After we had to abort our summer Rockies trip (because my mom fell and broke her arm, causing us to reroute from Calgary to Seattle and skipping our Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton legs), we’ve been itching to get back “out there” to see new places and critters. A dive trip from Bali to Komodo, with a chance to see Komodo dragons in the wild, was just the ticket.
While we’ve been to Bali twice, both visits pre-dated our Trail2Blaze blog, so we don’t have much to show for it. What we loved about Bali in our 2015 and 2016 visits was the affordability and the exotic nature of the island. While Indonesia is officially a Muslim nation, the island of Bali is almost entirely Hindu (though its beliefs are a bit different from the Hinduism of India, incorporating animism and some aspects of Buddhism). This means that there are temples everywhere and little ceremonies happening constantly—funeral or wedding processions walking down the middle of the road, etc. Bali has great scuba diving as well, which we explored on our 2015 land-based diving trip.
What we don’t love about Bali is getting there. For us, it is a 24-hour slog from LAX, divided between two flights and a layover. Some airlines fly through Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, or Jakarta, but we have used EVA Air three times and like them a lot. So, after an initial 14-hour flight, we had our layover in Taipei, Taiwan. The Taipei airport is very cute with Lego and Hello Kitty stores, plants growing in the walls, and even a Hello Kitty-decorated airplane.
An interesting side note. When I went into a little pharmacy in the Taipei airport to get band-aids, the pharmacist would not sell them to me without seeing my boarding pass first. I wonder what that is about!
After our 5-hour layover in Taipei, we hopped on another EVA Air flight to Denpasar, Bali, for the remaining 5 hours of flight time. By this time, our bodies were very confused about what time of day it was (6:00 p.m. in L.A., but 9 a.m. in Taiwan and Bali). We had been served meals at random times on the flights, so we were not hungry, just confused—one of the challenges of international travel, as I know many of you understand.
We arrived in Denpasar, Bali about 3:00 p.m., made it through customs, collected our luggage, and met up with our driver to head to the Komaneka Resort at Rasa Sayang in Ubud. Though only 37 km away (23 miles), it took over 2 hours to get there—no freeways, and lots of rush hour traffic. Our driver shared about all of the temples to various gods along the way (most Balinese are Hindu). While we don’t subscribe to polytheism ourselves, it was nevertheless interesting to see and learn about the cultural practices and religious beliefs of the people of Bali.
We arrived tired and hungry in the dark, but were treated so graciously by the hotel staff as we settled into our luxurious room and got a quick dinner from room service, falling into bed after our 31 hours of travel door-to-door from L.A.
The next morning, we woke up to the beauty of this hotel and its surroundings—the epitome of exotic! We loved our breakfast buffet overlooking the infinity pool, and the excellent Bali coffee gave us just the kick we needed to get onto our new time zone.
Our goal for the day in Ubud was simple—to visit the Sacred Monkey Forest. When we were on Bali nine years ago for diving, we weren’t able to visit the monkey forest because I got sick on our last day of diving, so I really wanted to visit this iconic place on our current trip.
Home to over 1200 long-tailed macaques and 3 temples built in the 14th century, the monkey forest is an inexpensive and popular tourist destination in Ubud (we paid around $5 each to get in), with both temples and monkeys considered sacred by the people in the community. The forest is managed by the local village, and park staff ensure that tourists behave themselves, while also feeding the macaques on sweet potatoes, corn, and other veggie items. Because these monkeys are so used to humans, they come very close and there are plenty of photo opportunities.
The forest has several different groups of monkeys, and even has an assisted living facility for the old and disabled, including a blind monkey, an amputee, and a very-senior citizen. It takes about 1-2 hours to explore the forest and temples and is well worth the time. Comfortable shoes were a must, and you should expect to sweat because this climate is very humid. The gelato afterwards helped a lot! We were able to walk to the monkey forest, which was about 10 minutes from our hotel, and on the way back we did just a bit of shopping on the bustling streets of Ubud.
Our other priority on this day was to get a massage back at our hotel to help us recover from the long two days of travel. A 60-minute traditional Balinese massage on the upper floor of our hotel, complete with tea, soothing music, and the pounding and stretching of virtually every muscle by two very strong women, cost us about $26 each. Bali is the place to come to do a lot on a budget—food, lodging, and yes, massages, are all very reasonably priced.
Our massages were followed by high tea at the restaurant where we had breakfast. We then walked through Central Ubud to find working ATMs. They were either out of cash or didn’t accept our foreign cards (we needed cash for our upcoming boat trip), but we did get to see a mass of tourists and shops as we walked down the main road. Dinner back in the hotel restaurant capped off our evening.
We left our hotel in Ubud the next morning, heading to meet our dive group near the airport in order to travel to the boat that would be our home for the next 11 days. On the way to meet our dive group, we stopped at the Tegenungan Waterfall to enjoy a quick, beautiful view of this 50-foot waterfall, along with rice fields and more scenic temples. We arrived back near the airport and met up with the other 15 divers, plus the boat crew who transported us—Phase II had begun (next blog post)!
Beautiful pics! Sounds like a wonderful time.
Beautiful photos. Look forward to your new dive adventure.
Adrienne
Wow! What adventures the two of you have! Loved this and looking forward to the next post!
Bali is a place I have really wanted to visit! So far, we only made it to Thailand and Singapore area – one day, hopefully in the near future! This looks like it will be an incredible trip!!! Like you, I hate the super lengthy travel to get there! Make the most of it. I can hardly wait to see the amazing pics!
Good thing you send these blogs, otherwise I would never get to see these parts of the world. Through you I get to travel to some exotic places!! Thank you.
Love,
Phyllis Brown
What a wonderful adventure! Am looking forward to the next installment:)
Soooooo colorful there!