Bali: Part Three

To sum up, day three was a temples and monkey affair. We visited three temples as if we didn't have enough of them already for the past two days. When you read about them, each one would say, 'it is one of the most famous destinations in Bali...' or 'it is a must visit temple...' which was probably the reason why we were brought to those temples. We were tourists after all. But to be fair, each temples was kinda interesting. The first temple we went to was Taman Ayun Royal Temple. Back in the 18th century, the temple was owned by the royal family of Mengwi Empire but now it is open to the public. Like other popular temples in Bali, Taman Ayun is situated in a beautiful landscape garden, in midst of lush greens and lake.  One of the prominent sightings of the temple is its nine multi-storied roofs, sort of like a pagoda.

The next temple we visited was situated at Lake Bratan, a big lake that fills an ancient volcanic crater and its water is said to be holy. By the lake is the temple of Pura Ulun Danu which is dedicated to the Goddess of lake that provides irrigation water for rice fields. 

 

For lunch, we had it in a restaurant, perched on the hill that overlooks the beautiful rice terraces of Tegalalang. I've always wanted to see the rice terrace because it was said to be one of the nature wonders of the world and I've always thought it was in the Philippines. So, I guess now I can say that I've seen it with my own eyes in Bali. That is why I love to travel. You get to see all the wonders of the world, whether it is nature or man made. 

After lunch, we headed to Alas Kedaton Monkey Forest, my least favourite destination in Bali. While the monkeys are less aggressive and they don't snatch glasses or caps from visitors, we were told to keep our palms open to show to the monkeys that we bring no food, so 'stay away'. Lady 'Twenty Six' in pink outfit guided us around the temple. Well, at least she attempted to guide because all she did was trying to sell us stuff like 'Buy peanuts, feed monkey' or 'Take pictures with bat or snake but you pay' and towards the end of the tour, she brought us to her little shop selling shirts and handicrafts where we were totally ripped off. I got a 'I Love Bali' shirt. It was 70 thousand rupiahs at first and I bargained to 50 thousand rupiahs and bought it only to find out later, that it only costs 13 thousand rupiahs in another souvenir shop in Tanah Lot. So yes,  if you're going to Bali, heed my advice, shop at big stores that has 'Ole ole' on its signboard. It looks like one of those wholesales stores and you can get shirts as low as 10 thousand rupiahs and that's like RM 3 plus. Oh well, a lesson to be learnt.  

The last temple we visited which was also the most beautiful for me personally was Tanah Lot Temple. We managed to beat the immense traffic jam to reach Tanah Lot right before sunset. But boy were there a lot of visitors which made taking pictures for Oliver  particularly frustrating because there he was trying to capture the perfect picture of the temple on cliff overlooking the ocean to no avail because there were people everywhere. To add to that frustration, while he did manage to take some shots of the sunset, his camera ran out of battery midway. Bummer. Oh well, that happens. 

And yes, I guess that's the end of our Bali escapade. Until we visit Bali again. Ta.