Banjar Asahtepi

After 2 days in a row of early starts we decided to have a relaxing morning. Breakfast was delivered to the balcony - fried egg on toast for me and scrambled again for Sam. We watched the clouds roll in over the hills whilst we had some alone time together, accompanied by a local stray dog who tactically turned up at breakfast and dinner for the rest of our stay…she knew what she was doing!

Around 11am we kicked ourselves into gear and headed off on the new moped we had hired - we were informed that “it comes with purse”, a random small purse with a broken zip that was rusted so you couldn’t open it 😂 not sure why this was necessary but was a hilarious addition all the same!

First stop of the day was Lake Tamblingan. After driving down what we were convinced was a footpath, we arrived at a large open grassy area with a lakeside temple. We didn’t have a sarong so couldn’t go in but looking from the steps we can say we ticked that box. We watched a local set off in his boat and directed some Americans to a footpath that we weren’t even sure existed.

Next up was the twin lakes view point. This looked over Lake Tamblingan and Danau Buyan. We admired the view for a while before heading to Sam’s request of the day, Munduk Coffee. We were directed into the ‘tasting room’ and sat down to choose a drink. Whilst we drank, the staff talked us through the different methods of processing (Natural, Honey and Full washed) as well as the different roasting methods used to achieve the blends. They then went on to produce 2 more tasting shots of blends we were discussing…and 1 shot of Luak! 💩 Can’t say the latter went down too well 😄 As I’m not a coffee drinker at the best of times, I was truly Shakin’ Stevens by this point.

We eventually made it to Banyumala waterfall after a stop to refuel and to buy a poncho, as at this point the heavens had opened! Sam braved the dip first. By my turn the mist had rolled in which made for an eary setting. We headed back via the Eco cafe to have a very late ‘lunch’, which was a cafe supporting women in the community as well as local produce.

Back at the villa, we ran the bath which we enjoyed whilst the sun was setting. As it was our final night here we though we would treat ourselves to a restaurant we had found up the road which looked very ‘Bali’. It was certainly a sketchy scoot there with a very dim headlight on twisty mountain roads but luckily it was only 5 minutes away! Dinner was delicious - I had pesto pasta and Sam had lentil Bolognese.

We made it back in one piece…although we did see one individual who hadn’t been so lucky and had come of their bike which we were ushered on past!Read more