At last! We finally had another Bali Tour after almost 1 year since our last one (^_^) If you curious about our previous tours, do check our 1st Bali Tour to Tanah Lot and 2nd Bali Tour to Uluwatu. So as the title suggest, this is our 3rd tour of Bali and this time we went to Kebun Raya Bedugul (KRB).

KRB is a botanical garden located in Bedugul. It’s not actually the real name, but some people just call it that way because it’s located in Bedugul. Its real name is Kebun Raya Eka Karya. Honestly, before we went there, I didn’t really know what to expect from a botanical garden. I’ve never been on one before. So, I wasn’t sure how fun this trip would be. We started the tour a bit late in the afternoon. I think we leaved the house around 1 O’clock. There’s also something different with this tour. If there’s just me n my wife in our previous tours, this time there are 5 of us! No, no, we’re not having triplets hehehe… It’s me, uly, lex, uly’s mom and uly’s brother.

Bedugul is about 2 hours of driving from our home. Quite far, but we did enjoy the trip. Driving through green areas is always a good refreshing for the eyes. Plus the weather was clear during the trip. We arrived there around 3 O’clock. Unfortunately, rain fall exactly on our arrival. It was just a light one, but we didn’t want to put Lex on any risk. So we drive around slowly hoping the rain would stop any minute, and thank God it does

A bit information about KRB, it’s a huge area full with many kind of trees and flowers. And when I said huge, I really mean HUGE! They cluster the plants based on their family. Don’t ask me about it, I’m not really proud with my results in biologic class We visited two of the clusters, the cactus and the orchid family. We were totally amazed with everything we saw in there, very very beautiful. I never thought I could be so delightful being around so many plants.

Anyway, there are just so many spots you can stop by and check inside that I don’t think one visit to KRB would be enough. And if I were to go back there again, I would go earlier, bring lunchboxes from home and have a wonderful picnic. Plus… a long pray a night before for a clear weather They also have tree games (or what they call Tree Top Adventure Park) where you can have lots of fun and challenging games with trees We didn’t try it out, though. Perhaps later when lex is ready for some adventures

Uluwatu! That’s our 2nd destination. It wasn’t far from our home, less than 30 minutes driving up. Yes, driving up. Uluwatu is a sea cliff located in the southern part of Bali. They built a temple right at the top of the cliff, a beautiful one. There’s also a round arena which I think they sometimes use as a stage for kecak dance performance. Plus… there are lots of monkeys in this area. They live free and uncaged, so you must be careful with what you bring or wear. Some of them are naughty enough to grab it from you without permission (^_^)

A little tip from me, pay attention to the various size of the monkeys. The bigger ones are usually more calm, but the smaller ones are often more aggressive. They might even run toward you if you have something that attracts them.

And anywayyy… For us, this tour is not only enjoyable, but also healthy. Because we walk a lot through up and down walkways. We stayed there for about 1 hour or so. I’m all sweat and ready to go home. There are other nice places we passed through on the road, but we decided not to be rush, so we won’t visit more than 1 place at one time. Next destination is…

1-1: Jakarta mau ke mana-mana jauh. Rumah uly yang deket ama rumah gw aja bisa 20-30 menit. Di Bali, rumah gw yang jauh banget dari kantor cukup 35 menit :p hehe (dan ga pake macet euy)

1-2: Bali masih banyak sawah dan pemandangan yang bikin seger, bahkan di jalan ke kantor selalu ngelewatin daerah hijau, bikin selalu fresh setiap hari.

2-2: Jakarta apa-apa selalu masuk duluan. Film, juga komik. Hiks… kalo di Bali perlu nunggu 1 bulan buat film dan paling cepet 2 hari buat komik. nasib…

3-2: Jakarta sudah banyak bahan bakar alternatif selain pertamina, jadi hampir semua gas station melatih karyawannya untuk lebih ramah dan tidak macam2 sama pelanggan. Sayangnya Bali masih banyak pengisian gak dari 0 dan gak pas sesuai jumlah yang di bayar, terutama buat motor

3-3: Pandanglah ke atas, apakah yang tampak di langit jakarta? Kumpulan asap hitam di antara bangunan tinggi. di Bali, langit terasa lebih biru dan lebih luas, masih banyak burung-burung berterbangan. Dari burung gereja, burung bangau sampe burung elang (atau rajawali ya?). Alami banget, jadi fresh fresh fresh! Bukan daging burung segar lho maksud gw

3-4: di Jakarta, jangan nekad meninggalkan kendaraan bermotor di tempat terbuka dalam waktu yang lama, you know why. di Bali, jangan ragu (^_^)

Well, di pertandingan pertama ini sepertinya Bali masih unggul. Kita lihat pertandingan berikutnya kapan-kapan.

Before we got married and moved to Bali me and uly made a vow, witnessed by ipong and recorded in a handy cam. The vow is this: after moving to Bali, we would have a day trip to a special place in bali at least once a month. Well, it’s time for us to begin the journey of our vow (–) 19th April 2008

1st place we decided to visit is Tanah Lot, reachable in less than 30 minutes from my office. But… It took us 3 weeks to finally visit it Don’t ask why Anyway, since it isn’t far, we leaved house in mid day. We had lunch in a great place named Echo Beach, about 5 minutes from my office. It’s a restaurant with a fabulous beach view, great taste, unbelievable portion and commensurate price (you can also enjoy free WiFi internet here). It’s located in Canggu area. We had wonderful lunch, me having Mexican Fajitas Chicken, and Uly a Seafood Platter. Well, we took some pictures here, but too bad we only had the food recorded in the handy cam.

Then, Tanah Lot is the final destination. I didn’t really know the exact road to get there, but the signs led us there easily. Tanah lot, I’ve been here many years ago, a few times I think. But this is of course Uly’s first visit. Not much to recall from my memory about this place. But I do remember touching a (holy) snake inside a small cave here that time. Guess what, it’s still there. Too bad I can’t remember the face of the tamer . Well, Tanah Lot is actually temples located on rocky beach. I think it’s the combination of the beautiful view of nature and unique cultures of the locals that makes Tanah Lot a very interesting place to visit. We didn’t run widely around this place, just stick on a good spot and enjoy the moment. Ah, I almost forget, I can’t believe Uly accidentally met a friend from her hometown (sorowako, south sulawesi) here. She’s on a tour with her colleagues to Bali. What a coincidence, huh?

Sooooo… we enjoy our visit till the sun leaves, then ready to call it a day. Uly bought some sea shells on the way back to the parking lot. We went straight home with a little discussion what our next destination would be.