About Aling Aling Waterfall (Air Terjun Aling Aling)
The Aling Aling Waterfall is a tall, gushing waterfall that’s actually on the same stream responsible for the popular Banyumala Twin Waterfalls further upstream.
However, our experience with this waterfall actually turned out to be four waterfalls in one.
As you can see in the photo above, the Aling Aling Waterfall was one of the bigger high-volume waterfalls we’ve witnessed in Bali (said to be 35m tall), but the remaining three waterfalls were no slouches either.
The other three waterfalls were called the Kroya Waterfall, the Kembar Waterfall, and the Pucuk Waterfall (pronounced “puh-CHOOK”), respectively.
Each of these waterfalls were more swimming-friendly as they featured curious concrete “diving boards” for death-wish cliff dives into deep plunge pools.
They provided a nice contrast to the turbulence of the Aling Aling Waterfall’s plunge pool, which was too dangerous for a swim (at least as of our June 2022 visit).
Further adding fun to the swimming holes for the lower waterfalls, there was even a natural water slide in a smaller segment parallel to the Kembar Waterfall (the middle waterfall).
How To Access The Aling Aling Waterfall
When we first arrived to the start of our excursion to take in the Aling Aling Waterfall, I was a bit thrown off by how far we were from the waterfall itself.
I knew this when I consulted our location against my Gaia GPS map.
In fact, I wondered if we were in the right place because the map showed that there was a different car park further up the road leading to an even more direct 200m trail to the Aling Aling Waterfall.
Well, it turned out that we started our excursion from a car park that was meant more for the lower three waterfalls – Kroya, Kembar, and Pucuk, but we were told that this was THE Aling Aling Waterfall trailhead.
I always wondered whether there’s supposed to be a closer car park and trailhead further up the road.
Did the owners of this lower car park try to get more of the business by discouraging people from continuing further up the hill to the other car park and trailhead closer to the Aling Aling Waterfall?
Regardless of whether you start closer to the Aling Aling Waterfall or not (assuming it exists), the difference in the distance walked is only 200-300m each way by my estimation.
So you can’t really go wrong either way.
Nevertheless, from the car park that we started from on our visit, I’d recommend going straight to the Aling Aling Waterfall first (bypassing the trails going down to the other waterfalls).
Then, after having your fill of the Aling Aling Waterfall, then go back down to the signed trail junction so you can explore (and swim) at each of the waterfalls to your heart’s content.
If you’re just doing the Aling Aling Waterfalls without exploring the other waterfalls, then it’d be about 2km round-trip, and I’d imagine this should take no more than an hour.
Of course, it took us about 2 hours to explore all four waterfalls (covering a round-trip distance of about 3km), and we didn’t do any swimming.
So I’d imagine you’ll probably want to spend at least 3 hours or longer to get the full experience.
Trail Description – The Aling Aling Waterfall
From the car park (see directions below), we followed the main road for about 70m before going left into an alleyway with a sign pointing the way to a “pondok” (cottage or home stay).
A local actually whistled in our direction and pointed to this alleyway since the signage didn’t make it obvious where the waterfall track was (at least as of our June 2022 visit).
The alleyway initially passed between a rice field with terraces before continuing past some residences (I recalled there was a loose and unleashed barking dog around one of them).
After about 150m, the trail turned towards an unsigned fork where the path continued to the left while the home stay and a warung were to the right.
From there, we then walked the next 250m as it descended steps going deeper into the jungle and towards a signed trail junction where the steps on the left went to the Kroya, Kembar, and Pucuk Waterfalls.
We first continued straight ahead and followed the riverside trail for the next 500m to the steps leading down to the Aling Aling Waterfall.
It was interesting to note that there was a stepped trail joining up with the one we were on about 100m before the lookout and steps for the Aling Aling Waterfall.
I suspect that was the trail going to the nearest car park though we can’t say whether that trail is open or not.
Although the steps down to the rocky shore lining the river may make it seem inviting to get into the water beneath the Aling Aling Waterfall, the water was way too fast and turbulent to even consider going in during our June 2022 visit.
So we merely enjoyed the falls from a safe distance, and then went back the way we came to get back to the signed trail junction.
We had a choice to just go back to the car park and not do the lower waterfalls (making this a pretty trivial roughly 2km round trip walk), but since we were here, we mind as well experience the rest of the waterfalls here.
Trail Description – The Remaining Waterfalls
Beyond the signed junction, the trail descended steps where it passed by a couple of shelters before reaching a pretty scary-looking “diving board” directly opposite the 12m Kroya Waterfall.
I could tell from the presence of ropes as well as signs with inspirational quotes besides the concrete protrusion that you’re apparently supposed to cliff jump from here.
Well, we didn’t see anyone doing it on our visit, and we certainly had no intention of doing it ourselves.
Nevertheless, it was a nice spot to check out the Kroya Waterfall as long as nothing fell into the plunge pool below!
Continuing with the walk, we then crossed over a footbridge over the stream allowing us to look downstream over the brink of the Kembar Waterfall as well as upstream back towards the Kroya Waterfall.
On the other side of the bridge was a sort of “island” with an outdoor shrine on it.
On the other side of the shrine was apparently a smaller cascade that could act as a natural water slide.
Meanwhile, continuing down along the island, there was another small concrete protrusion (or “diving board”) apparently for death-wish jumpers plunging into the pool beneath the 10m Kembar Waterfalls.
To continue the walk, we had to go across a very slippery creek crossing (where it’s wise to have trekking poles for balance or a dry bag if you don’t want to risk getting things wet).
This traverse was scary because it was just above the brink of one of the segments of the Kembar Waterfall.
Beyond the crossing, there was a changing room as well as the continuation of the trail, which descended to the level of the river, where we could get a more satisfying frontal look at the Kembar Waterfall.
The trail then kept going downstream along its banks towards yet another concrete protrusion “diving board” that was above the brink of the Pucuk Waterfall.
There was a steep series of steps leading to the bottom, where after another slippery shin-deep to knee-deep unbridged creek crossing, I was finally able to get a frontal look at the Pucuk Waterfall.
Someone said that this waterfall was 16m, but from what I could tell, it looked more like it was 10m tall or shorter.
This was the extent of our visit, and I believe it added another 1km round-trip to the overall hike, making the whole thing about 3km in total.
Nevertheless, you’ll probably want to spend more time down at these lower waterfalls to enjoy a swim or at least to chill out at each of them.
That said, you’ll probably want to keep an eye out for mischievous monkeys always looking to steal stuff from unsuspecting tourists.
Authorities
The Aling Aling Waterfall resides in the Buleleng Regency just upslope from Singaraja in Bali Province, Indonesia. It may be administered by the Buleleng Regency local government. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting this website.
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