Thursday morning began with photos of some of the flowers outside my room
before I made my way to monkey forest where the monkeys were just hanging out in the street
as the scooters came by
and the monkeys enjoyed their morning.
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I met up with Michael Walsh at breakfast and together we connected to Wayan Tabeng for our guided tour of the day. Our first stop was Gunung Kawi, a temple that had been there for over a thousand years. The temple was placed in a remarkable setting, clearly being a shrine to the nature that was there.
we were greeted by a sign giving the prohibitions (here you needed a sarong as well as a scarf around the waist)
and then made our way into the environment (which meant walking down 300 steps)
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Next, we went to Tirta Empul, another remarkable temple. At this one, there were ceremonies taking place wherein the locals were going through various stages of ceremony.
Here was the major statue of the locale
in its setting
as we came upon the banana ladies
and recorded the cultural importance of the place (the Subak System as a manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy where we were visiting the Supreme Water Temple Pura Ulun Danu Batur)
and so we made our way through
and entered into these pools
where a ceremony was taking place to our left
with the pools lying ahead of us
attracting the occasional dunker
as the ceremony continued
with materials being moved
and fish being in a different pool
as we saw the prohibitions for entering the inner sanctum
and watched as participants made through way across the different spouts each of which brought a different kind of power
and watched as others
brought offerings
and a group assembled to pray
having brought offerings
and we saw the warning about not interacting with them (which made sense)
and so we admired what we saw
as they prayed
and we saw remarkable buildings
before we made our way
through people carrying things on their heads
and recorded the scene
music and all
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before departing through the gift shop area
to the parking lot where I recorded a police car.
On our way to the next stop, we came across a number of women parading to the temple to have their fruit blessed
and we ended up at the coffee plantation where we saw some beans on the tree
and this beautiful flower
in its setting
and this fruit
which was a mangosteen
and a cinnamon tree
with these bananas hanging from a tree
and pineapples
along with the beautiful flowers
before we had a snakeskin fruit
with this interior
and then these fruits
of the lyche family
with the rooster making his presence known
as I tasted this non-citrus tasting citrus-like fruit
as we were given samples of 10 teas and coffees
and I tasted the ever famous luwak coffee that is processed in the most unique of ways (thank you Mr. Luwak animal for taking care of mine).
As we left for the volcano, we saw a parade heading towards the temple (this was a continuation of the women with fruits on their heads).
Next we went to the volcano which was completely remarkable
but the vastness made it difficult to capture the enormity of the scene but still we had a good lunch with these remarkable views in all directions. It was here that I heard about the locals who do not bury their dead but rather leave them in the forest where the climate preserves them and the animals eat them.
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Next we went to the rice fields
which had been made famous by Eat Pray Love.
As Wayan explained, there is a special system for controlling the water flow so that things are shared
and so we took in the many views
before taking a three musketeers photo.
Michael and I explored a bit and ran into this gentleman who was happy to have his photo but then asked to be paid. Oldest con in the world and I fell into it.
We ended the day at the Discovery Kartika Plaza hotel where this was the room
and the view.
After a break, I went out to see the sun set over the Indian Ocean
and also looked back at the town
with the sun setting
and the lights under the palm providing foreground to the sunset background
as I took more sunset photos
and more photos the other way.
By and by, I reconnected with Michael and we noticed that we had each been given two certificates for free local beers and so we dug into Bali Hai
before proceeding to dinner which was accompanied by this pitcher of Bali Hai
which looked much better in the light
and went well with my pina colada
as breads
and dips were brought
before our caprese salads arrived.