Enjoy Lunch with Mount Batur Volcano & Lake Batur view ^^ 14 Nov 2016

After our visit to Sari Amerta Batik Collection, our next stop was something both we looked forward to very much.

It was the viewing of the volcano, Mount Batur. We had never seen a real volcano before. So, this added to our excitement besides the idea of having meals on hill top.

It was almost an hour and half drive from Batubulan village. Along the way, we passed through a few villages, and from the shops along the road, we knew that it is the famous Bali handicrafts villages.

We can see shops in one stretch displaying timber or wooden furniture, after sometimes we can see shops displaying handicrafts made in wood, then after sometimes we can see shops displaying handicrafts made in raw steel, or the sculpture of Buddha's, religion relics, etc.

This was the first time we saw a whole village specialized in doing what they are good at. It is just like the whole village and the villagers are artisans!

There was heavy rains during our journey to Kintamani village, I was wondering can we still see the view of the Mount. Batur and Lake Batur.

It was really a blessing that the rain started to stop and upon we were reaching the hill top, the rain clouds still not even reach there yet.

We were so happy and feel lucky and I knew that it is because the Lord’s hand!

We went to have our lunch at Grand Puncak Sari Restaurant. We were so hungry because by the time we reached is almost 1.30pm. It was a buffet lunch.

We had arrived a little bit late. There were quite a lot guests in the restaurant, and all of them were taken the terrace seating outside the restaurant.

And, we managed to have an outdoor table so that we can enjoy the volcano breeze and the view below since the restaurant perched on a hill.

The restaurant have a platform outside the restaurant, whereby the guests can go out and have a good view.

The food was not bad. Choices were plenty. Ranging from the appetizer such as mixed salad, vegetable soup, tomato soup and bread.

Main courses including  steamed rice, fried rice, fried noodles, cap cay (mixed vegetable), gado-gado (steam vegetable with peanut sauce) or fried vegetable, Fu Yung Hai (Chinese Omelette), fried union, tempura vegetables, fried chicken chicken in sweet and sour sauce, chicken curry, beef stroganoff, fried potatoes, spring roll, satay (Balinese, Beef, Chicken) and shrimp crackers.

The desserts from fried banana/jack fruit, black rice pudding/black sticky rice, sticky rice with pumpkins, fruit salad, fresh banana and others tropical fruits.

The drinks they served is coffee and tea which we did not take. We just take the drinks which we bought earlier on. The buffet is Adult Rp.150,000 and Children Rp.75,000 and total bill with tax 21% comes to Rp.545,000. It is quite expensive though.

                   

The food temperature was okay (not cold) as it is at the warmer all the time like other hotels does. Because we were sitting outside thus it got cold easily as the weather are cold.

      

After our first round of meals, we went out for our photo shooting session. We wanted to make sure we enjoyed the view of the volcano and the breeze to the max before we left.

    

Mount Batur is a volcano, as we know it today was formed by an eruption in 1917; it is a still active, secondary volcanic cone sporting numerous subsidiary vents around its flanks. Measured from the floor of the crater it rises within the circling embrace of the caldera to a height of ca. 700 meter (1,717 meter / 5,633 feet above sea level).

The eruptions of Mount Batur have been registered since 1804 and since that time 22 eruptions of the volcano have occurred. Since 1917 Mt Batur erupted three more times (1926, 1974, 1994), on each occasion shifting a little more to the west, creating new sub craters that are referred to as Batur I, II and III respectively.

We still can see the differences by the shades of the soil today. It is truly beautiful view. We learned that there is some hiking or trekking tour to Mount Batur as well.

Lake Batur is the largest lake of Bali. It is crescent shaped and it can be found in the smaller, secondary caldera of the Batur volcano, right at the foot of Mount Abang. Due to its height not only the temperature of the area is always cool but also the water of the lake.

To the local people who live in the small villages around lake Batur, the lake is a sacred site. The communities around the lake live mainly on agriculture and fishing and, in a lesser extent, on tourism.

After some photo shooting, we came back to the dining table again for our second and third round… Well, mainly is me .

Sari Amerta Batik Collection 14 Nov 2016

Our next destination after the UC Silver was Sari Amerta Batik Collection which is located at Batubulan village, Gianyar. Resen told us that we can see how the batik being done here.

The open workshop is set up roughly in front of their gallery. There were a few ladies working at the area, where they working on a white cloth.

Unfortunately for us, the artist or worker whom in charged of the colouring was absent, thus were unable to see how is the full process of the batik.

We just managed to see how the ladies making designs on the white material, either copying the original designs or directly without copying and draw on it.

After which, covering designs with wax or klowong on both sides of the white material. Then, they would filling designs with ornaments and small dots.

Covering some special part of the designs to get the second colour which is called Sawuk. Tembokan is covering some special part of the design to get third colour.

After which they would dye for the first colour.

Later the artists would scrapping some parts of the wax to get second colour by using a king of knife (cawuk). Omitting all the wax by putting the material in boiling water so that are two colour, blue and white.

Then, some parts of the designs where are dots to them. After fifth processing, they would usually put dot on the lines of the designs to make them nicer.

As for the second colour, they can dye many times if the artists want some more colour. Then, again to omitting all the wax by putting the material in boiling water again.

Finally washing if the material is clean then would dry under the shade. The batik traditional colour are usually blue, brown and light yellow. It is to be live symbol.

As for the stamp processing, the artists can directly do without making designs in advance, as every stamp has its own pre-made designs already.

Personally, I was amazed by the artists as they can just draw freely on the white cloth with the designated ‘wax pen’.

I saw a man drawing the painting or There are a weaving machine and sewing machine too. He looks so fast and professional in what he is doing!

Sari Amerta Batik is one of the famous gallery selling batik products, ranging from wall hangings to table clothes to men, ladies, and children clothing. Prices and quality range from one extreme to another.

The ground floor mainly selling all kinds of clothing which are men, women and children.

Other than that, there are some other table linen or table placemats which are in batik designs. It is nice too. Some note books with batik cover, and some photo albums with the batik design frames too, hand fans, and a lot of souvenirs too.

We bought 2 hand fans only, as we did not intend to buy any. At the 1st floor, is all the batik painting displayed. We saw a lot of beautiful paintings and of coarse the price also very expensive!

There were very few photos taken as we were not allowed to take photos in the gallery. The photos at the 1st floor I was taking secretly as the paintings are so beautiful.

Sari Amerta Batik Collection is a great way to see a wide range of Batik product, and also how it is made.

            

UC Silver Bali 14 Nov 2016

After the Barong & Kris Dance, our next stop is to see some skilled art workers at work. We stopped at a place called UC Silver and took a tour of their workshop.

  

The entrance and gates of UC Silver is amazing! The outside of the building was just beautifully crafted out… huge golden dragonflies flit on the walls, and more dancing ladies are on the top of the roof along with golden roses and other adornments. Such intricate designs!

                   

Resen showed us to their work room at the basement. There were already customer service ladies to assist to bring us look around.

This work room only for silver and we can see all the silver workers painstakingly working on their silver crafts.

The work room divided to 2 session: one is craft session and another one is polishing session. The room was a bit dim.

I guess it is because most of the time, the silver workers are working at their designated cubicle.

A typical cubicle is equipped with a table lamp, and the blow torch, thus bright room serve no purpose as individual cubicle would have their sufficient lighting.

The tools are simple – silver, blow torch, tools for bending, moulding, shaping, but the designs came out are fantastic!

After then we were brought to the polishing room. Rows of silver artists working in their cubicles. These folks had it lucky – the place had air conditioning.

I think the air-conditioning didn’t work at all, as we still can feel the heat in the room.

It was also fun to see girls and guys working side by side.

We came to see this woman in the front is holding a piece of silver jewellery in her tongs while using the blow torch on it.

Then, we saw the man next to her was using the round moulder to perfect the rings on his table. There were so many rings on his table. He was almost finished his works.

Another women were doing the silver pendants with the design given by the jewellery designer.

The method using here mainly is soldering silver.

Each of the silver artists or workers have their individual items on the table to work on and they were chit-chatting with the friends next to them.

Or some even walking around after they have finished their works.

We did have our family photo here in front of the work room, but the photo seems a bit blur…

While the work room is basic…the showroom is exquisite! We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the items in the show room.

There is a great variety of jewellery on display inside mostly silver and some gold which are available for purchase too.

There were earrings and necklaces, rings and bracelets from simple to amazing!

There were gem stones, precious and semi precious. Of coarse on the other hand, the prices of the jewelleries are not cheap as well.

Nothing I would personally wear so didn’t buy anything but it was still interesting to see how every piece is made from scratch. An interesting visit I would say.

The Barong & Kris Dance, Kesiman Denpasar 14 Nov 2016

We woke up early in the morning, got ready all of our backpacks and luggage as we would check out from the CT1 Bed & Breakfast Hotel and start our full day tour.

Resen picked us up at 8.00am, and we headed to Kesiman village for the Barong & Kris Dance being our first itinerary of the day.

The Barong and Kris dance is one of the Bali most iconic dance-dramas, on par with the Legong and Kecak. The Kecak Dance we watched the day before made us  more keen and looking forward to the the performance.

We were there on just in time, before 9.30am and we bought the tickets Adult Rp.100,000 and Child Rp.50,000. Pamphlets containing synopses handed out at the ticket booths prior to the start of the show. Otherwise, it can be difficult to follow the story as the scenes unfold, due to the lack of narration.

After we got our tickets, Resen brought us around to the area as beside the performance hall is the village temple. Later on we learned that the shows is managed locally; dances performed by villagers, and live gamelan orchestra accompanies the full length of the show.

We managed to find a place just in front of the stage. Unlike the Kecak using the men's’ chanting as the music background, Barong using vibrant gamelan overtures begin as the audience is seated.

The Barong dance represent on eternal fight between good and evil spirit. Barong (a mythological animal) represent a good spirit and Rangda (a mythological monster) represent an evil one.

The Barong, a benevolent spirit in beast form must protect a kingdom against the vengeful wrath of the widow and witch queen, Rangda. Two male dancers work out the movements of the heavily ornate Barong costume, much in resemblance of the Chinese lion dance, while supporting dancers portray monkeys, priests and village men.

Below is the synopses which was given to us:

THE DANCES START WITH MUSIC OVERTONE ~ Followed by his friend, the monkey, the tiger comes up. Three masked dancers appear representing Meri, making palm wine in the forest whose child is killed by the tiger. the three men get angry and attack the tiger which is helped by the monkey. During the fight the nose of one of the three men was bitten off.

FIRST ACT ~ Two girls (dancers) appear representing the servant of the Rangda. They looking for the severities of Dewi Kunti who are on the way to meet their Patih.

SECOND ACT ~ Dewi Kunti followers arrived. One of the followers of Rangda transfigured into a demon (a kind of Rangda ) and enter a demon spirit to Dewi Kunti’s followers, which make them angry .

THIRD ACT ~ Dewi Kunti and her son; Sahadewa emerged. Dewi Kunti has promised to Rangda to hand over Sahadewa as a victim . Dewi Kunti actually not want to sacrifice his son Sahadewa to the Rangda, but devil (a kind of Rangda ) insert an evil spirit that caused her to become angry and willingly to sacrifice his son. With the assistance of Patih, she exiles Sahadewa into the jungle. Patih is also being inserted an evil spirit by the devil which make Patih with no humanity herd Sahadewa into the jungle and tied him in-front of Rangda’s palace.

FOURTH ACT ~ Come down Dewa Siwa and give immortal life to Sahadewa. This incident is not known by Rangda . Then came Rangda to tearing and killing Sahadewa but he can not be killed because of immunity bestowed by Dewa Siwa . Rangda surrender to Sahadewa and begged to be saved so that he could go to heaven . The demand is met by Sahadewa and then Rangda got heaven .

FIFTH ACT ~ When one of the Rangda’s followers (Kalika) facing Sahadewa to ask for forgiveness, it was rejected by Sahadewa. This rejection cause fights and Kalika transfigured into a “wild boar” and in the struggle between Sahadewa and the wild boar, Sahadewa gets victory.  Then Kalika (wild boar) is turned into a “bird”. Kalika remains defeated.

And finally Kalika (bird) transfigured into “Rangda”. Because of his magic, Rangda cannot be killed by Sahadewa and eventually Sahadewa transfigured into a “Barong”. Since they have the same magical strength then the fight between Barong against Rangda is no winning this fight and thus lasts forever. Then came the Barong’s followers, each with a Keris to help barong  in the fight against Rangda.

The climactic scene has the palace guards in trance, turning on themselves by screaming and stabbing their chests fiercely with their Kris daggers, but without harm due to the black magic. Barong comes to the rescue, lifting the spell off all those inflicted, and a priest comes around sprinkling holy water to fully revive the kingdom as the famine subsides, and Rangda is defeated.

The shows last between 45 minutes and an hour, and the end of the show features photo taking onstage with the performing cast in their full costumes, as well as with the gamelan orchestra.

Initially we had much enthusiastic for the show, but may be it was due to story line is too long, and a little bit confusing of the characters appeared on the stage and trying to figure out who is who. In the end, we found it a bit boring through out the show.

Both kids were feeling sleepy in the end of the show. I guess the hot weather contributed to this too! And, what they were waiting in the end was eagerly to have photo and touch the Barong costume!

One of the gamelan musicians invited us to the back stage where they kept all the costumes and masks used in the dance. We had a chance to put on them and have a few photos taken together. Daddy did give the musician some tips for that.

CT1 Bed & Breakfast Bali 11-14 Nov 2016

We arrived around 8pm to 9pm. at the hotel. It was a bit disappointing after we saw the hotel.

It was quite a difference compared to the website photos. The entrance of the hotel is a bit hidden by the cars parking in front of the hotel.

Later on, we realized that it was due to the photos perspective views that shown at the website, resulted the wrong impression of the hotel view.

We entered the main glass door and we just followed the corridor, which it would lead us to the canteen of the hotel on the left.

Here there is a soft drinks fridge where you can buy cold soft drinks here. And, here too, we would redeem our breakfast every morning.

The breakfast provided is local Indonesian food as it was quite new for us, so we have no complaints on that as it is free.

Then, we came to the reception counter, where we do our check-in and check-out here. At the right side there is a row of seating area along the corridor.

The hotel lobby is located at the back, and it is served as a break fast area in the morning or meeting area for some.

It is actually quite a cosy place at the night, and it is open-air, meaning is not an enclosure. At the side there is a koi pond with a small garden.

The koi pond is located just next to the main staircase where we used to our room at 3rd floor. There is no lift in this hotel. We stayed at the 3rd floor, thus we have to walk up and down every time we wanted to go out.

We booked the double decker room which come with 1 King size bed and 1 Queen size bed.

There is an air-conditioner and a wall mounted fan. We have our hot shower after the meal, and made us happier after our first checked-in day.

There is a big break out area just outside our room.

There are 3 sets of sofas, coffee tables, wash basins with mirrors, and drinking dispensers. It would be great for big group or family gathering.

We stayed for 3 nights here. There is one night which there was guests from some institution stayed for a night, and we can heard their talking and laughing during our sleep in the night. And, luckily we were too tired to bother about them.

The location of the hotel is a bit far from Pantai Kuta and the main tourist spots at Kuta as we have to walk a lot further.

Anyhow it is next to the Tuban Police Station, a 24 hours clinic and the ATM kiosks.

We have to walk further down or up the street to look for our meals, convenience stores and the laundry shop.

The hotel offers access to a vast array of services to the guests, including 24-hour room service, free Wi-Fi in all rooms, gift/souvenir shop, Wi-Fi in public areas, car park.

The hotel guest rooms, many of which include television LCD/plasma screen, internet access – wireless, internet access – wireless (complimentary), air conditioning, desk.

Well, if you are looking for a place to sleep and shower should be value for money.  Just the room and the area is a bit wear down but still considered ok for the money spent. Frankly, we would look for hotel nearer to Kuta Beach, as it would be more choices and things to see around.