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The best spots in Bali are in regions away from the touristy areas. The island is rich in beautiful nature spots. For instance the cascading waterfall at Git Git in the northern part of the island is very popular with tourists and locals alike.

The Banjar Hot Springs near Lovina are another famous spot, with 3 basins of different temperature to chose from. They are about 25 kilometers from Git Git.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a spot where you can stand under a Waterfall and warm your old bones in a Hot Spring right next door and almost at the same time?

Contrasts

Already Hildegard von Bingen, the famous abbess and herbalist of the 12th century, knew the rejuvenating health effects of water for your metabolism and senses - she recommended all-embracing (universal) water treatments as a good way to increase blood circulation.

In the early 1900’s, ‘contrast baths’ became very popular, with Bavarian Sebastian Kneipp, a priest and founder of the naturopathic movement promoting them heavily and building a whole new business model around then new-age Hydrotherapy.

He treated tens of thousands of people with different applications of water through various methods, temperatures and pressures and made a fortune from it.

His methods became famous as the “Kneipp Cure” or Water Cure.

Even more so today most people enjoy going to Saunas or Spas and get treated in similar ways. It’s nice to pamper yourself once in a while, isn’t it?!

You can spend a fortune there as well, with aroma therapies, herbal baths, mud or blanket packings, compresses and steam saunas to sooth aching bones and muscles, relaxing and rejuvenating your skin and limbs.

Is it real?

Imagine a green paradise nestled between lush rice paddies with small streams and creeks of water coming from everywhere. Need some privacy in a closed cabin to relax and enjoy the hot waters without any outside interference?

Welcome to Angseri Hot Springs!

We only discovered this spot recently after arriving in Bedugul in pouring cold rain. Our cravings for fresh strawberries didn’t collaborate with the weather this time.

Freezing and jittering, with a cup of coffee in our hands, we heard some whispers and rumors about a distant hidden spot, waiting to please our tired bones with hot waters coming out of the depths of the earth.

A name emerged - Patung Jagung (”Corn Statue”), shrouding the place in even more mystery.

Was it real? We had to find out.

Asking some locals around only gave very vague directions. Scooting up and down hill the long-winding roads through the rice fields and plains still brought us closer to our target. The locals responded with more precise directions and after about 30 minutes south-west from Bedugul we reached it.

Soaking wet and calling up our last strengths we made our way through the bushes and climbed down the bamboo stairs to an idyllic dell, surrounded with mist amidst green bamboo and fern trees and thick jungle vegetation. Ahhhh - the joys of hot waters making you feel like a baby in its mother’s womb!

DIY Hydrotherapy

Okay, enough of prose and drama. You got to have to check this spot out when in Bali! It has a beautiful charm in its own unique way. The small waterfall is a delicious massage for head and shoulders. It’s very cold water of course, but you can feel the heat from the ground when standing on the sand below the waterfall.

In contrary to the Banjar Hot Spring in Lovina, which features big public bathing basins, this Hot Spring offers small private cabins - with rooms for up to 4 people max. For Rp20.000 (app. USD 2 or 1.5 Euro) you can call one of the cabins your own as long as you want - or until you can compete with Lobster in skin color.

They have one larger open-air pool with hot water as well.

The private cabins are cleaned after every visitor and the water is exchanged completely as well. The whole place is practically only a few months old and hygiene looks very good.

There were no other patrons the 2 times we visited the place.

Be aware though, that there is nothing else around, so if you are planning to sip on a beer or fruit juice while bathing, better bring your own!

I found it especially thrilling to change between waterfall and hot cabin every 5 minutes, although you will be exhausted rather sooner than later.

From the water fall, a small plashing creek is winding down the valley, you can easily have a short walk in its bed.

The whole area is surrounded by green vegetation, mainly bamboo, palm and fern trees - as well as cultivated rice paddies, where you can sometimes see the local farmers going after their work in the rice fields.

A mesmerizing idyll in the middle of nowhere!

How to get there?

It’s actually not that difficult. At the start of Bedugul on the hill top take the furthest left road from the main street near the huge food and flower market. Don’t pass through the stone gate, but take the lane left of it. It’s a small winding road going up and downhill for about 20-30 minutes.

You can reach it coming from Tabanan going north-east as well, but then it’s a bit more difficult to find.

The destination village is called Desa Angseri, but ask for the area “Patung Jagung”, as more people know that one and will point you in the right direction.

Coming closer to the destination you will see black and white signs ‘Air Panas’, which means Hot Spring in Bahasa Indonesia.

They have a larger open-air pool with hot water as well, but in the early afternoon this one is already emptied and cleaned for the next day to come. So make sure you arrive not later than lunch time to use this one.

The bigger pool and some more pictures in better quality can be found here.

Technorati : air panas, angseri, bali, bamboo, banjar, bedugul, fern, git git, hildegard, hot spring, hydrotherapy, indonesia, jagung, kneipp, lovina, paddies, patung, pool, rice, sauna, spa, von bingen, waterfall

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written by Chris