I went to Bali at the last week of May 2018 unplanned, I took a leave as there were 2 national holiday in the week. Lucky I had a friend in Bali who kind enough to lend me his HRV car same as mine in Surabaya. Frankly speaking I never drove in Bali previously, so I was quite worry of getting lost. Few days before departure, I asked some friends who know Bali about the tourism places that would be visited. I would like to ensure to get the best and most effective route. All of my friends were kind enough to help me arranging the itinerary, so I could book the hotel based on the route arrangement.
My mom and her friend were accompanying me, none of us knew Bali a lot, I used google maps in my smartphone to show the way. Arriving Ngurah Rai airport at noon, we decided to find lunch first nearby airport, also bought water and snacks in a mini market to prepare for the journey. Our hotel that night would be in Ubud, we would stop to Tegenungan waterfall before check in.
From lunch place, I set my google map to Tegenungan, Gianyar, I didn't know the way at all, just follow google map direction. I was worried getting lost, but it didn't happen at all, I could reach the destination smoothly. There was no traffic jam, arriving at the destination, we saw many stalls along the alley to the waterfall, selling food, souvenirs and others. The entrance ticket cost IDR 15.000/person. the weather was quite mild.
Passing through the entrance gate, we walked few steps only, where we could find a couple Balinese statue welcome us, with the waterfall far behind them. "Bale bengong" or small hut to sit was available for people to enjoy the scenery. We took some pictures here, we had to wait for others taking picture to enable getting good picture. As I forgot to bring my selfie stick, I asked another visitor to take our picture then I helped him taking picture in return.
We continued going down through stairs to go nearer to the waterfall. Along the way we met with people who went up after visiting the waterfall, most of them were struggle and having a deep breath, sometimes stop a while to rest. We were afraid of continue our steps, but our desire to see the waterfall encouraged us to go on. After around a hundred steps, I saw a nest on the tree that could be used for photo spot. I challenged my mom's friend to climb to the nest, she took the challenge. After taking her pictures, she struggled to go down as there was no stairs or rope to support her body, finally she could succeed to get out from the nest, but her finger were hurt caused by the sharp tree branches.
Kept walking down the stairs, we stopped resting on the a small hut where we could see a tiny waterfall, there was a heart frame as photo spot. While my mom and her friend sitting there, I took some pictures of the stairs, tiny waterfall and the heart frame. After few minutes we walked again through the stairs, we met a temple with some water fountain that enable people to pray and soak their body. I didn't go inside it, just peeping from its gate. From there you also could see the river stream from the waterfall.
I was interested in the river, my mom's friend and I went down to the river, my mom preferred to stay there and took some pictures of us from above. What made me amazed, there were many rock balancing arranged along the river, I loved seeing that arts. I heard it previously in the television and news, but that was the 1st time I saw by myself.
Finish exploring rock balancing, we went down through some stairs, no more stairs anymore, only dirt road to the waterfall which's quite steep. We decided to stop there, as we didn't plan to get wet (wearing shoes), the path was too difficult, and it's getting late. We was quite satisfied taking picture from there as the waterfall looked much bigger than from above, it's around 4 meters height. I felt quite surprised as I still could upload my picture to social media from the place, the signal was good enough.
The tough part was going back up to the parking lot, around 700 stairs were waiting us to climb. We stopped many times before reaching the top. I'm quite proud that my mom and her friend which had >70 years old still could complete the trip. Before leaving the area, we bought some souvenirs on the shop, beautiful pink hat for me, and cute dress for my niece.
The first place to visit was accomplished perfectly, we continued to drive to our hotel in Ubud. If you love nature, you should visit it and prepare for clothes if you would like to get wet and play with the waterfall, I'm sure it would be fun.
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