We spent a wonderful last day in Indonesia! At 8 am a driver with a mini-van was waiting for the 4 of us. To give you an indication of its price: only 500.000 rupiahs = approx. Eur 37 for the full day for the 4 of us.
By the way: yesterday evening we splashed our 6 days average food budget during only 1 dinner by eating a - in Indonesia non-existing, being a Dutch invention - 'rijsttafel' incl. an arak (Indonesian rice wine) aperitif and Indonesian red wine (though the grapes are grown in Australia); delicious!
Difficult to make a selection in between the numberless temples to visit, so we decided to follow the program proposed by our travel agent. We were incredible lucky, because all over Hindu Bali, ceremonies were organised in the temples because of the full moon. That for sure was also the reason of the massive preparation of the offerings we attended yesterday at the Pura Samuan Tiga.
Our guide explained us that the cock fighting is part of the Bali Hindu rituals......
All over where we were driving, we have seen men dressed in white sarongs with a particular Indonesian hat preceded by women smartly colourfully dressed with offerings high stapled on their heads proceeding to their temples accompanied by differently colourfully dressed musicians and children also dressed for this occasion. Once arrived in the inner courtyard of the temple, where we were not admitted, the actual rituals started.
Our first stop was the Pura Taman Ayun in West Bali, a huge state temple surrounded by a wide, elegant moat, used to be the main temple of the Mengwi kingdom till 1891. In perfect condition being renovated. The inner courtyard has a multitude of meru (multiroofed shrines). We just arrived before the tourist buses, very pleasant. A small ceremony was going on.
Nice water lilies and other blooming flowers.
2nd stop at Pura Ulun Danu Bratan in the Central Mountains of Bali, a very important Hindu-Buddhist temple, dedicated to Dewi Danu, the goddess of the waters. Both pilgrimages and ceremonies - an important one was going on during our visit - are held here to ensure that there is a supply of water for farmers all over Bali. Beautiful with classical Hindu thatch-roofed meru reflected in the water and silhouettes against the cloudy mountain backdrop. This temple is shown on the 50.000 rupiah bank note.
Impressive all together, even the tourists (Asians mostly, apparently mostly Taiwanese) could not bother us too much. Pleasant gardens around.
3rd stop at the nearby Bali Botanical Gardens. The gardens boast an extensive collection of trees and flowers, incl. wild orchids, but unfortunately little was blooming. Surprising since we have seen so many blooming flowers all over Indonesia. On top of that it started to rain - the only rain we had was during our 3 days at Bali - so we were not too sorry that we had to leave quickly.
Off for our last stop to the best-known temple in Bali: Tanah Lot. For the Balinese, Pura Tana Lot is one of the most important and venerated sea temple. However, nowadays it is a well-organised tourist trap..... I do not remember if such was the same while visiting this temple in 1996.
The most interesting part was the ongoing ceremonies, amongst the offerings brought into the sea by a little group of Malaysian Hindus, dressed in white sari.
Returning to Ubud we got struck in traffic jams because of villagers walking in large queues to their temple. We caused a mini traffic jam as well, since I requested 2 stops to take a picture of a fire hydrant (the only one I made!) and a Taiwanese fire car.
During our today's trip we enjoyed the numberless temples and shrines one sees literally everywhere.
We returned just in time into the hotel to make attend the Kecak Fire and Trance Dance, a very impressive typical Indonesian dance. This one was performed by the villagers of small neighbouring desa. The accompanying music is provided by the human voice, the gamelan suara, a choir of approx. 50 men sitting in concentric circles, swaying, standing up, lying prone as the story develops. The story is a fragment from the Ramayana, the Hindu epic.
Returning at the hotel at 9 pm we could sit and eat with other group members, who attended earlier that evening a cooking lesson.
A nice end of a pleasant evening.
Now it is Sunday 10-05-09, I am sitting in an internet café, just half an hour before our departure to Denpasar for our flight at 1.50 pm to Kuala Lumpur and from there a 2nd flight leaving at 11.55 pm / 11.35 pm to Amsterdam / Paris, where we both arrive tomorrow morning Monday 11-05-09 around 6 am CET. Arjan resumes work on Tuesday, me on Wednesday afternoon, will be though ....
A & I - 10-05-09 - Ubud
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