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Visiting the Batur crater in Kintamani Bali

Setting out on our latest voyage of discovery Barrie, Candika and I invited Mellie from Internet Outpost to join us.

Our destination was Kintamani, or more accurately Kedisan, on the shores of Lake Batur from which we could explore the Bali Aga village of Trunyan..

Our rented Kijang was 140,000rp per day and was an older although perfectly decent vehicle complete with AC and central locking.

Candika and Mellie get on great, both being Chinese Indonesians from Yogyakarta in Java. They got into the chit-chat almost immediately while Barrie and I got into our routine of him talking and me listening.

He told me about a gong foundry in the Gianyar area and we decided to check it out on the way to Lake Batur. After asking local directions we were directed to one gong foundry, not the big place Barrie was talking about. We saw guys sitting on the floor making parts of the gamelan orchestra, everything from the wooden frame to the metal bars. They told us a mini gamelan would cost 38m rp.

Impressive to see people using simple tools (one guy was using handfuls of water to cool molten steel) and making an entire product right there. In my neighborhood in Seminyak when they do renovations a whole team of men and women show up with a big pile of wood, saws and varnish. From that they make whatever is needed on site, including a new bed.

We stayed for about 20 minutes, myself bashing every gong in the place with a cushioned mallet. I think a gong would be a nice ornament if you have the space, but the big ones weren’t cheap (3m rp and another 3m rp for the stand…that’s the asking price of course).

The place was called ‘Kerajinan Gambelan Gong Bali’
Jl. Patih Jelantik 2A Gianyar
(0361) 943867.

We carried on through Tegalalang which feels like a long extension of Ubud, the road lined with shops selling wood carvings. The local specialty is carved birds and animals painted in bright colors. At the northern end of the strip is a lovely view of the valley to the right with lovely rice terraces.

Arriving at the road that runs along the crater rim we were stopped and charged 14,000rp. As usual I saw locals diving around no worries but if you look like a tourist they are going to hit you up. The whole thing is done in a very sloppy way and if we had to come back twice in one day we’d have no way of proving we’d already paid.

Arriving in the Batur area (the caldera or crater is 10km in diameter and inside sit Gunung Batur, the large volcano and Lake Batur) we took a left turn and parked at one of the large tourist restaurants overlooking the edge of the caldera. Our 4 teas cost 40,000rp. These large scale tourist restaurants are super popular with Asian tour groups who unload by the bus full. They spend a ton of money then pile back on the bus and hit the next tourist trap, the driver getting great kick backs.

The touts and sarong sellers descend as soon as you step out of your car and a nervous tourist could get mobbed. I just pay no attention, show no interest whatsoever and they drift away. If you see something you like bear in mind that the price drops by 50-70% as you are climbing back into your car to leave, even without you saying a word. “You buy one sarong 30,000rp, okay 20,000rp, okay 15,000rp, okay you just give 10,000rp, no problem.”

Driving straight through from Kuta to Kintamani might take you about 3 hours figuring you will take a toilet break somewhere along the way.

People often refer to the area around Batur as ‘Kintamani’. Kintamani is just a non-descript village on the crater rim just past the village of Batur. It has nothing special and driving through all you will see is a collection of run down houses and warungs. It’s the surrounding area that is special.

We swung a ‘Uy’and took the winding road down to the lake shore and the village of Kedisan. It is an amazing thing really, having a lake that is 3km by 7km sitting inside a volcanic crater and very interesting checking out the lifestyle of the locals. They have neat little market gardens next to the waters edge and of course fishing is a big part of their economic situation. I saw one guy watering his crops using a hose pipe which was attached to a long pipeline to the waters edge and powered by a tiny generator.

We checked into a place called Hotel Segara and negotiated a deal. Candika and Barrie were sharing a room while Mellie and myself got our own room. The asking price for the rooms was 150,000rp and after Candika gave the guy some ‘local verbal’ we got them for 75,000rp each. The manager asked us not to tell anyone about the price we got so I’m not going to tell anyone.

Over here just let them know you’re not a sucker and will willingly walk if the price doesn’t drop pronto.

Also staying at the hotel were domestic tourists from Java over here for the Idul Fitri public holiday which has just ended.

We sat in the hotel restaurant overlooking the lake enjoying a drink. A police motorbike zoomed past, sirens wailing. What could be going on? We had noticed cops all the way coming down into the crater too. Suddenly a line of Harley Davidson riders came roaring through. My friend Chris Brown is a member of the Harley Davidson owners club and told me their group plus the Harley Davidson Indonesia club were having a rally in Kintamani. Looking out I saw Chris shoot by on his silver bike. A couple of minutes later a solo Harley rider from Indonesia came past and about 20 seconds later we heard him crash on the tight corner. Harleys are pretty useless bikes when you think of it. Way too much power, gas guzzlers, hard to steer and so low to the ground you can’t take them off road. Traffic came to a standstill as the guy was helped and he wasn’t seriously hurt, only his wallet is suffering.

So weird really. We came to this part of Bali to see one of the oldest, remotest villages and the Harley Davidson Club is having party here. The world has changed!

We still had plenty of daylight left at 3pm to go exploring and drove around the lake to the village of Abang to visit the Bali Aga village of Trunyan across the lake.

You can here all about that soon and also about Barrie’s little mishap.