Sounding like something a character from the Magic Roundabout might do to you, Bedugul is the name of the area around Lake Beratan, famed for its strawberries, and home to the Eka Karya botanical garden (kebun raya).
Our taxi driver told us that today is the last day of a long weekend, as Friday was a holiday. We saw coachloads of visitors who had taken the ferry over from Java, recognisable by their headscarves, as well as many Chinese tourists, as it was recently new year for them.
Many of the Balinese were taking the day as families and groups in the park, and were bringing baskets of food for picnics.
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| Picnickers |
The botanical garden is also home to the Treetop Adventure Park, which was our destination for the morning. This modern park boasts "European standards of safety" and "French management", which I can understand will allay the concerns of nervous travellers, but I thought a little insulting to the entirely Balinese staff who work there.
The park has a similar set-up to the Go Ape parks in the UK, in which one traverses platforms suspended around tree trunks using a variety of means of conveyance, from tightrope wires and wobbly bridges, to Tarzan ropes and zip lines.
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| Crawlspace |
Our Balinese instructor harnessed us up and took us through initial orientation. This convinced us that the set-up is almost identical to Go Ape, so we leapt straight into the 'blue' level of the graded courses, hoping to make our way up to the 'black run'.
We clipped and unclipped the carabenas, shuffled along taught wires, clambered up nets, wobbled over wooden planks and through tunnels suspended between the trees, and generally had a great time. We were rewarded with a straight run on a zip wire to the end of the course.
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| Wheee!
K's confidence was bolstered, so we took on the blue course. This was more of the same, although there was a tricky swinging rope thrown in, which required some coordination to let go and hurl oneself into the awaiting net on the other side. K clung to the rope and tried to secure herself to the net with her foot, losing a shoe in the process. Fortunately, her footwear was restored and she was pulled back for a second, successful, attempt, and we completed the course without further incident.
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| Living dangerously |
The black course started with a vertical climbing wall. I have tried climbing in the distant past, and found I spent more time hanging around depleting energy than going up. However, this was only a short climb and we both made it without too much bother. The difficulty came when, a few stations on, we faced a much longer Tarzan rope swing. This required some confidence to leap off the platform, knowing that we would free fall before the slack rope took up our weight. There were no second goes on this, so if we missed the net, we would have to head back to the climbing wall.
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| Geronimo! |
Fortunately, we both made it, much to the amazement of open-mouthed picnickers below. The following stations amped up the challenge by taking us up to 20 metres above the ground and asking us to cling on to a series of smooth logs hanging vertically, with only tiny pegs as footholds. There was no turning back, so we pressed on and were glad when we zoomed along the final zip wire, slamming into the net at the end with enough force to knock the wind out of us.
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| Garuda attacks Rahwana |
The botanical gardens are also home to statues depicting characters from the Ramayana epic. These are wonderfully detailed and life size, which in the case of the giant Kumbakarna (Rahwana's right-thinking brother), is quite big indeed.
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| Kumbhakarna battles the monkey army |
After a stroll around the botanical gardens, a persistent rain set in that convinced us we should head to our lodgings in Munduk.our daredevil antics this morning, we were thoroughly bedugul'd anyway.
Munduk was recommended to us as a quiet small village to which one could retreat in the mountains. Sadly, we didn't seem to have retreated far enough to escape the traffic, as the main road resonated with the sound of motorbikes roaring up and down. Apparently, during the European summer holidays, in July and August, the area is inundated with French people looking for good hiking.
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| Taman Ayu, Munduk |
Our accommodation, however, is lovely, offering a view over the tree-lined valley and a roof-top warung. We took dinner there and, at K's insistence, indulged in a glass of wine to soothe our frayed nerves after this morning's antics.
After the boozefest that was Langkawi, including its ruinous final evening, the past five or so weeks have been completely dry (apart from a glass of wine for me at a film showing, but show me a person who turns down free wine). This is as much a reaction to a dearth of good beer as it is self-imposed abstemiousness. The selection tonight included Bintang beer (Heineken by another name) and brem.
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| #PintOfBrem |
Venturing into unknown territory, we ordered a glass of brem, and received a light pink liquid, smelling of sake but tasting both sweet yet slightly sour, making us wonder whether plums or even some of the local strawberries had been used. It turns out to be neither and the colour comes from a mix of white and black glutinous rice that is fermented into alcohol. It was a marvellous aperitif.
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| Red bean soup |
Palates awakened, we started with soup - mine a sup kecang merah (red bean), K's a sup telor putih (boiled egg whites), both of which were in the hearty vegetable broth mould that befits the cooler mountain climate. Actually, given the prevalence of French at certain times of year, I'm surprised there isn't a mock chalet offering cheese fondue.
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| Gado gado |
Mains saw the reappearance of two staple Indonesian dishes: perkedel jagung (corn fritters) and gado gado salad. Both were decent examples and we tucked in with hungry bellies, mopping up the plates.
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