Temple Tour Day

Day 6

Hindu Temple from the gate

You can tell that we are back in tourist central as the taxis here honk as they go by to see if we need a ride.  And amusingly the taxis here are Bluebirds and are all this light blue color.  Which is still distinctive.  But we have gotten honked at a lot here.  We do stand out a bit here in Sanur so they are all eager.  They also sit along the sidewalks with their laminateD signs looking to find customers.  At first with the accents it sounded like they were trying to sell us passports.  Until we realized it was transport they were muttering as we went by.

Today is a full free day for us to do what we like.  We don't leave until late afternoon tomorrow so the plan is to enjoy the beach then.  So we opted for one of the optional excursions for a half day temple tour.  Nobody else expressed any interest so it was just Terry and I for the trip.

Buddhist temple

We visited 3 locations and had an included lunch on the beach at the end.  Our first stop was a complex of 5 churches that all share a parking lot.  It's unusual because you have a Muslim mosque, a Catholic church, a Protestant Church, a Buddhist temple and a Hindu Temple all right next to each other.  The exteriors were all quite lovely and the mosque was very modern looking.  All you could really tour was the exteriors as the tourists weren't permitted to go inside.  A big trend we noticed with many religious buildings here.

Uluwatu

The second stop was down on the southern tip of the island to Uluwatu.  It's a sea temple built right on the edge of the cliffs.  It's also inhabited by a large monkey population.  The temple was on a large green space and had trails to follow along the edges for the lovely ocean and beach views from above.  The temple itself wasn't too large, and as was typical you can really just peer in through the gate and wander around the common areas.  There were a lot of monkeys here.  They didn't always feed them but I believe that part of the admission goes to that now as it makes the monkeys a bit less aggressive.  Before we went in our guide made us leave any hats and glasses as the monkeys will take them.  We went down to the one area where they had the feeding platform and the one Chinese lady got way too close and the monkey stole her flip flop!  They had to trade it for a tomato.  Good times.  Glad it wasn't me.  But I can see how the monkeys would be eager to take our things.

And as it was a holy site you do have to wear a sarong.  Both men and women.  Luckily all these temples provide them free of charge when you enter so there wasn't a need to drag one along with us.

Monkey enjoying a flip flop snack

Our last stop was to the GWK complex, or the Garuda Wisnu Kencana.  I hadn't heard of this at all before visiting.  But Bali is building a giant statue bigger than the statue of Liberty in New York.  It sounded like it's been planned for years but is another thing that is actually being built due to the new President not being so corrupt.  You can actually see it from the plane if you come in on the right side of the plane.  It's not going to be finished until next summer.  But the park has many of the finished components displayed before they are all assembled.  I think it will be quite an impressive statue when it is done.  And after seeing a few pieces it will be absolutely massive.

The head piece of the GWK behind us

We also had a chance to watch a few minutes of a Balinese dance.  It had the ladies dressed up in very elaborate costumes and had a large dragon come in at the end.  It was all in Bahasa or Balinese so I'm not sure what the story line was.  But it was interesting.  It felt a bit like some of the operas I've seen over the years but with a Hindu flair.

And our lunch was a seafood feast on the beach.  With a view of the runway.  And the entire time we were there the planes kept coming in one after another.  After another.  The beach was very lovely.  A lot quieter than the one we were on in Sanur.  It was mostly restaurants on the beach.  The seafood feast made us laugh as neither of us are really big seafood eaters.  I'll eat fish but we also got clams, prawns and squid skewers.  And of course a big pot of rice!  It ended up being better than we expected.  And the restaurant had a big trip advisor sign so that made me feel a bit better.

This is what the finished statue will look like

We were back at the hotel in the late afternoon so we still had a bit of time to relax.  We opted for the one pool outside our room to cool down and get Terry a bit used to the water for our days of snorkelling that were coming up quickly.  And as he told me he does sink like a stone in water.  It's an impressive skill.  The pool was really nice and quiet.  The one with a bar was on the other side and seemed to have a lot more people.  They did tell us that we got free upgrades this visit as they were doing some construction and the rooms we were to get were without air conditioning.

Beach we had lunch on

We went a bit down the street for dinner and it was a lovely meal.  I've also noticed that you get really good service in a lot of these restaurants.  They have a lot of wait staff and the second you finish a drink or eat your last bite they have cleared off the glass or plate.  There isn't a lot of waiting or having to search out anyone for assistance.

Now just to rest up for beach time!