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Bukit is located
in the southern tip of Bali as a small hilly island connected to the mainland
by a thread of narrow isthmus, which look like a foot of small chick on
the map. Bukit is part of Badung area of southern Bali. Beside Bukit, Badung
also includes Kuta, Nusa Dua, Bualu, Jimbaran, Kapal and Mengwi.
Bukit area
is unlike other area of Bali which is always green and full of streams
and springs, it is kind of an arid landscape dotted by bush and manioc,
cactus, beans and kapok trees. Bukit peninsula is a plateau of limestone
which raised up to 200 meters above sea level. However
on rainy season around October to March the area is green and especially
in the valleys we'll find abundance of coconut and fruit trees just like
in any other areas of Bali.
Touring the Bukit can be a unique and exciting
experience. Start right above the magnificent beach, to the wide open space
and sky, temples, wild flowers, oceans, parachutes or surfers etc. So let's
start the tour. From Uluwatu road ( when you are on your journey from Denpasar
to Nusa Dua through the By Pass highway turn right just after Ngurah Rai
Airport ) after Intercontinental Hotel we turn right at the first junction,
soon we'll arrive at the southern part of Jimbaran Beach, a wide white
sandy beach with green-blue clear water. If we arrive in this place in
the afternoon it's worth waiting to watch one of the most spectacular sunset
Bali offer, and later on we can enjoy dinner in one of some of the beach
front cafes, very popular among international and domestic tourists as
well as the Balinese. Right after Jimbaran Beach, the road begin to ascend,
then we pass Four Season Hotel and a couple of kilometers later after twisting
through bougainvillea boulevard we arrive at the entrance of Ritz Carlton
Hotel. The luxury Hotel itself surrounded by Kapok trees.
From here we must back to the Uluwatu Road
junction, but instead of take turn to the left toward the Airport and Denpasar,
we turn right and soon the road twist and ascend steeply past a temple.
Just after the top of the ascend, the road
become rather flat and we continue our journey toward south. Here we pass
junction to the relatively new Udayana University at the left, then another
junction to new giant statue of Garuda Wisnu Kencana ( intended to
become the tallest statue in the world ) also at the left side, and then
we are ascending another hill. In the
middle of this ascending road, we can pull over and look back. From here
we can see a spectacular view of the Jimbaran Bay, Kedonganan Beach, Airport,
Kuta Beach and Bali mainland. At the top of the ascend we meet the intersection
of Bongol village. Road to the
right go toward Balangan, to the left toward Ungasan and Nusa Dua, however
we choose going straight toward southwest.
This road will lead us to village of Pecatu,
and after a couple of kilometers driving with fresh scenery including glimpses
of the sea in the distant it will end at the famous Uluwatu Temple which
is located in a dramatic site.
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Westward
view from south of Uluwatu Temple |
The Temple is perching at the tip of the cliff
that drop 80 meters vertically to the Indian Ocean below. Uluwatu Temple
is one of six most important Sad Kahyangan Temples of Bali. From this site
we can also witness probably one of the greatest sunset in the world.
We go back using the same road we came from.
Just a few hundred meters away from the parking lot of Uluwatu Temple there
is a road to the left, we follow this road and here we find our self on
the parking lot of one of the most famous surfing site in the world, Suluban.
This is the surfing site so magnificently featured in a wide screen film
"In God's Hand". From the parking lot we can go using a ladder to the beach
below and enjoy the beach as well as watch the surfers more closely or
visit one of the warungs there and enjoy the surfers and vast blue indian
ocean drop dramatically below.
Back to the Bongol intersection, we are now
heading 2 km southeast to village of Ungasan in which we find a junction.
The branch of the road toward south will end at the Bali Cliff Hotel, near
which sometimes we can see parachutes float over the ocean off the southern
cliff of the Bukit.
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Campus,
Jimbaran Bay, Airport and Kuta Beach |
Few hundreds meters east of Ungasan village there
is a branch of the road to the north, if we follow this road, it will lead
us to Udayana University, but before it the road will pass the site of
the huge Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue in the left hand side of the road,
then from this biggest campus in Bali we can continue our journey either
to Jimbaran or to By Pass Ngurah Rai. However we decided to continue our
trip descending toward east from the village of Ungasan to the village
of Kutuh, Kampial, Bualu and finally we'll arrive at mega resort center
Nusa Dua. Strictly speaking since Nusa Dua situated at the sea level elevation
of a valley, it means that it's not part of the Bukit ( Bukit means hill
in Balinese ) area, same case also for Bay Pass highway stretch from Nusa
Dua to Kuta, Sanur and Denpasar.
From Nusa Dua we can go back to our starting
point at By Pass highway near Ngurah Rai International Airport, Tuban. |
