Natural Tegenungan Waterfall, Gianyar

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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High Waves at Water Blow Nusa Dua Bali

After completion of our task during exhibition in Bali, we returned to hotel to take a rest, it's around 16:30 already, all of us were tired. Unfortunately my hotel key was not working well, I went to hotel receptionist to ask them fixing it. During reprogramming my key, I asked the reception where the location of water blow, as I saw in the map it's one of the tourism place which's near to our hotel. He said that it would take only 10 minutes drive and 500 meters walk, the best time to visit is in the evening when the wave could blow very high almost 4 meters high.

As we didn't have time anymore to stay another night, so I rushed to go to my room and called my colleagues asking them whether they would like to visit it. All of them agreed to go and gathered in the lobby soon, no need to shower first as the time was ticking, we had to go fast unless it would get dark. None of us had visited the place, my friend activated the GPS to avoid getting lost.

Reaching Nusa Dua beach parking lot, it's so full, lucky we still got a slot to park our car. We ran to the gate, asking the guard where "Water Blow" location, he said just go straight ahead, no entrance fee. We walked fast, even running. On the way we kept asking people where the direction so we would run to the correct direction, no time for getting lost. Actually the park was nice, but we could not enjoy it as we focus to reach the beach on time. Lucky we saw a golf cart, when we asked the driver where the location, he said it's right behind Rama Sinta statue which's in the middle of large field. He didn't mind riding us to the beach. Wow... it's a nice offered, of course I took it and shouted to my friends to run unless they had missed the cart.

Five of us in the cart, it's over loaded actually, we had to hold tight to the pipe unless we'll fell down. The road was rather hilly in some part, the driver was very excellent, we arrived near the beach right away. We're very happy and run to the path towards the hut jutting towards the sea. The sun started to get red, almost sunset. Lucky we rode the golf cart, when taking the pictures, a very high wave was occurred made the people on the path getting very wet. We hadn't been that close so we were safe. I took some pictures for my colleague, unfortunately they could not take mine with high wave at the background. I took wefie so we could have a group picture with myself inside. I'm not expert enough in wefie, although the wave was quite high, it's not too obvious in the photo.

High wave was not quite often, the highest was when the 1st time we reached on the beach. We continued walking to the end of the path. There was fence protecting people from the rocks and waves, anyway you still could go down to the rock to take nearer picture to the water blow. The pounding waves froth created by the crashing waves against the rocks created the stunning beauty of the sea water flow. I was afraid to go down, when I saw my friend there, I asked him to hold my hand so I wouldn't get slipped as it's sandy and many small rocks.

On the other side you could see the sunset, anyway there was no good object in front of the sunset, the water blow at the East side. I only could take silhouette of the people who sit on the stairs to enjoy the scenery. One of my friend was hungry, so she sit there while eating snack watching us taking picture and enjoyed the wave.

It's' getting dark, my iPhone could not get good picture in the dark, so we decided to go back to the hotel. We had to walk back to the parking lot, no more golf cart to bring us, so walking 500 meters as exercise at night. My friend who stayed in Bali, just know that time that there's a good place to visit near by, at Nusa Dua beach. He could bring his family there to spend weekend. Some people have used it as pre-wedding photo location.

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Wonderful Scenic "Subak" Rice Terraces

During our Bali visit in Jan 2014, we rented a car from Pak Iwan, 62 812 399 56562 including the driver to avoid wasting time of wrong direction. Most of the rented car in Bali has a manual gear, as the street condition is hilly. We arranged the itinerary by ourselves, this trip was to show our mom about Bali as she hadn't visited Bali at all. One of the beautiful place recommended by my elementary school's classmate was Jatiluwih.

After consultation with our driver, we agreed to go to Jatiluwih after visiting Bedugul (2 hours from Kuta), which took around another 45 minutes. Lucky that our driver knew the area, and he didn't reject us to go to this destination. The road was quite bad, it's narrow and some big holes at some places, so we could not drive fast. We felt the journey took a long time as we were starving after exploring Bedugul with its cool mountain fresh air. Anyway reaching the place, the very amazing scenic scenery of "Jatiluwih" located at Tabanan, Bali was so breathtaking. We asked the driver to stop at the edge of the street where there was a space to enjoy the scenery.

No wonder it's nominated for designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the terrace looked green and provided a very neat and beautiful contoured of rice terraces. We seldom saw the farmer and the cows, I heard the farmers already used machine instead of cows to plow the fields. The water system for irrigation developed impressively by Balinese farmers. The weather was quite mild, unfortunately it's cloudy, so we could not get a bright blue sky. Expatriates preferred to go with an open air car, while domestic people prefer a car with air conditioning :-)

As we're starving, and it's over lunch time already, we rushed to return to the car, ask the driver to go directly to the restaurant. My friend said there was a restaurant in the middle of the rice terraces that only could be reached by bike, unfortunately he forgot the restaurant name. When I searched in the internet, comparing all of the restaurants, I saw a good picture of J-Terrace restaurant, so we decided to select it.

Entering the area, we had to pay IDR 15.000/car, anyway there was no more fee for parking anywhere. Many restaurants next to each other on the side of the road where we could see the terrace view during lunch. It's very quiet, maybe the place was not as popular as other tourism places in Bali and it took a long journey to reach it. The waitress was quiet friendly, we ordered the recommended menu Balinese crispy duck served with organic red rice, we also ordered special fried rice and chicken marmite (boneless fried chicken in sweet sour sauce sprinkled with sesame). The foods were delicious, savory and tasty, the presentation was attractive too.

While waiting for the foods, we were taking some pictures from the restaurant, which was higher than the parking area and the road. The left back side of the restaurant was very beautiful, its small pond with rice terrace and mountain as the background. A small statue for Balinese praying also available at this side, the entrance of the restaurant at the end of the stairs.

After lunch, we went across the road to take more green velvet pictures with the astounding terrace, avoiding the promotion billboard and electricity cables. The largest rice terraces in Indonesia spanned in a huge area located in the middle of Bali in the plateau of Watukaru Mount which is suitable for the agriculture development. There were a young couple, not Indonesian people, took pictures for their pre-wedding photos. I tried to go down to the fields, but its embankment was muddy and slippery because of the rain, so I didn't dare to go to the middle as the slope was quite steep and nobody would be able to help me.

We love with this place, as we could relieve our fatigues from daily work with the finest imaginable view which really refreshed our mind, body and soul. The scenic drive through the quaint villages and verdant slopes of the central coastal regency of Tabanan was the unforgettable experience. Tabanan government must pay attention to repair and maintain the infrastructure to get more income from tourists, as we also saw a car was broken down in the middle of the road on the way home.

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Hemisphere Limestone Hill towards Pandawa Beach

During our trip in Bali, of course we had planned to visit their beautiful beaches. One of them was Pandawa beach near Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK), it's also called "Secret Beach". Formerly there was no good infrastructure as current, people had to walk up to the hill then going down at another side to reach the beach. Now a new road has been built through the hill, water sports especially canoeing was available, it's easier to reach.

There was Daihatsu event when we would turned to the right on the last crossroad junction to the beach. So many cars participated to the event, it's impacted to the very long convoy and we're not allowed to go through it. After waiting for around 15 minutes for the uninterrupted convoy, a policeman was kind enough to let us go through among them. Thank you for giving us the way Mr. nice policeman :-)

The cloud was so dark, it's almost raining. You would go through a beautiful hemisphere limestone hill on the way to the beach. It's very amazing with its gradation color of the stone. We had to pay IDR 15.000,- for entrance fee. Suddenly we could see the beach beneath the limestone wall. I asked our driver for stopping on the top of the beach at the end of the hemisphere. We took some beautiful pictures with camera and also smartphone for instant upload. Lucky that we had a chance to take good pictures, just right before a very heavy raining that made us running fast to the car.

We continued the journey by car going down to the beach passing the statues of a mouse and 5 Pandawa figures which were placed in the holes on the slope. The rain got harder, as we didn't want to get wet to go to the beach with umbrella, so we stayed in the car at the parking lot checking our photos and upload some pictures in our smartphone to be shared with others. The heavy rain made the parking lot flooding and some impromptu waterfalls appeared on the cliff. I took picture of the waterfall that we could not find if it's not raining.

After half an hour waiting in the car, we decided to go to the other end of the beach where there was a simple food-court selling meal and beverage. Waiting for the rain to stop, we bought tea and snacks, I kept taking picture of the beach under my umbrella. After another 30 minutes, the rain stopped, suddenly it's replaced with a very bright sun. My mom and sisters joined me to walk on the beach. It's white sandy beach located in Kutuh village where local residents make the beach as place to farm seaweed.

We took some beautiful pictures on the beach, with its unique cliff and bright clean water. When my sister posed on the beach, suddenly a big wave coming made her shorts wet. Actually she was luckier than me, as half of my body was getting wet up to the waist. We played with the soft sand, wrote our name on the sand, then taking pictures. After tired playing with the waves and sand, we decided to go back to the parking lot that was flooded during the rain.

This side was more crowded with tourist as it's the center of entertainment place for water sport. We walked to the beach through a small bridge, both domestic and overseas tourist were visiting the beach. Many busses brought many visitors, also the Daihatsu members were still enjoying the beach. So many canoes available there, also rented sunbathing chairs with big umbrella. You could play water sport there including surfing. After the rain, the sun was shining so strong, I didn't bring my sunglasses, so I almost could not see it's very dazzled. We didn't plan to play water sport as we still had many places to visit and we were hungry. We returned to our car to go to the next destination for lunch now. Although our clothes were getting wet, we didn't change, as we would still play at another beach after that.

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Picturesque beach in Bali

If you like beach, you should visit Bali. Last October 2009 our groups went to Geger Beach, Nusa Dua and Kuta. Most beach in Nusa Dua are private beaches, just entitled for specific hotel’s visitors. One of the public beach in Nusa Dua is Geger Beach, it took around half an hour, it’s around 40 kilometres south of Denpasar. A large open-air parking lot was available for cars and motor bikes, after you went through a narrow street and passed by a narrow wooden bridge.


Geger beach was awesome with its splendid white sand and its lucid sea. The beach was very clean and calm wave, it was very hot at noon, but the western people like it very much for sun bathing on the beach, even some tourists sunbathed topless. Some chairs with big umbrellas were available to relax and enjoy the beach scenery.

The beach was very quiet, fewer sellers than Kuta, if you like a placid place for sunbathing and enjoy beach, Geger beach is the right place to go. Geger temple could be seen at the right side of the beach. If you’re hungry or thirsty, there were also some small restaurants provided foods and drinks.

Kuta is the most popular and favourite beach in Bali, because it’s near to some hotels and near to center of Bali activities for shopping, eating and night life. It is a nice place to watch the fantastic sunset. Kuta is always crowded with many people, tourists, sellers and others. Although the sand beach is black, it’s still clean, it’s maintained well by the guard and visitors. Sellers were everywhere to offer clothes, wide hat, foods, water, bracelet, and others. So many activities could be done in Kuta, such as playing kites, swimming, surfing, etc. You don’t need to bring your own surfing board, so many surfing board were there for rent. The wave in Kuta was higher than Geger beach.

In the morning you also could see some dogs were playing with the waves together with its master, it’s so fun to see it. You don’t need to worry to find food, on the beach with only Rp. 5.000,- you could get a package of rice with meat or egg or chicken based on your choice. Some tattoos makers were also available there, it varies from Rp. 15.000,- to Rp.. 50.000,- depend on the tattoo size and complicated pictures. It’s not a permanent one, so it would last only for around two weeks.

If you feel tired after shopping at Kuta square or other places, you also could do massage on the beach. They have prepared some blanket for you to lay down. Braid service was also available for girls who would like a different hair style.


Many hotels are available across Kuta beach, the tourists could easily walk to the beach whenever they would like, no need transportation at all. Restaurant and souvenirs shops were also available around Kuta to pamper the tourist. Don’t forget to bargain whenever you buy souvenirs or clothes, because the seller always offers a higher price.

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Unforgettable crispy bebek bengil

When we had a business meeting in Bali, we decided to extend for weekend by personal account expenses. My colleague’s brother were kind enough to bring us to go around Bali. One of the most exciting place to visit was “Bebek Bengil”, in English it’s called “dirty duck diner”. Why is it called dirty? As the owner said during building the restaurant a flock of ducks ran quacking and squawking into the restaurant and across the floor and tables. They left muddy webbed footprints all over the place. They were their first guests - those dirty ducks.


For tourist, it’s not too easy to find the place, because it’s in the village in Padang Tegal, Ubud (phone: 62-361- 975 489), there was no clear address with number such as in the city. You could not park in front of the restaurant, but you have to park in the open air fields then walking to go to the restaurant. It’s rather inconvenience to walk under the rain. The ambience was very nice, rice fields just right behind the restaurant, of course there were some ducks were playing and finding food in the fields. Some separate bungalows or rooms were provided for visitors, you could sit on the chair or just sit on the floor such as in traditional Japanese restaurant. It’s raining, we had to close the curtain to avoid the water dropped to our tables, we could not see the fields from our table, but the weather became nicer and colder.

All of us were ordered the special bebek bengil, it took quite a long time, because all of us were starving :-), the time was already over the lunch time. The dish served in a big plate with complete garnish. A half of very crispy and yummy duck was the main course. We didn’t wait any longer to eat and enjoy the food. If you like spicy and hot food, they provide many kind of chilly to complete the taste. I really like the duck, although I don’t eat the chilly, the taste was still very delicious.


After finishing eating, we were lucky, the rain was almost stop, it's just a drizzling rain, we need to bring an umbrella to go back to the entrance. The scenery were beautiful, so I could not avoid the temptation to take pictures. To get better picture, I didn’t mind leaving the umbrella and pose under the rain :-), you could enjoy some of my photos here he...he… There were some pools with lotus and other plants, and also some ethnic Balinesse statues with the ducks.


I plan to go back there someday, whenever I visit Bali. If you like duck, please spare your time to visit the place, it’s very worthy to enjoy the food and the ambience.

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