Ubud, Bali

I had heard so much about bali being an absolutely beautiful country but it was hard to grasp while being hassled 24/7. As I had mentioned I decided to escape the main city of kuta and head north. I had booked a private taxi for the day for like $50 to drive me around for the day and end in ubud. The brochure said the drivers spoke english so I was pretty excited to have my own tour guide for the day. I woke up early to have some breakfast and pack my things. The car showed up and I explained to the guy in charge where I wanted to go (pretty much all over the island). He told me it was impossible to do all those places in a day and I ended up having to compromise (surprise surprise). We ended up kind of agreeing on a route and I climbed in with my driver. Of course it turned out that he spoke "english". About enough english to tell me what city we were in and point. Beautiful!! Another day with no one to talk to. Haha. Anyway we started heading north and stopped at a placed called tanah lot. It was an absolutely magnificant temple perched on a cliff over the ocean. It was amazing the way it spread over the entire landscape and met the ocean. Everything was green, there were plants and flowers everwhere. I walked around for a bit and began to understand the things I had heard about bali. I started to recognize the feeling of peace and serenity that seems to surround both the country and the culture. I am so glad I left the city to explore everything else that bali has to offer!! After visiting that temple we moved on to another one. I'm not sure of the name but it was inland. Impressive but not as awe-striking as the previous one. I climbed up one of the temple tower things and got a sweet view. After this we went to another temple, this one known as the elephant cave. It was called that because of this cave that supposedly looks like an elephant. I didn't really see the similarity. I had to put on a sarong before I entered this temple!! It was a pretty standard temple until you reached the lower level. This level didn't really have too many buildings or structures, but it was like a huge garden! It was really beautiful. It had a tree where the roots appeared to disappear into each other and it was hard to tell where one started and the other ended. To top it off there was a waterfall! After that we passed through a small woodcarving village. It was absolutely amazing to see what these individuals had made out of pieces of wood. Complex and detailed pieces of art. It vlew my mind that they were just sitting along the road, it seemed that if they had been in the states they would be in art galleries or in front of peoples homes. It seemed as though almost everyone in bali was an artist and had a talent fo making beautiful pieces of art (while going largely unrecognized)!! Out next stop was yet another temple. This one also required a sarong (which was provided at the entrance). It was amazing how each temple seemed to be unique. This one had a place for people to pray in the water, sarongs and all. Most of the indonesian people gathered below foutains and prayed. In another pool there were bright orange colored fish. At ome point I asked an woman is she would take my picture.I'm not sure what nationality she was but she wore a headscarf. She did but then one of the girls she was with wanted a picture with me. I didn't have a problem with that even though it was kind of weird seeing as they didn't even know my name. Well one thing led to another and their guide ended up telling me that if I didn't mind they all wanted their picture with me. It was really weird!! I felt like some kind of celebrity as all these peopole lined up to take a picture with me. Haha. So somewhere out there are like 25 poctures of me with random women. (One woman even got her son in the pic). Lol. I finally escaped and headed back to the car!! The next stop was Mt Bafur, which is supposed to give an excellent view of a volcano in the backdrop. I'm not sure if it was particularly foggy that day or if you can't ever really see the volcano, but I definately couldn't!! I had an italian man take my pic anyway. He pretended to run away with my camera (NOT funny). He's lucky he stopped running because I honestly would have run him down and tackled him. Lol. At this point it started to rain, abd by rain I mean absolutely pour. We stopped at the temple beside the mountain and I walked around for a couple of minutes but it really wasn't that great in the pouring rain! I got back in the car and he started to drive me to what was considered the most important temple. Along the way there were tons of rice paddies, which are gorgeous. They are terraced layers of completely green rice surrounded by water. It really is an amazing site! Along the way I got to see how balinese people trully lived. For the most part the houses were very poor and reminisent of fiji. At one point we passed a group of girls bathing in a nearby creek. Another interesting thing was that the women carry absolutely everything imaginable on their heads! It doesn't matter how big it is. They just wrap a towel around their head and put whatever they want to carry on top. I also forgot to tell you about the motorbikes and mopeds. They are absolutely everywhere and definately contribute to the free for all that is driving in bali. I'm told the legal age to drive is 17 but the youngest person I saw driving a motorbike was probably about 7. They are everywhere!! Anyway, while driving along I also saw a father and 5 children on one motorbike. I honestly don't know how they all stayed on!! We reached the temple and the driver ended up half telling and half signaling to me that I would need a sarong. I ended up bartering for one for like $4. This temple also required that you 'donate' in order to enter. When I finally got to the temple I was further informed that I would not be allowed to go inside unless I had a guide because some ceremony was going on, which of course cost more money. Haha. I got one anyway. It was an unbelievable temple and I'm glad I got a guide. It was nice to have someone there to tell me about the temple and the gods that were worshipped. The higlight of the temple trip was when he invited me to pray with the 'priest'. We sat cross legged in front of the altar and were each given a traditional basket with flower pedals in it. It turned out that each flower had a meaning and had to be held in your hands while you prayed. I can't remember what all of them were for but one was definately for luck. At the end I had to drink the holy wayer and then they stuck rice on my forehead. I also had the pleasant experience of using a bathroom, which of course I had to pay for. There was no where to flush either. After that temple my driver man and I headed towards ubud. Before dropping me off he took a detour up to where the most beautiful rice terrace was. Of course my camera died so I couldn't take any pictues but I'm guessing it extended about 6 stories down into a valley. It was amazing to see!! Anyway after that he took me to ubud to hunt down a place to stay. I had read about this guest house called teba house online and asked him to take me there. It ended up being booked but they took me to the uncles place doen the road. I got a room for really cheap, 80,000 rupiahs or like $7. It was actually pretty nice too! No hot water but the view was really pretty and it had two beds (not that I needed them) but good for the price. It was a walk into town so I got rid of my bags and figured I'd head in and check out the nightlife. It was literally non existent. There were a bunch of people out but it was mostly couples or groups. I got the feeling ubud was a place you came to relax as a couple. It ended up being a pretty lonely night. :( I bought another converter and had some desert at a nice restaurant to cheer myself up. It ended up being really good, but after that I was out of ideas. I headed back to my room and passed out. I had planned to get up early the next day to go to the monkey forest and maybe the elephant park. I also decided to head back to kuta that day, ubud was a little too lonely for me. I got up to find it pouring!!! I had my coffee with some peanut butter and btead and relaxed while I waited for it to stop. One of the guys who worked there came over and chatted with me for a bit and then it finally started to let up. I headed out to the monkey forest. There were really monkeys all over the place!! it was a pretty cool temple too and I spent about an hour exploring and hanging out with the monkeys. After that I wanted to head to the elephant park. I told this to the guy at the guesthouse and he brought me to his friend, a kinda travel guy. He offered to take me on his minibike for like 50,000 rupiah. I objected at first because I thought my bag was too big for his bike but he persisted. We picked up my bag from the guesthouse and headed out. He stopped at his house, where he decided my bag was in fact too big. Haha. I called the elephant place because the advertised shuttles. No such luck. I ended up grabbing a cab, I figured I could grab a shuttle back to kuta from the elephant park, this was also untrue. Haha. I paid to see the elephants, and got some good pics. It was way too expensive to ride them though, even to sit on them for a picture. Even though I had been told I could. Oh well. After that I had to grab a cab back to ubud and then take a shuttle to kuta!!