Temple day

Day 12

rice terraces

Today was a busy touring day in the Ubud area.  We headed north for a volcano hike around the Batur caldera.  It last erupted in 1999 for 4 months so there is still a big ring of lava from the eruption.  We went for a hour and a half hike around the caldera at the base of the volcano.  Indonesia has a large amount of volcanos for such a small country.  They also have the most active volcanoes in the world right now.  This one still has activity ongoing as you could see the small smoke plume still coming out.

On the way we stopped to see some of the rice terraces.  They do have a lot of them in the area.  They are interesting to see.  You are able to wander up and down both sides but we didn't have that much time.  And it was a lot of irregularly sized stairs to go up and down.

What the tour company called a gentle hike turned into a fairly intense trek down the hillside.  As the bus was meeting us at the bottom of the hill to the caldera we didn't have to hike back up.  Which was a real blessing.  But down wasn't really that easy either.  We started going downhill on the side of a road.  It was a fairly easy but steady downhill climb.  Wasn't a lot of scenery at this point and we had a lot of dogs barking at us as went by.

Batur volcano

We continued down this hill for awhile and then veered off into more of a foot path, and motorcycle path as well.  It was a bit of a crumbly surface and less downhill.  And then we took this tiny footpath that went straight down the hillside.  Seeing where we came from when we were finally at the bottom was a bit intimidating.  This was a tiny goat trail.  It was steep and covered with a fine powdery dirt that made it hard to get a grip going down.  And not too many trees to hold on to.  Terry opted to slide down on his bottom for a lot of it.  It was the smarter plan.

the crazy trails we took

We cautiously made it down the hill and arrived at the lava field.  Which now involved a scramble up loose lava rocks.  With no real way to go around.  But we did make it up to the top and happily the rocks were far easier to walk on once we made it up to the top.  There was a beaten trail up here to follow and it was mostly black rock as far as the eye could see with the very occasional plants starting to pop up.

The best part of this trek was that a couple staff from the office were waiting at the pickup location with refreshments for us.  A nice strawberry lemonade and some fresh fruit along with rice based desserts baked in banana leaves.

up on the lava field

After our visit at the volcano we headed to Tirta Empul Temple.  The temple has a large pool to enter for a water cleansing ceremony if you are interested.  Only it was a national holiday and it was packed.  You had to stand in a massive line in the pool to get to the water spouts. You had to go into the water fully clothed with a sarong on. They also require that you change into dry clothes when you leave to reenter the temple area.  Being a temple you had to wear the sarong the entire time you were in the temple.  My clothing options were very limited, all I had left was dirty stuff so I had decided beforehand to opt out.  The crowds deterred most of our group and only one lady tried and she gave up fairly quickly.  And around the temple there were ladies with piles of bananas on their heads to sell.  They kept trying to give me a "free" banana but I was pretty sure that there was a catch and they seemed irritated when I said no and kept my hands away from them.

fish pond at by the water temple

After lunch we visited a second temple.  The Kunum Kari Temple was built way down in a ravine.  Meaning it was 150 stairs down to see it.  And 150 stairs back UP to leave.  And all along the stairs were stalls with more people selling more souvenirs.  We felt like such easy pickings on the way up when we were taking frequent breaks.

The temple itself was quite nice.  It had shrines carved into the cliff faces and are both Hindu and Buddhist.  They also had many temples along with all the beautiful wood carvings.  There was a lovely stream going through the whole site with lots of greenery down below.  There was some reconstruction work being done on the one temple and I was amused to see that even the construction workers had to wear sarongs while they were working.

beautiful temple carvings

On the drive I noticed that many houses in this area have large pointsettia trees as ornamental trees along the road.  It's so odd seeing them group both so large and not at Christmas.

After our busy day of touring we had dinner at a Balinese home.  It was a lovely meal that was beautifully prepared for us.  We were greeted with coconut water still in the coconuts and frangipani flowers for behind our ears.  We ate under the stars in the yard.  It was a special meal of rice (of course) and all sorts of additional bits to add to it.  All presented on banana leaves.  I haven't seen those for awhile.  And we were also offered coke or beer to go along with our meals.

the shrines in the cliff walls

The daughters of the household and some of the neighbourhood girls did a lovely Balinese dance for us after dinner.  And did the most unique hand movements.  One lady commented to our guide and he showed us the odd finger joints most Balinese have.  He can wave his fingers back in forth in directions mine do not go.  The ladies were invited up to dance with the girls.  I did go up but it was mostly just moving in a circle with our waist scarves held up.  That I could handle.

The visit did answer one big question for us.  It seems like nearly ever second or third building is a temple.  But each home typically includes a Hindu temple in their garden.  A temple that can take up almost a quarter of the entire yard.  So many homes do have the appearance of being a temple, but that is really only part of the garden.

our lovely dinner meal

Bali still has a very traditional lifestyle.  Multiple generations live together quite commonly.  And when couples marry it is still expected for the bride to move into the groom's family home.  Our guide also mentioned that they aren't allowed to sell their homes.  I'm guessing this is more of a Hindu belief than a legal standard.  The idea behind this is that the home belongs to everyone in the house so you can't sell unless everyone is on board.  And that doesn't seem to happen very often.  But our guide also mentioned that this does mean that homelessness isn't a problem here as there is always a home to go to.