(Best) 5D4N Bali Experience

[premierz]

Hi all, as requested by a few HWZ-ers, here I am sharing my (amazing) experience in Bali. However need to warn you that it's going to be a very long read

Just came back from my Bali trip a week ago. I went for 5D4N trip, booked a hotel at Seminyak: Sense Hotel (a rather new hotel, only several few months old) through agency during NATAS Fair. We were given free daily buffet breakfast, free 60 min massage, free one day tour and free airport transfers. (The agency was crap actually, we decided to extended one more night after we got the deal 2 months back and when we arrived at Bali, hotel and our tour guide wasn't even informed.)

We decided to give the free tour a miss since we had our own itinerary and told the tour guide when we met him. Airport transfer vehicle was terrible, hardly could feel the aircon and we are those kind that are afraid of cold so you could imagine. But shall not complain, since it is free lol. Nonetheless, we reached the hotel in about 35 min. Friendly and approachable staffs, was surprised that we could check in when we were there at 11am as check in time was 2pm. We were then told we are given free upgrade to deluxe room as the supreme room was all occupied. Kudos to them for that!

Day 1 Tour: We booked Sila Tours as our driver for a 2.5 day tour and I must say their drivers are good. First day we were picked up at 12pm by wayang, very friendly driver; always smiling and helpful. The vehicle was not bad either; very clean and neat, aircon very strong also lol. Wayang's english wasn't too bad either, can understand.

We went to Ubud during the afternoon. It took us an hour to get there, Wayang told us that we must leave Ubud at 3pm because he's afraid there might be bad jam along the way for our next destination. We asked him to recommend us good food for our lunch and was told to eat the suckling pig at Babi Guling Bu Oka. Finished our food in an hour and quickly went to walk around the area, lots of small shop like pasamalam in SG.

Small Temple

Shophouses

Lunch

The weather at Bali is really humid, the sun... don't bother asking! Wayang came promptly at 3pm, picked us up and there we head to our next stop, Uluwatu Temple. It took us 2.5 hours to get there, the jam was really really really bad in Bali. Wayang let out a sigh of relieve when we arrived, was told it usually takes 1-1.5 hours only. We paid the entrance fee and was provided sarongs to wear, it's a common practice as I think wearing sarong is a form of respect. Lots and lots of tourists was there as well, lucky thing we made it there before the sun set.

The view at the temple is spectacular!!! This is really a must-go place. Before we went in the temple, we were warned to be careful of our spectacles/sunglasses as the monkeys will snatch them away from you. Not sure if we were lucky or not, we didn't see any monkey when we were there. Inside the temple we paid another entrance fee to see their traditional fire dance. Quickly paid and walked around to snap pictures of the scenaries and ourselves. Wayang also helped us to take a few pictures which is a nice gesture. He doesn't just take one picture and that's it, he helps us to take 3-4 pictures each time, bonus point given.

Amazing view at Uluwatu Temple

Then we gathered to sit at the stage area and watch the dance for about 1 hour, the dance starts at 6pm daily. At the same time can watch sun set also. The performance is not bad, very interactive near the mid to end as the characters include the audience in as well. The danced ended about 8pm and we told the Wayang to bring us to the famous Seafood Restaurant at Jimbarang, it was too late so can't see any sea view because it was too dark. Bali 6++ pm is like our 7++ pm. Tourist kind of restauarant so don't expect cheap prices. After we had our meal, we made our way back and arrived at our hotel around 10pm, paid our first day tour and tip wayang then say byebye.

Seafood Restaurant at Jimbarang

Next up is yet another beautiful temple, stay tuned!

 

[premierz]

Day 2 Tour: Our first destination was Tanah Lot Temple, another must-go place!! Lots and lots of tourists as well as locals too. Super super amazing views, beautiful sea and waves!! Spent about an hour snapping pictures, this time we had to ask people to help us take pictures because Wayang can't come in for free. The place very big! If you're going as a couple you have to ask someone else to help you capture some photos. Don't worry there are still many nice people!

Amazing view at Tanah Lot Temple

Next we went to Jatiluwih Rice Terrace and it started drizzling, damn sad, it stopped for awhile when we were at the rice field terrace, nice view as well. Only a few restaurants to choose from and the place recommended by Wayang wasn't really nice this time. Only had buffet set lunch to choose from and the food variety wasn't much and it was pretty expensive for what we were given.

Jatiluwih Rice Terrace

Next stop we went to Ulu Danu Temple, nothing spectacular when compared to the first 2 mentioned above haha. Just as we were about the leave it started raining again Decided to go to the toilet first and when we came out, it stopped raining and we passed by this small hut-like shop where you can take pictures with eagles, owls, iguanas, bats and even snakes!! After a short discussion (because we were a bit scared, or maybe I was the only one scared haha) we decided to give it a shot, futhermore its just 30k rupiah so why not. My gf chose the eagle and I chose the owl. Both took pictures individual and couple shots with the eagle and owl so it was an experience.

Ulu Danu Temple

Right after we took our pictures it started pouring again so we quickly ran back to the car. We were supposed to go Git Git and Munduk Waterfall but wayang advised us not to as it is raining heavily, very dangerous, suggested us to go to the Royal Temple at Mengwi. We were really really disappointed but decided to heed Wayang's suggestion since safety is more important. Arrived at the Royal Temple, nothing much to see really, there were many teens at the point of time we went and also groups of students I assume their school trips.

Royal Temple at Mengwi

We left the temple after taking a few shots and head back to Seminyak area to have our dinner, forgotten the name of the restaurant and back to our hotel. Paid for our tour, tip and we were told the half day tour on our last day in Bali will be taken by someone else as Wayang will not be free. We were a bit worried but no choice anyway, exchanged well wishes and went back to rest.

Our next destination: Horse Riding!

 

[premierz]

Day 3:
First up, Horse riding with Kuda P Stables. We didn't got to take the transport provided by them as we didn't remember the pick up time correctly. We quickly made a call after finding something amiss, the person in charge told us to take a cab down and she will arrange everything for us. Kuda P stables is opened by i believe just a female australian(?), need to confirm.

So we quickly booked a cab, and when you take a cab, please take the blue bird taxi because they go by metered and their meters are not modified. There are also a few other taxi companies there that copy exactly how blue bird taxi look like so got to be careful. The rules for booking a blue bird taxi is that you've to travel at least 25k distance if not there will be penalties(?), we paid around 50k to go to Kuda P Stables.

We arrived and was guided to guest area, greeted by the boss she passed us long pants, riding boots and helmet to wear to protect us during the riding. The long pants was given because we were wearing shorts, it is to protect us from abrasions. We paid the money, 600k per pax and went on to get onto our horses! (Yes it is more expensive but we wanted to have good experiences and not pay maybe 450k but the experience wasn't good. Furthermore, this company is high related in Trip Advisor.) The horses are assigned according to the person's size so it is like balanced. Since we were late, our horse riding guides for us was local so there were communication barrier, it was supposed to be an female australian(?) but they had already left. We were taught briefly how to control the horses using the leash and off we go!

One of the guide helped to take pictures along the way and since he was holding on to my horse, I naturally had more pictures than my gf. The other guide holding my gf's horse seems to be new so I assume he didn't know how to take pictures. Ride the horses for about an hour, during the riding we were taken to a black sand beach, had a mini photo taking session there together with my gf which was nice. During the ride, my horse kept biting the my guide's horse's arse which made him moved quite fast causing discomfort for me. Some recommended to push the ride towards the end of your trip because you will have slight back ache and bum bruise from the riding, which is true.

Photos turn out not too bad (our expectations are not high). Sorry can't post any photos because it all had our faces in it but you can go to trip advisor and see some photos posted up there by others. We arrived back at the stable and was served coke and some banana splits, changed up, chit chatted a while and went back to our hotel. Showered, took a nap, and we went out again.

We went to Seminyak Beach which was just about 5-10 mins walk from our hotel and the view was amazing. The beach is very clean and it was not crowded. We took a few shots and went to reserved our table for dinner at the nearby restaurant on Seminyak Beach called La Lucciola. There were many good reviews on them so we decided to went ahead with them. We booked at 6pm, we were told that dress code is no slippers and top must have sleeves. It was still early so we went walk around at our hotel area to do some shopping.

Seminyak Beach

We changed up and went back to the restaurant. We caught the sun set view again and it is very very beautiful. Food not cheap but view and ambience compensated. I suggest booking earlier so you can get to sit at level 2 facing the ocean to have a clearer view of the sun set. We finished our dinner and went back to our hotel to catch a few hours of sleep because we have our next adventure coming ahead!

Sunset view at Seminyak Beach

Please stay tuned for our next adventure, Mt Batur!

 

[premierz]

Day 4:
We slept at 9pm and woke up at 12.45am to get ready for our Mt Batur Volcano Sunrise Trekking since the tour guide will be picking us up at 1.30am. We booked with Eco Cycling Bali for our trekking and paid 450k per pax because of their rating in trip advisor. Yes it is really early but we did not regret it. My gf did a lot of research and decided that we should start our trekking at 3am so that we can catch the sun rise at around 5.30am. So we were picked up at 1.30am and chatted with the tour guide for a while, we were relieved to hear that the tour guide was picking up a few other couples along the way. I mean, come on 1.30am, it's pretty scary if we were really kidnapped. Well, we were furthest from Mt Batur so we were the first to be in the mini van.

Fast forward a bit, we reached the bottom of Mt Batur at around 3+ am. We came prepared, we brought along our own head light torches, sufficient water, tidbits, windbreaker etc. The mountain was 1717m high and this is our first time trekking, initially it was really easy, like normal walking only. It slowly became steeper, and steeper, and steeper, and steeper. Not only it is steep, it is slippery too because of the moist, and the next step could be as high as my upper thighs (standing at 1.7m). It is very cold at the start so you need to wear windbreaker especially if you're afraid of cold but slowly as you start trekking, you will find it humid. Don't worry you'll wear the windbreaker again when you're at the top haha. We took several breaks along the way, drinking water and such. We really almost felt like giving up a few times along the way but we just pushed ourselves because we were already half way there. There are many other groups doing the trekking as well which was quite a motivation, we were trekking with the people who took the the same van. We persevered and we made it to the top and I must say the view is really spectacular!! They provided breakfast by cooking hardboiled egg using the hot steam coming out from the mountain along with some sandwiches. We didn't really bother about breakfast because we were busy snapping pictures, just ate a few eggs lol.

View from top of the mountain

Sunrise approaching

See the little red dot?

Beautiful Sunrise View

Just an idea on high we were at

There will be some kids who are as young as 10 years old who will be trekking alongside with you. Their bags are filled with coke, sprite just to earn some money. I know their prices will be on the rocket high, I kindly rejected but its quite disheartening to see their reaction. After the sun has risen, we were taken further inside to have a look at how it is inside the mountain and was explained by the local tour guide the history of Mt Batur. And now, going back down lol. Trekking down is as hard as trekking up I must say. It is harder to get a good grip of the ground since you're trekking down, there are many times where my gf and I slipped off the rocks and almost fell. Lucky thing one of the guide offered his help and held both off our hands and guide us down. It didn't take us as much energy to trek down as we didn't take any breaks while trekking down, even though we really wanted to lol.

Trekking down the mountain

We were taken to a small coffee plantation (including along with the trekking tour) and after that back to our hotel at about 1230pm. Initial plan was to have a nap for a few hours but we decided to just head out to Kuta Beach straight, took the blue bird taxi and man, the traffic jam was really bad, I know a few HWZ-er here recommended to walk but when I used google maps, it says 1 hour 15 mins lol.

Anyway, Kuta Beach is not really nice as compared to Seminyak Beach. Very very crowded, lots of rubbish on the beach and many stalls along the beach. We just took a few pictures and left. We went to eat at Kuta Square, this shopping mall is like Vivo City like that, very big and prices ain't cheap. After we ate, we went to walk along the streets of kuta, saw lots of pubs and bars along the way. The shops along the streets sells the same stuffs. Took a blue bird taxi back to our hotel and took an hour nap as we were really really tired.

Kuta Beach

Then we went for our free 60 min massage at 6pm as it was the only slot left. Great massage, it was at the right time since we finished our trekking and horse riding. We heard the pork ribs were nice here so we were recommended by the hotel reception to eat at Naughty Nuri's Warung and was given a free ride there using the hotel's van! The food was nice, price is ok. Place was crowded so we had to queue a bit for seats. We took taxi back and went to pack our luggage and sleep.

Pork Ribs

Will post up my last day in Bali soon!

 

[premierz]

Day 5:
We woke up early to pack our luggage and have our last buffet breakfast. Met our new driver, Eka. Due to time constrait as we have to reach the airport by 5.30PM to check in, Eka helped us with the last itinerary. So we went to Candidasa Beach, it is actually a black sand beach, it is really beautiful and it was high tide at that point of time. Eka helped us to take lots of pictures and he actually found out that his hobby is photography, we were thankful for that. Now this really surprised us: after we went back to the car, he took out 2 bottles of cold mineral bottle from the back of the car and gave it to us. This is what I called customer service. Haha but it was really nice of him.

Candidasa Beach

So next we went to Pure Goa Lawah Temple, it is famous because there is a cave at one part of the temple which is filled with lots of bats. We were also lucky because at the point of time we went, Jakarta's Eurokars Group were doing their car movement together, whatever it is called, and we saw lots and lots of porsches.

Can you spot the bats?

Jakarta's Eurokars Group

We head out to have our lunch at a local area recommended by Eka. It is somehow like the curry fish head here in singapore but this time in bali's style. It is very cheap and taste is good, only 60k for 3 people. This is the one time I don't really like about Eka, he sort of expected us to pay for his meal, which we had already initially planned to. Of course we didn't let him know but it would be nice if he had do some "actions" to pay for his meal though.

Balinese Curry Fish Head

Balinese Satay

Then we went to Tegenungan Waterfall, paid a small entrance fee. Ok nothing really spectacular, still feel a little sad that we wern't able to go to the waterfall my gf initially planned.

Tegenungan Waterfall

Next we went the Bali Zoo because I wanted to sit on an elephant. Paid about 80USD per pax which included entrance fee to the zoo, a "long" elephant ride, feeding the elephant. A little expensive but we thought maybe it will be worth it but no, the elephant ride was so so only, nothing much to see during the ride on the elephant and it was so hot. But we just comforted ourselves by saying "for the experience yeah" lol. The keeper who was leading the elephant was nice enough to help us take a photo of us and the elephant so we wouldn't need to pay for any photos taken by their photographers. After the ride we went to feed the elephants, that was something more up close and personal which is what we wanted, which also later we found out we could be that in the zoo itself.

Locals riding the elephants too

We headed to the zoo after feeding, already perspiring much because of the weather. Nothing really special about the zoo, just like what you see in Singapore but maybe a smaller scale? We went to their Bird Show where they showcase different bird species with some interactions with the audience which is nice. If you volunteer yourself you get to let the eagle land on your arm etc etc. What really made us happy was the next station, "Close Encounters" with their animals. There was a Horn bird, Parrots and... a baby lion cup! We got to take photos with the baby lion cup and pat him (or her) and also take photos with the other birds. We walked around the last bit and this is where we saw that we can actually pay a small amount to feed the elephants, take photos and also touch them.

Baby Lion Cup

If you asked me, just pay for the entrance fee to the zoo will do because the elephant ride is nothing much and you still get to feed the elephants and everything. All the close encounters at a much lower price. The zoo accepts card payment as well so not to worry. We went to change up and head to the airport, we really spent all our rupiahs.

 

[premierz]

Alright this marks the end of my 5D4N Bali Experience, hope you guys enjoyed my write up and help you plan your trip.

Sorry for the blurry and unprofessional pictures taken, we are just normal average people using digital camera There are actually lots more photos of this trip, took almost over a thousand pictures but I only shared a few because I feel you should be going there to experience it yourself! Partly also because there are many photos of ourselves too. So sorry!

Tips/Information:

1. Leave 150k per pax for departure airport tax.

2. Choose good flight timings such as early arrival and late departure so you can maximize your time in Bali.

3. I chose hotels over villas because hotels is cheaper and safer. Villas are beautiful with privacy but dangerous at the same time. So becareful and do your research first! (there is a recent news of a robber and a couple who stayed in a villa)

4. I paid 450k for Full day (10 hours) tour and 300k for Half day (6 hours) tour + another 100k for 2 hours with Sila Tours. I chatted with a French family in the airport while waiting for our flights and he said he rented car for a week to get around which is cheaper. But only if you're daring enough I guess.

5. I changed all my money before leaving for my trip. Well, there are a lot of money changers there but my gf heard that you'll get chopped and maybe cheated if not careful.

6. I did not have any water activities during my stay, really not much time to do that because of our fully packed itinerary. We did thought of doing Seawalker and Parasailing but we gave up the thought because of budget and time constraint.

If you ask me what is the highlight of my trip, it was going to:

1. Uluwatu Temple
2. Tanah Lot Temple
3. Ulu Danu Temple (just because I was able to get up close and take photos with the owl and eagle)
4. Horse riding with Kuda P Stables
5. Seminyak Beach and La Lucciola
6. Mt Batur Volcano Sunrise Trekking with Eco Cycling Bali
7. Candidasa Beach
8. Bali Zoo
9. Git Git and Munduk Waterfall (we didn't get to go but i still believe it is a must go place, just google for pictures and you'll understand why )

I'm really enjoyed the trip and I have to thank the one who thoroughly researched and planned the trip so well. We spent quite a bit during this 5D4N trip but I must tell you it is all worth while and well spent. All the experiences and amazing views I will never forget, won't hesitate to come again.

Thank you for taking your time to read my not-so-well write up. Do let me know what you think about my write up too and if you have any questions, just shoot them! I'll try to answer them!

Disclaimer: I might provide some false information at some point but I guarantee you that I am providing information at the best of my memories in Bali.

 

[premierz]

Just to add on, our trip is mainly more on scenery places so that's why all the places we went to in Bali is more on scenery. It's our first time in Bali so we intend to explore the other parts of Bali next time!

 

[invisible999]

If you add hotel and airfare, how much is the expense per day?

 

[dleodleo]

Well done for posting your trip here.

I enjoy reading it. Thanks alot.

 

[a1v1n_]

thanks for the updates on your trip. useful.

 

[premierz]

If you add hotel and airfare, how much is the expense per day?

about 200-250SGD per day?

Well done for posting your trip here.

I enjoy reading it. Thanks alot.

thanks for the updates on your trip. useful.

Thanks for the encouragement guys! Me n my gf appreciate it!

 

[xiaobastian]

Any recommendations for nice food places?

 

[princessy]

Anyone has the latest Indo rupiah exchange rates at Arcade?