My trip to Bali - Trekking to Mount Batur

8 of May

It was impossible to sleep at 8pm for me, but I managed to fell asleep at 10pm.

When the alarm clock rang, it was difficult to get out of the bed at 1.30am. Well it felt weird to setup an alarm clock at 1.30am, pretty unusual.

Our shuttle arrived at 2.00am. We were just 4 persons on the van, and we stopped at at least 5 or 6 hotels to pick-up other persons.

The ride lasted approximately 1h30. We stopped for a breakfast on the road, a fried banana with coffee. It was simple but we got some energy for the trek. 

The van parked on the bottom of the mount, it was around 3am. We got out of the van: it was cold, Keitut told us to bring shorts, but it wasn't the best idea. Luckily we would do some exercice to warm our bodies up.

On the parking lot, I raised my head, and the sky was spectacular. I didn't see the full sky for years. It was incredible, I spent 10 minutes enjoying the view: we were able to see each star shining in the sky.

I was amazed and touched by the luck I had to be here.

Our guides gave up some flash lights, and we started our journey in the dark.

We climbed the 2,000m of altitude with some obstacles: it wasn't so easy, a lot of rocks, it was slippery, and a little bit crowded. Sometimes we had to wait in a line so everyone could climb.

I lost track of time, enjoying making exercice, stopping to watch the view. We didn't have time to talk, but that was okay, I just wanted to enjoy the moment.

The last 20 minutes was the most difficult part, I was tired and we had to make bigger strides, because of the rocks.

Once on the top, it was really cold and windy, but I was so proud: We made it! 

We sat on the grass, with a coffee, a boiled egg and a sandwich, and enjoyed the view.

It was an incredible mix of colors: pink, yellow, orange, blue... I was speechless.

After the sunrise, we walked a little bit around: we met at this moment a monkey, passing by. We saw smoke coming beneath us: of course, it's a volcano!

After spending almost one hour on the top, we made a U-turn and went down to the parking lot.

It was so slippery I fell down twice, the descent was as amazing as the climbing. And we realized how high we were!

Back to Ubud, we directly jumped in the swimming pool, so refreshing after our trek!
We then found a small place to have lunch (I took the Nasi Goring -fried rice- dish, I need to cook it at home!) and as usual, a french pineapple juice (my favorite).

I had huge calves muscle soreness after the trekking, and we wanted to relax, what about a  massage? 

Here in Ubud, it's really easy to get a massage, as there are beauty salons almost everywhere, and it's really cheap.

We took the one-hour full body massage, we had the possibility to choice which oil we wanted, and I went for the Bali-flower one.

For the next hour, I lost track of time, feeling relaxed, almost sleeping, it was so pleasant (except for the calves-little bit painful).

Next we wanted to get some local souvenirs, at Ubud Market.
It wasn't the most calm moment: so crowded. We easily lose money value, with high bills value.
The strategy is to never stop talking, and never make you think: in that case you will by stuff with a way more expensive price. Be careful!

We spent the rest of our day walking in Ubud streets...

My trip to Bali - Ubud part 2

7th of May - part 2

Keitut drove us to our next stop (and one of my favorite visit of my Balinese trip): Tirta Empul Temple, meaning Holy Water Spring in Balinese.

It's a typical Hindu temple, famous for its Holy water. Indonesian or even tourists come to visit this temple to benefit from its sacred ritual purification.

In order to enter temples, you need to wear "decent" clothes, meaning not showing too much of your body. If you wears pant shorts, the temple will lend you a sarong, which is a piece of fabric you wear around your legs, tied at the belt.

Some of the hawkers outside the entrance will try to make you buy a sarong, making you think it's mandatory to have one and that there are none inside, trying to fool you. But be careful! It depends on your clothes and they will lend you one.

The water ritual purification includes 30 mini-fountains spots, you need to put your head under each hole where the water flows, and touch it while your head receive the water.

To get a better idea, here are some pictures to get you understand:

We walked within the temple for one hour, the architecture is so beautiful and peaceful:

I noticed that so far, there are everywhere offerings in the streets, in front of homes and in temples, called Canang Sari and Segehan. It's part of the Hindu culture.
They come in a palm tree leaves, full of cigarette, rices, sweet food or flowers. These offerings are sent to Gods (Canang Sari) and bad demons (Segehan).
Canang Sari is full of good offerings, to bring prosperity, good health and to be thankful and grateful.
On the other hand, Segehan can include good ot bad offerings: deamons are not able to make any difference. This will calm these deamons.
I was scared to walk on it, but it doesn't matter, the most important thing is to offer.

Next stop: Gunung Tawi Temple.
To access the Temple, we had to cross rice fields, and go down more than 300 steps.
Like for Tirtal Tempul, we had to wear a Sarong.

The rice fields were so green, lush and wild, the Temple almost felt lost and abandoned.
When we arrived downstairs, it was a video-game like scenery, we felt inside Tom Raider or Uncharted. Moreover, there were almost no tourists there, I was feeling small and privileged, such a huge archeologic site!

The return climb was a little bit sporty, and we would enjoy lunch after 15 minutes climbing the stairs.

Keitut drove us to the next stop: Goa Gajah temple, to have lunch and then visit the temple.
We asked Keitut to recommend a good typical Indonesian restaurant.
I need to point out a huge disappointment we faced in Indonesia. When I travel and as a French person, the local cuisine is part of the travel, as important as accommodation or activities.
In Philippines, the local food wasn't so good, that's why we spent most of our lunch and diner in fancier restaurants, to be honest it was tourists-kind of restaurant, but it was good food.
In Bali (and it will be worse in Gili Islands-articles to come), if you want to enjoy the best dishes (and the TYPICAL REAL food is really tasty), please go to small places, with one or two tables, with dishes already cooked and in front of you, so that you can chose.
We naively thought that we would find some nice food as well in bigger restaurants, at least some of them. It was a huuuuuuuuge mistake. Please NEVER EVER EVER go to a fancy-like restaurant. Go to street food spots, you will pay less and taste delicious food.
My cousin theory is that Indonesian have troubles to manage cooing food for more than 10 or 20 persons, so the quality is squeezed to welcome more tourists. In fact, it does make sense...
So back to my story, Keitut advised us an awful restaurant. It was Indonesian food, but terrible taste.

It was supposed to be a Gado-Gado, which is a mixed-vegetable salad with a peanut sauce. It looked like plastic vegetables and without any flavor. It was more than 60,000 rupiah, which is almost 4 €, and if you go to a small real restaurant, it would be half-price for a fabulous meal!

Last temple, Goa Gajah (meaning Elephant Cave) was the perfect stop for a nice & fresh walk around nature.
It was initially a sanctuary spot for meditation, built in the 11th Century.

(sorry for the blurry picture)

The place was a perfect match between Temple and jungle, lakes and sun. It wasn't crowded, and it was the perfect ending to this day.

Keitut drove back to Ubud, and we jumped directly to our Guest House swimming pool for a refreshing break, as the weather was warm and about 29-30 degrees. Even if it was hot -and I felt the same in the Philippines- it's not awful as a 30 degrees weather in Paris. Even with the same temperature, the feeling is quite different: this asian-warm makes you fell great, as it's not too warm, and you can still enjoy feeling the sun on your skin, the essential vitamin D :-)

After our disappointing lunch, we were seeking nice spot to eat, and we found this tiny place just crossing the street, as typical as I wanted. I enjoyed to much the diner, it was soooooooo good, that I forgot to take any pictures of it... 
That was as well a specific part of this journey/travel: as I am a phone-addicted person, my idea was to detox myself from my smartphone. That's why sometimes, I just wanted to enjoy the moment, without having my phone in my hand all of the time.
I have this friend, who is travelling a lot, who told me once that in a middle of her trip, she lost her camera (she didn't have any camera on her phone either). She never enjoyed holidays that much.
As you know that you won't be able to take any picture to remember, you need to fully enjoy every minute, and take a mental picture of the moment. 
And sometimes, forgetting about everything (what time is it, where is my phone, I need the perfect picture, I need to check my messages..) is just being THERE, RIGHT NOW, f***k the rest for a second.

We went to sleep early this night, because our next adventure would start at 1.30am: our shuttle van would come and pickup us at 2.00am, driving us to Mount Batur, for a sunrise session at 2,000 meters of altitude.

My trip to Bali - Ubud part 1

6th of May 2019

After my cousin joined me, and my 3-days in Kuta, we decided to move to Ubud, as all the people I met that visited Bali recommended this city, for the temples, rice terraces and because it's a quiet and a nice city, more typical than Kuta.

We took a 2hours van to get to Ubud, a town in the North of Kuta, inside the island.

As it was warm weather, we decided to book a guest house with a pool, and it was a good decision.

I spoke with an American woman in the van, who talked about an incredible thing to do: climb the Mount Batur, which is 2,000m high to watch the sunrise. Meaning climbing the mountain in the night, with a flashlight, looked like a unique experience!

Once arrived in Ubud, we booked two tours for the next few days:

- With a personal driver to discover the surroundings 

- The hiking tour to Mount Batur

The guest house was in fact really awesome! In the middle of the jungle, quiet and with nice architecture. I am not used to provide any housing name, but if you have the chance to visit Ubud, Yuliati House is a good place to think of:

Ubud is a nice city, but still looks like our western countries streets, I think to match tourists hometown aspects.

We walked in the street to find a nice place to eat, there are a lot of cute house entrances like this one, in a Hindu-style:

7th of May

We woke up early, our driver was waiting for us directly outside the guest house.

His name was Keitut, and I remember that on this dashboard, there was a weird fur-style carpet. I thought about the biodiversity growing inside this hairy carpet.

First, we went to the Ceking rice terrasse (also known as Tegalalang), 15 minutes by car from Ubud.

We went to walk in the terrasse. It was beautiful, big, and so green. The weather was warm at 8am, and there weren't a lot of people, the best moment to walk around the stairs. The view was incredible, I felt small and close to the nature, and my eyes weren't stopping moving around, to enjoy every second.

After enjoying this hour walking there, we took our breakfast (banane pancakes, so tastyyyy) with fresh juices in front of this paradise.

Then, we drove to a "coffee break", as say the Indonesian there. Meaning coffee plantation, for the famous kopi luwak coffee, or "poop coffee". 

This plantation (named alam Bali Agriculture) had cocoas, anis, cloves and green cardamome. 

This coffee is really famous around the world. The coffee grains are digested by civets (small animals looking as cats, sleeping all day, with night activity), fermented and then the intact grains are retrieved from the faeces. It's actually the most expensive coffee in the world, and very tasty. 

We had a nice tea and coffee tasting: 

- Coffee: coco, vanilla, ginger, classic arabica

- Tea: ginger, mangosteen -a tropical fruit- (tasted like grapes) 

But to be honest, I didn't enjoy seing these poor civets, spending they entire lives in a cage, as captive so humans can enjoy drinking this coffee.

However, this coffee plantation has such a beautiful landscape. 

The next stop offered a nice view on the Mount Batur, or Kintanami Volcano. On the next day, we would be on the other side (and then I will provide more details about the volcano).

When we arrived here, and a lot of Indonesian hawkers were rushing to sell us things, such as bracelets or dresses. It was oppressive, as we weren't peaceful to enjoy the spectacular panorama in front of us. Our strategy was like in school when the teacher asked something to the class: lower your eyes and avoid every eye contact.

Next, I will make you discover typical Balinese temples.

My trip to Bali - 1st day, 1st impressions

3rd May 2019

For the first time, I will write an article in English.

I went for a two-week vacation in Bali. I wanted to get some good vibes, and get a break from my daily life routine. I got served!

One of my colleagues has a friend in Bali, so when I landed, I had someone waiting for me at the airport.

My cousin would join me two days after, and I wanted to meet new people and relax on my first days.

It was the first time I went on holidays by myself. I was a little bit scared, because I'm not used to be alone.

My objective was to go with the flow, be outside my comfort zone, talk to people and just being with me, to reconnect with me. And to be honest, it worked, it was far more better than a therapy.

I spent my first days at the beach. I spoke a lot with the persons I met there. From all around the world. From the old german guy who has an Indonesian girlfriend to anf 18-year old young traveller. It was so awesome to discuss different cultures and point of views, while putting my feet in the sand and listening to the water, and watching surfers.

This was an important part of this journey: the people I met.

When I arrived at the hostel, I spent the night discovering travel stories of backpackers like me.

It's amazing, and I've noticed that during my Philippines trip: a lot of backpackers are travelling for months or years, making a stop in Australia to work and get money to discover Asian countries. It is so easy to travel from one country to another, and there are so many different types of landscapes, culture and cuisine!
I heard a lot about these different countries, like Thailand and its crazy beaches, temples and food, Vietnam and its joyful people, the beautiful Ha Long Bay, or even Australia with the long roads without any city, its Great Barrier Reef and scary animals.

Sometimes I feel stuck in my daily life, missing the real stuff. and the best to reconnect with yourself, and drop this daily life, is to be away and see new things.

So far I have visited the Philippines and a part of Indonesia, and it felt the same: as I'm scared of the water, I was able to snorkel or even dive. 

I was able to speak fluently English or Spanish, I wasn't shy anymore, it was the real me.

Because I was away, and everything can be possible.

I spent the next two days on the beach, enjoying this new perspective and as I arrived alone in Bali, I was in fact never alone.