Indonesia – Page 7 – Simply cycling around

Candidasa > Candidasa (4km by walk)

Today we went to do some snorkeling at the “Blue Lagoon”, this is how they call it. My feeling is that this area is still in a recovery stage as there is a lot of broken coral but some of them look okay. We must bargain with the only boat driver who came to us this morning. Actually a guy is charging to find the tourists and bargain for a price and then he call the driver with who he shares the money :-) Like often he told us “shut, don’t tell this price to anyone because I did a special price for you”. Yeah, yes naturally. Thanks for that ;-) We know it a game and no matter which price he will still earn some money. Keep your breath, we dive now :-)

Amed > Candidasa (40km by car)

Today our goal was to go to Candidasa, find a garage to fix the car and stay quiet at the hotel. Apparently, there is the possibility to do some snorkeling in this area. Unfortunately, most of the coral has been destroyed when the coastline was developed for tourism. The silly thing is they used the coral to build hotels but did not realised that people would come here for the beaches and to SEE that same coral which doesn’t exist anymore. At the same time, the coral was protected the beaches from erosion so it had a double role. They stopped mining until the late 1980s. Now they hope that the coral will grow back like it was before. It will certainly take decades. What a silly system based on profit and destruction like too often…

Toya Bungkah > Amed (90km by car)

The main goal of today was to climb Mount Batur (Gunung Batur) which is 1717m high. The lake is situated around 700m. It’s approximately a 4 hours walk return. Our guide, Budi, was really kind. He is the one with the red hat and the blue/yellow shirt on the picture above. The landscape from the top was impressive as we could see at 360 degrees. We could sight the Danau lake, the Bali sea and the Batur’s crater. We had the breakfast cooked on site using the heat from active hot sources smoking out of the rock. Finally we walked down to the hotel and drove towards Amed where we will spend the night. Tough day! :-)

Villa Manuk > Toya Bungkah (Mount Batur) (49km by car)

Today we have done another walk to visit a waterfall before it get too hot and then drove towards Toya Bungkah from where we will start a trek to the summit of Mount Batur. Apparently there is a certain concern about Mount Batur and the fact we can not climb it without a guide (which cost about 300.000 IDR per person > $30 AUD). Some people have been in trouble when they tried. A bunch of 20 guides started to kick them in the legs and even grab a person to threaten her with a cigarette in the eye. Well, we might take a guide and avoid this kind of exceptional problem. Some guide book call for a boycott of this area as it getting worse and worse over the years.

Lovina > Villa Manuk (31km by car)

From the beach back to the mountains. Today we are going to visit some hot springs and then drive to the the bush again. We found a hotel in Manuk Sesa, a tiny village halfway between Lovina and Mount Batur, a volcano that we will visit very soon. We stopped for lunch at a very nice Warung where we experienced local Balinese food.

Munduk > Lovina (41km by car)

Good morning (Salamat Pagi in Indonesian). We start the day with a 3h trek to visit a waterfall. Then we drove down to the coast to Lovina, the place where we can see dolphins and do some snorkeling. Compare to Munduk, Lovina is much more touristy. We can’t walk without being grabbed by someone who wants to sell paint, jewels, souvenirs, clothes. The best answer we have is “Tidak, Terima Kasih” which means “No, thank you”.

Ubud > Munduk (58km by car)

Today we are going to visit the mountains of Bali. The roads are getting narrow and windy. The most astonished thing is the traffic; it’s like we never leave the city. Everywhere where there is a road “shops” are present. Like always if we had a scooter we could find a place to repair it every 5 minutes. There is shops specialized in offerings, Warung when we want something cheap to eat, tiny supermarkets, laundry. Balinese are really into services. It looks like they don’t own much stuff live mostly outside their homes. On our way up, we stopped to visit the water temple called “Pura Ulun Danu Beratan” which is the major one in this area.