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.

Bali: Part two

Day two: we headed to the highland of Kintamani. Along the way, we passed a few towns each held its own little charm. We stayed in Kuta, a town bustling with tourists as well as local traders always eager to  sell their products to the tourist so much so that they only close their stores close to midnight. The town is also very Australia-nish (for the lack of a suitable word). You see tons of Billabongs, Roxy and Quicksilver stores around and a friend claimed that they have better varieties than Malaysia and a lot cheaper. oh, and if you think our local drivers are bad, wait till you get here. all the road rules and regulations, they don't apply here. Legian town is almost similar to Kuta albeit having higher end stores but still chaotic in a tourist sense. As the driver drove along Ubud, we made a few stops; first at the batik making and painting center, then the silversmith and lastly the wood crafting center. Of course along the way, you'll see the aforementioned finish products on display and ready to tempt those who are looking for Balinese handicrafts. We drove passed a few other towns and at this point, probably lose counts of the number of shrines and temples we saw along the way, the congested, overcrowded and chaotic town gave way to more pleasing scenery.  As we headed up the narrow and winding road to Kintamani, on our right we got to see a beautiful landscape that revealed rolling hills, active volcanoes and Lake Batur, the biggest lake in Bali. Put three of them together and what we got was a breathtaking view. When Ketut Adhi mentioned that one can hike along the volcanic trails, I was almost  kicking myself for not being able to do it. Maybe not on this trip anyway. We stopped by for lunch at Kintamani where they served some delicious banana fritters and made more delicious if you have it with sweetened condensed milk. The restaurant where we had our lunch overlook the beautiful landscape I mentioned earlier. After Kintamani, we headed down to a village that overlook the tropical forest of Bali and it was in this village where we had one of the most expensive coffees in the world, coffee luwak. and if you haven't heard of how this coffee is produced, you'll be 'interested'. Let's just say it involves a 'digested' coffee beans. From coffee, we went to Elephant Cave. Built in the 9th century, it was a sanctuary for those who would like to pray or meditate. If you look at the facade on the opening of the cave, it looks nothing like an elephant which made me wonder why was it called an elephant cave although, there was a statue of one of the Hindu Gods that resembles an elephant. The Balinese really respect their temples. A visitor to the temple would be given a sarong if you wear anything that is above your knee. Anything that is deemed spiritual would be clothed with sarong around it. for instance, you see a sarong around a tree trunk and you know that the local Balinese worship it to some extent. You see the small and square offerings everywhere. Goes to show how strong the practice of Hinduism here. The day winded down with a BBQ seafood dinner at Jimbaran and another trip to Starbucks. If you asked me, the dinner was nothing to shout about. But, it was an experience to have your dinner while your feet brushes the sand, the sound of the wave crashing to the shore, and the mosquitoes were having a field trip. Pictures in random orders.

Meet Ketut Adhi

What rules? What safety?

Master of the Batik painting

Lady weaving the batik

Silversmiths

Being a  tourist

Entrance to temple

Woodcraftsmen

Smiling Buddha

Offerings

Coffee beans

I was being a tourist

Furnace

Coffee connoisseur  wannabe 

Entrance of Elephant Cave

Local worshipers

Local traders

This is how the locals roll

Mount and Lake Batur

With Marco PoLo

The wedded couples

Would you paint your car like this?

Bali: Part One

I always think of Bali as a romantic getaway, where you laze by the beach, eat a platter of exotic fruits, drink cocktails, enjoy people watching and marvel at the pretty sunset while the man does just the same right by your side. However, for our Bali trip, we had none of it. The only time we set our feet on the beach was when we had our sunset dinner at Jimbaran beach, but even then, we missed the sunset, so the whole notion of romantic sunset dinner as noted in our tour itineraries was nonexistence. But I am not here to complain about the trip because I had been warned before the trip by Oliver and I quote, "This is not our honeymoon" as an inception to not expect anything romantic. So, the part of Bali that we got to experience was its wealth of culture, its religion, the people and the amazing talents they have when it comes to arts whether its batik painting, wood crafting,  paintings in general, etc. But more about that later because on day one, shortly after checking into our hotel, we were fetched by Ketut Adhi, our very nice and informative tour guide who along with his sidekick driver who I called Kedek drove us to Uluwatu, a temple high up by the cliff and is inhabited with monkeys who claimed it as their territories and we, human beings, the trespassers. I read somewhere that described Uluwatu as a 'temple situated majestically by the cliff..' and it was that. And since it was the first of many temples we visited, I was quite amazed with the centuries old architecture, the stone-weathered paths, walls and edges, the craftsmanship and details of the temple, the monkeys, well not so, they were fun to look at until they snatched Oliver's and Polly's glasses. And while Oliver managed to get back his glasses with minimal damage, Polly on the other hand had hers beyond repairable. Those monkeys are quick and aggressive I tell you. Anyways, according to our guide, 85% of the local Balinese practice Hinduism and they practice it to the core. Each family has at least a shrine where they can pray and make offerings to. Bigger and wealthier family will have family temples and they have different type of temples for different God like you have God of protection, God of destroyer etc. so you can imagine for the next three days, we saw shrines, temples and remnants of offerings everywhere at every nook and corner. Later during the first day, we went to Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park where there stood a huge, and I repeat huge statue of Wisnu which is an illustration of the Almighty God in maintaining and caring all life and its being. The god Wisnu is said to be the owner of Amerta in the form of water as the source of fertility , giving wealth and life to the universe. And that statue is only 20% complete. The complete statue will be 150 m in height. Gasp. We ended the first day with a trip to the local Starbucks near Kuta Beach and discover a new favourite Starbucks drink, Ice Hazelnut Latte or something like it. A pretty eventful first day come to think of it. Anyways, what is a travel post without pictures, right. :)