#28 Bali part 1: Canggu & Ubud / Bali elso resz: Canggu & Ubud (Indonesia / Indonezia)

English version:

Hey, long time no speak… A lot happened since then, really, a lot. My tour continued after I said goodbye to my friend and to the hi-tech Singapore and the next stop is Bali, which has been a pretty long stop. But before we get too far, here are some details about this magical island.

Bali is the name of the island and also the name of a large province in Indonesia. The province wraps up islands such as Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and so on. The main industry here is tourism, which is fuelled by beautiful mountains, an active volcano, rice terraces, surf beaches, parties, rain forests and beautiful marine life.

And the whole thing is part of this incredible archipelago, which is called Indonesia on the maps. Indonesia consists of more than 17,500 islands. They say if you want to spend a week on each island, you need to ask your boss to approve a decent 40 years of holiday for yourself. Indonesia is a multi-cultural country where different religions live together peacefully. Each island has its own language (sometimes more than one) and everybody speaks the common Bahasa which I personally feel would be quite easy to learn. After a month in Indonesia, the country became my favourite country in South East Asia, alongside Burma, the other favourite. The main reasons are local people are very kind, friendly and interested in you, Indonesian food is so delicious and the nature is very diverse and beautiful.

I am very happy I came here and discovered the best parts of Bali because originally I did not want to come to Bali. I thought it’s way too touristic, so gave it a very low priority when I was designing my itinerary. But fortunately I got the chance to come here and Bali prove I was wrong.

So let’s go back to the beginning. I was at half time when I arrived in Bali. Yes already half time. it has been 3.5 months since I departed from Heathrow T2 to Bangkok…

And just like in football, when the coach sends a strong fresh player on the pitch in half time, the exact same thing happened here. A new partner in crime joined the roliegoes expedition recently: her name is Florasept – who got her name after a bathroom detergent…:) We have a quite long history together from England I met her when we built Stonehenge in 3100 BC where she worked as a prince-2 project manager.

So she was very interested to learn scuba diving in the calm waters of Northern Bali hence the reason we ended up on the island.

Once we joined forces, we started our Bali-tour in a quiet part of Canggu which is a district of the capital, Denpasar. The hotel we stayed was total madness. A proper shock even after a few days there. The Udara Beach Resort Yoga & Spa is basically a boutique hotel where you can rest and if you want you can do yoga all day long. The shock though is the design which consists of tons of weird and funny statues, so we agreed that the architect must have had a large amount of local magic mushrooms. On a serious note, the place is beautiful though but you feel like being in the house of the Flintstones.

Canggu is a surf paradise, there are large waves on the beach which is volcanic black. The sunbeams make the grains of sands shine like myriads of little gems. It is impossible to describe in writing or even on an image. We also caught an incredible sunset on the beach.

From Canggu we traveled up to Ubud and visited the Monkey Forest, the Tegallalang Rice Terrace and the Tegenungan Waterfall. The rice terrace is beautiful, but way too touristic. The Monkey Forest is forgettable but the waterfall was amazing. We visited all these places by scooter as usual. Here we stayed in a very nice homestay, in the Alam Pracetha.

This first leg was a great kick off of the Bali-expedition and from Ubud we went further to the North to the central mountain area…

Magyar verzio:

Hallo, mar reg adtam hirt magamrol es jo sok minden tortent azota. A turne folytatodott, miutan bucsut intettem jobaratomnak es a hi-tech Szingapurnak es a soron kovetkezo megallo Bali. Tulajdonkeppen egy eleg hosszu megallo. Azonban nem menjunk annyira elore. Eloszor nehany info errol a varazslatos szigetrol.

Bali a sziget neve is es az azt korulvevo tartomanye is Indoneziaban. A tartomany magabafoglal nehany kornyezo szigetet ugy mint Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan es igy tovabb. A vezeto iparag itt termeszetesen a turizmus, ami gyonyoru hegyeknek, egy aktiv vulkannak, rizs teraszoknak, szorf beacheknek, ejszakai eletnek, esoerdoknek es fantasztikus tengeri allatvilagnak koszonheto.

Es ez az egesz tartomany resze ennek a hihetetlen szigetvilagnak, amit Indonezianak hivnak. Indonezia korulbelul 17,500 szigetbol all. Ugy tartjak, ha minden szigeten szeretnel eltolteni 1 hetet, akkor meg kell kerned a fonokod, hogy hagyjon jova 40 evnyi szabadsagot. Indonezia egy multi-kulturalis orszag, ahol kulonbozo vallasu emberek bekeben elnek egymas mellett. Minden lakott szigetnek sajat nyelve van (neha tobb is), de mindenki beszeli a kozos bahaszat, amit en szerintem tok konnyen meg tudnek tanulni. Egy honapos ittartozkodasom utan kijelenthetem, hogy Indonezia a kedvenc orszagom lett Del-Kelet Azsiaban. A fo okok a helyiek kedvessege, baratsagossaga es amiert tenylegesen erdekli oket ki vagy es honnan jottel; tovabba az eszmeletlenul finom indonez kaja es a termeszet ami nagyon valtozatos es gyonyoru.

Nagyon orulok, hogy ideutaztam es megcsodalhattam Bali legerdekesebb reszeit, mert eredetileg nem akartam Balira jonni. Azt gondoltam, hogy tomve van turistakkal ezert csak nagyon alacsony prioritast kapott az utvonal tervezesekor. Vegul szerencsere ugy alakult, hogy idekerultem es a sziget bebizonyitotta, hogy eredetileg tevesen iteltem meg.

Szoval hogy is kerultem ide? Pont felidoben voltam, amikor iderepultem. Igen, pont felidoben…3.5 honap telt el, azota hogy a Heathrown 2-es terminalrol elindultam Bangokba.

Es hat pont mint a fociban, amikor az edzo betol egy eros es friss jatekost a palyara, itt is ugyanez tortent. Egy uj buntars csatlakozott a roliegoes expediciohoz: Floraszept, aki egy furdoszobai tisztitoszerrol kapta a nevet 🙂 Ismeretsegunk meglehetosen hosszu idore nyulik vissza Angliaban. A Stonehenge epitesekor ismertem meg Kr. e. 3100ban, ahol o prince-2 projektmenedzserkent dolgozott.

Mivel ot erdekelte a buvarkodas, ugy alakult hogy a legjobb hely ahol megtanulhatja a kezdeti lepeseket, az eszak-bali csendes vizei. Hat igy kerultem en is ide.

Ahogy egyesitettunk eroinket, bali-turnenk Canggu egy csendes reszen vette kezdetet. Canggu a fovaros, Denpasar egy korzete. A hotel, ahol megszalltunk total orulet volt. Igazi sokk meg par nap ottlet utan is. Az Udara Beach Resort Yoga & Spa valojaban egy butik hotel, ahol jokat pihenhetsz es ha akarsz egesz nap jogazhatsz is. A sokkot a belso design okozta, ami rengeteg meghokkento es vicces szoborrol szol. Megallapodtunk, hogy a tervezo valoszinuleg tul sokat fogyasztott el a helyi varazsgombabol. Komolyra forditva, a hely azert gyonyoru csak ugy erzed, mintha a Flinstone-csalad hazaban szallnal meg.

Canggu szorf paradicsom, boduletes meretu hullamokkal fekete vulkanikus strandjain. A napsugarak milliardnyi dragakokent csillogtatjak a vulkanikus homokszemeket. Ezt megint lehetetlen irasban vagy foton visszaadni. Sikerult elcsipnunk a csodalatos naplementet is, amirol azert eleg jo kepek keszultek.

Canggubol feltaxiztunk Ubudba, hogy megnezzuk a Majom Erdot, a Tegallalang rizs teraszt es a Tegenungan vizesest. A rizs terasz gyonyoru, csak tul sok a turista egy helyen. A Majom Erdo felejtheto, viszont a vizeses fantasztikus. Ezekre a helyekre mind szokas szerint robogoval mentunk el. Ubudban egy szuper home stay-ben laktunk, az Alam Pracetha-ban.

Ez az elso epizod egy nagyon jo kezdete volt a Bali-expedicionak, es Ubudbol mentunk tovabb eszak fele meghoditani az eszaki hegyvideki teruleteket…