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| Entrance to our villa |
(Note: this blog has small sized photos to load more quickly. At the bottom of this post there is a slideshow which links to the large sized photos stored in Flikr - in case you are interested in more detailed viewing...)
October 12 I flew out to Bali to join 7 friends from Hong Kong at a 4 bedroom luxury villa 20 minutes north of Ubud for 8 nights. My flight landed first, 20 minutes before the Rules. We were to share a car for the 2 hour drive to our villa north of Ubud. But before our car arrived Tony, Joanne and Rudy arrived (as did their car). We spent a bit of time waiting on our car and driver but with Bali traffic we all managed to arrive at the villa right behind each other. Murni's Villas is a small complex of 3 villas, infinity swimming pool, lush tropical gardens perched on a hill top over looking terraced rice paddys. The villa we are in is perfect for a large group of friends with its 4 bedrooms, huge common dining/living area, full kitchen and surround terrace. Even though we are in the tropics the house does not have air conditioning and does not need it. The ambient temperature is nice and comfortable and tall ceilings with fans make it cooler if you so desire.
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| Rice paddy terrace - below our villa |
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| Art work around villa grounds |
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| Daniel and Leslie walking to pool |
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| Infinity pool |
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| Moira jumping into infinity |
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| Tony and Rudy at the pool |
Sunday we headed out for lunch at Murni's Warong in Ubud town and then carried on towards the Sacred Monkey Forest. We headed out on foot but that only lasted a little while as Daniel was on crutches (courtesy of a rugby tackle at practice a couple of weeks before) when we split - some walking (and walking too far) and the others getting a taxi to the entrance. After a short time in the forest we headed on up Monkey Forest Road checking out the shopping and settling in to a bar for pre-dinner drinks and then into a restaurant for dinner before heading back to the Villa.
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| Joanne, Tony, Rudy and David: geared up |
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| Art and Rudy on the river |
Monday it was out to the river flowing off of the Mount Agung Volcano for a class 3-4 white water rafting trip. As elsewhere travel takes time on Bali's narrow, twisty roads - about a 1.5 hour journey. After a briefing and donning lifejackets and helmets we were on the river in our rafts: Tony & Joanne and guide in one; David, Rudy and I and out guide in the other. Water temperature was truly lovely and led to a lot of splashing between rafts as we headed down the river (that was between our two rafts and between any other rafts we met along the way). There was only one portage point, one rest/drink point to visit a waterfall, and then within 5 minutes of the end a 3 metre drop over a dam wall. So much fun. That evening we had dinner catered to us in our Villa - nice.
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| Guide, Art and Rudy on the river |
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| Guide, Tony and Joanne on the river |
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| Over the dam |
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| Mt Batur view of sunrise over Mt Agung |
Tuesday four of us (David, Tony, Joanne and I) were up early for our 3:00 am pick up to drive to the Mount Batur volcano for the hike to the top to watch the sunrise over Mount Agung. David and one of the guides sprinted to the top while the rest of us took our time (David probably got there in an hour - actually the very top, while the rest of us took more like 2 hours to get to one of the main viewing areas.) There was actually a surprisingly large number of climbers. At the foot of Mount Batur is an huge lake that was the result of previous volcanic activity and surrounding the entire landmass between the two volcanos is the tall caldera walls that traffic climbs over to access the lake and the villages along the lake. Very visible beyond the caldera is Mount Agung (holliest in Bali for Hindus). At the view points we also were provided with morning coffee along with eggs & bananas (said to have been boiled in the steam from the volcano). And yes there are still vents of steam visible at several locations around the crater. We got back to the villa at 9:30am, at which time Leslie and the kids were heading out for their private tour of The Mount Batur and lake look off, the Elephant Temple, Coffee Plantation and a few other sites. The climbers headed for rest time. We all met up later that afternoon before heading back into Ubud for dinner at a small highly recommended restaurant, Putu's Wild Ginger, for dinner.
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| Mt Batur view of sunrise over Mt Agung |
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| David and trek guide with lava field of Mt Batur |
Wednesday was time for relaxing at the villa and the pool before a bit of retail therapy and dinner in Ubud at the Fair Warung Bale (founded as a charity to support local medical and other services). The day was hot and humid so the shoppers headed in for mid afternoon mojitos (while Tony kid-minded back at the villa). Just as we were finishing up shopping to head to meet Tony and kids at the restaurant the power failed in Ubud. Fortunately modern smartphones have flashlight options so final payments could be made and we were not completely in the dark stumbling along the roads. Mid way through dinner the lights came back on (about an hour without electricity).
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| Art with wrap for warmth near top of Mt Batur |
Thursday it was an 8:30 pick up for everyone except Leslie and Daniel to join a bicycle eco tour of Bali. First we were driven to the look off/restaurant area overlooking Mount Batur for photo ops and breakfast. Then driven to a local coffee plantation (with other plants also of note) where we sampled Bali coffee (even the Civet Cat Coffee - strong but actually not really worth the cost of it). Finally we were driven to the start point of the cycle portion of the day. Geared up with helmets and mountain bikes we headed out in single file along the narrow and somewhat twisty local Bali roads. We made several stops along the way to take it the sights but also the rest the butts... Stops included a local family compound (typically 4 buildings arranged to north, south, east and west, along with a section for a family temple facing sunrise / mountain, and sections for cooking, animals, etc.). Another stop was a local rice paddy field where we wondered along the water channels and saw farmers working their paddy. On to a Hindu Temple and its colourful decorations. Finally an huge banyan tree (large enough to walk through the hole in the centre of it). Finishing up at a restaurant for lunch. Cycle section was mostly all downhill (very few small ascents that almost needed no paddling) covering a distance of around 25 kms. We were dropped off in Ubud where we spent the time on a few drinks while waiting for Leslie and Daniel and then carried on to Kajane Restaurant for dinner. Excellent food but they could have allowed us to use their unused taxis to take us back to the villa (Leslie and David negotiated with a local taxi man instead and we returned home).
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| On our bikes ready to go.... |
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| Family compound |
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| LAdy of the house making offerings |
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| Hindu temple entrance |
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| Hindu temple entrance |
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| Rice paddy |
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| In the paddy with the farmer |
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| Rice farmer |
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| Banyan tree (huge) |
Friday - lazy day around the pool, reading and surfing the internet with Tony, David and the kids as the ladies headed into Ubud for an afternoon to themselves.
Saturday, we finally had a cloudy day after a full week of sunshine (barring the rare patches of sprinkles of rain). Temperature is even more lovely. We all hung around for the morning. But I got to babysit the kids while the other adults headed into Ubud at 2:00pm. That evening we all hooked up again at the Fair Warung Bale restaurant for our final dinner in Bali - as we fly out on Sunday morning.
Sunday - an early wake up call for those Hong Kong bound! A 2 hour taxi to the airport followed by a 2 hour lead time for international departures meant a 6am pick up for a 9:45am flight. My flight at 12:50pm meant I could sleep in to get my taxi at 9am!
