day trips?
I want to talk about the day trips from Seminyak. Given Indonesia is a massive country, and based on the location, it is quite a long journey to go to famous places from Seminyak. You will not have difficulty finding tour guides here but those are my recommendations:
- Do book trips ahead with reputable agents like GetYourGuide or Viator.
- You may find local tour guides (most likely your airport transfer people will send you details) – which I think is ok.
- Avoid the on-street guides because you don’t really know who they are.
We booked this East Bali Tour: Gate of Heaven, Water Palace, Sleeping Gajah via Viator website.
Departure
The pick up time was 4am. Yes it is really early. But this is to factor in the queuing & waiting time at the Gate of Heaven.
We were on a private tour so the driver picked us up at 4am on the dot, and we setted off in the middle of the night. It was good start as there was virtually no traffic on the road. I slept almost all the way to the gate, which we arrived around 6:15am. Whilst it was September, the morning time was pretty chilly so make sure to pack a jumper with you.
Gate of Heaven – Lempuyang temple
Once you park, you then change to a mini bus to go up to the bottom of the mountain. This is an interesting drive and one that you wouldn’t want to do yourself! Once you arrive, you are given a sarong to cover legs etc. You then take a short walk up the hill. Because we arrived relatively early, our wait time was around 1 hour. Unfortunately, the weather was quite cloudy so there was no blue sky for the photos. Nonetheless, it was an interesting experience.
indonesian coffees
Before heading to the next place, we were taken to a coffee farm. We tried varieties of coffees and teas including Luwak coffee. It certainly helped to wake us up.
tirtagangga park
After a short break, we visited Tirtagangga park which was quite beautiful and breathtaking. It was also quite quiet and hence helped us to observe the park in peace.
Lunch break
The lunch was included in the trip and it was within a resort hotel. The meal was a sharing platter of chicken, fish and vegetables, and it comes with rice and soup on the side. They also gave us a dessert platter which was quite sweet. There was an opportunity to utilise their swimming pool but we opted to walk around the venue.
Ubud
After lunch, we made a brief stop in Ubud to visit a jewellery maker before heading back to the hotel for a drop off.
Is it worth it?
The trip cost us around GBP70 each. This covered the transport, entrance fees, and lunch (not drinks). I think it was quite reasonable given it is a long trip and covered interesting areas. I would recommend opting for at least one day trip whilst in Bali because it provides a different side!
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