Escaping Kuta
After flying into Bali and spending a couple nights in Kuta, we got tired of every local offering their services to us. We decided it was time to get away.
Latane and I sat down at the breakfast table in the Maha Bharata and looked at a map of Bali. We noticed there were 2 lakes up north about 70 km away, and a lot of elevation changes, definitely worth doing. We skimmed a little more and found the town of Singaraja. We went on Agoda and searched for properties in Singaraja, sorting from least to most expensive. We found one called the Ananda Homestay in a small town called Limukih, about 20 km south of Singaraja, for $7 a night for a private room for the both of us.
We walked around the streets of Bali and negotiated with motor taxi men that were trying to inflate their prices. Eventually, we found a good rental place, with these bikes up for rent:
But those were too expensive, so we rented these scooters instead:
Since scooters here in Bali are so popular, they’re cheap to repair and to own and rent. Our guy gave us a price of 60,000 IDR per scooter per day or about $4.50USD a day per scooter. We paid the scooter guy for three days and off we were. After pumping some petrol at the station (pom bensin), we headed off north.
The drive up north
We first encountered lots of traffic heading out of the city, but after a while it started cleaning up and we started seeing rice paddies, scattered shops and homes, etc.
And then we started climbing uphill on the bikes. We were nearing some of the lakes in Bali and the elevation started to get quite high. And it also started raining. We pulled onto the side of the road to throw on our rain jackets and admire the scenery.
Just as we were getting ready to leave, a couple of Russian girls approached us and asked for directions to an abandoned hotel.
We helped them figure out where it was on google maps and followed along.
The Haunted Hotel
We parked our bikes and started walking into the hotel. It seemed to be a modern and fancy hotel, but being abandoned, mold and vegetation had largely taken over. There was no electricity and the halls were quiet and dark. Moss had taken over many of the floors and I actually slipped and banged my ass.
After this quick detour, we jumped back on the bikes and continued on our way up the mountains. As we neared the second lake, amid all the rain, we pulled over to admire the scenery of the lake. Just as I was turned around and was talking to Latane, he pointed out there was a huge monkey on the sidewalk a couple of feet away from us. Then it started walking (or crawling) towards us and we bolted out of there real quick.
We stopped for petrol and to find directions to our actual hotel when we realized we had forgotten to make a reservation in the first place. We had found the hotel, but forgot to click the confirm button at the end. We quickly made the reservation (luckily we still could), and drove the rest of the 40 minutes to Ananda Homestay.
As we veered off the main road and into the small road leading into Limukih, the roads grew narrower, steeper, slicker, and darker. We carefully maneuvered through the winding steep roads either full throttle going up, or squeezing hard on our brakes.
It was completely dark when we arrived. The GPS stated that our homestay was on the right-hand side, but we didn’t see anything there.
Where is our hotel at?
Feeling lost, we went up to a store across the street and asked the man where our homestay was at. He didn’t speak English, but he was able to point us towards it, saying it was on the left side of the street. Upon further inspection in the dark, we saw some signs.
We drove down this steep street, parked our bikes, and wandered around lost until we found a building that looked like a homestay. We tried knocking, but the lights were turned off and there was no one there. The doors were locked.
I saw another home nearby. Walked down some steep stairs towards it. Saw some cows. Asked those people if they knew where it was at, they didn’t speak English but pointed towards where we were just at.
I went back up and asked the store man where the person responsible for the homestay could be at. He made a call and motioned for me to sit down. We spoke a little, and he took a selfie with me.
He offered me some Kopi, which was some type of drink, I didn’t know which. After he brought it I realized it was coffee. Out of respect, I drank the Kopi and saw a man hurry down on his scooter and into the Ananda homestay. We eventually realized we made the reservation like 40 minutes before we got there, so they weren’t really expecting us there at that time. When we got there they were caught by surprise.
His name was Kadek, he came into the Ananda homestay really quickly and started cleaning all around. We asked him if he knew somewhere where we could eat some dinner, and he said he had a friend that owned a restaurant nearby in the village. We hopped the motorbikes and drove up to the nearby restaurant.
We had the traditional Nasi Goreng, or fried rice. It was delicious
Kadek also brought a durian and cut it for us on the spot. It was the first time Latane had tried durian. He didn’t like it that much, but found it god in small amounts.
The food was delicious. We drove down to the Ananda homestay and got some sleep for the night.