DESTINATIONS

Day 8-12: Pemuteran, Bali

by jolanda
The beach at Pemuteran.

From Munduk we drove almost 2 hours north to Pemuteran on the northeast coast of Bali. This is our third time visiting Pemuteran and the second for Elina.

We like coming up here because it is a lot less crowded than the south of the island, with mostly European travellers here. And you can snorkel straight from the beach, which we did. There’s good diving here too and Paul went out near Menjangan Island. 

We stay at the same place each time, Taman Sari Resort. The first time we were here was about 20 years ago and the resort has grown and improved since then.

I booked really early, way back in October, so I scored a really good deal for our accomodation by paying up front. It made our stay so much more enjoyable and so far it’s been our favourite place in Bali.

The shared living room room just outside the door to our room. We also had use of the kitchen. We invited another family round for drinks here one evening, the Scotters, an Australian-Dutch couple with three daughters who live in Sydney. Elina loved hanging out with Ava, Hannah and Aylish and we all had great fun at dinner time. We hope to catch up with you later Erica and Brendan!
  • Outdoor area outside our room.
  • Interior of our room.
The inside of our very large room with a very, very high ceiling. There was satellite TV, which we only turned on once. The aircon, however, was used everyday.
  • There was a daybed by the pool.
  • The pool from our villa’s roof terrace.
There was a pool we shared with three other rooms. But Elina preferred going to the much bigger main pool closer to the beach.
  • Just below the steps to our villa.
  • Back door towards the main pool.
Our villa.
  • Rooftop mediation room.
  • Path to our villa.
The view from our villa’s rooftop terrace.
This is the main pool that Elina liked better than the one near our Lotus Suite villa.
Don’t worry, Elina was mostly in the pool and not on her phone.
Every morning, we’d eat at Taman Sari’s buffet breakfast, which included eggs cooked any way you like it, pastries, pancakes, bacon, toast, yoghurt, fruit, cereal, Indonesian breakfast of rice and 3 savoury choices, tea, coffee and juice.

Turtle hatchery

There was a turtle hatchery just a few metres down the beach.
This is the resident male turtle. Apparently his life story is that a local fisherman kept him as a pet for about 8 years before giving him over to the turtle hatchery. They freed him, but he kept coming back. So they decided to keep him at the hatchery so that he wouldn’t come to any harm or poaching or whatever.
Elina feeding him.
Elina filming herself touching the big turtle.
Feeding time for the littlies.

Pemuteran flora

You’ve seen fauna, now here’s some flora.

A drive around Pemuteran

We didn’t just lounge around, snorkel, swim, eat and do nothing in Pemuteran, although we did do some of that. We had a hire car so we went for a drive.

We drove down this road…
A field of corn.
Bali is so lush.
We saw more corn and a number of cattle.
Interestingly, they grow grapes in this region and the local winemaker is Hatten.
One of the temples we passed by during our drive.
Temple of the Dog? Haha, no that’s a reference to Soundgarden for all you music nerds.
To get to one temple, we had to go up more than 400 steps.
Almost there…
Elina found it sweaty work walked up at her own pace.
Finally at the top! The temple wasn’t that photogenic, but the view was pretty cool. If you check out our Instagram account @three4theroads, you’ll see Elina on a swing on top of this hill!

The spa

Of course, all that walking meant we deserved a bit of a treat. So Elina and I had a spa day. She got a mini massage and a pedicure. I got a massage with a body scrub. Afterwards I washed off and sat in a jacuzzi tub. And I even got a pedicure the day after.