RUNTASTIC at GUNUNG SARI VILLAGE (Jatiluwih - Bali)

In the end of November 2013, Rakata Adventure invited friends and business partners to visit one of the beautiful villages in Jatiluwih Area, Gunung Sari Village. It is located in Tabanan regency, approximately 2 hours of driving from Denpasar.

Gunung Sari is a part of Jatiluwih. It is famous with Balinese traditional irrigation system called Subak. Furthermore, it has plenty of natural resources, art & culture and its community way of life which is very interesting to explore.

Since Jatiluwih is one of the World Heritage Site, it is necessary for the community to develop and protect their village. Regarding to the issue, Samdhana Institute together with Rakata Adventure and local community designed a community development program which supports the local to become independent on promoting and running Gunung Sari Village as a tourist destination.

This program is participated by photographer, Balinese dancer, runner, and cyclist. Every guest was able to share and mix their knowledge with the local. It’s lovely to see how the local and the guests were blended together.

Kriss, Wira and I were discussing with two local boys on creating a 10K running course map in Desa Gunung Sari. With endomondo and nike + on hand as the GPS we began to run.

The first 1.5km, we were running in the road, we enjoyed the engagement of yellow and green colors from the rice field. In the next 2.5 km we were running in the pathway and we could see the local harvesting and some of them ploughed the field with tractors and also with cows

Entering 4km of walking (we were taking a lot of pictures instead of running) we passed through a Big Temple. The temple was hidden by big trees and we could hear the birds tweeted all way long.

In the next 4 km we were again welcomed by the green lush of the field rice, but the route became hard. It’s wet, muddy and surely slippery. For the trail lovers, this could be very interesting route to enjoy. In the other side of the pathway, a small river accompanied us and running with us

We finish our “runtastic” on 2 hours and 17 minutes and as the result, we got this beautiful route for the village. 

Last but note least, I would like to ask runner/non runner or simply just a fun runner just like me to enjoy running at Gunung Sari. It is more than getting healthy or following passion as a true runner, it is the way you contribute to Gunung Sari local community. LET’S RUN FOR RUNNING THE VILLAGE