– ESCAPE THE CROWDS –
AN INDEPENDENT TRAVEL GUIDE
West Bali National Park
THE ESSENTIALS
Entry fee for West Bali National Park
Foreigners: Rp200,000 per person on weekdays, and Rp300,000 per person on weekends and public holidays.
Indonesians: Rp10,000 per person on weekdays and Rp15,000 per person on weekends and public holidays.
Activity fees for West Bali National Park
For prices on activities, please see the Real Bali guidebook, which has a comprehensive section on the park. Prices are cheaper if you combine two or more activities. Please see our snorkelling and diving page for details of how to reduce the fee for snorkelling around Menjangan Island.
Park hours
The ranger stations are open from 8am until 3pm. Trekking and cycling trips can be done between 6am and 6pm, but to get an early start you'll need to book the day before. See the map below for ranger station locations, where you can book.
West Bali National Park
Home to the beautiful, endangered Bali starling, West Bali National Park – or Taman Nasional Bali Barat – covers the Prapat Agung peninsula, the north-western tip of Bali. It is an area fringed by incredibly clear water and coral reefs that offer some of the most striking diving and snorkelling around the island. Creeping out from these waters are dense mangrove forests that make way for the lowland forests, acacia scrub and dry savannahs – more reminiscent of Southern Africa or the Mediterranean than of tropical Bali – that mingle and stretch all the way up to two extinct volcanoes. Wildlife in the park includes menjangan deer, macaques and the rare Balinese black monkey, wild boar, monitor lizards and 160 species of birds, including the endangered Bali starling and the colourful (and common) wild jungle fowl.
What to do in the park
The infrastructure of the park is quite basic, so don't expect a good network of roads or a variety of camps. There is essentially one road – but there are good opportunities to go trekking, cycling, do a mangrove tour or go birding, as well as snorkelling and diving. All activities need to be done with a guide, and this best arranged at one of the park ranger stations (see the map for the locations).
The comprehensive section on the national park in the Real Bali guidebook includes details on things to do, prices, ranger and guide contacts, as well as details on transport and accommodation (from budget to luxury) in the area.
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Bali Starling Breeding Centre
THE ESSENTIALS
• If you explain politely at the West Bali National Park's Sumber Klampok entrance that you only want to see the breeding centre, access is often allowed without having to pay the park entry fee. There is a visitor's book at the breeding centre, where you'll be expected to make a donation.
• If your aim is photography, be aware that you’ll be separated from the birds by wire mesh. (An F2.8 lens will throw the mesh out of focus).
• To see free-flying Bali starlings, go either to the Teluk Brumbun release area (you'll need a guide to take you – ask at a ranger office) or visit the flock that live in the forests at The Menjangan resort.
Bali Starling Breeding Centre
A little fortress in the surprisingly arid forest of Prapat Agung, this breeding centre is home to a fluctuating population of up to 300 rare Bali starlings (Leucopsar rothschildi). In the days when poaching was rampant this heavily guarded compound – complete with razor-wire, guard-towers and AK47-toting rangers – was the last bastion for Bali’s own ‘bird of paradise’.
Otherwise known as Rothschild’s mynah, Bali mynah or Jalak Bali (in Balinese), features on the 200-rupiah coin and was considered a status-symbol by wealthy Indonesians who, at the height of poaching, would pay US$1000 for a pair. It was once one of the world’s rarest birds, and is finally making a comeback as breeding efforts over recent years have seen the population – estimated about a decade ago to be just six breeding pairs in the wild – not only stabilise, but is grow. For a donation you are welcome to visit the Bali Starling Breeding Centre with its many aviaries and breeding pairs.
From this centre the birds are released into the wild after a transition period in a much bigger aviary at Teluk Brumbun, which is on the mainland, directly opposite Menjangan Island. It is possible to camp at the Teluk Brumbun ranger station – but the negotiated fee can be hefty. We’ve camped here a couple of times and in addition to entire flocks of wild starlings, we’ve seen menjangan deer, endemic ebony leaf monkeys and, around sunset, many civets. The easiest place to see Bali starlings flying wild would be around the breeding-centre at the lovely The Menjangan resort (see our Menjangan accommodation page for more details). If you stay at the resort, be sure to wake early one morning to join their excellent bird-spotting walks.
Where to find it
The breeding centre is just 200m east of the West Bali National Park entrance point at Sumber Klampok (near Gilimanuk). You can see the wild flock – apparently the only remaining spot where Bali starlings have always flown wild – at Teluk Brumbun. To get there you'll need to pay the park entrance fee and arrange a boat at Labuan Lalang jetty. If you are snorkelling around Menjangan Island your guide/boatman might agree (for a tip) to take you for a quick visit over the Teluk Brumbun (where you should make an extra donation at the ranger station).
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