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Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Bali Field Trip (Day 3)

Day 3 May 2, 2014

RAFTING TIME!

It was a dream come true day for me. J I have wanted to have white water rafting for years and eventually the chance came to me. At first, in fact, rafting was not on our list to do on our field trip. Mr. Bob offered us this and we happily agreed. J



We left the hotel around 09.00 WITeng, after having yummy breakfast. Mr. Bob chose ‘LapamA rafting’ for us. They picked us up in the hotel with two cars. The location of our rafting is in Telaga Waja river, Muncan village, Karangasem. It is located around 60 kilometers from our hotel. Without traffic jam, we needed one and a half hour by car. The driver of the car where I was sitting at the front was very friendly. After leaving the heart of Kuta I realized that in fact Denpasar was not that crowded. J He explained the route to Sanur beach, Safari Park, etc on our way to Telaga Waja river.

For rafting, each of us was charged Rp. 270.000,00 (I got the information from internet though, Mr. Bob had paid for our rafting.) In order to get documentation of our activity, Mr. Bob asked LapamA rafting to have our pictures taken during rafting. And for that, they charged us Rp. 700.000,00 because there were 14 people in our group! WOW! Expensive, eh?

The rafting was really fun! Tiring, but it was worth it. Telaga Waja river is well-known as the best rafting place in Bali due to its high difficulty; the obstacles are rocks,bamboo bridges, falls, with its high density of water flow. The more positive side is the river is located in the middle of terraced paddy fields, plantation and tourists can see beautiful view of Agung mountain from the distance. The trek is 16 kilometers long and it needs two and a half hours to do the rafting. The most exciting part of the whole activity is the 5-meter fall where we have to jump while staying inside the boat!














For beginners, don’t worry because LapamA rafting provides trained guides in each boat. They also give brief instruction how to do it before we start. It is really fun and safe for those who love challenging outdoor activity.





After finishing the trek, we are provided with lunches where we seat ourselves in a strategic cottage so that we can spoil our eyes with beautiful scenery.

We left the village around 14.30 and arrived back at the hotel at 16.15. Mr. Bob didn’t give us long time to rest because we were asked to be ready in the lobby at 16.30 for the next destination : JIMBARAN BAY!

You will fall in love with everyone you meet in Jimbaran Bay, Nana,” Ms. Kerry said to me the previous morning. WOW.

One thing I could say : the sunset is really amazing! Peter complained, though, that the waves were not as high as the ones in Kuta beach. J Yes, Peter spent some time swimming in Jimbaran while waiting for our dinner to be prepared. Some people – me included – bought some yummy grilled corns. The other boys played ball.

For our dinner, Mr. Bob ordered grilled fish, vegetables (ca kangkung), steamed white rice, and some fruit for our dessert. Each of us got one bottle of 600 ml mineral water for our drink.




Before  19.00 we finished our dinner. We directly headed back to the hotel. On our way back, 8 students (Vito, Ellen, Retno, Aryo, Julio, Cecil, Peter, and Bella) and I dropped by at around Kuta square for shopping souvenirs. The four boys (Zulfan, Ryan, Alex and Samuel) and Restu were back to the hotel, together with Mr. Bob and Ms. Kerry. But then, they rented motorcycles to go around Kuta! J







The 8 students and I were walking along the road while shopping. That night we walked around 3-4 kilometers after the exhausting rafting in the morning! Great! J Again, it was really a good exercise to burn calories after we ate a lot in Jimbaran. J (Ups, Peter still bought some munches on our way. LOL.)


As two nights before, we went back to the hotel at 22.00. Bella, Ellen, and I directly fell asleep after we were back to our room.

To be continued :)

Bali Field Trip (Day 2)

Day 2 May 1 2014

We had our breakfast at 07.30. The hotel provided us various kinds of food, from local cuisine, such as fried rice until western one. For the beverage, we could choose tea, coffee, milk and some kinds of juices.




We left the hotel for Ubud an hour later. Again, due to the traffic jam, we took a longer time than we should from Kuta to Ubud. (Aha ... in fact Jakarta is not alone for its being notorious for its traffic jam; only Denpasar – especially Kuta perhaps – is not that notorious as Jakarta. LOL. As an international city – you can find almost any nationality of people here – it is understood for being crowded no matter whether it is holiday season or not so people understand if traffic jam is everywhere. The local people understand it, the tourists – perhaps due to their holiday mood – also understand it. J






The first place to visit is Bajra Sandhi monument. This is a monument to commemorate heroic Balinese struggle against Dutch colonial government. It is located in the center of Denpasar, the capital city of Bali. It takes around 30 minutes by car/bus from Ngurah Rai International airport. This is one best place to learn the history of Balinese people since pre historical era until the twentieth century. The historical struggle is illustrated in 33 units of diorama.

The monument/museum started to be built in 1987; it was officially opened by Megawati Soekarno Putri – the then president – in 2003. Bajra means carillon while sandhi means sacred. The shape of the monument is like a carillon. This sacred carillon is usually used by Hindu priest in holy religious prayers.




From Bajra Sandhi monument we visited Pura Puseh in Batuan village. The temple is built in classical Balinese temple architecture style with elaborate carvings. Before entering the temple, we are given sarongs to wear during our visit.







We didn’t spend much time in Pura Puseh. The following place to visit is Ubud! Shopping time! Yeayyyy. As before, I was responsible to supervise the girls + Peter. This time Julio chose to be with the other boys.

After shopping for around an hour, Mr. Bob and Ms. Kerry took us to NOMAD restaurant for lunch; a very historical restaurant for both of them! (Ssshhhttt, Mr. Bob proposed Ms. Kerry to marry him here! )





As one of the oldest restaurants in Ubud, Nomad offers a mix of fresh modern Asian and Western tastes mixed in with Balinese classis cuisine. I ordered a plate of fried noodle. It was very yummy; but the big portion made me so full that I couldn’t finish it.





It was drizzling after we finished our lunch. However, we were all excited with the following destination : SANGEH.










Sangeh – a forest site full of monkeys – is not far from Nomad restaurant. Everybody had fun with the funny but naughty monkeys inside the forest. The hiking was enough to burn calories after our yummy and full lunches.

We arrived back at the hotel around 17.15. We didn’t want to pass up the stunning view of sunset in Kuta beach of course. The boys played ball using the ball they just bought in Kuta Square. Peter went swimming again, enjoying the quite big waves in Kuta beach. The girls were playing with water only.






In this second chance to spend our afternoon in Kuta beach, there was a minor accident: the boys threw some mud to one another and Aryo accidentally threw some mud to Zulfan’s right eye! This made Mr. Bob and Ms. Kerry get angry. As a result we were grounded: after dinner we were not allowed to go out from the hotel.

We had our dinner in the restaurant across from the hotel again. Well, anyway, the food was delicious. J After dinner, we all went back to the hotel. (All of us? Oh in fact NO! Secretly – without Restu and my knowing – two boys sneaked out to have tattoos! Can you guess who? Ryan and Samuel! Oh well ...) Meanwhile, Zulfan was resting in his room; Aryo, Alex, Julio, Vito, Ellen, Bella, Retno, Cecil, Peter, Restu and I went to the top floor of the hotel. But not long after that, Ellen, Bella, Retno, Cecil and Peter went down to Retno’s room to watch movies. Restu jumped to the pool and had some swim, the rest – Vito, Alex, Aryo, Julio and me – had some chats until 22.00. After that, we all went back to our room. 

To be continued :)