We booked Mount Batur Trek, Natural hot spring, Coffee Plantation and Temple healing with De. It was a great experience and having De was probably the best decision we made. She was an amazing host, she even carried jackets for us since it was pretty cold at the top of Mount Batur. Her energy kept us going and we could complete the trek just on time. De and her brother Ari were always supportive of customisations to the plan. Ari even clicked pictures for us which turned out super good. Would definitely recommend this.

I had an incredible day, thanks to De and her brother :)
It was very special and magical experience in water temple with cleansing ceremony.
De is very warm, kind and energetic person
Who can give u many interesting stories about Bali. I would like to come back Bali and meet De again!

I really wanted to enjoy this experience but it fell short of my expectations, especially due to the price.

The things I liked: the Balinese rice porridge place De took us to was delicious, unexpected, and felt very local. The drive up to Batur Caldera was exhilarating and beautiful, and the view was stunning. The water purification ritual was also very special and personal. I liked that De explained each of the waterfalls/water fountains to us and what they represented, as well as entering the water with us.

The things I didn't like: De was well-meaning, but amateur-esque. It's possible that she just didn't feel well that day, but there were a few things my friend and I observed that made us feel uncomfortable. The yoga class also felt amateur and clumsy. While I'm not a yogi, I've done classes at yoga studios and gyms in Auckland, New Zealand, and I felt De's class wasn't very inspiring. All costs were meant to be included but De ran out of cash for sarongs and lunch and had to ask us for extra money. De also owed us 50k, but didn't bring the correct change when she returned to our villa later in the afternoon, meaning we had to scramble around for the right change ourselves. I also felt I got more information and knowledge about Balinese culture from other drivers and hosts compared to De.

Additionally, De's brother interrupted our experience a lot with his amateur photo taking and his constant requests for us to pose in different ways. It interfered with the flow of the experience and left us feeling exasperated, with photos that weren't even good!

There were a few other things that were off-putting but this was the gist of it. I would like to see De work on her organisation skills and professionalism, and hope this is just a one off if she wasn't feeling well on that day. If you do choose to book with De, I suggest you pick the Mt Batur hike and not the sunrise yoga option. I would also suggest you firmly tell De's brother that you don't want any photos and that you just want to enjoy the experience. The highlight was definitely the water purification ritual, and I would have loved to just pay De for that experience.

We had high expectations for this experience, because (1) De had some amazing reviews for experience, and (2) this was by far the most expensive one out of all our tours / experiences in Bali. I hate to write a negative review, but unfortunately this day was our least favourite out of our 12 days in Bali and really didn't meet our expectations. Looking at the other reviews, I am hoping that it was just a one-off instance, where perhaps De wasn't feeling her best. Nevertheless, I have to write an honest review and I hope that the issues outlined below will be improved, and that you will have a better experience when you book!

The pros:
1) We did the sunrise yoga option at Batur Caldera, which is a location that is serene, quiet, away from the tourist crowd. We had a gorgeous view of Mt Batur and Mt Agong at this location and we would not have found this location otherwise.
2) De bought Balinese rice congee for us for breakfast before we went up to Batur Caldera, which was a very authentic dish that we greatly enjoyed.
3) We appreciated doing the water purification experience with De and she explained the process well. We enjoyed the personalised experience of having her in the water with us so we can follow her instructions.

The issues:
1) Having done many yoga classes before, I had high expectations for the yoga class. I was expecting a magical yoga experience at sunrise, and expected it to be a full class of at least 45 minutes in length. However, the class was only less than 28 minutes in length, including breathing exercises, the cool down and savasana (I have the data on my Garmin watch from that day), and to say that it was the worst yoga class I had done is not an exaggeration. I don't want to claim that De is not a certified yoga instructor, but it certainly didn't feel like it as a participant. She did not give clear verbal cues for the movements, nor did she name any of the poses - her instructions only included inhale, exhale, leg up, leg down, arms up, arms down. I don't think she even specified which leg/arm. At first I thought it was perhaps because yoga is practiced differently in Bali, but I subsequently did yoga classes in Ubud and the experience was different, where the quality of instruction matched my expectations and previous yoga classes in other parts of the world. In addition, the yoga mats provided appeared old and dirty, and the platform where we did yoga was filled with dirt and dust, and did not have steps - we had to get our pants dirty to climb on top, and jump on the way down. I didn't calculate the distance properly and hurt my ankle on the way down (thankfully it was not serious and I recovered the next day).
2) For the trip up to Batur Caldera and the black lava field, we were accompanied by De's brother. He offered to take many photos for us, which was initially appreciated when we were at the sunrise point, but quickly became intrusive. Before yoga started, De told us that he would take a few photos during the class. Never did we expect our yoga class to be defined by the photos. De's brother would sometimes walk in between us and De to snap photos, and even after we had finished yoga, he asked us to hold some of the poses for photos. We didn't speak up because, each time, we thought it would be the last photo, but he kept asking for more poses. It didn't feel like the photos were for us, it felt more like we were being used for promotional purposes and really ruined the calming and meditative yoga experience we wanted. In addition, the photos didn't seem professional for us - the angles seemed unflattering at times, there were many photos of De's brother's thumb (my friend had to delete a burst shot of 87 thumb photos), sometimes De's brother thought he was recording a video but didn't actually record, and prompted us to hold the poses for longer.
3) For the price we paid for the tour and given the positive reviews, we expected a better planned day where all the little details are thoughtfully planned. We did other Airbnb experiences in Bali that were much better in this regard, and we certainly had high expectations for this day. However, once we arrived at Batur Caldera, we were left to ourselves for a long time while De chatted with a local, and yoga didn't start until the sun was well and truly up and not until we asked De if it was time for yoga.
4) De didn't bring enough cash for the trip and asked for money from us on two separate occasions, once at the temple to pay for the sarongs, and once at the warung to pay for lunch. There was no apologetic tone - each time it was simply phrased as, "do you have xxx IDR?" We actually didn't realise she was simply borrowing money for us until we asked at lunch, half out of confusion, that we thought lunch was included. It was only at this point that she mentioned she owed us 50k IDR and that she would pay us back. After we were dropped off at our Airbnb, De said she would bring money back later that day. She did come back as promised, but not with the correct amount of change. Thankfully we did have 50k available as change for her 100k note, because I'm not sure if we would have been reimbursed otherwise.
5) De told us that lunch would be at a local warung. We love warungs and have eaten local throughout our trip. However, the place De took us to only seemed to have premade food inside a glass cabinet and we didn't know how long the food was sitting there. We also saw a fly inside the cabinet and my friend saw a bug next to one of the dishes. We asked De if we can please go to a place that serves freshly made food, and De took us to a warung next door.
6) Given all the positive reviews, we expected De to be a fantastic storyteller who would tell us great stories about local culture and customs, and we would have loved to learn about her experience as a priestess. After spending 12 days in Bali, I must admit that we learned a lot more from most other tour guides and drivers in comparison. We had to do a lot of the prompting to ask many questions in order to find out more information.
7) We rode on the back of the jeep with no seat belts up and down some rather steep hills. I am not sure if this is common among jeep experiences in Bali. The jeep also took forever to start at the beginning and the engine turned off a couple of times during our ride.

Overall, we feel like we were taken to some beautiful places and we are grateful for the sights we did see, however we would have preferred to explore these places by ourselves, without being interrupted by the request to constantly hold poses for a camera. We felt rather let down by the quality of the yoga class but we did enjoy the water purification ceremony - we would have preferred to just do the water purification as a standalone experience. Judging by the other reviews, I hope that our experience was a one-off and that you would have better luck on the experience.