MONKEYING AROUND UBUD

After a good six-hour flight from Melbourne my friend and I rented a cab to get us to the Balibbu hostel. It's over an hour drive so it's easy to get ripped off by cab drivers, definitely practice some semi aggressive negotiations. I think we ended up paying 30 000 rupiah, but we could have probably gotten it for less if we were more tenacious.

The first night was spent exploring the surrounding area, discovering an abandoned temple and watching the sun go down over a rice field. When we got back to the hostel we attended the wedding of the hostel host's son. The wedding, pure serendipity, meant free food and cheap drinks and that is always welcome on a first day.

Early next morning we rented scooters and went to the monkey forest. You have to pay a negligible price to get in, but it's well worth it for this rather unique Ubud attraction. Inside I bought some bananas as bait for the monkeys to climb me and after some unsuccessful attempts, and an incident of grand theft(a monkey stole some bananas right out of my pocket while another was distracting me), I had a great encounter with my furry friend pictured above.

The rest of the day we spent zooming around the countryside on our scooters, visiting a rice plantation and just taking in the scenery. After a terrific foot massage, and nothing more mind you, and a cheap dinner it was time to head back to the hostel and sleep before the journey up Mt Batur.

Where to stay

Balibbu 

While a bit secluded from the main city this hostel has a very chill vibe, and very cheap scooter rentals which make it easy to get around. If I remember correctly, they also have a guided scooter tour that's free as long as you rent your own scooter. It is also very close to the monkey forest.

Sunrise Aat Mt Batur

One of the most worthwhile things by far I did in Bali was the sunrise hike up Mount Batur. When you go around Ubud you will see it advertised many places and people will try to sell tickets. This is another opportunity to practice your barter skills. If I remember correctly we got the price down from 300 000 rupiah to around 50 000. Go around to different vendors, be a bit cheeky and don't be afraid to walk away. They'll either come running after you or you'll just find a different place.

Once you've booked, you can can just chill out for the rest of the day and go to bed early. They'll pick you up at two, threeish in the morning and drive you to the base of the mountain, about an hour's drive if I remember. I was expecting a lonely hike up the mountain, but instead I got huge mob of people basically making a procession up the summit. This is quite epic in its own sense, but make no mistake this is a huge tourist attraction and it's highly commercialized.

On a positive note, the sunrise from the top of the volcano is simply spectacular and there are friendly monkeys there as well :)

Marveling at the sunset in Uluwatu

The stunning Uluwatu temple is located amongst the craggy cliffs of South West Bali 

I'm sure it's beautiful no matter what time of day you go, but I find it hard to believe anything can be more beautiful than the sunset. This also coincides with a show put on by the locals. Some of my friends and I went to see it and while it was interesting enough, just walking around the temple grounds and finding a nice lookout might be just as worthwhile(and cheaper).

If you're feeling festive the bar Single Fin is definitely worth a visit. We went home to our villa to change and then rented three cars to drive us there, and wait for us to take us back home. 

Exploring the underwater wonders of Gili T

Gili T is mostly known for its extreme party culture and while that's certainly a reason to give this island a visit, there is more to this island than meets the eye.

The Gili islands, Gili T, Gili Air and Gili Meno are three little islands just off the coast of Lombok and they are home to some of the finest diving in the world. The main reason for me going to Bali was actually to get the Open Water diving course. You would have thought that with a left foot swollen to unholy proportions(view at your own discretion)due to the earlier scooter accident, the dream would be as good as lost, but I'm tenacious when I want to and convinced them to let me dive.

Three days and four dives later I was certified and ready to head back to to Bali, but Gili T will always stand out as one of the best experiences of my life. My only regret is not taking more photos, hehe I guess I was too busy having fun.

Where to stay

Gili divers

If you come to Gili to dive, I can recommend no other hostel. The dive instructors here are superb and they give you a discount on accommodation as long as you dive at least once a day.

Taking a break from it all in Amed

After the intense stay at Gili T it felt pretty great to catch up on some sleep on the boat back to mainland Bali. Limping up the beach, my foot looked worse than ever, my friend and I was stopped by a very long nailed man insisting we should come to the hostel he worked for. I usually have a hostel prebooked when I rock up to a new place, but this was an exception and I was pretty tired and hot so I decided to for once leave where I slept to someone else's hands. Luckily the gambit paid off and he led us to a beautiful, rather big, homestay a little bit left of the main beach.

At the homestay we actually ran into some other friends of us staying there and when I saw the blood drain from their face when they saw my poorly bandaged foot I finally conceded it was time to see a doctor. One nerve wrecking ride on the back of the hostel owners scooter I arrived at a not completely unsanitary medical clinic where I got patched up and was given some broad spectrum antibiotics. 

After a night of some well deserved sleep we went over to the nearby dive shop to gear up for our dive of the USS Liberty, a sunken shipwreck off the coast. On Gili T we were responsible for carrying our own gear, but here this work was delegated to the local women. Make no mistake the aluminum canisters she are carrying are heavy!

The dive itself was incredible with literal tons of fish and even a mantis shrimp, the coolest animal on earth, near the end. You can watch a pretty shaky video of parts of the dive under.

Traversing the country in style

My last real day in Bali, seeing as the next morning was just spent getting to the airport, consisted of me basically traversing half the island and visiting temples on the way. I had already decided I would rent a driver for the day and discussed how I should go about getting one with my friend when the long nailed man from earlier intervened and said he'd do it for 800 000 rupiah, roughly 80 AUD. There was only one problem, I didn't really like the guy and I felt like I was being ripped off.

The guy didn't really take no for an answer though so I ended up escaping over to the dive shop from the day before where I negotiated with one of the staff there. He said he would drive me down for around 50 AUD and he seemed like a cool guy so I agreed. However it turned out I misunderstood and it was actually his cousin who was going to drive me and after driving for around 15 minutes we turned down a side road and picked up his brother. Reading this I realize it almost sounds like a set up, but the truth is these guys made my day! (They're the ones with me in the picture above) They were both in their early twenties and it was really interesting learning about their lives and joking around while driving in the sweltering heat. 

On the way from Amed to the first stop, the small water temple Tirta Gangga, there were some impressive rice fields and panoramic views and the little temple itself didn't disappoint either.

Paying respects at the mother temple

The Besakih temple, also known as the mother temple, is one of the largest temple complexes of its kind in the world, it is absolutely massive. Upon arrival you are surrounded by local women dressing you in some form of religious garb that is actually mandatory when walking around the temple. When you're all dressed up they start asking for payment, which was of course not discussed beforehand. Be sure you only pay for the minimum, the bottom piece and the "hat", and not get tricked into buying the whole package of praying candles etc. like I was :P

It doesn't end there however, once you're in the temple courtyard you'll be approached by a manager to be assigned a guide, also mandatory inside the complex. This guy really tried to rip me off and it was the first time I actually got quite angry in Bali. Finally I got the price down halfway and was on my way into the temple. At least I lucked out with the guide, a rather corpulent man who wanted to take photos of me with every conceivable background and angle, precisely what I was looking for haha. 

When the tour finished I got lunch with my taxi drivers and started the longest part of the drive. I actually fell asleep during most of this ride so before I knew it I was in downtown Denpasar linking up with my friends who I would be going back to Melbourne with the next morning. My adventure in Bali was over this time, but the island has plenty of other places, beaches and treasures I didn't get to discover on my 11 day journey. I guess I'll have to come back one day :D