I took a day tour today to see a bunch of the temples and sights around Ubud. It was a great day but the hassle and touts around the temples are awful. You were followed mercilessly by sellers, even children, demanding you buy something and refusing to accept NO! It was very annoying and made it hard to enjoy what you came to see. A lot of corruption here in Bali...our guide had to constantly pay off the police to get through the roads. They stop the cars with tourists and demand money, he had his ashtray full of small bills to bribe the cops with and went through them all...even with taking back roads to avoid them. Once in the temples your admission price included the sari and traditional ribbon required to enter the temples but the ladies who dressed you would try to get more money out of you demanding you have to buy or rent the sari at 100 000IDR (crazy high price even if you were to buy it) then they'll insist you need to buy or rent another sari to wear over your shoulders and get really hostile when you say no. Then finally when you refuse to back down and they realize you aren't paying them they let you in and are suddenly nice again...but probably a lot of people pay them as they put on a good show of outrage and are quite aggressive.
Besalkih Temple
This temple is right on the slopes of Mount Agung. Gunung Agung last erupted in 1963-64 and is still active. It has a large and very deep crater which occasionally still spits out smoke and ash. It's the highest point on the island and biggest and holiest of all the Balinese temples. It was named after a dragon god believed to live in the mountain.
Eighteen separate sanctuaries belonging to different regencies and caste groups surround the three main temples dedicated to Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. The mountain top setting gives it a mystical quality as the steps rise through the tall gates into different courtyards. Great mountain views from the back.
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| All the statues are dressed up for a recent ceremony they had. |
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| View from the back of the temple. |
Derived from the name Lwa Gajah, originally meaning elephant waters, it is one of the most historical sites in Bali and was built in the 11th century, on the western edge of Bedulu Village only six kilometres out of central Ubud. The entire site of Goa Gajah was partially destroyed by natural disaster and lay undetected for centuries before being rediscovered by a team of Dutch archaeologists in 1923.
Goa Gajah is a place to meditate and worship the Lord Ganesha, the Hindu God of knowledge and wisdom, who is characterised as an entity by his elephant head and four arms. In the area around the site there are beautifully landscaped gardens and two traditional bathing pools.
Gunung Kawi
Gunung Kawi is a 10th century Hindu temple complex. To explore it you have to descend a 300-step stone stairway leading to a beautiful valley. There you will find ten seven-metre-high memorials carved into the rock face. According to legend, these ruined temples are the memorial shrines of the king's concubines and his family.
Pura Tirta Empul
The name 'Tirta Empul' refers to a crystal-clear stream which is used as holy water for various religious ceremonies. Legend has it that the God Indra, to revive his forces who had been poisoned by Mayadanawa (a powerful evil King from Blingkang, a region north of Lake Batur), created this sacred spring.
Inside the inner sanctum, you can see a number of rectangular bathing pools where for more than 1,000 years the Balinese have come to bathe for healing and spiritual cleansing. We saw many locals praying and bathing in the water. They have a huge fish pond too and for 2000IDR, about 20cents, you could buy food and insight quite the entertaining feeding frenzy!
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| Balinese man bathing in the fountain and praying. |
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| Spiritually purifying my feet! |
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| Feeding fenzy. |
Tegalalang countryside is located at 5 km northern part of Ubud Village and have the most magnificent view of rice terraces I have ever seen. The rice terraces are designed very beautifully and cascade down the hill bank into the river below. It was like looking into a painting, it was too beautiful to be real.
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