Winding Roads & Never Ending TalesFamily trips, wrong turns and the places we still talk about.
Ubud and Lembongan: The Middle of Our Bali Family Trip
Bali was not going to be only a beach holiday for us. In the middle of our week came Ubud, the Kintamani views and then Lembongan, with a change from inland sightseeing to an island stay. Quite a different setting from Kuta. We were doing all this with our two-year-old, so the plan had to make room for her pace too. These two days gave us some of that variety we had hoped for when choosing Bali for our anniversary trip.
These were Days 3 and 4 of our June 2016 anniversary trip, with our two-year-old along.
A note on this archive story
From the travel archive, first published 4 Mar 2017. This is our experience at the time, not a current price or booking guide. Check opening hours, access, fares and services before making your own plans.
Where do Ubud and Lembongan fit into a week in Bali?
In our itinerary, Ubud was Day 3 and the Lembongan cruise was Day 4, between our Kuta and Seminyak stays. These are our experiences from 2016, not current tour schedules.
Day 3: Kintamani Tour and Ubud
Again a beautiful morning and after a wholesome breakfast at the hotel we started for Kintamani Volcano which is one of the most prominent landmarks of Indonesia. The Kintamani area consists of three main villages, namely Penelokan, Batur, and Kintamani. We stopped at the penelokan village which has a series of hotels giving panoramic views of the place.
Due to its fertile land, this place is the largest producer of fruits and most hotels will serve you fresh fruits as part of their meal plan. It was an out of world sight with its combination of dark lava slopes and black molten rocks, lush green vegetation and the blue-green coloured lake. Mount Batur comprises three volcanic cones: Batur I, Batur II, and Batur III.
Trekking and hiking as well as observing the sunrise are all popular pastimes. The large and beautiful Batur caldera lies on the north-west. Caldera II is circular-shaped, spanning at least seven kilometres in diameter.
Lake Batur is on the south-east side of the volcano, 16 kilometres wide and is a popular fishing spot. Toyobungkah has hot lakeside hot springs, known for its curative mineral water. It is a popular choice among trekkers to spend the night before hiking up Mount Batur to watch the sunrise. West of adjacent Mount Abang is the secluded old Balinese village of Trunyan, known for its ancient burial traditions using an open graveyard.
The Pancering Jagat Temple is an interesting stopover while in Trunyan, with its name derived from a four-metre-tall statue called ‘Arca Da Tonta’ or ‘Ratu Gede Pusering Jagat’. You will have to change your clothes to local dress to see this place, though.
After lunch, we started back to the next stop of very famous Monkey Temple. This was one place which was long awaited to let my kid have a ball. As soon as we entered swarm of monkeys started moving around us. It was real fun watching playful monkeys in their natural habitat, swinging through canopies, lazing along pathways or feeding on bananas, the site offers cool walks along paved pathways through a leafy nutmeg forest.
Public admission is IDR 40,000 for adults and IDR 30,000 for kids. Deep inside the forest lies the 14th century Pura Dalem Agung Padangtegal. Most mossy relics and statues are under dense foliage with little sunlight, giving these smaller sites their mysterious and ancient feel straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Banyan tree roots hanging over shadowy dragon staircases offer exotic photo opportunities.
You can also discover an ancient bathing temple, located north-west of the main Ubud Monkey Forest grounds, known as Pura Beji, accessible down a flight of stairs and next to a stream. For safety concerns it is recommended that one does not touch any monkey, I was standing near a tree when a kid monkey took me for a tree and stood on top of me.
I tried to keep it safe but as soon as I caught him his mother came screaming at me. Luckily a guide was nearby in their yellow scarfs and while asking me not move ensured the monkey do not attack me. Phew, narrow escape!!!
Finally, we reached Ubud Market where our driver left us. We first visited the Ubud King’s palace. It has the same thatched roof structure but no one lives here. After moving through the place we headed for the market.
A holiday in Bali always calls for some sort of shopping for souvenirs or memorabilia of the trip, and the best place to make the search would be in the artistic central region of the island, namely Ubud and its Ubud Art Market. Here you can find beautiful silk scarves, lightweight shirts, handmade woven bags, baskets or hats; statues, kites and many other hand-crafted goods.
Most of the goods found at the Ubud Market are made in the neighbouring villages of Pengosekan, Tegallalang, Payangan and Peliatan. Bargaining is the usual mode of shopping here but do so with a smile as most of them are small villagers trying to meet their ends meet.
Day 4: Lembongan Island Cruise
This was the Island hopping day for us. There are two main islands famous among tourist beside mainland Bali. One is Gili and other is Lembongan. We choose Lembongan primarily because it was near and secondly it has some very nice hotels to stay. This island paradise is the world away from the hassle and hectic pace of South Bali.
Neither hawkers nor traffic mar the magnificent scenery; this is a fine place to just put your feet up and relax. Main activities include surfing, diving and snorkelling. The water is some of the clearest you will find anywhere, and a vivid aqua blue in colour.
There are two packages available here with speed boats one in which you can go on a day cruise of the place and have water sports and on the deck lunch. The second option picks and drops from your hotel in Bali, transfer you to Lembongan island and then your local hotel.
We chose Coconut Beach Resort for those hut-shaped rooms and the view. On that front, no complaints. The bit we had not thought about was getting to the room: they drop you at the top of the hill and then you have to make your way down.
With a two-year-old along, even that needs some thought. The pictures had shown us the lovely view, not the walk to reach it. We enjoyed the stay, but next time I am asking about the steps before getting carried away by the room photographs.
The place has two pools as well of which one is open for exclusive guests while the other one is for people visiting the restaurants. Otherwise, it’s an out of world feeling roaming around the island streets on foot with lush green cover and aqua blue water across wherever you see. This beach is famous for surfing all season. The most famous and not to be missed is the Mushroom beach.
You can hire bikes on the island to explore it at your own pace. If you are staying here for a longer period you can take three island cruise which will take you to even smaller island like pearls in the ocean.
Enjoyed this story?
Comments
Post a Comment