[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 9 July 2017]
Bali 2017 – How It All Began
This April, I visited Bali with two of my friends, KH and AK, and their wives. I’m the odd one out, I know, but after the last Sydney trip, I’m getting used to being the odd one out. As long as my friends don’t mind, I’m perfectly fine with it. This trip was special in the sense that I didn’t plan it and in fact, I would just be tagging along for the ride, really. The reason is because KH had already booked the trip with his wife and it was supposed to be just a couple trip. However, after AK and I learned that KH was going to climb Mt. Agung and do lots of fun stuff in Bali, we decided to gatecrash the party. Thankfully, KH and his wife didn’t object to the extra company!
KH had planned for a short, 4-day, 3-night trip from 25 to 28 April 2017. On 21 March 2017, AK and I booked our Jetstar flights. The 2-way tickets cost S$182 per person, including the seat selection fee of S$12. We wanted to keep our expenses low so we didn’t purchase any checked-in baggage. However, after finalising the itinerary and looking at all the activities we were going to do, I decided that I needed to bring a lot more stuff such as extra footwear and clothes so I ended up buying 15kg checked baggage for an additional S$58, one week before our departure. So my flight ticket cost me S$240 in the end.
As for the accommodation, KH and his wife HR had already booked a villa at The Yubi Boutique Villas at Seminyak. So AK, his wife NY and I made another additional booking on our own. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any 2-bedroom villas (only 1-bedroom, 3-bedroom or 4-bedroom villas were available), so the three of us decided to share a 1-bedroom villa. As if the light bulb wasn’t bright enough, right? AK booked the villa through Agoda and it came up to S$439 for the three nights, including taxes. However, it didn’t include the cost of the additional bed, which was Rp 600,000 (S$64) per night, and which we paid upon check-out during the trip. So in total, the cost of the villa per person for the three nights was S$210, or S$70 per person per night.
As for the activities, KH had found a tour guide through his contacts and he quoted a package of Rp 2,850,000 (about S$303) for the four days. It included airport transfers, all ground transportation in a van, water rafting, guides for the trek up to Mt. Agung and a seafood dinner at Jimbaran Bay. It sounded reasonable enough. Anyway, I was only tagging along for this trip so I let KH decide on the itinerary and activities. I’m just happy that I don’t have to plan for once!
The last fixed expense we incurred was travel insurance. AK and NY don’t normally buy travel insurance for their overseas trips, but I somehow managed to convince them to buy it this time. It would turn out to be so important as we found out later! I helped AK and NY get a Smart Traveller Essential insurance plan from AXA, costing S$35 for the two of them, i.e. S$17.50 per person. Even though it was just a short 4-day trip, it was a small price to pay for a peace of mind.
For myself, I anticipated that I would be doing a fair bit of travelling this year, so I purchased an annual multiple trip insurance plan. It was the AIA Around The World Plus – Classic plan, with worldwide coverage valid for one full year, costing S$320. Travel insurance is super important, and I cannot stress enough how important it is. With that, we were all set to go to Bali!
(Exchange rate: Rp 9,400 = S$1)
Day 1: 25 April 2017, Tuesday
Our Jetstar flight was at an unearthly hour of 5am, which meant that we had to be at the airport at around 3am. Yawns… As usual, I didn’t manage to get much sleep on the plane. We touched down at Denpasar, Bali at 7:25am, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Our friendly guide, Pak Eddie, picked us up from the airport in his van. It was a little cramped with all our luggage but it was a cosy ride.
We were feeling quite hungry and sleepy so we requested for Pak Eddie to take us to a café for some breakfast and coffee. At 8:24am, we arrived at Bali Bakery Patisserie & Café, where we had some pastries and coffee. With our stomachs filled and caffeine in the system, we were all raring to go!
We departed at 9:04am and headed northeast towards Telaga Waja River for white water rafting. Talk about being thrown into the deep end right from the start! After a long ride through small villages and luscious padi fields, we finally arrived at the start point at 10:50am. The company that Pak Eddie had engaged was Alam Amazing Adventures. They served us a welcome drink, after which, we changed into our rafting attire. We then grabbed our life vests, helmets and oars and walked a short distance to the river.
I was surprised at how clean the water was. This was my fifth time rafting and the only other time the water was this clean was at New Zealand. So I had a good feeling about it. The guides took some time to inflate our rafts. After that, they didn’t give much of a briefing and we plunged right in, at about 11:40am.
The total distance was about 14km. The website says that the Teluga Waja River has a grading between 3 and 4. However, it felt more like between Grade 2 and 3. It wasn’t very thrilling and there weren’t any major drops or extended series of rapids. There was one big slope, angled at about 45 degrees, but it was manmade. That was exciting but it felt like a theme park ride. Throughout the whole course, we didn’t have to row very much because the water was relatively fast flowing so we just left the river carry us along, while the guide steered us in the right direction.
Nevertheless, the beautiful scenery and weather more than made up for the lack of thrills and spills. We were surrounded by lush jungle for most part and also encountered a couple of waterfalls. It was AK, NY, KH and HY’s first time river rafting and I think they enjoyed it overall. I would say it was a good introduction for first timers. Next time, we shall try something with more heart-stopping moments!
We finished rafting at 1:30pm, so it was just under two hours altogether. We then climbed up to the end point where we returned the gear and washed up. Lunch was provided and it was a buffet spread. It wasn’t a sumptuous offering but it did the job.
At 2:19pm, we departed and headed back to Seminyak to check in to our villa. It was another long ride and we finally arrived at The Yubi Boutique Villas at 4:13pm.
The Yubi Boutique Villas
Address: Jl Raya Petitenget 123 Seminyak, Kuta, Bali
Tel: (62-361) 4737581
Website: http://www.baliyubivillas.com/
I have not stayed at a villa before, so this was my first time. From what I have heard, there are bigger villas elsewhere, but our one-bedroom villa here at Yubi was already very big by my standards. It had a private swimming pool and the bathroom was huge. A king-sized bed could easily fit inside. For S$70 a night, it was very cheap.
After showering and freshening up, we headed out for dinner. We didn’t venture very far because we needed to catch some sleep before heading out again at 10pm for the Mt Agung sunrise trek. We found a no-frills warung (a local restaurant) near our villa and I had a simple dinner of nasi ayam goreng and banana milk shake. A plate of nasi goreng costs only Rp 15,000 (approx. S$1.60) here!
For our meals and miscellaneous expenses, we each put Rp 500,000 (about S$53.20) into a common pool fund, so we used it to pay for dinner and things like bottled water or tips for the guides. After dinner, we went back to our villas to catch some shut eye before the trek. And that’s sort of the end of Day 1, a very long and tiring day with not much sleep and rest. Very exciting day ahead tomorrow!