Mia's Travel Log: Bali Day 2 - Tegenungan Waterfall, Rice Terrace, Kintamani Volcano, Holy Spring Temple and Bebek Bengil

The very next day, the 3 of us woke up and instantly felt better (as mentioned in the Day 1 post, the room looks much better in the day). KK was the first to use the bathroom and the flying cockroach was gone, most probably flew out from the openings in the rattan blinds. So after washing up, we packed up for the day and headed over to the dining area right beside the pool for our breakfast.

Yes, the pool is also very small and the jacuzzi pool looks dirty. But let's not get there, yet. 

The breakfast menu is pretty limited to the raw ingredients of bread and eggs, western style breakfast.

 And so I asked for French Toast with Chocolate and was shocked by the huge serving. That's 4 pieces of toast there! But miraculously, and also gradually developing a bigger appetite for breakfast over time, I managed to finish them! 

Along with the fruits (minus the honeydew because it's really hard and tasteless), and a glass of watermelon juice. Watermelon overload, hahaha!

And at almost 9am, Made arrived and off we go to our first stop for the day, Tegenungan Village Waterfalls!

And as you can see, you need an entrance fee of RP 10,000 to enter. And upon alighting from the car, a local young boy came rushing to us, stuffing some handmade fans at us and saying, "For school.... Please, money for school...." 

We decided to just shake our head and walked on, only to realise that the boy is probably part of the family who opens the one and only small snack and drinks shop (mama shop) at the waterfall. Oh well, just saying....

The scene that greeted me while at the top of the valley and got us all fired up to go down right away...

And so, down down down the steps we went....

To this awesome view! There's a bit of rock-hopping done to get nearer to the waterfall, but it's definitely worth it, even though I was in a new pair of slippers.

And in panaroma shot....

And of course, we gotta climb up up up, just like how we came down after enjoying the scenic view. We were panting and sweating like dogs when we finally reached the top. Thank goodness for the mama shop, we were able to get some cold refreshment and take five to cool down while taking a few last glances at the waterfall from the top.

 After which, we dropped by one of the temple that is along the way to our next destination on the itinerary, but it wasn't originally in our itinerary so I've no information on it.
No entrance fees is required, but we can make a small donation at the big pavilion opposite the temple premise, whereby you can get the usual sarong and stash before entering.

It's a very tranquil and peaceful place, in spite of all the tourists. :)
Within the temple premise, we were asked by one of the temple staff (or whatever the correct term you will use to address them) to buy a small leaf woven tray of fresh flowers offering for for prayer of good luck, at RP 20,000 if I didn't remember it wrongly. Since we're already at a temple and it's just SGD $2, why not? And so we each picked up a tray, handed her RP 20,000 and asked her how do we offer the prayer.
"Just leave it anywhere, on the floor."

And yeah, "Huh?" was our unanimous response. The lady just waved her arm and repeated, "Anywhere." We looked around and true enough, there's many such fresh flowers offering lying just, anywhere in the temple premise.

And so we did. KK placed hers by the bird bath while ZH placed hers below a tree.

 And after the temple visit, we dropped by a traditional Balinese house.

 There's many smaller huts housed in a big compound and according to Made, different generations/activities are assigned to different huts location (North, South, East,West).

 While listening to Made's explanation to how a traditional Balinese family work, I was drawn to a sad puppy whines and look who I found! These two naughty buggers were caged up because they have a tendency of running out onto the road. The black one was whining so pitifully, begging to be let out of the cage.

And now showing some parts of the house compound...

 This elevated hut is their rice barn.

 Quails, Hens and Roosters....

 Fighting cocks, hence cooped separately....

 And the brown puppy came out of the cage and found its big brother (or sister, mother, or father... I'm not sure).

Yes, that's a pig! A pretty huge one too, and only 6 months old and ready to be slaughtered for the next big prayer offering that's coming in a few weeks' time.

And before we left the compound, the owner of the house, a jovial grandpa showed us the old, usual treat they offer to their guests. Betel nuts! Thank goodness he ate it himself in the end, I'm sure none of us are gamed for it.
And so, after giving the grandpa a small cash token (of RP 20,000 as a group), we bade him goodbye and left for our next destination.

 The Tegallalang Rice Terrace!

And yes, the view was awesome!

Was so tempted to buy one of the Pinocchio puppet at the shops located at the top of the rice terrace. They look so cute!

And guess what, due to KK's and ZH's request, we actually made a trip over to the other side of the rice terrace! It was pretty okay for me, but KK was totally stressed out from the terrain due to her slippery flip flops and at one point of time she just gave up and went barefoot.

 That's us at the lowest point of the rice terrace, a makeshift bridge.

And at one of the resting points on the way up to the other side, we got a pretty big coconut for just RP 10,000.
And along the way, there will be local (the farmers themselves, as according to Made) asking for cash donations. And as advised by Made, we split our intended amount of RP 20, 000 into two to give two separate farmers. And while resting at one of these 'donation points' and enjoying our coconut juice, we saw many other tourists throwing these farmers looks of disdain as they asked for donations from them, one even pointed up the rice terrace towards and sky and retorted, "Yeah, we donated back there!" The farmer merely shook his head and responded to our awkward stares with a smile of resignation. It was then Made explained to us, that these cash donations goes directly to the farmers, who did all the manual work to build up the rice terrace into a tourist spot and did all the maintenance work. However, the entrance fee that we pay mostly goes to the government, and they hardly get any form of compensation for their hard work.
So really, RP 20, 000 is just SGD $2 plus, so why be so stingy on such little money that could make someone else's day better? :)
I guess we're pretty lucky, for it started raining pretty heavily when we just climbed back up from the rice terrace and looking at the rest of the tourists who got stuck within or still trying hard to climb back was pretty scary. I guess our prayer at the temple helped. :)
However, as Made parked his car a distance away, we weren't spared from the rain and had to make a 50m dash to the car in order to 'beat the rain' for our next destination, whereby we'll be having our lunch.

At Kintamani, which was around 45 minutes drive away, with volcano and lake view.

 Yes, I was totally mesmerised by the scenery and I didn't even want to eat. I just wanna keep on snapping pictures. :)

Yes, my note 2 didn't do the scenery any justice. :(

As compared to the scenery, the food and the restaurant were both a huge disappointment. Yes, I know this buffet lunch only cost us about SGD $10 so I'm not going to complain much about the food. But the place (even at a chilly, 1000 AMSL) was full of flies! We had at least 10 flies flying around the table at one time, and resting/feeding on our food once we stop waving our hands at them. We were totally grossed out and could hardly enjoy any bit of the food.

 Not that they're any good, actually.

This cup of warm honey lemon (not inclusive in the buffet package) has to be the best item on our table that day.

And after bidding the volcano and lake goodbye, we headed for our next destination for the day, where my highlight of the day shall be at....

 The coffee and plants plantation!

 But before I finally get to 'meet' the highlight of the day, I got to meet its maker first, during a short guided tour from the plantation staff. The resident luwak cat here aren't for bean production purposes, but just to show tourist how they look like. Apparently, all kopi luwak beans here are picked from the wild by the farmers they hired.

Then we finally came to the hut whereby they're roasting and pounding coffee beans! The strong coffee aroma that filled the entire place was like.... OMG, I found my heaven!

After introducing us to all the different beans (there's female and male beans too, you know?) we were seated down at the pavilion and treated to a full sample of their produce (excluding Kopi Luwak, of course) for free!

 Totally loved their Bali Cocoa, Bali Coffee & Cocoa (Their homemade Mocha!), and the Rosella Tea.

Needless to say, I also ordered a cuppa kopi luwak, at about RP 50,000 (about SGD $5 only!)
I first drank it straight up and didn't like it at all. Too sour, almost like tea. But after the addition of some sugar, the sour taste somehow dissipated and it became quite an enjoyable cuppa coffee. :)

 $5 kopi luwak with such greenery, what's there to not like about Bali?

And I was so taken away by the place (and coffee aroma, of course) that I spent SGD $100 on all the coffee powders.

After saying goodbye to the friendly and chatty staff-guide and the civet cat, it started drizzling yet again and we quickly hopped onto Made's car for our last destination of the day before dinner.

 The Holy Spring Water Temple.

 Just like the other temples we've visited, the temple premise spread over a huge compound filled with greenery, individual buildings, and the Hindu God statues.

And beyond this gate, we found the exact area of worship depicted on the entrance ticket.

Worshipers, all immersed in the holy water up to their waists, walking around orderly in an anti-clockwise direction in prayers. 

The drizzle was slowly getting heavier and so we decided to cut our visit short and headed out in search of Made, for our dinner plans. 

It was literally raining cats and dogs when we got to the market place (along the route that leads you out from the temple), selling all sorts of items ranging from pretty sundresses, to sandals, rayban inspired shades, cute ornaments, paintings and etc. Too bad for the heavy rain that totally washed away the shopaholic streaks in us, if not we might just have bought everything we see on the way out. The rain was so heavy that we were almost wading ankle deep in the rain water. :(

After hopping on back onto the car (and pretty drenched, yet again), ZH requested that Made brings us to Dirty Duck restaurant for dinner if it's isn't too far away. 

"

"Ahh, bebek bengil... But it's a bit... hard..."

That was Made's advice to us, but we were still pretty insistent on trying, since it's so highly raved by friends around us, so Made brought us there for our 2nd dinner at Bali.

First up, the place is awesome! Really pretty Balinese set up, and very big and spacious. Not to say, really clean too.

The huge, spacious entrance into the restaurant...

 There's separated huts/pavilions for diners to sit and having their meals...

 And all are surrounding this central "garden" with ponds and lush greenery.

 We were given a huge 'tatami-style' table that's facing the rest of the seated tables, with the central garden to our back.

Even their napkin holder is a cute duck!

 Both KK and I got the Nasi Goreng that was served with a fried egg, chicken satay and keropok.

ZH ordered some chicken kebab...

And of course, we got the crispy duck to share. We thought that when we told the waitress, "crispy duck", we will get just the duck. But hope, it's actually a pretty small serving of half a duckling (almost the size of the roasted pigeons I had in HK) with white rice and many sides.

My Nasi Goreng was pretty good, well flavoured and the rice was at the right texture and all. But the crispy duck was just... bleah. So much for all the raves and recommendations. Just as what Made told us, it was hard... and dry. The skin was pretty crispy, yes, but more because of how hard and dry it was. The meat, you don't even need me to tell you much I believe, is just very dry and tough. It is savoury and flavourful, yes. But.... not tender or juicy at all. At some parts of it, I thought I was chewy on some tough bak kwa. Not just bak kwa, but tough bak kwa.
So, why the raves, people?
For those planning to visit Bali and give Bebek Bengil a try, I'll say you give it a miss instead and head over to Bale Udang instead, which we tried out from Made's recommendation on Day 3.

After dinner, we hopped back onto Made's car and made our way back to the dreaded Matahari Cottage, which was about an hour's drive away from the restaurant. The morning's quick mentioning of 'maybe we can tahan for another night' was quickly dismissed by KK, who insisted that we press the staff for our Bintang room, or just any other rooms apart from Gua.
And we got the Janger room.

(pictures taken the next morning)

 A mosquito-net to keep us safe from the bloodsuckers, but none for KK, who prefer to have the floor mattress to herself.

A much stronger rain shower as compared to Gua's, which made KK and ZH very happy indeed.

The Janger room is actually much, much smaller compared to Gua (not even half the room size). But it was soooooo much better! Cleanliness wise, I'll say they're actually the same. And the door couldn't even be properly shut! But Janger lacks the overall spookiness of Gua room. It was also free from the forest and overgrown greenery, hence we felt safer from anymore UFO, apart from the mosquitoes (which was way more than what we experienced in Gua, but we also attributed it to the rain) and flying ants. Thank goodness, we managed to get a mosquito coil from the helpful staff, and that really did save us from all the mosquitoes over the night as it burnt.
It was really a good choice we decided to press for a new room, as we were truly dog-tired from the very packed itinerary we had today and a good night's rest was really what we all needed.

Read about my Day 3 HERE

Till then,
Mia