TRAVEL DIARY + VISIT INDONESIA: JAVA-BALI OVER LAND, SEA, AND FLY! (Part I)

Hey there my friends! I’m back with my new travel diary series. I’ve been busy with my last semester which means I’m going to end my university life soon! YEASHHH! Last year was probably the most frequent I went for traveling. I haven’t post much of my traveling stories both in this blog nor my YouTube channel. Now, I finally got to edit 1 out of 4 postponed travel diary series. Check out my video first to know what it is about and read this post to know the BTS!

Actually this is my second time traveling from Java to Bali over land, sea, and fly. This trip is one of my faculty’s program. So, we get scored during this trip. It was much more of an educational trip rather than leisure but, we are given free time at the end when all the mandatory program are done. I got to join this trip again this time is because I helped my lecturer at that time. Yes, I’m the one who gave score for my juniors. FYI, we are trained to be a good tour guide for this trip. So, let’s get into the BTS!

DAY 1

I didn’t write day one and two in my video because it’s a bit confusing. 😂😅 So, we started this trip at the dawn around 4-5AM. We ride our school (university) bus, which you can see the awesomeness in the video. It is a 41 seater bus and the group consist of 40 people, so yeah it is a full-house trip! And fyi, we had to sleep in the bus and that means our first 24 hours are spent inside the bus. Throughout the journey from Tangerang (city near Jakarta) to Banyuwangi, where we cross the sea to Bali, the students (my juniors) had to do a guiding about topics related to this trip. For example, the culture of Javanese, culinary, arts, etc. It was a pretty tough task for them and so do I. I’ve to listen to their guiding and sometimes it feels tiring. But, I’m amazed with what my lecturer done. She has been doing this trip every year and got to hear the same topics all over every year. Even though both mentally and physically tired, I’m happy to join this trip. I got a chance to skip class and came back to Bali for free!

View from the bus on the highway

We stopped by at Pekalongan for Lunch at Sop Buntut Bu Leman. This restaurant is known for their ox-tail soup. The ox tail can be served in two ways, grilled or not. I chose the grilled one because it is more savory. After lunch, we continue our journey toward Kudus, Semarang, then we stopped at RM Wahyu Utama, Tuban to have our late dinner as well as get ready for sleep like brushing our teeth and change our cloth, etc. 

Highlight of the day: BEEF!!

DAY 2

Good Morning

It was rainy season so, it is quite a challenging trip both for our drivers and us. As it getting dark, the bus getting colder and it made me missing bed so much. Anyways, it took around 7 hours to arrived at Banyuwangi. I woke up quite early, like around 5 AM and I saw a beautiful sunrise near the sea at around 6 AM. The morning view is incredible. You can see the sea on the left side and mountain on the right side. If I didn’t took this trip, it is something hard to see. We passed by Baluran National Park which has a unique view. When it is dry season, the trees didn’t have leaves and it looks like a fall-winter season. Oh the tree’s color also grayish, so it looks like a winter season in Indonesia. But since I came back on November and it is rainy season, leaves are starting growing back so you can’t really see it. This national park still have wild animals, but it is safe to cross because there is a road made for it.

Beautiful countryside view

The mountain peek through the clouds

Baluran National Park at dry season

It is much better seen in real life

We stopped by at a gas station to do our morning routines and then headed to the bay for Bali. We used a ferry to cross from Java island to Bali island. It only took a good 10-15 minutes to cross the Bali Strait. We arrived at lunch time in Bali then we went straight to lunch at Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk Bu Lina. It is one of the traditional food in Bali, Ayam Betutu, which is a dish made from chicken served with Balinese condiments. It can be quite spicy for foreigner especially if you choose not the fried one. The fried Ayam Betutu is less spicy because the condiments are separated. I also not too good eating too spicy food, so I always choose to fried Ayam Betutu. 

On the middle of Bali Strait

After a hearty meal, we go straight to our hotel. It took around 2 hours to arrived at Kuta from Gilimanuk. After lunch, our energy got drained but we still need to continue the guiding session. When we arrived the hotel, I went straight to my room and took a bath and sleep. It was a really nice sleep after a extremely tiring journey. We had our dinner at the hotel because we are too tired to move around.

DAY 3

Starting the day with hearty breakfast at the hotel. Then we went to Jenggala Ceramics to do some artsy time. You cannot leave Bali without getting involved with their artsy life. Jenggala Ceramics is one of Balinese local ceramics producer. They have several shops and a factory. We visited their factory to see how they produce their ceramics as well as joining their workshop. You can visit their factory by notice. We had some art time by painting the half done clay. This is what I made for my mug. It is simple just because I can’t really draw. After some healing time with art, we got some snacks. Even though after the activity we will be heading for lunch. 

Some satisfying things to see

Froggy in process

Queuing...

Pink tea set

We had our lunch at Warung Krishna, they are Nasi Campur Bali specialist. It is also one food that you should taste once in Bali. You can choose between rice or lontong. Lontong is also made from rice but then wrapped in banana leaf. If with lontong, you will be served in a soup, like a curry. I always go for the rice one. As I am writing this down, I get reminded by how it taste and it makes me hungry and missing Bali a little bit. After lunch we headed to Gianyar area to see the making process of organic salt in Kusamba Village. It was scorching hot at that time, but we need to bear it because it is actually a really important activity of the day. Balinese has several organic products production such as soap, aromatherapy, and also food. This salt is special because it is less salty than your regular kitchen salt. So it is good enough for your health. For your information, Indonesia doesn’t really have much attention about using organic products so there aren’t many producers. It is fascinating to see the process also by buying you helped the community. 

Nasi Campur

with Lontong

 

The salt is bathing in the sun

After grilled by the sun for a good 30-45 minutes, we headed to Goa Lawah Temple, which is only a 5-10 minutes away from the organic salt farm. This temple is unique because it is actually a temple with bats living there. Lawah is Balinese word for bats and Goa means cave. So, inside the temple there is a cave with thousand of bats living there. There are few tips before entering Balinese temple. 

One of the Pura in the Goa Temple Lawah complex

After the temple visit, we went to one of the best villages in the world which is Panglipuran Village. It is best known for their cultural value that is still done till this day and their village layout is nicely done. Even though this village has became a tourism destination, the locals are still living here. You should pay the tickets to enter this village. If you came at the perfect time, you can take a really good Instagram worthy picture. You can also get in touch with the locals. Some of the locals opened some souvenir shop as well as food stall so it is tourist friendly. 

Not your usual runway

We had our dinner in a very special way, but I didn’t have the footage because first it was raining second it was too hectic to film. We had a dinner at a night market called Pasar Senggol Gianyar. Well actually this market’s name is unique because the word ‘senggol’ means bump. So the literally meaning is bumping market in Gianyar. But well, market is usually crowded with people, so there is a chance for people bumping into one another. The kids are given allowance for dinner for about 30,000 rupiah. I ate a lot of satay and grilled corn. If you got a chance of seeing grilled corn in Bali or any part of Indonesia, do buy it! In Bali, the best places to buy the grilled corn are near Single Fin (Uluwatu) or Petitenget Beach. With raining still relentlessly falling down, we went back to our hotel and get some rest.

I’ll cut the post into two because I think it is too long and I know how it feels to read a super long blog sometimes kinda boring. Thank you for keeping up till this part. See you on the next post! There will be the highlight of this trip. So make sure to read the next post!