How it all Started
Me and wife always had the love to travel but we always had something or the other stuff to take care of. First it was our education, then it was our job, then our marriage and countless reasons which made us squish our travel bug. Though we travelled to many places in the US, anytime we got a little time. But we always had a dream to do a backpacking trip across Europe which needed a lot of planning and of-course a lot of money. But finally after months of planning, in Sept 2018 we made our dream trip. Our first out of the country trip. We made a 24 days backpacking trip to Europe and we couldn't explain in words how much fun we had and how much we learnt about new places and new cultures. We tried to cover all the main countries and places but quickly realized that there is much more to Europe we need to cover and decided we would come back and cover the rest soon. But one thing for sure this trip changed my life forever.We got addicted to travel and explore new places. We thought nothing could even compete with our Europe trip but boy I was wrong.
We try to go to our home country India at-least once in two years and its that time of the year we plan a trip to India. While we were planning for this home trip, my wife had this crazy idea "Why not we make a quick stop in Bali on our way to India ?". We both laughed it off in the beginning and thought it would be more expensive than to just buy to and fro tickets to India but my wife never gave up she did all the research got the numbers and made the entire plan ( like she does always , she is the planner ) even without telling me and when she got all the things sorted out she told me her plan of action. To our surprise for just $400 more we could actually do a pit stop in Bali and then go to India. I couldn't believe it in the beginning but when she explained everything I was convinced and thus started our trip to check out a new country in completely different part of the world.
We try to go to our home country India at-least once in two years and its that time of the year we plan a trip to India. While we were planning for this home trip, my wife had this crazy idea "Why not we make a quick stop in Bali on our way to India ?". We both laughed it off in the beginning and thought it would be more expensive than to just buy to and fro tickets to India but my wife never gave up she did all the research got the numbers and made the entire plan ( like she does always , she is the planner ) even without telling me and when she got all the things sorted out she told me her plan of action. To our surprise for just $400 more we could actually do a pit stop in Bali and then go to India. I couldn't believe it in the beginning but when she explained everything I was convinced and thus started our trip to check out a new country in completely different part of the world.
We arrive in Bali
After the longest flight we ever taken, Yes this is coming from a person who took a flight to India. We finally arrive at the airport. Bali is a very small island in the Indonesia and is a very welcome for its tourists. Bali provides a visa on arrival for almost any country's citizen, you just need to have a valid passport to get a 30 day tourist visa. The immigration process was a breeze and we had zero issues. We quickly finished our immigration and arrived at our baggage claim picked up our bags and went out of the terminal door. We immediately felt so many similarities between India and Bali. All the taxi drivers following you to get you into their taxis, the traffic, the climate, the smell, the people, the culture ... everything was so much like India. That was our first shock when we arrived in Bali.
Thankfully we had our cab booked ahead of time from the place where we are staying. So we are trying to hunt down the taxi driver with our names on the board. We had some tough time in the beginning but quickly found our driver and he guided to us to the car and we started our 1 hour drive to our AirBnB. We arrived in the evening right before the sunset and as we drove from through the city we started to see much more similarities. After a quick chat with our Taxi driver we understood that Hinduism was the main religion in Bali and they even worship the same Gods that we are do. They have their own interruptions of the mythological stories we heard from our grandparents when we were kids. But slowly our exhaustion from the long flight started to kick in and at this point all we need was a nice warm bath and a comfy bed to crash. We kept our excitement at a pause and crashed in our hotel.
Thankfully we had our cab booked ahead of time from the place where we are staying. So we are trying to hunt down the taxi driver with our names on the board. We had some tough time in the beginning but quickly found our driver and he guided to us to the car and we started our 1 hour drive to our AirBnB. We arrived in the evening right before the sunset and as we drove from through the city we started to see much more similarities. After a quick chat with our Taxi driver we understood that Hinduism was the main religion in Bali and they even worship the same Gods that we are do. They have their own interruptions of the mythological stories we heard from our grandparents when we were kids. But slowly our exhaustion from the long flight started to kick in and at this point all we need was a nice warm bath and a comfy bed to crash. We kept our excitement at a pause and crashed in our hotel.
Yes, this is the place we stayed for 3 nights. All thanks to my awesome wife for finding this place. This place is located deep inside the northern part of Bali. We couldn't see the beauty of this place as we arrived when it was dark and we could barely see our surroundings. We are woken up with an awesome breakfast and some fresh coffee. All the food was made from their own farm and prepared right on the location. The hosts are super awesome, super helpful in giving all the info on the local must see spots. Even though they are less proficient in english they managed to communicate with us and help us in any way they can. After we had our yummy breakfast we had our bath and super excited to start our exploration. We booked a cab for the whole day, this is the most common way of getting around here. Our cab was on time and was waiting for us and we set out to our first tourist spot.
Ulun Danu Beratan Temple,
Banyumala Twin Waterfalls and Handara Gate
On our first day we decided we would cover the northern part of Bali as our stay is to the north. If you forgot my wife planned all this with complete list of all the place we have to see each day, we told the driver our plan for the day and quickly suggested that we cannot possibly see all the stuff in the same day. The road system in Bali are bit weird, its full of hair pin turns going up and down the hill and there is no straight route to a place. For example if you have a place A and wanna go to place B unless its on the same hill you have to come all the way down to a center point and take a route to the hill where the place B is. So we had to improvise and make some changes to our plans based on the suggestions from the driver.
And so we reach our first spot Ulun Danu Temple. There are many temples all around Bali almost 20,000 which spread all around and every temple has its own significance. The religion is deep rooted into Balinese culture, they have so many rituals for their ancestors , different type of offerings for different gods they worship. This temple is one of the beautiful ones in Bali, its located on the edge of small lake with an awesome mountain range like a perfect backdrop. A lot of people gather here almost everyday to perform their rituals. Bali has some rules and practices which are followed by everyone and you being a tourist you should definitely know these.
Do not enter the temple with your shoes on. Do not visit temples wearing revealing clothes. Avoid using your left hand for accepting or giving things. Always look down while you walk, Balinese people leave offerings everyday as a religious practice, walking on them or stepping on them is highly frowned on and you should avoid this by all means.
And so we reach our first spot Ulun Danu Temple. There are many temples all around Bali almost 20,000 which spread all around and every temple has its own significance. The religion is deep rooted into Balinese culture, they have so many rituals for their ancestors , different type of offerings for different gods they worship. This temple is one of the beautiful ones in Bali, its located on the edge of small lake with an awesome mountain range like a perfect backdrop. A lot of people gather here almost everyday to perform their rituals. Bali has some rules and practices which are followed by everyone and you being a tourist you should definitely know these.
Do not enter the temple with your shoes on. Do not visit temples wearing revealing clothes. Avoid using your left hand for accepting or giving things. Always look down while you walk, Balinese people leave offerings everyday as a religious practice, walking on them or stepping on them is highly frowned on and you should avoid this by all means.
After spending some time here at this beautiful time we hoped back in our car and started our way to Banyumala Twin Waterfalls. The waterfalls was only 1.5 km at-least thats what it said when we entered the place. Going down was a breeze, We were walking on well maintained pathway down a hill hearing the sound of waterfall getting louder as we went more down and as we reach almost to the end of the trail and the walkway disappeared, there were just some very steep steps which are very slippery and very out of place.But nevertheless as we slowly started stepping down out of a thick bunch of leaves these magnificent waterfalls started to peak out. Just seeing the waterfall we were in awe on how picturesque and perfect this waterfall is. I did see many waterfalls but this has something special, may be its the location or how it flows or the sounds it makes I am not sure but we couldn't stop staring at this waterfall. So we just sat there admiring this beauty. And when the time came to head back, hahahaha lets say we just barely made it to our car back LOL !
After we got back into the car we started realizing that jet lag is actually a thing. We all of a sudden started to feel sleepy and drowsy and crazy hungry. So we decide to stop for lunch somewhere on our way to the next spot. We told our driver we want to try some Balinese cuisine and he took us to this nice place where we ordered a bunch of food. Foodie was super excited as I would be trying out some new food in a really long time. My opinion on Balinese cuisine you ask ? Well let me put it this way. For a person who loves spices and a lot of flavor in everything I eat, I found this cuisine very bland and less exciting for me to order it second time. Dont get me wrong its tasty not something that you cant eat but I am not a big fan of this cuisine. Most their dishes are pretty much is boiled stuff or deep fried stuff with very minimal seasoning and all the ingredients they use are grown with in the island and I think thats what makes this cuisine so special and unique.