AhPek Biker - Old Dog Rides Again: Indonesia Bali-Sumba Discovery 2023: Day 2 Jatiluwih-Sambangan

Friday, July 7, 2023

Indonesia Bali-Sumba Discovery 2023: Day 2 Jatiluwih-Sambangan - Of Terrace Paddies & Secret Waterfalls

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AhPek Biker - Riding Adventures

Indonesia Bali-Sumba Discovery 2023

Day 2: Jatiluwih to Sambangan

- Of Terrace Paddies & Secret Waterfalls!

Bali, Indonesia : Tuesday, 30th May 2023

This is part of a non-cycling road-trip recce Tour of Bali & Sumba, Indonesia:

Jatiluwih>Luwus>Tabanan>Berdugul>Munduk>Gitgit>Sambangan.

Time : 9:00 am to 6:30 pm

Time Taken : 9 hrs. 30 mins. (including treking at rice terraces, stop for lunch, tea, & waterfall visit, lake views and many photo opps).

This is page 2 of a 8-page blog, Click Here To Go To Title Page.
< D1: Kuta/Jatiluwih | Go to Other Days | D3: Kintamani >

Route Recommendations, here're some tips on travelling in Bali:

1. Traffic Directions!

Traffic in Indonesia, is right-hand drive, so drive/cycle on the left. Same thing applies when crossing the road, take note of the direction in which traffic is approaching from!

2. Getting to Bali & Sumba and Packing Light.

Bali is a favourite tourist destination and many airlines fly direct to it's international Ngurah Rai Airport. We flew Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur to Bali, buying our tickets 2-3 months earlier and paid between MYR700-800 (approx. USD200) per pax for a basic return fare, without checked in luggage and other frills.

For the flight back from Bali to Kuala Lumpur, we did buy the minimum 20kg of check-in luggage for some shopping to bring goodies back for friends.

3. Covid-19 & Customs Requirments

We applied for Covid-19 clearance through the e-forms submitted to the SatuSehat mobile app, which required uploading of vaccination details & PDF copies of vaccination certificates, and got on-line approval. Upon arrival at Bali Airport, there was a small counter for SatuSehat, but it was not manned, so perhaps this is not required for Bali.

Submission for customs e-clearance is advised for getting past the airport customs without a fuss. E-submission can be done prior to leaving for Indonesia, Click here for to access and fill up the Indonesian E-CD (Electronic Customs Declaration) forms for approval. Upon successful application, a QR Code is given, save this to your phone and show it to the customs officer upon arrival. With a quick scan, and one is cleared to enjoy one's holiday.

4. Clearing Immigration for Senior Citizens and families with infants, etc.

Prior to the pandemic, there were special counters at the Malaysian & Indonesian immigration exit points for senior citizens above 60 years old, but these are not there anymore. No worries though, if there are long queues, just asked any helpful officer for help for senior citizens, and one will be directed to a fast-track counter.

5. Route & Traffic Conditions

This past few years, Kuta, Ubud and the surrounding regions have developed tremendously and traffic along most roads can be quite busy. Drive with care and do take note that there are many motorcyclists around. As one goes further north towards Kintamani, the traffic gets lighter, but at hilly areas some stretches can be steep with winding roads.

Today's route took us on a wonderful walk along the scenic Jatiluwih Rice Terraces, after which we drove further north to end our day camping at Sambangan Eco Village. En-route, we visited a secret waterfall and two panoramic twin lake.

6. Weather

Weather at Bali differs a lot between the lowland and highlands. In June, the average day temperature at Kuta was 28°C, while night ones averaged 24°C. Up in Kintamani, and Bedugul (where we stayed) it was 22°C, and 15°C respectively.

Useful weather forecast sites for the Indonesia is AccuWeather. For more detailed weather, including cloud cover and wind speed, use Weatherspark and Ventusky.

7. Communicating with Each Other

When travelling in a group it's important to be able to communicate with each other, especially if one got lost from the rest. Compared to the our previous trip 5-years ago, this time round it was more difficult to get the Indonesian pre-paid phone sim card. For security reasons, there is a need to register ones's passport and phone's IMEI #1 and IMEI #2. One cannot just go to any local shops to buy the sim card as they are reluctant or not equiped to provide such a service. As such, most local phone shops sells only to locals.

It is EASIEST to get the sim cards at the airport. There are booth selling these just after getting past customs and into the arrival hall of Bali (Ngurah Rai) Airport, the local staff there are at hand to help register one's passport and IMEIs. We opted for Telkomsel's as it provides the best coverage at Bali, and even at some of the remote areas of Sumba, and got their Tourist prepaid simcard with 16+8 GB of data valid for 30 days at IRD250K (MYR77 or USD17). 3G internet is available in the more populated areas but can drop to the slower GPRS or even Edge in remote areas. Failing to get a sim card at the airport one can try to get it at some of the Telkomsel's shop, click here for Bali shops locations and click here for Sumba shop locations.

It is possible to get these Tourist prepaid simcard on-line, but registration of passport & IMEIs are still required and one will have to select an official pick-up point, which are only available in the Bali and Mandalika Lombok areas.

Most hotels, motels, home-stays, restaurants, and airports have free Wifi; but do note that public free wifi may not be secure and registration could be required. But one can safe on one's mobile data by using these especially for uploading or downloading videos.

8. Communicating with Locals

As Bali, is a favorite tourist destinations, many locals speak fairly good English. At the smaller towns, locals speak some rudimentary English. The older generation speak very little English, so knowing some basic Bahasa Indonesia (or even better - Balinese language) will come in handy and also warm one up to the locals.

9. Getting Around

We were in a recce tour group and paid MYR1,700 per pax for ground arrangements that include hotels, breakfast and van transportation, other meals & tips for guides and drivers not include - all in cost came to around MYR4,000 including some minimum shopping. They were 13 of us including the two tour guides. At Bali, a large 15-seater van with driver took us around. Those interested in joining the guided tour can contact Nik at +6017-4881917. Those who are keen to have their own free and easy tour, contact Bali van driver Made at +6281-5580-02922.

If planning for one's own; Bali has a wide range of accommodations, ranging from six-stars hotels, to homestays and even back-packers' hostels. If one is not fussy, cheap accommodations can be found on Bali, for as low as at 170k Rupiahs per twin-sharing room per night in Kuta; click here for range of hotels in Bali.

8. Places of Interests

There were many scenic and interesting places of interest; but one should not miss the following (Note: click on the GPS coordinates for directional map to the respective places):

- Jatiluwih Rice Terraces (GPS: -8.37031, 115.13137).

(Entrance fee: IDR40K [USD2-70, RM12-50], Car Parking: IDR5K [USD0-35, RM1-50]).

(Hike Trails: Hike A-Triptins, Hike B-World Travel Guy, Hike C-Bali Jungle Trek, Hike D-All Trails).

- a nice blog of Jatiluwih: https://africanberberwoman.com/2017/02/09/jatiluwih-rice-terraces/

- Sri Dewi Straw Sculpture near Bedugul Temple (GPS: -8.37157, 115.13710).

- The Secret Garden (GPS: -8.37267, 115.19333).

- Pura Ulun Danu Bratan (website link) in Bedugul (GPS: -8.27518, 115.16682).

- Danau Buyan Lake (GPS: -8.24541, 115.12073).

- Danau Tamblingan Lake (GPS: -8.25705, 115.09701).

- Twin Lakes Viewpoint (GPS: -8.24683, 115.10017).

- Golden Valley Waterfalls (GPS: -8.25432, 115.07358) in Munduk.

this waterfall is accessible by a short 700m hike from this Start Point (GPS: -8.25542, 115.07479) along Jalan Kayu Putih-Munduk.

- Sambangan Eco Village (GPS: -8.18443, 115.10722) in Sambangan.

- Balinese artwork.

9. Cycling at Jatiluwih

For those interested in cycling at Jatiluwih, contact Jatiluwih Cycling by EasyBaliCycling (GPS: -8.36884, 115.12988).

10. Food

Breakfast: Inclusive in hotel stay, eggs & toast set at Bhuana Agung Restaurant (GPS: -8.36924, 115.13002) in Jatiluwih.

Lunch: at Babi Guling Betty (GPS: -8.40948, 115.19734) in Luwus - Babi Guling with rice, and Jeruk juice. The Babi Guling sets were priced at Biasa (Normal) IDR35K, Special IDR40K & Istimewa (Extra Special) IDR45K. Jeruk juice was at IDR10K. Click here for their menu.

Afternoon Tea: at Golden Valley Waterfall Eco Cafe (GPS: -8.25429, 115.07315), run by local teens, in Munduk - best fresh strawberry juice (IDR20K), delicious kueh laklak (IDR25K per plate of 6) and kueh dadar gulung (known as kueh ketayap in Malaysia) (IDR25K per plate of 4).

Dinner: at Sambangan Eco Village (GPS: -8.18443, 115.10722) - BBQ chicken & fish with local pickles and rice, fish soup, fruits.

11. Accommodations

Our stay for the night was camping at the Sambangan Eco Village (GPS: -8.18443, 115.10722) at Sambangan. For those who camped, cost was included in our tour package. With my poor back, camping was not conducive, so wifey & me stayed at an adjacent 2-storey bungalow home-stay (GPS: -8.18444, 115.10738), we paid an extra RM60/- for a comfortable room in this bungalow which we had all to ourselves.

12. Navigation

I used MapMyRide to track our routes and stops. Geo-tagging of places of interest was via FaceBook or Google Maps.

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PRELUDE

The previous day we had flown in to Bali from Kuala Lumpur and had headed to North Bali, an area of the island which I had no visited despite having been to the island several times. Enroute north, we had stopped for a long visit to the Pura Ulun Danu Bratan temple; and then continued on to Jatiluwih, where we stayed the night at Bhuana Agung.

As we had only arrived in the evening at Jatiluwih, too dark to explore the vicinity. Today we will explore its UNESCO Heritage terraced padi fields and then leave for Sambangan. Along the way we visited a couple of lakes (twin lakes in fact as they are just next to each other) and stopped by for a lovely tea-time at a secret waterfall.

SECRET?... YUP!

LET'S FIND OUT!

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THE TRIP

Small Group (Non-cycling) Recce Tour of Bali & Sumba, Indonesia:

Jatiluwih>Luwus>Tabanan>Berdugul>Munduk>Gitgit>Sambangan.

Today we had a wonderful walk along the scenic Jatiluwih Rice Terraces, after which we drove further north to end our day camping at Sambangan Eco Village. En-route, we visited a secret waterfall and two panoramic twin lake.

(Click here for Jatiluwih-Sambangan Direction Map)

We can see now why Nik had us stay at Bhuana Agung, it had a nice inclusive hotel breakfast, but more importantly the Jatiluwih Rice Terraces was just across the road. The previous day we had not realised the beauty of the place as when we arrived it was after sun-down and the darkness had hidden the charm of the rice terraces!

Now in the morning sun, it's glorious beauty was everywhere - a picturesque bright green panorama set against a sky blue background. This scenic views tugged at our heart-strings for us to quickly finish our meal. Soon we were eagerly heading off to have a wonderful walk around those enchanting fields!

There are so many nice spots to stop for Instantgram-able photos!

The padi were at a ripening stage turning from green to bright greenish-yellow.

I was so eager, that I forgot to trek our walk on the mobile, but no worries a plan of the different trails is shown further below, i.e. after the photos of our invigorating walk. It's easy to walk here as there are paved walkways going around the terraces. The more adventurous can actually go into the rice terraces themselves and get a wet feel of the land. We were lucky and along the way met with several locals harvesting the rice. Because of the terraced planting, the rice have to harvested manually using sickles - all the better as then there will be no pollution from motorised harvesters.

Jatiluwih is located at the foothills of Mount Batukaru, the second highest mountain in Bali. And the area has been able to maintain and manage the local culture heritage water irrigation system traditionally called Subak. Because of this traditional systiem, it has been appropriately selected as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is one of recommended places to visit in Bali with a beautiful view as accorded to its name - from Jati and luwih, where Jati mean "really" and Luwih meaning "especial, good, and beautiful" or the equivalent. But another translation says Jatiluwih means beautiful teak - Jati is Malay for teak..

More photo opportunities!

And dotted along the trails are shops that sells local products - caping or seraung (conical Asia padi hats), local fragrant rice harvested from the fields, Bali coffee beans/powder, etc.

One shouldn't miss getting the Red Rice Tea. Yes, you didn't read it wrong - this rice is not eaten as a staple but to be steeped as a "tea" drink. This tea is known for its fragrant roasted and nutty flavour; and is credited with many benefits including lowering high blood pressure and cholesterol, improving blood circulation, controlling blood glucose in diabetes and aiding in digestion.

Along the trails too, are many coffee shops to take a short break and while enjoying a drink. My friends here enjoying more than a drink, they were surprised to find durians sold here!

But not all, like me for example, can take the noxious aroma and yucky taste of this king of fruits; and here's why!

There's more than rice terraces here, some trails take us onto steps down steep ravines lush green with flora of a secondary forest.

And across bridges spanning bubbling brooks at small dales leading back to the padi fields.

Well done, girls!

(Photo from Google Maps, credit Wiraseta 2019)

Saw this sculpture of Sri Dewi from web photos of Bedugul Temple (GPS: -8.37157, 115.13710), but could not find it - perhaps it's not there any more as it was made from rice straws. She is the Balinese Hindu Goddess of rice and fertility.

And here's the map of Jatiluwih Rice Terraces, showing the different trails leading through the paddies and lower secondary jungle.

Entrance fee for foreigners into Jatiluwih is IDR40K for adults and IDR30K for children. Car parking is IDR5K.

11:30am - Time to say goodbye! Checking out from the hotel, we hopped onto our van and with a glance back left for The Secret Garden.

But the garden visit didn't pan out as it was closed for a private function, and so we made a U-turn for a piggy lunch not far away.

In Bali, one should not miss having Babi Guling, it's a whole pig seasoned with local herbs and slowly roasted on a spit. We had it during our first trip here in 2007, then the only place selling it was Ibu Oka in Ubud. Now there are many shops/stalls selling it in many parts of the island, one such shop is the Depot Betty chain, and we are here at their Luwus outlet for lunch. So how does it fare against Ibu Oka? Let's eat and then see how.

Interesting way of advertising their outlets, they have cute statues of pigs around their restaurant, such as the these piggies above .... doing it doggie style ..... er .... or rather piggy style!

A roasted pig on display at the front of the restaurant.

Before roasting, pig's skin is usually rubbed with turmeric, and the animal is stuffed with a basa gede spice mixture, which usually includes turmeric, coriander, lemongrass, shallots, galangal, chili, shrimp paste, and garlic.

After the pig is roasted, the crisp amber-colored skin is carefully removed, and the meat is cut into chunks. Each serving of babi guling is includes a chunk of juicy meat, a piece of crispy skin, and a tablespoon of the flavorful stuffing.

Babi Guling is often served with steamed rice, fresh vegetables, and a dollop of spicy Indonesian sambal. I had their Nasi Porsi Istimewa (Extra Special) at IDR45K, while the missus hat the Nasi Porsi Spesial at IDR40K. Each serving also includes a plate of white rice and a small bowl of spicy soup.

To compliment the spicy food is this Jeruk juice for an extra IRD10K.

So how does Depot Betty compare to Ibu Oka? Personally, I prefer the latter, finding their pork tasting better with crispier skin and the flavourful spice stuffing more aromatic.

But Depot Betty does have one plus point ..... their cute little piggy statues .... have fun!

We're back on the road again and headed further north; went past the Pura Ulun Danu Bratan temple which we visited yesterday, went past another two more beautiful lakes, but did not stop there too! (But we will come back to them later).

After an hour's drive and 40km later, we unceremoniously stopped at a deserted spot (mark by a wayward small hut along the Jalan Kayu Putih-Munduk). This is the secret entrance point (GPS: -8.25542, 115.07479) that will lead to the hidden Golden Valley Waterfalls (GPS: -8.25432, 115.07358). Here's the gang happily tracking down the narrow concrete-paved trail leading down to the waterfalls. It's about a 700m trek down.

And here's the gang posing in front of the waterfall; this photo does not do it justice, it's actually more awesome than this!

The route down actually takes one across the top of the waterfall and to this nice little timber restaurant called Golden Valley Waterfall Eco Cafe. It's a nice place to have drinks and snacks while enjoying the view of the waterfall. Here we had coffee & juice, together with these local cakes called kueh dadar gulung (known as kueh ketayap in Malaysia) and kueh laklak.

Here's the OTHER SECRET of the day; nope it's not the pretty lady and the waterfall - it's this refreshing strawberry juice - pure, concentrated and sweet. It's freshly made from the local strawberries by the guys running this cafe at and is sold at a very reasonable IDR20K (RM6/-) 😋.

En route out, we looped back east for a panoramic view of the twin lakes: Danau Buyan Lake & Danau Tamblingan Lake from the Twin Lakes Viewpoint (GPS: -8.24683, 115.10017).

Nice view of Danau Buyan Lake with the Gunung Catur mountain standing tall behind.

6:00pm - We arrive at Sambangan, stopping near a junction near the Maha Hills Resort. Gustoz our van driver was reluctant to drive further as the road leading to the Sambangan Eco Village as it was rather steep and winding, and he didn't want to risk driving with us and our heavy luggage through those roads. We happily disembarked and walked the remaining 1/2 km, while the village operator sent out a couple of motor-cycles to ferry our luggage in.

We arrived at a right timing for a brisk walk, as we when we arrived just as the sun was setting over the harvested golden brown paddies.

And this is the view from the swimming pool and the camping grounds of the Sambangan Eco Village, with a view that stretched to the sea!

The BBQ dinner we had at the village was not up to par, but most of us enjoyed the fish, and especially the pickled condiments that went very well with the white rice.

After dinner it we had a couple of beers to warm us up for singing Boy scouts campfire songs. at a campfire! Our scouting days were decades ago but we managed to recall some lively songs and soon were croaking away in revelry!.

And while sitting there we had a grand-stand view of the night skyline of Singaraja and Lovina.

Time to call it a day; while our buddies retired to their tents, Lynne and me walked back to our bungalow home-stay next door. Because of my poor back which can't take camping well, I had requested for a home-stay and we got a room in this double-storey Balinese bungalow just for an additional RM60/- ! It's really a superb deal, beyond our expectations. Thanks Nik!

It has been a fun-packed day of panoramic terraced padi fields, a secret waterfall, scenic lakes and the BEST strawberry juice ..... yup, am still dreaming of that!

~~ SELAMAT MALAM! ~~

(That's Good Night in both Indonesian & Malay)

(For more photos of the Day 2, Click Here)

This is page 2 of a 8-page blog, Click Here To Go To Title Page.
< D1: Kuta/Jatiluwih | Go to Other Days | D3: Kintamani >

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