Puspa greets us at breakfast; he gives us the "I am the Puspa, welcome to my home" spiel. Any hotel is glad to help you book various activities (since they get some type of commission), and Puspa is no exception. I'm a planner, so I had already made an itinerary of things I wanted to do. I had researched what companies to use and knew what prices were offered. I was a little skeptical of Puspa's offering at first, but Puspa would call the companies and set up our schedule without charging any additional fees. This is so rare and SO welcomed!
We hadn't planned anything for this particular Saturday, so he offered we have Wayan take us around to the temples. You can't really walk to the temples from where we're staying, and although we can rent motorbikes ANYWHERE, it is technically illegal. Since we'd need a driver to take us around, we were happy to be in Wayan's hands once more. The price was 750,000RP for Wayan to be our private driver and tour guide for 8-10 hours.
"One thing," Puspa says. "You're not having your woman problem, right? You can't have your problem and go to temples." Woman problem? Does he mean the wage gap? Oh, no, he means my PERIOD. Only Hindus and 14 year old boys think periods are a problem. I wasn't having my "problem" so we were good.
Wayan meets us shortly and off we go to the first temple, Goa Gajah, AKA the "Elephant Cave". The main thing to see at Goa Gajah is the entrance to the Elephant Cave, named so because people thought the face looked like an elephant (I don't see it). 
The other sight is the bathing temple, built to ward off evil spirits.
The topography surrounding the cave and bathing temple is nothing short of magical-- there's just nothing like it in America. It was built in the 9th century, and the builders had the foresight to incorporate modern draining and irrigation techniques, which have preserved the layout of the temple for centuries. Ancient jungle flair is everywhere. I totally see where movie set designers get their inspiration. Everything from the dew-dripping vines to the moss growing on the stones looks unreal. 
There's a little Buddhist temple hidden in the Goa Gajah area. We find a lady inside who (age-wise) looks like she helped build the temple. She has two teeth and she motions us towards her with an "uhh" sound. She blesses us, showers us with holy water and sticks rice on our foreheads. Then, with all her holy might, she points to money. Yeah, OK, we can't give back the rice on our heads so we pony up.
When we arrive at the second temple, Gunung Kawi, we get out of the car and instantly a lady hands me an umbrella and a man hands Ian one. They start tying sarongs on us before Wayan tells them to "buzz off" in Indonesian. They were trying to dress us before we could realize what was happening, then they would have charged us for their services. While you're allowed to enter the temples without a guide, I'd highly recommend hiring one to avoid getting taking advantage of in these situations.
Walking in and out of both of these temples, the streets are lined with vendors. A lot of shops are even set up inside the holy grounds, which felt like buying a beer-koozie in church. There are even money-changers inside the temple... Jesus would have thrown a fit. When we had first walked up to Goa Gajah and a lady asked if I wanted a sarong, I said "No thank you." In a hushed voice Wayan tells me to not even acknowledge these women, for it encourages everyone to bully you in to buying things. Solid advice.
Gunung Kawi is a huge, 11th-century temple complex that the Pakerison River runs through. It has ten 23ft shrines cut into rock. The shrines are dedicated to King Anak Wungsu and his queen and sons.
There are many tombs surrounding the shrines, some obvious and some off the beaten path; some Wayan hadn't even seen, so the tourists became the tour guides! The little tombs are for the King's many wives, and nicer ones are thought to be for the King and his concubines (scandalous!).
Again there is a small Buddhist temple for meditation. No bribe-blessing here, though.
We watch some wood-carvers work to restore the temple. They said it takes them a whole day to carve about ten inches worth of shrine.
After:
To get to the main Gunung Kawi shrines, you have to walk down 371 steep and slippery steps. It's admittedly much easier to walk down than up. Ian and I walked back up with no problem, Ian taking two steps at a time. It was Wayan who asked us to take a break. "What sports do you do for exercise?" he asked. Ian tries not to flex while explaining his active lifestyle.
We decide to go to a luwak coffee farm next, and Wayan pulls into a gift shop on the way. Wayan said if I wanted a sarong it was better to buy one at this shop than with the scammers at the temples. I didn't really want to buy a sarong at all, but I knew that I would have to keep renting them if I didn't own one, and that soon adds up to more than the cost of a sarong itself. HOWEVER, I'm fully aware drivers take tourists to their friends' shops to get a cut of the purchase price, so I can only hope Wayan isn't trying to make extra money off of me. Since I had been to the Ubud Market the day before, I knew the asking price for a sarong was 20,000RP ($1.60). I see the exact same sarong and I ask how much.
THIS BITCH asks me for $20USD for the identical sarong from the market. I told her no way, I knew they were worth 20,000RP. Wayan says something to her in Indonesian and she begrudgingly says, "OK, 25,000RP final price." In 20 seconds she went from $20USD to $2USD, and I can only assume Wayan told her I'm no dummy. Yes, he's SO legit!
Now to the highlight of the day: Drinking something an animal pooped out. #dreamscometrue. Read about it here: http://herroasia.blogspot.com/2015/03/ubud-d60-drinking-cat-poo-chino.html
After our delicious snacky-poo, we head to a few lookout points in Ubud. Currently, most people who live in Ubud work in tourism, but years ago rice-farming was the way of life.
Mt. Agung, the largest volcano on the island is in the distance.
The best view of the rice terraces is from Tegalalang, and the people who live there know it. You're charged to drive up to nice lookout points, though it seems highly unlikely that the people charging you own the land or the road. Whenever we get out of the car, little kids try to sell us postcards of what we're seeing. The beauty is right before us, though, and the pictures we take are postcard worthy themselves.
Then there's this guy. If you Google Tegalalang (as I did for the spelling), his picture pops up.
He's a vet at handing people his prop and asking for money. I gave him 5,000RP to take this adorable pic of my man:
Meeeowww. Now that's postcard worthy.
We each pay 75,000RP ($6) to enter the show. We realize it must have started at 7PM, as they were finishing up the main dance, labeled on the pamphlet as "The Performance". The Performance is a five-act story of good vs. evil, and we entered on the fifth act. Rude.
The performance is OK to atrocious, depending on which one of us you ask. We were a little off put by missing the beginning. We had already read on wikipedia that the performance was created for western tourists, so we take its authenticity with a grain of salt. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kecak)
There are four actors who use gibberish and dance to tell the story while thirty men surround them and make a chorus. The sea of men have minimal arm movements choreographed to their chant, and they repeat "tukka-tukka, tukka-tukka" over and over. The other two performances include two girls who dance with their eyes closed (in a trance) and a man who rides a fake pony and kicks around fire. The show ended at 8:15PM.
Pass the KFC
Ooooh i love reading all your blogs! Especially those from bali because we also visited most of the places you describe! :) <3 miss you a lot
ReplyDeleteLaura