It's been a while since I've written a post.
With the Lebaran holiday coming up and having to grab available dates for flights and hotels, I took a family trip a bit earlier.
We visited Bali, where I used to live before, because it's the most familiar and has lots for the kids to do.
When I visited Bali after so long, the streets had changed a lot since the pandemic, and a new mall (Icon Mall) was completed in Sanur, making it even better to live there.
On the first day, we had fun at the resort, and in the evening, thinking the older kids would get bored just playing at the resort, I booked a Jeep Tour for a different activity.
Since our accommodation was in Sanur, we had to depart at 2 AM.
Well... it was supposed to be a course where you could take those life-defining shots in Bali... or something like that...
Anyway, after waiting until 2 AM, I met the driver who picked me up at the hotel and we traveled for almost 1 hour and 30 minutes.
We had to go through Kintamani... and these days I found out that Kintamani residents charge tourists a toll.
If you have a KITAS, it's 20,000 rp per person, and if you don't, it's 50,000 rp. We had a KITAS, so we paid 20,000 rp.
We waited in the parking lot to change to the Jeep vehicle, transferred to the Jeep, and moved up the mountain again.
Seeing several Jeep vehicles in front and behind, I thought there must be quite a few people taking pictures around there.
When we arrived at the mountain peak (?)... what was this... it was just a parking lot.
It would be fine if it was just a parking lot, but the restroom has to be paid for. Not to mention the flies and mosquitoes.
When you take photos, you can't avoid having a vehicle or another person in the shot beside you.
Posed shots of looking at stars at night..
And posed shots again at sunrise... unless you're a model... the awkwardness is endless. ㅎㅎㅎ
Once the sun rose, we soon moved to another location. We moved to a place where volcanic rocks were stacked.
It wasn't crowded like before, so it was possible to take photos while avoiding other vehicles.
The travel agency said the tour would depart at 3 PM based on Ubud time and finish at 7:30 PM, but the schedule didn't work out and everything was delayed.
Since there wasn't a clear explanation... there might have been some fault on my part for misjudging the tour cost, but...
After doing nothing but traveling all night, fighting with flies and mosquitoes in a place where we had to pay for the restroom, and only ending up with posed photos that were nothing like what I expected,
the time was 10:20 AM.
The tour cost was 170,000 Korean won... transportation cost for 8 hours 30 minutes (82,000 won) + Jeep tour for 3 people (88,000 won)...
In the end, the Jeep tour was 88,000 won for 3 people, but the transportation cost to do the tour was about 10,000 won per hour.
If I had known those details, I would have probably driven myself or taken a different vehicle directly to the parking lot for the Jeep transfer.
Not as a tourist from Korea, but as an expat going to Bali to rest, I felt somehow like I'd been scammed.
I thought it was really fortunate that I didn't go with young children. It was tiring and crowded...
Because of traveling all night, the next day's schedule felt neither enjoyable nor relaxed due to fatigue.
When I looked at the photos on site, I thought wow... they turned out well... but when I came to my senses and looked at them again during the day... there was really only about one photo worth keeping.
Since I take photos fairly well and even fly drones sometimes... I tried to take good shots, but it wasn't that kind of level.
I thought it would be better to just relax at the resort and do other activities early in the morning.
In conclusion, regardless of how the early Bali Jeep Tour was, I want to recommend avoiding the current Jeep Tour.
It's tiring, dirty, there are no usable photos as expected... and it messes up the next day's schedule. After all that trouble, you end up spending money anyway...
When I asked the older kids about it afterward, they felt pretty much the same way as I did.
For anyone planning to travel to Bali in the future, I want to recommend avoiding it as it can turn an enjoyable trip into a difficult experience.
