On the way back to Papua, I took an opportunity to spend a weekend in Bali. My flight from Bali to Papua would be on Sunday night, so I took Saturday morning flight to Bali. I have already set my target: Sunrise at Kintamani…
Sunday early morning, I took off at slightly before 05:00am from my hotel at Ubud. The trip from Ubud to Kintamani takes around 30 minutes, so I still had some times to prepare myself before sunrise.
My first stop was the intersection between road to Penelokan and road to Toye Bungkah. There is a wide pedestrian around there, preserved for tourists who like to stop and enjoy the view of mount and lake Batur. In the early morning, there was still nobody there so I can freely observe the place and setup my tripod 🙂 Between 05:45 and 06:00, the day began to dawn. I took few pictures from here, and swiftly put my tripod back to the car as I headed to Buahan to take mount Batur view from the quayside…
Buahan is a village where a quay was preserved there for tourists who want to rent boats and take a trip to Trunyan, across the lake Batur. It was early morning there and it was still very cold even though the sun has already started to emerge. When I arrived by the quayside, the villagers already started to water their plants, mostly red onions, and few of ‘pedagang acung’ have already started their activities selling souvenirs. What I after here was the view of mount Batur with its reddish side because of the morning sunlight…
Next, I was heading to Songan, but I stopped by at Kedisan village to get some hot coffee and snacks. This is one of the place – the other is Toye Bungkah – where trekkers start their trip to the peak of mount Batur. Hiring local guide is a must here, mostly due to safety issue, because mount Batur is still an active volcano. We can hire a guide from the local guide association there, accredited by the government of Bali province, for only IDR 180,000 per guide, and one guide is to lead 4 persons at max. It’s quite cheap, considering that you don’t want to gamble with your life wandering around the jagged lava beds on the way to the peak of Batur. They also provide service to trekkers who want to have a trip to the peak of mount Abang and mount Agung…
Toye Bungkah is the next village. You can stop by here to the natural hot water spring by the lake shore and get some rest with a stunning view of lake Batur and mount Abang in front of you.
Songan is the end of the road. The view is beautiful with quite fresh (not to say cold…) temperature, the people are very friendly as usually Bali people are. Most of the people here are farmers, with red onions and tomatoes as their primary product. Some of the men also joined at the local guide association that can escort us to the peak of the mount Batur and mount Abang…
Not a bad way to spend a weekend, not bad at all…
* Photos of my trip to Kintamani can be found at www.ismawanismail.com/gallery/index.php?/category/kintamani
