Take Off

X Play, f2.0, 1/2632, ISO 50, JPG

After the airport re-opened, it was time to leave Bali and head to Bangkok for a few days as a stop-over. To be honest, there's not that much to do in Bali after a few days anyway.
Bangkok is not my favorite city but should be fun for a short stay.

Bali Views

Another try to take some nice landscape photos during a 260km road trip around the eastern part of Bali got spoiled a bit by clouds.

Not just clouds but also some rain and fog but it still made for a nice experience and provided slightly different views most people expect from Bali.

The trip itself was nice and some of the roads along the mountains were great and very scenic.

Especially the area around Amed is very nice and would be worth staying at for a few days should I head back to Bali.

Bali Landscape

TG-4, f2.8, 1/1000, ISO 200, RAW, 25mm

Surfing

TG-4, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 160, RAW, 100mm

Chasing the Volcano

Some of you might have read the news about Mt. Agung, the volcano on Bali, starting to smoke and being close to an eruption.

While the news made it sound very bad, the situation in Bali was pretty much relaxed and I didn't hear or see anything from the volcano.

I decided to change that and take a road trip to photograph the volcano, it seemed exciting and fun.

Unfortunately, the weather got in the way. Clouds blocked the views of Mt. Agung from the area I figured would provide the best views.

Still, it was a great trip overall, some nice and very steep roads and great scenery around. I even got a few glimpses of the smoking Mt. Agung.

Yellow Umbrella

TG-4, f4.9, 1/320, ISO 200, RAW, 100mm

In Ubud

4 years ago, I chose Ubud as my base for staying in Bali. I figured it was quieter and away from the main tourist drag around Kuta.

It ended up being quite a nice stay and while it was touristy, it wasn't too busy and not too crowded.

Times have changed though and now Ubud is pretty crowded with even more tourist restaurants and souvenir shops around.

It's still reasonably nice thanks to the surrounding area and the traffic, while bad, is not as bad as in Depnasar.

Canggu Beach

After arriving in Depnasar last night, the first things to do were to get a motorbike and a hotel that's not near the airport.

Bali has a few tourist areas near Depnasar, with the most obvious and worst of all being Kuta, then the high end Seminak and Canggu, a more hipster and surfer area.

I decided to stay in Canggu since a friend stayed there and it seemed the best out of the available choices.

It also has a few bars with cheaper beer prices and some decent restaurants and local food stalls. The beach is not the best to be honest, no comparison with the beach in Da Nang but for surfing it's better.

Day 305 - Tanah Lot and Uluwatu Temples

Today was my last day in Bali and I booked a flight to Surabaya in the evening, this gave me the full day in Bali to go and see the Tanah lot and Uluwatu temples in the south near the airport.

Day 304 - Ubud Market

Today was a quiet day and after all the driving around the past days, I needed a break from the bike. So I just took it easy and went to check out the Ubud market.

Day 303 - Lake Bratan

Sometimes the way to the destination is so nice that you forget about the actual destination and you feel like going on forever after passing your destination.

Day 302 - The Way to Mt. Batur

Today was about getting out a bit further and exploring more of the island, the two choices were either go to mount Batur or to lake Bratan. The choice fell on Mt. Batur since I got a nice itinerary, with places to see on the way, from the owner of the guesthouse I was staying at.

Day 301 - Different Sides of Bali

After the rather touristy last two days, this started even more touristy with a drive around Ubud to see the rice fields and landscape around.

Day 300 - In Ubud

After getting a taste of the most touristy (and boring) part of Bali yesterday, Ubud seemed different at first with the small quiet streets, less tourists and no western fast food chains and restaurants spoiling the view.

Day 299 - Arriving in Bali

Taking the plane from Yogyakarta airport was easy and the flight to Bali pleasant enough. Once you arrive in Bali and leave the arrivals hall you realize how different Bali really is from the rest of Indonesia.