Finally on the "D day", we were informed our return flights were cancelled !! :( ...both of us very unsure if the trip was still a reality. Somehow alternate flights were booked and yippee!! we boarded flight to Denpasar, Bali. It is a total of 8 Hr journey with a 2 hr stop at Kuala Lampur. We arrived at the Denpasar Airport Bali and headed to Patra Bali resort, which is just a 10 min drive from the airport. A beautiful resort with spa, pool, bar, restaurant and a beach by the side.
In the evening our plan was to go to Tanah Lot , floating temple..but the cab driver whom we had booked misguided us and took us to a different temple at Uluwathu. It is a temple on the cliff and is very picturesque.
Clicked a few pics and headed to the Uluwathu beach, this is an awesome beach, need to pass through few caves to reach the beach. Clicked a lot of sun set pics here...wasn't satisfied at all ...it is one of the most beautiful sunset I have witnessed.
Day 2, the plan was to visit north Bali i.e singaraja, explore Lovina beach and witness sunset at Tanah Lot. It is a 2 hr drive from Kuta [ place where the patra bali resort is present ] to North of Bali. The drive mostly consists of smooth roads with lush green paddy fields on both the sides. We reached the Git Git water falls by noon. Need to walk about 3-4 Kms from the parking place to reach the water falls. Along the walk way is coffee and clove plantation. While walking down to the falls many cute kids approacehd to sell beeds and bangles. They start off the conversation saying you are beautiful...good luck...buy some for my luck...etc etc ..we had lot of fun mimicking them later. The water fall is about 60 mts high, the place is very peaceful with music from variety of birds. As we approached the water falls, it started raining. Managed to take a few shots of the water falls and then played in the water till it stopped raining.
From the falls, we headed to Lovina beach. It is a beautiful beach with blackish chromatic sand, it is known for dolphin watching. Best time to go for dolphin watching is in the early morning, since it was already 3, we skipped the dolphin tour and headed to Tanah Lot floating temple. On the way stopped at a few fruit shops, tasted a few local fruits. Salak is one of them. The Salak, famously known as the snake fruit, comes attractively packaged in its own distinctively patterned, leathery hide, tastes like rose apple fruit available here. Couldn't taste the other local fruit Durian, its strong smell didn't attract us much :)
In the evening, we visited Tanah Lot temple. The temple is built on a rock and surrounded by water from all sides, so it seems as though it is floating :). Floating temple along with the sun set has made this a famous tourist destination in Bali. The place is damn crowded and can see everyone competing to take the sunset pictures :). After this, did a bit of shopping at the same place and headed to enjoy the night life.
Day 3: Visited the Kintamani volcano at mount Batur. It is one of the active volcano which has erupted several times, the last eruption in March 1963. The lava can be seen from a distance with a solid black color. And also on the slope of the volcano there is a large lake. At first the driver took us to nearby hill top and showed us the distant view of the volcano. With great difficulty had to explain him that we wanted to trek and reach the peak of the mountain. Finally we went to the foot of the volcano and arranged for a guide. It was a moderate trek , which took around 2 hrs to reach the top. As we approached the top, it started raining, had to rush to the top. View from the top was magnificent. The crater was colorful and could see a bit of volcanic smoke as well.From there headed to the elephant cave temple in Ubud, then to downtown for shopping. Had to borrow money from the driver as we had left money back in hotel. Later, had nice pizza and sangria at an Italian place and headed back to hotel.
Day 4 : Visited the beach next to the resort in the morning followed by last minute shopping at kuta shopping center. After this it was Home sweet home :)
