Bali Botanica Spa

A day off today! No sightseeing, but a day at the spa! We enjoyed wonderful relaxing treatments at

Bali Botanica Spa

Eco Cycling Tour

For today we booked a cycle tour with Bali Eco Cycling.

We were picked up at our hotel at 8AM and were brought to a nice restaurant at Mount Batur to have breakfast with nice views. On our way we stopped at a place with a view on beautiful rice terraces. The view at Mount Batur was not as good as usual due to the rainfalls of yesterday.

After breakfast we stopped at a coffee plantation to taste all kinds of coffee and tea. They also produce the famous and most expense coffee of the world: Kopi Luwak. The Luwaks eat the red coffee beans, the beans get fermentated in the stomach of the animal, and come out again via the digestive system. These beans are cleaned, dried and roasted. Tasting luwak coffee is not free, it cost RP 60.000 (5 euro) per cup.

We were lucky to see one of them awake, as they are night animals. The picture is not the best, but soon after I made this picture, the animal left to his sleeping place.

Another short car drive brought us to the place to start our cycling tour. The whole tour, 25 km, is down hill and you continuously use your brakes to slow down. Volunteers could opt at the end to have a 40 min uphill ride, which Frank did. I decided to stick to the down hill part.

It went quite fast in the beginning, the mountain bike is a bike I am not used too, but I managed. All went well!.

Our first stop was at a local house were two families live. They were preparing the celebrations for next week, mainly done by the women.

Our guide for the day, Joe, showed the some decorations, made from banana leaves, coconut and other fruits. All for offering.



The house temple may only be accessed by family members and lays always at North East. So when you drive through a road you will only see temples at street level on one side of the road. This family has the temple behind the house!

This photo is taken from the backside of the house, the kitchen is in the back on the left side. 

The blue doors are sleeping rooms for family members. 

The tradition says that girls leave the house when they got married. The youngest son inherit the house and the grounds. The eldest son leaves the house and has to buy his own property or, if the land is big enough, will get his own part on the land.

Everywhere we came people, and specially children, were curious.

These three children came outside when they heard us, when we had a short stop.

Also in the rural areas we saw everywhere the penjors! It gave a special touch to our tour. Today we learned that the penjors are made of bamboo, decorated with coconut leaves and a small cage for the offerings. Each house has to have one. They are meant to honor the God of the mountain.

 

The ogoh-ogoh monsters are used to drive away the bad spirits. This one is from last year when this community won the competition. This ogoh-ogoh monsters cost 12 million rupiahs (1000 euro). This year they decided not to make one....

This tower is used to announce happenings in the village. By this everybody knows that some festivals, like a marriage are coming. Everybody is invited, but has to pay something. In this way they share the costs.

Life is hard in the village, women still carry the fagots on their head.

Due to the rain the rice was too wet. Here they make the ground dryer by weeding the fields.

A bit further down the road a woman was harvesting the rice. We took over her work for a moment so that she could relax and chat a bit with our guide.

The bebeks clean the fields where the harvest was finished already. They eat the left overs.

An enormous banyan tree, where you could hide yourself.

At the end of the bike tour an old couple collected empty water bottles. A way to earn some money.

For closure of the day we had a nice lunch with with a view on the rice fields. Some beautiful butterflies too.

And a desert with some fruits

An awesome day!

Temple tour

A temple tour today, we visited three temples in the neighborhood of  Ubud and we went to Klungkung the court of justice a century ago. There was no time left to go to the Besakih temple, the biggest temple on Bali.

A driver picked up us just before 9 o'clock in the morning as agreed the day before. After a short visit to the supermarket because we run out of water, we went straight to Goa Gajah, the elephant cave as the Hindu God Ganesh houses there.

For each of the temples you need a sarong and sometimes a selendang as well, to pay respect. We decided to buy one ourselves. This way the locals earn some money and you can choose your own color. 

The entrance of the cave.

Ganesh, the elephant God.

The fountains in the bathing pool.

Some of the shrines, nicely decorated due to Galangan.






Next to the temple there was a small rice paddy where the farmer was making a lot of noise to drive the birds away. The birds eat the grains.




On our way to Gunung Kawi, we run into another ceremony, to with the Barong, the king of spirits and leader of the positive power!

Women carry the offerings on their head, quite heavy I assume.






The ceremonies continued for two more days and
coincidentally this year together with Good Friday.
Although a national holiday in Indonesia, in Bali it is clearly a Hindu festival.

Before we entered the next temple Gunung Kawi you will find the tourist shops, selling all the same things, mainly sarongs but also lot's of other souvenirs.

This little boy played with a wayang gullit and when I asked to turn it, he not only turned the toy but himself as well!

A woman cleaning some offering baskets.

The rice fields near Gunung Kawi

Gunung Kawi, close to the village Tampaksiring, is set of shrines carved into cliff face, dedicated to a King. Before you get there you have to go approximately 300 steps down (and up on your way back of course).

The view while you walk downhill. Looks a bit like kampung Naga on Java, but this is a temple in stead of a village.

The shrines

A lot of dragonflies fly around in the complex. Looks if they are smiling to you.

The priest is preparing offerings as well. At least twice a day they need to be refreshed.

Bali is full of symbolism!

Nice statues in the temple.

 On our way back we saw a kind of wind vane, making noise as soon as the wind blows.

Together with some chickens we arrived uphill again.

Pura Tirta Empul is our third destination of the day. It is known by it's sacred spring where a lot of people taking a bath. Bring offers, pray in front of each of the fountains. 

When we just entered the grounds we met a banana seller and we bought some. In return we took some pictures. The bananas where very tiny, but with excellent taste!

Some kids, dressed up, after taking a bath.

 

Before taking a bath they start offering already.

Children join the bathing on the arms of their parents!

This little boy started to cry when his dad took him, the water was too cold for him.

Praying women!

Issuing Sarong & Selendang.

Boys waiting while their parents where praying.

Before we went to our last destination of the day we had a nice lunch near to tirta empul with beautiful views on the rice fields. The food was good! Unfortunately it was still raining.


An our drive brought us to Klungkung, the former court of Justice, the Kerta Gosa. Heavy fighting happened over there in 1908 between the Balinese and the Dutch. Copies from Dutch news papers like "De Locomotief" report about the fighting. Klungkung was an old kingdom until the Dutch conquered it.




A big statue on the roundabout near the courtyard. 



View from one hall to the other hall. The court is mainly known because of the beautiful decorated ceilings, telling the stories around the jurisdiction in the tempo doeloe times.

The main hall is surrounded by a little lake.

Entrance to one of the halls

A lot of statues around the lake.

The statues in front of the temple all wear sarongs to celebrate Galungan.

An hour later we were back in our hotel, time for a swim.

We had diner in Warung Murni's a nice place with an excellent rambutan/lemon juice!

The end of a wonderful day!

P.S. The day after we heard we were lucky not going to the Besakih temple, the mother of all temples,  as they force you to get a guide who asks an outrages rate for "his services". If you manage to negotiate the price down, the guide doesn't speak to you!