Here are my favourit discovering in the Island:

What a chance for your friend! I totally felt in love with the Island of Golds for architecture, cutoms, welcoming Balinese. I was impressed by the power of religion and I was charmed by their customs such as sacred offerings drop off on the floor I had to avoid. Here are my favourit discovering in the Island:


1. Batur Volcano's climb by night

Indonesia is well-known for volcanoes which offer unique landscapes. As a lot of islands, it is possible to climb on the top of various volcanoes in Batur. The most of famous is Batur, with 1717 meters totally accessible for any hikers. Generally, this climbing takes place during the night in order to watch the sunset on the top. Personally, I was lucky because the sky was clear. I had a wonderful overview on Bali and surrounding volcanoes.

The hiking is quite expensive but it is worthwile. I needed a moutain guide because it lasts two hours and the most difficulty is the darkness. On the top, I approached the huge crater, it was amazing and my efforts were rewarded!


2.Diving in Amed

The Bali's submarine landscapes are also beautiful! While the south of the Island is for surfers, the North and East are the drivers' paradize. I saw a lot of fish species with nice range of colours. Luckily, waters were really clear so there was a perfect visibility. The diver guide brought me in front of an old temple stand out there for prayers. It was a magical instant!

Then, the Amed village is at the East of Bali directly overlooking the sea with black sand's beatches which is so charming where there are diving schools offering licences for beginners or professionals. For tourists who don't like diving, they have the possibility to board a divers boat to benefit from this pleasure with another way. Finally, Amed offers a wonderful view on the volcano which is an added value.



3. Balinese food

I've travelled a lot in my life, and this food is one of the most delicious I've never eat! Also, I wanted to bring a local memory that's why I took a cook lesson in order to be able to make the same food at home! Obviously, it has not the same taste than in the island… There are Mie Goreng, Nasi Goreng, Satay, Cap Chay, and many others dishes with flavours! So let's go and don't be afraid!


4. Hiking to Munduk

Mundunk is a small village in the middle of Bali was undoubtedly my favourit one and I was totally felt in love with this charming place. It offers a lot of possibilties of hiking. I choose one and I decided to share you my experience. You have to take the main road in the East where you will find a panel written “Waterfalls”. By walking in the forest, you will meet the first waterfall and the second is from one hour to the first.

Then, the rest of the hiking brings you to the center of Munduk. It is a totally breath of fresh air and it is so great! Also you will see rustic houses and have a huge view on mountains! It looks like a dream, but it's real!


5. Dance and music at Ubud

Ubud is the cultural capital of the Island of golds. There are a lot of types of artists and I found local shops with traditional craft. I applied for Balinese dancings and typical musics. On the stage, men were playing music with a kind of hylophones and women were singing traditional songs with a touch of drama. That was so pleasant especially because they wore costumes and their gesture! If you visit Ubud, you have to see these performances!


6. Monkey Forest

While this place is a touristic attraction, you need to discover the Money forest. Especially, if you love monkeys, you will be so satisfied by the diversity of species and you will meet dozens or even hundreds! You can buy some bananas to feed them. Be careful, they love this fruits so they can make anything to eat it!


7. The Bukit's peninsula and beaches

This touristic place also offers wonderful landscapes and mainly known for its huge beaches!  If you pass by Bukit, you could eat fresh fishes by directly eating on the sand on the evening. Obviously, public transports are not really convenient we paid for a driver during one day and prices were affordable for 12 hours and brought us to visit all areas we wanted to visit. This is the most common way of transport on the island but you can also rent a scooter to ride around the peninsula during the day. I walked along beaches by passing through Nusa Dua, Dreamland, Padang Padang beach, Ulu Watu beach with it temple which is close to cliffs where I watched the beautiful sunset. These beaches attract a lot of surfers and is part of the most of famous in the World to practice this sport. If you want to try it, you could ask lessons given by Balinese!


Hopefully these advice will help your friend! Let me know, and if you want I have another advice such as cheap location,package, food, Tour From Bali etc... ! Enjoy her trip!!!

Hi Oliver,

It's nice to have an upbeat and positive reminisces of your time spent on Bali on this thread.  At first I thought that maybe you had posted on this thread by mistake, but then I understood your intention.  Well done!   :top:

Actually, I really want to advise travellers by sharing my experience if it can be helpful obviously!  ;)  Thank you so much for replying! Kind regards!

With that in mind you may want to consider starting new threads with specific topics relating to your travels in Bali, and your experiences.

Those posts can be enjoyed by all, and you might also consider supplementing your posts by uploading photos.

...just a kind suggestion... ;)

Cheers, Roy

OliverSH2016 wrote:

Actually, I really want to advise travellers by sharing my experience if it can be helpful obviously!  ;)  Thank you so much for replying! Kind regards!


I think your previous travel guide is a little bit off topic, I think you should create a new thread.

Hi Oliver,

I created a new thread as from your post on the Indonesia forum :)

Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Christine
Expat.com

I would like to thank the OP for that very nice post.

I applaud you for making a great summary of things to do in Bali, and look forward to reading the ones about packages, food and tours in the near future.

Keep up the great posts!!!

Hi again Oliver, and sorry for the strange appearance of my post #2 on this thread.   As you know, that was originally posted on this thread (see link below) and then moved over here.

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=584993

Just to add a bit to your fine post…and specifically regarding climbing volcanoes here on Bali, here are some photos of sunrise on Gunung Batur:

https://www.google.co.id/search?q=Sunri … ACgQsAQIGQ

The other popular volcano for climbing is of course Gunung Agung which is a veritable monster, being some 3,100 meters high.  This is challenging and downright potentially dangerous, especially if not using a local guide. 

Some views of sunrise there:   

https://www.google.co.id/search?q=Sunri … A1oQsAQIGQ

I appreciate your enthusiasm for our Monkey Forest here in Ubud (and other Monkey Forests throughout Bali), but I personally always discourage visitors from going to any of them.  All the indigenous monkeys on Bali are macaques, and they are nasty and aggressive.  Moreover, they are known carriers of Japanese encephalitis which can be contracted by either a bite, or a scratch.   For the Balinese, monkeys have a very special place (Hanuman), and as such, the seriousness of this problem is unfortunately all too often underrated or ignored.   

Anytime I'm driving by the entrance to Monkey Forest Ubud, if I spot some tourist with a child being loaded into a stroller, I'll always stop and at least make the parents aware of the dangers they are about to expose their child.  The local guides there don't like it, but too bad.  With my Balinese wife (from Ubud) we are raising three sons, and we've never, ever taken them there…nor will we consider it.

I hope you don't mind these additional observations/comments to your post. 

Cheers, Roy

I live in Bali since more than 3 years. A few weeks back I discovered the Hidden Canyon in Sukuwati. FOr me this is the most beautiful "thing" I have seen here. You can find many pictures with Google or Bing Images.

Also a hike through the lava fields around Kintamani and a walk in the park around the Bedugul temple are very nice.

That's wonderful. Bali does indeed have some lovely natural beauty spots.

Bali is resplendent with beauty, so long as one bothers to get out of southern Bali…but even in southern Bali there are still some very beautiful areas, but only here and there. 

Once out of the South however, with each passing kilometer, and each turn of the head one is drenched in endless beauty with great diversity. 

Marc, you might consider doing what I used to do each year, and that's to take a week long road trip of Bali.  No itinerary, no advance plans…just head off to in the direction your SUV is pointing.  Stay off of main roads and get lost…nothing beats it. 

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/deec0/66f/