Gitgit Waterfall. Ah. The memories. Lovely drive. Beautiful scenery. Chilly water and crummy scammers. Boo for them. Gitgit is such a beautiful place and it has such a serene feel to it. Makes me sad that people have to tarnish it by being so dishonest. Oh well. Even with getting scammed we really did have an incredible time.
Gitgit is actually a series of five waterfalls on one of the northern mountains of Bali in Indonesia. We stayed in Ubud, which is on the other side of the island, and it took us about two hours to get there.
When we first arrived, we were greeted by a very kind gentleman who told us we had to “make a donation” to park there. This is fairly normal because you have to pay to park almost everywhere in Bali. We just thought it was funny they called it a donation here. Cuz it’s not really a donation if it’s required, right? So we gave them 10,000 rupiah (about .75 USD) and started down the trail. Most parking places charge 5,000-15,000, so we figured 10,000 was a good amount.
Before we’d gone far down the trail, our new friend told us that we could not go down the trail without an escort. Government rules. He said he would be happy to guide us, we said okay and we set off down the trail again.
After passing trinket stalls and going a short way down a path, we began to see water.
But before we could get to the real waterfalls, we had to stop at a booth along the path. Our guide spoke in Balinese to the ladies manning the booth and then told us that it would cost 50,000 rupiah per person, per waterfall. We were taken aback. Most places we’d been to up until this point had been 15,000 ($1.13), with the exception of one 30,000 ($2.25). But 50,000 ($3.76) per person, PER WATERFALL? We wanted to see the falls, but not that bad.
We finally decided that we would just see one waterfall since we’d come all this way. It may not be a lot of money in USD, but we were on a budget and didn’t want to spend all our money before we’d even been there two days. So, we paid 100,000 rupiah and picked up the trail again.
It was really neat when we got to a bridge and were able to look down over the top of one of the waterfalls.
Once we’d climbed down and taken a few photos of the waterfall, our guide kindly offered to take a photo of us together.
We hung out at the top of the waterfall and watched the water for a while, but there wasn’t an easy way to get down (so said our guide), so we decided to head back. After crossing the bridge and starting back down the path to the entrance, our guide stopped us and said that he felt bad that we’d paid so much and hadn’t gotten to see the twin falls, so he was going to take us over there, free of charge. We just couldn’t tell anyone.
Hmmmmm. Another waterfall? For free? Well, if you insist.
The funny thing is that the big waterfall was just past the bridge. Instead of crossing the bridge, we went left and right around the curve was the twin waterfall. The noise of the waterfall we were standing over blended with the noise of the waterfall around the corner and we’d had no idea we were so close to the main one.
After taking several photos and dipping our feet in the water (it was really cold), our guide said that we could swim if we wanted to. Huh. Well, why not? How often do we get the opportunity to swim in a waterfall on a mountain in Bali?
We quickly went up to the tiny little changing rooms, changed into our swimsuits (that we had thrown in our camera bags just in case) and jumped in the water. It was still very cold.
I actually have a fear of deep water, especially when I’m in the water by myself, so this next picture may look like I’m having fun, but I was actually having a panic attack and trying to scramble out of the water because Troy had gotten out of the water and there was nobody else in there. Troy was trying to take a picture, so I smiled really quick and then begged him to help me get out of the water because the rocks were too slick and I couldn’t get out on my own. He very kindly obliged and had me out within seconds.
We talked about going back in the pool together, but it was really cold, so we just stuck to playing around in the shallow area for a while.
After an hour or so, we decided we were thoroughly frozen and ready to defrost. It was so much fun playing in the water and being surrounded by such amazing scenery, but, to be totally honest, that water was SO FREAKIN COLD! lol.
Overall, it was a really great experience. We love hiking, we love playing in the water and we love nature. Yes, we got scammed, but at least it wasn’t hundreds of dollars. The ticket prices bothered us so much that we googled around when we got back to the hotel and found out the actual price to enter the falls area is 10,000 rupiah (.75 USD) per person and no guide is required. Our guide got lots of money from us because we also gave him a 20,000 rupiah tip. Oh well. Even being scammed we had a wonderful time and would love to go back. We just won’t pay as much. lol
LOCATION: The falls are located in the Sukasada subdistrict about 16.8 miles (10.9 km) from Singaraja, 42.3 miles (68.1 km) from Denpasar and 38.9 miles (62.6 km) from Ubud.
DRESS: Bring a swim suit! I’d recommend shoes with decent support, but you could probably wear flip flops and be fine unless you have foot issues.
PRICE: 10,000 rupiah. Be firm if they try to charge you more and mention TripAdvisor. Some of the reviews on TripAdvisor say that when they mentioned seeing the price as 10,000 on there that the ladies at the counter only charged them 10,000. Some said they were charged 20,000 with the disclaimer that there was a required donation for a local school. But certainly don’t pay per waterfall and don’t pay for a guide!
