Indonesia - Glimpses of Bali Adventure Tours

As guests of Bali and Beyond Travel Fair, we were invited to experience Bali Adventure Tours: white water rarfting trip on the Ayung River, and the Elephant Safari park where one can ride an elephant and interact with them. Bali Adventure Tours advertises the fact that they have the longest run on the river, as their launch point is much further up the river than all other rafting companies. The hike down the well-constructed stairway system to the river was impressionably steep steep with stunning views of the jungle environment. A regiment of rafts and guides await at the launch point. Thank goodness the rafts are well constructed and maintained. Playing bumper boats with other rafts and rocks soom made us stash the camera to concentrate on paddling! It was fun and refreshing, and at times a little eery as we passed inticately carved mossy shores feeling as if we were about to discover a lost civilization around the next bend. Back at the very new and clean rafting center, the restaurant was ready to renourish and renew us. The lunch buffet was copious with Indonesian and Western choices and lots of quality fresh ingredients. The second half of the day was spent at the Elephant Safari Park. We liked the fact that we got to interact with the elephants (riding them feeding, wading in the pool, feeling their trunks, and looking straight down their gullet!). The elephant talent show was hokey, more circus than educational. But the grounds and the museum/reception was well done and asthetically pleasing. We like the fact that these Sumatran elephants were "rescued" from work camps or abandonment and now live and reproduce in this sanctuary. We thank Nigel Mason, founder and developer of Bali Adventure Tours and Elephant Safari Park and his marketing staff for inviting us and letting us experience these two very different activities. Filmed in June 2014.