Lake Batur

Rae and I decided we would rent a vehicle the next day and explore the surrounding areas. After breakfast at Santra Putra, we headed out to find a vehicle. We quickly found one and we were soon on our way upcountry.

Driving in Bali requires a lot of concentration as the roads are potholed and full of motorcycles. Fortunately for us in our little Suzuki Jimmy, the rule of the road dictates that motorbikes should move out of our way, and that vast majority of them did. Nevertheless I did not try to drive too aggressively. I was also fortunate to have a good navigator in Rae. Although we were only equipped with rudimentary maps, Rae has a really good sense of direction and he got us to our first destination - Penelokan - easily. En route, the landscape changed from rice paddies to fruit orchards and from thick tropical forest to pine trees as we wound our way into the central mountains of Bali.

Penelokan is on the edge of the caldera that holds within it Mount Batur and Lake Batur. We stopped there to enjoy the breathtaking views, but this was soon marred by people trying to get us to buy their wares. The Lonely Planet was not kidding when it described this area as having very persistent sellers. We made a hasty exit and found our way to the road leading down into the Batur caldera. This was when we found out that our rented vehicle's brakes were not good! Prior to this, our journey had been uphill so I did not need to use the brakes much, but now we were faced with an extended downhill drive and having to use engine brake to slow our descent. This was pretty unnerving but fortunately we made it down into the crater. Once in the crater, we drove on the narrow road that wends its way through the lava fields and made our way to a hot spring resort. There was only one obvious hot spring from the main road and it looked quite upmarket. Entry cost 160,000 rupiah! Anyway, we went in and hung out there for a few hours soaking in the waters. Due to the cost, only tourists came to this place.

After the hot springs, we set out looking for a place to eat. While looking, we found another hot spring off the main road on a dirt trail. Entry here was 100,000 rupiah and although it was less upmarket, it looked almost as nice as the upmarket one. I did, in fact, visit this hot spring when I returned to Bali in 2013 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a restaurant at this hot spring and we ate a leisurely lunch there.Read more