It is rainy season now and it is my favorite season!
Well, Indonesia basically only has two seasons, such as wet and dry. But for me, sometimes Indonesia has three seasons, like wet, hot and superrr hot!
I had a last minute trip last weekend. I decided to go to Kintamani with my boyfriend. We were having lunch together when I said, “Let’s go to Kintamani now!”. He was just like, “Are you sure?”. It has been a long time that I wanted to go back to Kintamani. There are two places in Bali where you can find fogs and wear a jacket for the cold. They are Bedugul and Kintamani. I love these two places!
We departed from home around 13.00. We didn’t go to Kintamani straight away but stopped at Penglipuran Village first. We arrived there at 14.55. It should take 1.5hrs only but we had to wait for my boyfriend’s friends who wanted to come along with us.
It is a traditional Balinese village that preserved for tourism. The village is clean, green and Instagram-able. But actually, almost all the villages in Bali have a strong tradition that you cannot only see but also feel it. You can see it from the buildings or houses – most of them have the beautiful and typical Balinese carving; all the houses also have temple or Plinggih in the garden for praying; the people with their Balinese language or Bahasa/English with Balinese dialect; I Bleki or the black dog .. haha of course not all dogs are black here, but if they are black, most of the Balinese will call them I Bleki (Blacky); bale banjar or the place for the local community to gather with a Bale Kulkul; Pura Desa, and many other typical Balinese culture.
Actually, I have visited this village two years ago. I found that there were more people came to this place yesterday. I met more local tourists than the foreigners there.
The entrance ticket is only IDR 10,000 for local tourist or IDR 15,000 for foreigners. The parking area for motorbike is on the right side of the entrance gate and is not really wide. While for the cars or minibus/ELF, can park on the left side close to the entrance gate of the Pura Desa (temple).
The people in the village also open booth or warung to sell some foods and souvenirs. It is not compulsory to buy them.
The bamboo forest is just behind the village. I didn’t explore it too much as I had to go to the next destination quickly. Otherwise, it would be too dark when we arrived at Kintamani and could not see the beautiful view of Batur Volcano and its caldera.
It was about 30 minutes drive from Penglipuran Village to Kintamani. It was very cloudy but the fog was not thick yet. And I really love it! I came here for that rain, cold and fog.
The rain has just stopped when we arrived which made the area wet and foggy. For me, it was the best ambiance. Denpasar was too hot even though in a rainy season. I don’t know why.
We went down to the caldera and it was awesome (as always)! But be careful as the road was very slippery, many cars and not too wide. Please note that there is no entrance fee to be here or to take a picture in the caldera area.
The last time I visited the caldera was in dry season and it was really hot. Did you know that the Batur caldera is one of the biggest in the world? That rocks I stepped on are the dried lava from the eruption of Batur Volcano years ago. It is very wide!
Kintamani is always cold though in a dry season. But in the caldera area can be hotter in a dry season. If we kept driving through the road behind my friends on the above pictures, we would reach to the Batur Lake, Ulundanu Temple and the Toya Bungkah Hot Spring.
We did enjoy the trip though we have to keep wearing our raincoats the whole time there. We finally went back home at 18:00 and arrived 2 hours later. We drove very slow as it was raining heavily and the fog was very thick along the road from Kintamani to the center of Bangli.
mawmaw mawar 