The Gate Of The Heaven Bali with Top Places To Visit In The East of Bali

Lovely experience. Visited for approx 3-4 hours. Atmosphere was surreal. Crowds were good and Staff were very accomadating.

Bali bliss tours was great! After chatting with Nyoman he assigned Ketut who was an awesome driver and guide. Nyoman was very good. He was very professional and caring. He made sure my 7 day trip went as planned exploring all the major places in Bali. I would recommend Ketut to all my friends who will be visiting Bali. Thanks a lot Ketut. Best wishes to you!

We saw Bali from April 23 to the 25th as we were on the cruise ship Oceania Insignia. We had decided not to go with the shore excursions the ship had provided because they were SO expensive. I made a list of the places we wanted to see and Bliss Tours arranged an itinerary for us for the 3 days. Communication with them was immediate and excellent through the whole trip. I was able to pay their reasonable fees with pay pal the day before arrival which was great for us. We arrived in the north and were greeting by Suta who took us on a day of adventure to lots of natural places. We went to Munkuk waterfall, which was spectacular. From there we went to the top of the Tamblingan forest where we were handed over to the local forest guide for a two hour trek through lush forest complete with stops at two local temples built by the people who live close by. We swung on Tarzan like rope swings and walked in and around banyan trees. We are a pretty fit 70 and 80 year old couple and were able to make this trek/hike but anyone with mobility issues would have to give this a pass. After we got to the bottom of the forest we were taken by a boatman in a sturdy canoe across a beautiful peaceful lake with no tourists around. As we crossed the lake we arrived at a lovely temple where Suta was waiting to take us to the next stop. He took us to Warung D’Kubu -The Natural Place, which deserves its own review. This is a small farm / garden on steep steps that we climbed up to see all the spices. (Cloves, cinnamon , ginger tumeric) as well as the coffee that they make. The owner was delightful and we were shown the simple process for the coffee roasting. The Natural Place address is Jalan Raya Munduk, Kayuputih Village Banjar -Buleleng - Bali 61162. Telephone is 62 877 6255 5049 and email is warungdkubu22@gmail.com. The owner took a fit of laughing when I told her I was 70 . She said Balinese women at 70 just stay in the house. After that she called us Grandma and Grandpa! Our next stop was Brahmavihara arama Temple , a Buddhist temple which was amazing to see. There were very few people , and I think part of it is called the Bali Gate to Heaven. That evening after a long day visiting rice terraces and going up and down the mountains we returned to our ship. The ship moved to the port of Benoa the next day. There we were met by Komang G. Our guide for the next two days. I can’t say enough about him, he was fabulous! His English is excellent because he lived in Colorado and Nebraska for some time so he was really able to explain the religious and cultural places that we visited. We had such a busy day. We started out with a Barong Cultural dance performance, then to artisan villages for silver, wood, batik and painting. The next stop was at the Tegenungan Waterfall followed by a visit to the Holy Spring Temple where we watched the bathers doing their rituals to God which involved swimming in a pool with 13 fountains. This would be a good ritual to do if you had time to get undressed, wear the proper sarong and do the ritual. The Bali Swing area was the next stop and took some nice photos there. On to the Sacred Monkey forest which was wonderful. Such a nice clean open “zoo” with all the monkeys roaming around and eating. At each of these stops Komang was an amazing cultural resource, explaining everything that was happening and helping us to understand the local traditions. He has a nice sense of humor and was easy to be with for two days. He helped us to get the perfect pictures at each stop. We then went to UBUD. Wow that is a busy small town. So much traffic! We had decided to stay at a hotel in UBUD for the night and stayed at the restful Kaylana Hotel in a suburb of UBUD. It was a great place to relax. Komang picked us up on time the next morning and off we went to the Bird Park which was to be our only stop of that day as our ship left at 12.30. Before the bird park opened Komang took us to a local temple that he saw was having some very special activities that only happen every five years. The villages had prepared the temple for months and all the children and families were there all dressed up in their finest outfits. It was such a wonderful spectacle and included cultural dances and music that even the little kids participated in. It was magical to see this and everything was explained to us so we understood the significance of it all. The Bali Bird Park was the next visit and that was fabulous. All the beautiful birds from Southeast Asia , many of them roaming free and there were opportunities to feed them and take pictures. It was lovely and well worth a visit. So that was our stay in Bali, wonderful , wonderful guides and great communication and arrangements by Bali Bliss Tours. You do not need to be concerned about working with them , they will take excellent care of you. I am happy to communicate with anyone (cad2020@mac.com) if you have any specific questions. Colette and Tim Diegel

We recently stayed in Bali for three AMAZING DAYS! Budi picked us up at the cruise port and off we went exploring beautiful Bali! Our first day we went to the Pura Penataran Luhur Temple a beautiful temple along the sea; next off to a coffee plantation where we sampled delicious teas and coffee; then off to Alas Kedaton a sanctuary for monkeys. We saw many monkeys and held and fed awesome fruit bats dressed in Indonesian clothing. Our second day we were up early to visit the Sad Kahyangan Lempuyang Luhur temple the Gates of Heaven. What an amazing experience! It was beautiful there and on our day there was a little cloud behind the gates which made our pictures beautiful! After this we went to two different water Palaces each was so beautiful in their own way. Our last stop of the day was at Pura Goa Lawah more monkeys and a cave with hundreds of bats! Budi was so amazing. He told us about all the areas we visited. He was a great driver. Bali has some crazy traffic but he was excellent in navigating us safely to every where we went! Thank you very much Budi and Bali Bliss Tours for all our wonderful memories! Ken and Deb

Was very good at service …cleanliness was good and everything was well managed with proper facilities and good attendance of staff

First class. Visit Melbourne. Its a must. So many fantastic restaurants and great food. Lots of exciting places to visit. The weather was just perfect.

We had a great time! Our driver cum guide Gede was very fluent in English and really took good care of us through the day! Definitely recommend them.

Temples are supposed to be sacred places of worship and enlightenment for those spiritually devoted to their religion in Bali right?...WRONG! this is The Gate of Heaven temple in Lempuyang famous for all the wrong reasons. This religious site is devalued into a feeding frenzy for tourists who are sandwiched between 2 gates posing for a few shots to take back home. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and had we known this beforehand, we would have chosen a different activity. Our choice of excursions so far had been a great mix of beautiful sceneries, culture and fun activities, but sadly got caught out with this one as it swallowed up a good part of our day. This activity starts from 5am or earlier as the first photo shoots starts at 6.30am, so you can have your ‘dream pose’ with the sunrise and Mount Agung as a backdrop if the sky is not marred by a curtain of rolling mists and grey skies. The weather has many changing faces at this time in the morning so really it’s luck of the draw. We’d set out from Seminyak at 7am arriving at Lempuyang at 10am. We enjoyed the quietness of the drive through lush countryside, catching glimpses of locals in early morning rituals praying, chanting and watching swirls of smoke from fragrant incense sticks disappearing into the morning dew. The drive is about 2 hours depending on traffic and your location, we reached Lempuyang tired but happy to leave the comfort of our seats. Kadek, our guide was right the place was heaving with buses, taxis and swarms of tourists. We climbed up a steep hill leading to the temple gave a donation and wrapped ourselves in sarongs like sushi. On entering the courtyard we were given a ticket number ours was 176, where we joined a pallet of about 200 coloured sarongs. Kadek said it would be a 3 hour wait (actually it was 4 hours by the time we had our photos), he left us for breakfast and catch up on his much needed sleep, (his not stupid!). It’s sad to see this temple turned into a ‘cat walk’ watching a sea of tourists all waiting to have their photos taken, and locals jumping on the bandwagon. If you wander off or you’ll miss your slot as your number gets called out once (maybe twice if your lucky). Don’t be fooled by the glossed instagram pictures there is no water, the effect is created by holding a mirror underneath your phone to give that illusion. Once your number is called out you get posing and it’s ‘click click click’ with the photographer shouting ‘jump’ & ‘next pose’ our 4 hour wait was over in a matter of seconds! tip: practice your poses beforehand, there’s no 2nd chances here you get a shot of about 10 pictures so make them count. You’ll need patience, confidence and a creative mind for those fun poses (not recommended if your camera shy as you’ll have about 200 people watching). Personally, we don’t recommend this activity as you’ll waste a good part of your day when you could be visiting other beautiful sites around in and around Bali, but if it is high on your agenda then go for it, perhaps get there by 5am, and then enjoy the rest of the day at your leisure. Our day ended with a couple more stops first to Tirta Gangga Water Palace in Ababi, and a luscious Strawberry Farm in Bedugul in Pacansari. A far more lifting experience and fun, and certainly compensated our “faux pas” at Gate of Heaven. Many thanks to Kadek for an enjoyable day. Indu & Versha.

I met with Md Eras, who guide me to take from my hotel around 3:30 am in the night and we went to see the gate of heaven...he is so helpful and the gratitude he shows which was extra ordinary. He even took some short video of us and later he sent me thru WhatsApp like a movie.....it will be less if I only thank him. Eras is very gentle in nature and having good knowledge of Bali. Thank you Eras and I will definitely share my view in my friend circle to connect you and Bali Bliss when they wish to come.

We went for a day tour with the driver appointed by Bali BlissTours. As assigned our driver was there to pick us from our hotel before time at 3:00 am!! He drove wonderfully early in the morning and was very professional. We had an engaging conversation through the 2.5 hrs trip to lampanyang temple/ gates of heaven. .. his prudent thinking allowed us to reach the temple before the crack of dawn and allowed us to avoid the long ( apparently an hr and more waiting time) queue to click 5 pics with the backdrop of the active volcano... he drove us to all the places we requested and all in all it was a very good trip. Beware you need to carry cash for all your payments as they tour operator does not accept credit cards( they accept payment through PayPal).