A few ideas of places to discover in Bali
During our two weeks spent on the Island of Bali, we went to discover our surroundings during our free time. We stayed in Canggu and Ubud, and discovered some incredible places! Let’s see that:
Waking around Canggu beach
The first thing we did when exploring the surroundings of Canggu was to walk along the coastline. If you don’t plan to surf, you can just walk along the beach. There is a small road going along the beach when the sea is too high to follow the beach. The most impressive thing here is the color of the sand, which is black, really black, from the lava rocks that make Bali. When walking around you can find some nice views and impressive sculptures of sea deities.
Tanah Lot and the rice fields
A little bit further than Canggu, you can find the Tanah Lot temple, a temple on a rock in the sea, that you can only see from afar, but the view is great. To reach it, we used Grab. The way from Canggu goes through a small road, towards the east, and in the middle of rice fields. There is a whole village selling stuff when you make it there, and you need to pay an entrance fee. There are several cliffs over the sea, made of black rock, as the temples, and several smaller temples on the cliffs. You can walk along the sea over the cliffs, and get a great view. The whole view is great, you can see several impressive sculptures, and see the brilliant green all around. When going back to Canggu, we decided to leave walking and went to walk towards Canggu in the middle of the rice fields. We could see how the birds living in the fields follow the farmers plowing their land, looking for easier food there. And, we could see kids playing with kites.
Uluwatu
For one day, we left the area of Canggu to go to the Uluwatu temple. The south of Bali is a peninsula, south of Denpasar. This peninsula forms a huge rock that we can see from far away in Canggu. On the south of this peninsula, the coastline is made of high cliffs, and on these cliffs, you can find the temple of Uluwatu.
When you get to the complex, there is a large entrance, and a park, famous for hosting several types of monkeys. You can go down into the park, and find the temples. As in most temples, you will be required to dress accordingly, and if needed, sarongs are provided. The views offered from the cliffs and the temples are incredible, nevertheless, pictures are prohibited within the temples. So, not so many pics. From far away, you can spot a giant man walking over the forest. The whole place is incredibly nice, and the temples are very beautiful.
Pantai Nunggalan
After that, we decided to go to Pantai Nunggalan, which was about 1h walk from Uluwatu. The walk is on the side of the main road mainly, and then through smaller roads, that quickly is not marked on Maps. When you reach a nice-looking hotel, there is a small trail to go down to the beach.
Pantai Nunggalan has all the looks of Paradise beach in the mind of Western people. It has white sand, nothing built on it or close, and huge waves that few enjoy surfing. Of course, the fact it is hard to reach helps preserve it. The trail to go down is a small one, in the middle of the forest, and some people have their businesses there selling a few things to the courageous ones adventuring there are trying to make a stabilized path, cementing some stairs. Around the shops, you can spot macaques eating the offerings made to the gods. The trail is not easy to go through, not hard either, but you better go with decent shoes.
The beach is all it looks like from up the hill. It looks like a virgin island, with just a lady selling some drinks down there and her kids. A few people are surfing, and a few other people who walked down to the beach. We are probably less than 10 in total.
But, you can see the effects of humans in the sand. Since the beach is not clean because there are no hotels there, you can see all the sea rejects. All kinds of objects of plastic, mainly papers from snacks, but some weirder, including broken dildos or syringes. So, the view from up there is nicer…
We went back up the hill and managed to grab a car from the hotel to go back to Canggu. We stopped on the way up to drink something, as it was very warm and we did some effort. It allowed us to observe the ballet of the monkeys trying to get their hands on what the shop has to sell, and the lady, ready to kick them away.
Kajeng Rice fields
On Our first walk around Ubud, we went downtown and decided to look for the trail to Kajeng Rice Fields.
The trail starts from the main road, a small space between two buildings. Google Maps knows it. You start to cross a small river, and go up between buildings for a short time, before making it to the rice fields. They do offer some very nice views and you can see the ducks running to the pond altogether. We went on as far as possible until the trail became the edge of a canal that drew the water from the forest to the fields. A nice little walk for an afternoon.
Scooter lessons
As the Bali way of transportation is a scooter, we decided we needed to try and went for a class to get acclimated. It was nice and fun, but we didn’t go further in Bali as it is not legal to drive a motorbike with an international car driving license, and we heard the police are likely to catch foreigners that look uneasy to drive a scooter.
Taman Sari
During our weekend in Ubud, we started looking for waterfalls. We took a Grab to the Taman Sari, and the name may be familiar from Yogyakarta, as it means the water castle. Here, it is a waterfall that has been reorganized so people can immerse under the waterfall. It is a nice place, and we went in, the water was not so cold. A nice place to go, some nice views…
Tibumana Waterfall
After that, we decided to go and walk towards Tibumana Waterfall, and here was the real gem. The walk from Taman Sari goes through a small road, crossing a village on Jl Setra Agung, and it looks like a perfect Balinese village.
Bali has developed its own way of worshiping Hinduism. Hinduism has been brought here when the island was conquered by the Majapahit empire from Java, around the 13th century. When Java became Muslim later, many Hindus moved to Bali, and Bali remained Hindu. As a result, they do heavily practice the religion, putting offerings every morning in front of shrines, on structures, and even on the canals guiding the water through the rivers.
And, their houses sometimes look more like temples than houses, with shrines and sculptures. This village shows perfectly that, and, after a few turns, you come to the middle of rice fields. The road is on the ridge, in the middle of two valleys, and the terraces go on both sides down the slope. The view and the colors there are incredible.
Then, we made it to the fall and went down towards the valley. There is a fee for entrance. The waterfall is nice, but definitely, the best view comes before, in the middle of the rice fields. We wanted to walk to go to another, place, but it started raining and we managed to get a place to cover ourselves and got a Grab back to the hostel.
Pura Tirta
On the following day, we changed focus to switch to temples. And we started with Pura Tirta. It was a day of celebration in Pura Tirta, and people were coming for their ablutions and offerings, and prayers. This was interesting to see how many people were coming. When we asked about it, people did tell us that in Hinduism, there is no specific day for the different practices, but… it did seem to be a special day. From what I understand, it was probably Saraswati, a day in honor of the Goddess of knowledge. We walked around the temple, observing. We found the coys, enormous, in their basins.
Pura Mengening
After that, we decided to look for another temple, and we went not far away to Pura Mengening. This temple is very close, but is harder to reach, as it is deep in the valley of the river downhill. There were also people purifying them there, but mainly families with children. The valley was impressive, with the temple built down there, very hard to access.
Candi Tebing Gunung Kawi
After that, we walked towards one of the most incredible places we have been, We took a small road to avoid traffic, and made it to Candi Tebing Gunung Kawi.
This is a troglodyte temple, carved deep in the valley, and it has several hidden areas to discover. The temples are on both sides of the valley, and you can see structures of different eras and sizes. Then, when going up, we took a small path between the rice fields, and… we found some more structures, hidden behind another part of the cliff, that looked smaller, like a village, protected by a gate. We stopped for a fresh coconut, answer made it back.
Monkey forest
During our last days in Ubud, we decided to go to the monkey forest, an area of preservation in the south of the town for the monkeys. It seems to be the major tourist attraction in Ubud, and it has a large and nice entrance building. As its name says it, it is an area in which the monkeys run freely, but it does seem complicated to keep them in it as you can easily see them wandering around in the closest streets too. There are several Hindu sculptures, and paintings expos, mainly influenced by Hindu mythology. The park is nice and makes for a nice afternoon.
