Bali Thanks -

Adventurous Thanksgiving Trip. The Balinese have to be the friendliest people on the planet. If going, you must use my driver, Wayan Sueta at www.hiddenbali.com. He showed me the beauty of Bali through the eyes of a local.

The Best Guide/Driver in Bali

On my last trip to Bali, on the recommendation of many others before me, I hired Wayan Sueta to be my guide and driver. I cannot recommend him highly enough. He speaks excellent English, is a very safe driver, and is extremely knowledgeable about all things Balinese. Best of all, he will take you to the most unique and beautiful areas on the island, rather than tourist traps.

Many drivers will take you to shops where they get a commission. Wayan will never do that. He has taken me on hikes through the rice fields and to temples, and along the way he has taken great care to teach me about what I am seeing and experiencing.

For single women traveling alone, it can sometimes be nuscance (even scary) to be bothered by your driver. But Wayan is very respectful and never made me feel uncomfortable.

If you want a Bali experience like no other, please contact Wayan. Make reservations early as he is very popular. His day rate is 30,000 Rp (about $30 a day). He is prompt, hard working, and a very special person.

John's Honeymoon January 2001

My wife and I have just returned from our 3-week honeymoon. We left December 15th from JFK airport in NYC on Northwest airlines ($983 r/t per ticket – booked back in August) to Bangkok connecting through Tokyo. It was approximately 23 hours, however, if you take enough Valium you wouldn’t believe how fast a flight like this can be. We arrived in Bangkok a day later on Saturday 16th around 10:30pm and hopped a bus to our favorite hotel. The next day we made travel arrangements on Thai Airlines to Denpasar for $525 r/t for 2 tickets open return. The best deal I could find from the States was $750 r/t per ticket on same airline. Always buy your tickets abroad. They will always be cheaper. We left for Bali on Tuesday the 19th and were met at the airport by our guide Wayan Sueta. Wayan Sueta has to be one of the most gentlest and kindest man that we have met in a long time. His English including slang is 90% perfect. He drove us to our first hotel (Klub Kokos) just outside of Ubud. I have to say that although the staff was very friendly and efficient and the room was very nice and clean, we felt that it was just to far out of Ubud and remote of a location. The thing that pissed us off the most about that place was the amount of dogs and the never ending barking that persisted throughout the night. We were unable to get any kind of decent sleep there, which was the main reason we left. We stayed there for 2 days and then checked into the Honeymoon Guesthouse a day early. This was a good move – the Honeymoon Guesthouse is situated in the heart of Ubud but on a side road, which makes it very quiet place. They have just completed two new villas there that are exquisite. If you go do try to get room 10, it is breath taking. Believe it or not, the only thing that it lacked and could use was air-conditioning. It got a little sticky at night. Everything in this room was either marble or intricately carved wood. The breakfast was always on time and very delicious. As you all might know – the owners of this place also own the two busiest restaurants in Ubud (Casa Luna and Indus) and you might say that they have a monopoly on eating which does not help the rest of the commerce there. We ate at both of these restaurants and I have to say that as much as the people of the Bali forum rave about these two places, my wife and I found them highly over-rated with food that was just ok. As a matter of fact, when we went to Indus (their jewel) we saw the exact same menu as Casa Luna except that it was much more expensive. Note that if you go at night to eat at Indus you will see absolutely nothing except swarms of insects. All of the highly touted rice fields views are pitch black so you might as well be at McDonalds or any other place in the universe. I actually took 2 bites of my main course and left the rest for the trash or whatever they do with it. Casa Luna is not much better except the prices are a little less. If you like to look at a tiny river with a lot of garbage in it and on the sides of it then you will thoroughly enjoy this restaurant. My only suggestion for the newbies is stay away from Indus and go to Casa Luna for a dessert after you have eaten at a quality restaurant like Café Lotus, which happen to be across the street. The Chef at Café Lotus cooks up superb meals at half the price of these other two tourist traps. Do not miss any of his pasta dishes! Two other fabulous recommendations are Naughty Nuri’s and the Dirty Duck Diner.

Touring with Wayan Sueta in his air-conditioned Toyota 4 wheel drive was a pleasure. He is friendly and funny and we had such a wonderful time. He takes great pride in showing all of the nooks and crannies that most tourists would never see or even know that they exist. We saw many beautiful Temples and numerous rice paddies in different stages of growth. He took us to the real Bali way back in the country where life is simple and primitive, the way it always was. He was a fountain of knowledge about his people and every tradition that is celebrated. His threshold of patience is overwhelming especially when we were snapping pictures like a Japanese tourist. After three days of touring the countryside we got templed and ricepaddied out and wanted to relax so we went back to Ubud for Xmas eve and Xmas day and chilled out. The highlight of Monkey forest was definitely at the entrance where there is a bunch of shops that sell the usual shit to tourists, the owner of the very last shop next to the entrance has a medium size, typical Bali mutt, and he would wait patiently for one of the many aggressive monkeys to turn its back and then sneak up on it and bite the shit out of the monkey causing the monkey to almost have a heart seizure. You might not find this funny but if you have experienced some monkey aggression towards various humans you would definitely be rooting for this dog!

Wayan, a guide in Bali...

There are guides on every corner in Bali, but few speak English well, and many are paid a kick-back to bring you to certain shops and restaurants (including the most over-run tourist traps). This is where Wayan Sueta sets himself apart. Wayan makes a point of showing his guests the most beautiful and least-touched areas of his home country. He has a vast knowledge of Bali’s history and culture, and enthusiastically shares it all in perfect English. Wayan can take you on a guided hike through Bali’s famed terraced rice fields, on a trip around the island—or further afield to neighboring islands. As a solo female traveler, I always felt safe and comfortable traveling with Wayan. By the end of my trip, I’d made a new friend — and was honored to be invited to share dinner in his home with his wife and children. Wayan can be reached at sueta@dps.globalxtreme.net. For more information you can visit his website at: http://www.hiddenbali.com
Connie, Colorado, USA

Exploring the rural beauty and magical volcano

We were starting from Kuta around 9.20 am and cruising out through the busy traffic of Legian and Seminyak. It took us about 40 minutes to get out of the bustling city to more of remote villages with scenic green paddy field. We made a stop by a vast green paddy field just to share a bit about the farming and the traditional irrigation system while enjoying the scenery over the green rice paddies. Along the way, I was sharing about the village's system, traditional family compound and how the people manage their daily life out in the country side.

We got the Taman, where my village is and we made a stop as I wanted to show them the cocoa tree as they never seen any cocoa tree before but they are absolutely in love with chocolate so it was wonderful to let them see how they grow. I took them to my home and show them how I live. They seemed to be happy and I showed them about some Spiders who are building their web around my garden and they are kind of huge ones but for sure that they are not poisonous and not harmful for us. So they did take some pictures of them and it would make my spiders are being famous and I am sure that they were very happy, too.

We left my home and drove back on the quiet village street while keep looking out at all the different vegetations and farms around the village. We went to a big Banyan tree that grows on the outer courtyard of a village temple and took some great pictures of this giant tree with its amazing roots that hanging down from the high branches which almost conquering quit an area outside the temple. Banyan is one of the trees that is considered to be a sacred tree for Balinese Hindu and it grows perfectly almost all over the island.

After the village, our next destination was the sacred Volcano of Batur. We decided to go up to the volcano and see Ubud on the way back as it seems it was about to rain and we did not want to miss the view over the Caldera. We kept on driving all the way to the volcano and caught in some down pour along the way but it was stopped by the time that we got to the volcano and the view was there and not much of a fog in the air so we could see the volcano quit well. I let them to take some photos of the volcano and the lake. As the time was a little bit after noon, so I suggested them to have their lunch first before heading down to Ubud, so they could enjoy the view over the Volcano and the lake for a bit longer while enjoying their meal. We left the volcano after lunch and taking another road down to Ubud through Tegalalang to have a quick look at the scenic rice terraces. It was load of tourists and street vendors so I decided not to make a stop there as I did not want them to be bothered by those vendors. We continued down to Ubud and driving through the local villages with their craft's shop along both side of the street. We took the back roads down to the center of Ubud which would allow us to see better scenery over the green paddy field with stunning coconut trees. It was truly the right time as most of the rice was just about ready to be harvested so it was offering us quit a great view with its golden color.

We did not stop at the center of Ubud but straight to the monkey forest as Sarah was so keen to see the monkey and she was mentioning it for a number of times while we were driving. We got the monkey forest and it was quite busy with tourists as always. We watched the monkeys in this little forest for a while and took pictures of those funny animals. They were truly entertaining and fun to watch. We could easily spend a day just watching them playing around, jumping from tree to tree and sometime they just caught in a fight with other monkeys.

We did not see much around Ubud as they wanted to go down to Jimbaran beach for their sea food dinner and seeing the sunset. We drive back down south through Kuta again and got in Jimbaran around 5 PM, it was a bit cloudy but the sun was there. Sunset was not the best but it was good enough to watch while enjoying the tasty sea food barbeque and listening to the waves break on shore on the white sand beach and watching the fishermen with their beautiful boats going out to the sea for fishing.

 

 

NUNUNG WATERFALL

It is located at Nunung village, a small mountain village about 60 km north of Denpasar and about 35 km from Ubud. You can go to this village by going through the village of Abiansemal, Sangeh Village where it is well known for its huge Monkey sanctuary and then via Petang Village. If you are starting your day of outing from Ubud, Sangeh would be worth to choose for your first stop if you are keen on seeing monkeys.

It is a rich farming village where they grow rice, and other tropical farms such as corn, sweet potatoes, clove, vanilla, etc. when you go or drive by the village you will easily see the sign of a waterfall and it leads you to drive in through the rich farming area to a huge parking lot. You then have to walk down to the bottom of the river to see the giant waterfall. There are concrete steps down to the bottom but it is quit steep. You have to be sure that you are in fit condition to walk to the bottom of the valley. It is a very lush river valley with its typical of rain forest and sometime wild monkeys can be seen around the forest.

The air is very fresh and much cooler up here which is really refreshing. At the bottom of the river is even much cooler and there are a number of small waterfalls that’s from the natural spring along the river. You have to notice that it is a little slippery sometime because of the green moss that grows along the path ways. It is much better to go with a good walking shoe.

You have to be sure that you bring some water with you as the walk back up is quit tiring and surely make you really thirsty.

This waterfall is not that crowded with tourist yet and it is not yet being commercialized so it would be such a great escape if you do not wish to be with too many tourists. There are almost no tourist shops here and no vendors will be ruining your day. This site is normally crowded by the local people on very special local holidays.

White Water Rafting

The Ayung River has been watering stability posses in all weather as well as many rapids that the River categories from II up to III. Just four minutes from starting point to the river.
All our guide have been full experienced and professionally (international safety standard, first aid and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)) in the Ayung River.

During your action - rafting trip your safety is our main priority. It is only five minutes from our finish point to our breathtaking view’s restaurant.
After the rafting trip, we would explore a bit of the scenic countryside and villages before returning to the hotel.
International Insurance
We are fully insurance cover. To your any accident trip insurance is effected covering max US $ 50,000.
The Facilities
• Welcome drink
• Professional guides
• International standard equipment
• Shower, change room, towels, and toilet facilities.
• Waterproof bag
• Refreshment
• Lunch at the finishing point
What to bring
• change of clothes
• swimming costume
• sun cream
• sport shoes