four days and healing our sore behinds was pretty appealing. 

We both hit the sack early in preparation for our 6am start to be whisked by mini van and boat to our very own desert island – Gili Air.

Bali - Day 5 - Gunung Kawi, Kopi Luwak & Rice Terraces

Monument, temple and rainforest

Not a great start to the day as we both woke up with a touch of the dreaded Bali Belly. Also – ants had gotten into our cereal, so we went out for a late breakfast with our big plans looking shaky for the day.

Offerings at the waterfall

We finally felt ok around 1ish so decided to head towards Gunung Kawi – an ancient temple/monument that we’d passed on our way to the water temple the other day and hadn’t realized (like many things round here!).  We battled the traffic back up towards Takpaksiring and managed to find the turnoff – it lead to a paid car park with a friendly enough chap who informed us in no uncertain terms we had 2 hours. We rapidly followed a tour group heading in what presumably was the right direction through a dozen or so market stalls, mostly selling sarongs (which you need to enter the temple). Being the savvy travellers we are, we had bought a couple yesterday on the way home so skipped past trying to avoid eye contact and headed for the entrance.

Bridge to the temple at Gunung Kawi

Just before we got there, we encountered a group of about 20 teenagers attempting to erect a giant bamboo based decoration for a festival starting this week. It was quite entertaining seeing them go for it, with the older guys of the community shouting at them for messing it up and getting part stuck in a tree (it was about 20 feet high). Now the festival is getting closer, these are EVERYWHERE – seeing them get transported about the towns by various modes of transport is amazing – especially when it’s two guys on a scooter looking like they are on their way to a jousting contest.

We made our way through the gate (after I accidentally attempted to gain entry with our parking ticket – much to their amusement) and down a lot of steep steps which we noted would be a bitch to come back up the other way – especially as we had now thrown our sarongs on. The monuments are way down at the bottom of the valley – carved into the rock face. On the way down were some spectacular views of rice terraces and waterfalls – they certainly knew how to pick good locations for things back then!

It rained, a lot!

The monuments themselves are about 8 metres high and each inside their own cave carved out of the mountain, supposedly to commemorate some 11^th century Royalty but the LP said no one really knew for sure it was that old. Similarly to the water temple there was a large blessing pool in front of them and it all looked amazing.

After an hour or so of pretending to be David Bailey we set off back up the steps, by this point it had gotten so humid it was raining so it wasn’t that much fun – especially as there were again, many many market stalls lining the steps waiting for you to pause for breath and sell you some kind of trinket that’d never make it back though customs.

Once we’d battled back to Lucille – we headed north again, in search of a Kopi Luwak plantation. Kopi Luwak (in case you hadn’t seen it before) is coffee made it a fairly unusual way. There is a little rainforest critter called the Asian Palm Civet – kind of a cross between a possum and a lemur I guess – that eats coffee berries. It digests the fleshy fruit part, and the rest it – well, poops out leaving a uniquely processed coffee bean. This is then collected, roasted and ground by farmers in the mountains and sold – for A LOT (it can go for as much as $350 a kilo – a place sells it by the cup in Brisbane for $25!!).

Lisa roasts the most expensive beans in the world!

After getting lost (again) a friendly chap on a scooter heading home helped us out and we found it. Arriving in the car park we were greeted by a couple of VERY friendly Balinese teens who were keen to show us the way. Wary of them being nothing to do with the place we tried to reject their attention – until they handed over a couple of parasol umbrellas and started to lead us inside and we didn’t really have a choice as it had started chucking it down!

Our pint-sized guide led into their compound, it started with a tour of various spices, exotic fruit trees etc that they also grew on site  - but given his surprising professional spiel about them all we felt a bit better. Then he showed us the Civets themselves – the first little enclosure had three of them snoozing (nocturnal little fellas apparently) so we felt a bit more like it was legit. Then we were led to his grandma – who literally looked 150 years old – who was slaving away over a hot wok over a fire, slowly roasting the luwak beans. If she drinks the stuff they should use her as an advertisement for its life giving properties!

Lisa, James and Tiki

It was then that we were shown a couple more civets and offered the chance to hold one! Not being ones to shun the opportunity to hold something small and furry, we both had a turn. It was a little girl – Tiki I think he called her, and she was a bit cranky as it was still light out but we managed to get a couple of pics before she got bitey.

After that we were lead by a girl – no more than 15, to a tasting area to try their array of teas and coffees. At this point we were wondering if we’d have to pay for any of this as there had been no indication to that point and it’d been pretty entertaining. The tasting area was a hut overlooking their property – 2 hectares of serene rainforest leading down the mountain to the river valley below, again it was amazing (something we were getting a lot of in Bali!) – and the teas and coffees were also REALLY tasty, possibly because they all had the sugar equivalent of crack in them.  (raw palm sugar) We then had the option of tasting the Kopi Luwak – for 50,000 Rp a cup ($5). After all that, we were happy to give it a go and it was actually really good – if not a little strange!

Parasol rainforest chique

We headed into the shop to take a look at their stuff (as they have to make some money somewhere!) and tried some rice wine (the white stuff almost took our faces off). She showed us a small bag of the Kopi Luwak and asked if we wanted to take some home – it looked about 300g and was 1.1MRp - $110! I was tempted by the smaller 10 cup pack for $25 but resisted as I probably wouldn’t end up drinking it all, and was happy to have tried it. By the time we got out of there it was getting late, had started hammering it down and was COLD. I made a makeshift windbreak from my sarong (DIY poncho) and we set off back down the mountain.

On the way we got a bit lost (notice a theme emerging?) and had stopped at an intersection confused when a Balinese guy stopped to chat to us – as many of them do. He immediately pointed to me, my poncho and my beard and was amazed and invited us back to his house to meet his family and see his garden! Ordinarily, I’d have thought why not but as it was getting dark and we wanted to get back to catch something starting at 6 we declined – but he did point us in the right direction.

Rice terraces at Tallangang

On that road – we happened upon one of the major attractions of the area in a pretty spectacular rice terrace. Of all the ones we’d seen thus far it was probably the greenest and largest single paddy so we were glad we’d gotten lost! 

Roosting Herons at Petulu

Finally – once back in Ubud, we headed to Petulu to check out the Herons which come into roost in a couple of trees there. That in itself doesn’t sound too impressive – but apparently they come from miles and miles away to nest in these very specific trees, so the locals considered it a sign of good fortune and started caring for them which in turn attracts us tourists to check out the spectacle. It was impressive – hundreds and hundreds flocking to one small tree in the street, the road underneath was COVERED white!

Bali - Day 4 - Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary

Banana Haul

Still sore from yesterdays escapades, we gingerly awoke and headed out for breakfast at Clear Café – again, amazing food and juices. Our plan today was to go and check out the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary.

Tucked away in the South West corner of Ubud – but impossible to ignore (it’s on Monkey Forest Road), we’d walked past there on our first day and were excited by seeing a couple of macaque monkeys in the carpark so knew we’d have to go back and explore. Entrance was $2 each – and I spent the remainder of my change (much to Lisa’s horror - convinced we would get savaged by rabid macaques) on some teeny bananas from the nice Ladies at the gate selling them. Once inside it is immediately monkey central. The clever/greedy ones know that tourists buy bananas at the gate and are keen to feed and take pictures within the first 100m or so and hang out – duly obliging to eat and pose for the cameras.

om nom nom nom

We took a few snaps – but I was determined to keep my bounty for some more deserving monkey folk. We strolled through the forest – which does feel like an actual purpose built animal sanctuary, happily admiring the macaques going about their monkey business but then came to a narrower lane (to be known hereafter as ambush lane) in amongst the foliage. There was one little macaque going nuts on some sweet potato (their staple diet it would seem) so we stopped to look at him, just down the path there were a few Australian tourists (I think I counted 2 bintang vests) rather foolishly opening their bags to get cameras out. Instantly one of the macaques saw a shiny pack of panadol and went for the bags – ripping everything out and taking the packet, immediately knowing how to pop the remaining tablets out and eating them. They tried to exchange the pack for a banana but he just took that as well! Meanwhile, sensing blood in the water another 4 or 5 fully grown adult macaques joined the party and started getting a bit frisky – jumping on their bags, heads, legs to grab anything they could. There was A LOT of screaming and they all eventually ran for cover.

As they came past us – the macaques followed, but unfortunately turned their attention to the bulge of bananas in my pocket, and pounced – one going for each side! Fortunately they were easily shaken off and we scamped through ambush lane relatively unscathed and rabies free!

We wandered through the grounds, went inside one of the temples (after donning some rather fetching sarongs) which had some awesome statues inside – all covered in monkeys obviously. Then we went down a set of stairs to what looked like a scene from Indiana Jones! Thick forest, giant boulders dotted the valley and looked like they’d been there for centuries, huge stone carvings of monitor lizards and a temple at the bottom – but no monkeys, which seemed a bit strange.

We headed back up and into a whole load of commotion. One of the staff has a few ‘trained’ monkeys on his peanut pay roll, so you can sit on the large steps and in turn he’ll place a peanut on your lap/head/hand – whatever he feels like and the macaque jumps from tourist to tourist, hangs out for a minute or so until the next nut is placed. Immediately I had to do it! Despite the rabies fears – this seemed pretty legit and if any of them were going to jump on us I’d rather it be these friendly looking ones who knew they were getting a meal either way!

Grooming - not sure about the other guy!

I stepped up first, and it was awesome! He clambered about a bit, but they’ve got surprisingly soft hands and short nails so it was almost like having a cat scramble about on you (well, Mela anyway). Lisa went next – and much to our surprise, as he put the peanut on her head a second monkey joined the party – both of them jumping on her shoulders at the same time! She looked about as panicked as I’ve ever seen her for a couple of seconds and the couple of dozen people watching found it hilarious.

By this point it was HOT so we headed for the exit, content with our monkey pictures – but I still had a couple of bananas to distribute. I broke one up and tried dishing it out that way – but got routinely ignored. So went and sat on the wall near the exit and eventually a little macaque came for his feed. Having already gotten a load of snaps under a monkey – I just handed him the banana and was about to get up and head off, instead he grabbed it and proceeded to jump straight up my bag and onto my head! Then he peeled it, and started eating it off my hair and shoulders, mushing it into my face and ear – it was pretty cool, if not a bit gross.

We REALLY enjoyed the Monkey Forest, a lot more than we thought we would – aside from the close call at ambush lane the majority of the macaques were just going about their days and not too fussed about all the people, or banana transporters as I’m sure they see us.

Late afternoon – we chilled out a bit, still reeling somewhat from 6 hours on the scooter yesterday. Lisa got a pedicure, I had a large beer and felt drunk again – then we went to Bali Buddah for some chai and people watching.

In the evening we went out in search of some BBQ’d meat for dinner (I had seen an awesome looking stall the night before consisting of one guy, a old half oil drum BBQ and meat on a stick) – but he wasn’t open, so we settled for a Warung around the corner from the Joglo which actually turned out to be AMAZING. It had a few huts with low seating areas dotted around a giant Lilly pond overlooking the rice fields, lit with loads of tiki torches and surprisingly mosquito free! We ate like kings for about $10 – and went home to collapse once more, with the intention of being a little more proactive in the morning and getting back on Lucille (we’ve now named the bike) for another trip further afield.

Two monkeys - one banana