Trip the Eco Lodge with Ika in Batukaru Bali

Exploring Bali is one of the joys of living here in Bali and its actually necessary to get out of the Kuta area once in a while to stay sane. The Seminyak scene, rich with pompous strutting Euros and aging Australian ladies who are either crystal healing experts or councilors gets old and any time I head off into the hills I remember the essence of what attracted me to Bali in the first place.

Ika was having a hard time with her allergies, continuously sneezing and I decided to take her to a cleaner environment on the slopes of Gunung Batukari north of Tabanan. I had previously stayed at a place called the Eco Lodge located in Sarinbuanu owned by an Australian couple Norm and Linda Vant Hoff.

Calling the day before I confirmed they had no other guests and on Saturday afternoon Ika and I jumped on my Honda Supra and used all of its whopping 110cc to power our way out to Tabanan and up the heavily rutted road to the Eco Lodge. Getting away from the main road the scenery starts to unfold as this part of Bali is considered the rice bowl.

The journey from my house in Seminyak took about 90 minutes and we stopped off along the way to get a plate of tipat, the spicy Balinese snack which features ketupat, the compacted rice pyramids, soy beans, greens, peanut sauce and PLENTY of chili. I got the pedas plate unfortunately and it was very hot.

Arriving at the Eco Lodge which is off a narrow local road in the highlands I ran into Norm wearing just a sarong throwing water over his monkeys. He has rescued a couple of male monkeys from a life on a chain and keeps them in a large cage. Letting them out into the fields would mean local monkeys would kill them. Hard situation, nobody likes watching an animal in a cage but the 2 male monkeys would not last long outside. Norm actually told me one of them escaped once and instead of taking off hung around and came back to the cage.

Norm has lived in Bali for many years and works as a water treatment specialist. He told me he did a test on the water coming down the hill behind the Eco Lodge and it has less dissolved particles than bottled water. The Eco Lodge has been operating for 4 years and Norm and Linda home have their 2 young kids there.

Norm has developed a hiking trail around Gunung Batukaru and it very much into conservation and protecting the environment. He would probably be labeled by George Bush as a dangerous liberal.

Norm showed Ika and I to a lovely little cottage overlooking the jungle and the distant coast. We had our own open air bathroom and it was totally private. Nothing like taking a squat with a mile view. Ika said she wanted to mandi ( wash) in a river. Down the hill from our cottage was a small creek and she hiked down. The water was cold so she changed her mind but I would be into it, nothing better than getting down with nature. Our mandi was a large pot of water with a scoop made from a coconut and a handle, a very brisk way to start the day especially as the temperatures are cool in the mountains.

The way the Eco Lodge works in that rooms cost 250,000rp and dinner is 65,000rp. Breakfast comes with the price of the room. The whole thing is so inter woven with the lifestyle of the family that you immediately feel like you have stumbled onto something special.

We sat on out porch area with a sheer drop off watching a storm roll in from the coast. Going to bed the lightening lit up the Balinese sky with the jungle right outside our door. Sunday morning a clear blue sky greeted us and after a breakfast of coffee and assorted fruits, ( salak, mangosteen, banana, mango, melon), homemade pancakes and coffee we said goodbye and hit the trial. Ika noticed the many different fruit that were growing on the property such as jackfruit, papaya, coffee, banana and cocoa. This is a fertile area and very much removed from the life that exist in the Kuta / Seminyak area.

If you want to treat yourself to a very different side of Bali you might like the Eco Lodge.

081 747 15 916
normanlinda@bigfoot.com