Bali Kintamani Area Guide
Hiking the rim of Batur crater in Kintamani Bali: part V
Mt. Batur is 1717m high and the crater rim has to be 1000m. The air is thinner and the sunlight stronger. I plastered my face with sunscreen and was covers with long pants, hat and long sleeves. My face got a bit of toasting but nothing serious. After a couple of hours walking I passed a guy filling a rectangular whole with water. He told me he was keeping fish in there, the water came from a pipe jutting out of the hill. He said there was some kind of pump somewhere. This area, while dry seemed fertile and forested. The end of my trek was the very top end of the crater. Sitting in the shade I could see the lake and the Bali Aga village of Trunyan on the left side, hugging the coastline. A local told me its is possible to follow the train around all the way to Trunyan. The outside northern edge of the crater is far more appealing than the tin roofed Trunyan, but if I had the time I would like to check out that part of the hike.
Date: August 18th, 2005 |
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Hiking the rim of Batur crater in Kintamani Bali: part III
Riding continuously without detours my ride from Kedisan to Blandingan should take no more than an hour. Steep hills and the occasional village popping out among a sea of orange groves. Finally after getting local directions I made it to the end of the road, Blandingan. Right there at the top of the narrow main street locals gathers in the sun to pass the time across from a tiny warung. I sat and joked with them, telling them I was 'asli Bali' (pure Balinese). They got a huge kick out of my few Balinese word especially 'becik becik kemantan' (Basically 'I'm just fine'). My nasi campur contained green beans with hot chili, liver, chicken skin and a fried egg. I ate everything except the skin. It was okay and I was in need of energy before my hike. The price asked for the nasi campur and teh bottle was 10,000rp, extremely high and they were playing with me for sure. I said "C'mon, saya asli Bali."
Date: August 18th, 2005 |
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Hiking the rim of Batur crater in Kintamani Bali: part I
Monday morning I got up at the guest house to a blazing sunny day. The dump trucks were already in full swing patrolling the road past and some of the trekkers to Mt. Batur were returning after their 4am start. My goal was to check out the back of the caldera a look for a hiking trail that snaked the ridgeline. Easy to find when looking at the map, a little trickier when actually figuring out which rutted 35 slope the book refers to. I was aiming for a village called Blandingan, which is accessed via Penelokan, Kintamani and Penulisan. If the rim of the crater were a clock, I would be riding from 6 all the way around the high numbers to 1.
Date: August 17th, 2005 |
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Hiking up the crater rim at Pura Ulun Danau Batur
The prohibitive prices and aggressive atmosphere associated with hiking Mt. Batur made me decide to look for another cool hike. I found one on the north end of the crater rim. Right at the end of the road in Pura Ulun Danau Batur. After parking and snapping a couple of photos of the lovely temple, I walked around the back to hike the trail leading to the crater rim, which I believed to take 30 minutes. As I started heading towards the trails I heard shouts behind me. "Excuse sir you must wait!!!" "I look after this temple and you must pay." Said a stocky guy aged about 25. He went on that its not possible to go up the hill without him and I turned and started walking. Following me he erupted "You come back! Fuck you, you come here now mister, or I make big problem for you, I make big problem for you mister. You don't mess around with us!!!" The guy was going nuts, not just shouting loudly, but screaming like a lunatic. I carried on and reached the top where I sat and drank a teh bottle from a shack. The people were super nice and I chatted with other locals who passed by. The cool thing about this area is that in certain places you can look into the volcano on one side and look outside the volcano and see the north coast of Bali. Walking around for about 30 minutes I talked to locals who were farming.
Date: August 16th, 2005 |
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Checking out the odalan ceremony in Songan Bali
The village of Songan is rather small but does have a couple of streets and a nice temple next to the lake. Pura Desa Songan was packed with people and not having a sash with me I didn't venture inside. Outside I chatted with locals and confirmed with one older man that this was the odalan, or birthday of the temple. The Pura Desa, or village temple is off of the main street that runs through town and down a set of stairs. The access way was crowded and I didn't try forcing my way down there. Most of the men were wearing a white jacket (the color of purity) and yellow (Shiva's color) cover to their sarong. Down the street locals waited for a lady to dispense her bubur (porridge). She was mixing it with other savory items and asked me if I wanted a bowl. It looked okay but I declined. Here in Songan I saw some very distinctly 'Bali Aga' faces. The Bali Aga are the original descendents of the Balinese. I must say that people were okay here in the way they treated me. Songan is not really on the tourist map too much and many of the people have never been to Kuta. I got a lot of shy looks and many good interactions.
Date: August 16th, 2005 |
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Hiking the rim of Batur crater in Kintamani Bali: part IV
A local kid aged about 16 attached himself to me and walked me down to the orange groves. He showed me the trailhead was and I made a deal. Telling him I wanted to be 'sendiri' (alone) I gave him 7,000rp and thanked him for his help. Its always dodgy in this kind of situation. I didn't want him following me all day, this kid was almost tripping over himself to get in front of me, very frustrating. Giving money to leave sets up a bad situation for the next person so I made it a kind of 'thank you for services and questions already handled'. He left and I ascended through lovely orange grove to the top of the crater. Walking in a clockwise direction I passed through small groups of wooden houses and chatted to locals when I made contact with them. One of the coolest things was being able to look one way and see inside the crater and across the lake. Looking the other way I could see the north coast of Bali.
Date: August 18th, 2005 |
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Hiking the rim of Batur crater in Kintamani Bali: part II
Carrying on to the end of the main road I came to Penulisan, the location of the 'highest temple in Bali', Pura Puncak Penulisan. The road carries around to the left, buy I went straight and after another kilometer had some choices to make. I picked right and managed to get well lost driving the forested empty lanes. The great thing was though, that after rounding the northern edge of the crater it became sunny, no more grey concrete, hello pine forest. I felt like I had been transported from London in December to California in summer in a matter of minutes. The scenery really is lovely and after backtracking and getting various opinions on where in fact Blandingan was, I got on to the right trail. One funny thing I found was that its really easy to get mixed up navigating this area. We have a giant caldera, inside which sits a volcano, Mt. Batur and a lake on the SE side. After reading from my guide book it would say, 'located on the western side overlooking the lake'.
Date: August 17th, 2005 |
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Pura Ulun Danau Batur at Kintamani Bali
The temple inside the crater at the side of Lake Batur is called Pura Ulun Danau Batur. When I checked it out and walked around the side I thought it was beautiful, especially the multi-tiered meru along the northern edge. The temple is pre-Majapahit, meaning its was built before the arrival of the Majapahit empire in Bali. In 1343 Bali was conquered by Gaja Mada who was the prime minister of the Majapahit empire in East Java. One of the things the Majapahit empire enforced was the adoption of the Hindu caste system, the 4 castes being Brahmana, Satria, Wesia and Sudra. Those Balinese who abstained started their own villages like Trunyan and Tenganan and are referred to as the Bali Aga.
Date: August 16th, 2005 |
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The Bali Aga at Mt. Batur Bali
The Bali Aga supposedly the original inhabitants of Bali. Across SE Asia there is a lot of argument over who was the first in various places, (the Bumiputra in Malaysia). I remember once on a train in Thailand I saw a Thai local was Negroid with her child. Obviously in many cases the original inhabitants of these places were aboriginal people, though that is not what the governments want to hear. The mountain area of a country is usually the hardest for new cultures to penetrate, the coastal areas being the easiest. The Bali Aga have their own particular customs but are still Hindu, like most of the other Balinese. Interesting how a high level religion has penetrated, but in many ways they still remain insular. I asked one Bali Aga if he had a special local language and he said "Yes, Bahasa Bali." by which he meant low level Balinese.
Date: August 16th, 2005 |
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Hiking Mt. Batur in Kintamani Bali
The volcano that sits inside the crater is (Gunung) Mt. Batur, along with Lake Batur. I hiked the mountain in 1993 and back then local guides would offer their services. We hired a guide and agreed to buy some drinks from him when we reached the summit, in time to see the sunrise. Times have changed since then. My LP guide describes how a local cartel has basically taken over the mountain using intimidation and threats of violence to trekkers. The organization behind this is called the HPPGB. They won't allow people to hike alone and won't allow other guides on the mountain. Fees for the 3-hour climb are 300,000rp per person, which is steep, especially in Bali.
Date: August 16th, 2005 |
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