An Evening at Jalan Monkey Forest 14 Nov 2016

We finally arrived Ubud at our hotel – Jati 3 Bungalows & Spa by 4.30pm which is located at the Jalan Monkey Forest.

The earlier rain at Kintamani had made me worried that we might be battling the rain, because technically November is the start of rainy season of Bali.

So far, it we had not seen much as it always rains during late night and we were already on the bed sleeping at Kuta 2 nights earlier. It was because we were so tired after Waterbom Bali, Kuta, Uluwatu and Jimbaran visit.

First impression, all of us were absolutely overjoyed at this hotel which we booked, fantastic value for money and great location.

I was busy unpack our luggage, organise the things in order, and later I took a shower in the room.

Daddy, Issac and Annabelle were so happy and changed to their swimming suits and jumped into the beautiful hotel swimming pool and swim.

The hotel really made our day!

After the kids took their bath and changed, we went out for our dinner.

We decided to explore Jalan Monkey Forest which leading to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary, which was on our left.

We can see a convenience stall Mini Mart 24 Hours, Guardian Pharmacy, Alpo Pharmacy, laundry shop… That were all we need!

We bought our snacks, drinking waters, some medicines.

We noticed that there are handicrafts shops, boutiques, restaurants, bars, massage and spas shops, guesthouses and hotels along the way and it is just a short distance of our 5 minutes walk towards the Monkey Forest Sanctuary.

We just picked one of the restaurants which served local food, as we would love to taste the local food.

I was totally forgot about the name of the restaurant. I just knew that it was really dim inside the restaurant, as the food tasted were ok only.

We ordered 1 Nasi Goreng, 1 Cap Cay with Nasi and 1 Pizza to share among 4 of us. The total bill not cheap as well.

After our dinner, we went back to the hotel. We were quite happy as we wondering down the street and get familiarize with it, as tomorrow we would start our adventure at Ubud starting from here!

Tegallalang Rice Terrace Ubud 14 Nov 2016

After the Mount Batur and Lake Batur lunch, we went for our next destination – Tegallalang Rice Terrace. It is on the way to our hotel in Ubud.

Tegallalalang Rice Terraces in Ubud is famous for its beautiful scenes of rice paddies involving the subak (traditional Balinese cooperative irrigation system).

Tegallalang forms the three most splendid terraced landscapes in Ubud's shared region, with the others being in the villages of Pejeng and Campuhan.

Tegallalang alone has an outlook that spreads down before you and away to the rice terraces on the slopes across the valley.

The high roadside location is cool and breezy and it is a well-known spot for tourists to stop and take photos.

Painters and nature lovers also enjoy visiting this spot, and there are numerous art kiosks and cafes near the ledge offering their ware.

Resen slowly drove up through the road, as the village did ask for some entrance fees.

All along the road, both sides are shops and cafes. Children were selling the post cards and would follow you for a quite a distance.

We were going down through the souvenirs shops and walking though the terrace. There are trails mainly are for the farmers or villagers as they are working in the paddy terrace everyday. It would be quite an easy job for them to walk through it.

The trails are narrow,steep, and muddy, so hiking boots are recommended. We were walking around in our Crocs and flip flops, really a tough job for us. I think one could easily spend a couple hours just taking in the beauty of these intricate terraces, and walking through.

We were too tired to hike and walk further down, as we were afraid we would not have the energy to climb up to the roadside after. We were quite lucky, as the paddy are not yet harvesting time nor planting time, thus we were able to see the whole greenery terrace.

I just felt a bit disappointed as the middle or the valley of the place, planted so many coconut trees. It is actually block the entire terrace view. Think another way, would be the coconut trees provides shades to the farmers whom work so hard under the sun and that is the place they rest and took their lunch or tea.

We climbed up though a different route and we have been through a  few café that just at the road side. The view are amazing, if you just sitting there and have your cold drinks after the hike, it do feel rewarding!

We spent only 30 minutes at the area, as we were too tired with the hot sun shinning above. We left about 4.00pm.

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.