Ubud to Sanur………palaces and temples enroute

Nice bright morning and the Chef prepares a hearty meal (rice gruel with vegetables nuts and beans) for our days travails…..not for the faint of heart but actually quite good:

A heartfelt goodbye to the owners and staff and it is time to move on…

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Made is there as usual perfectly punctual and we are off. Although not planned he asks if we are interested in looking at some wood carvings along the way, and of course we are easily sucked in. These are some of the artists who spend their day carving the pieces in the showroom ..

……below is the pic of the fellow who (allegedly) carved our Ganesh carving….the explanation of how these highly skilled artists are remunerated was hazy at best. Hopefully they do all right…

Inasmuch as our Balinese souvenirs at home were from my trip to Bali forty years ago, we decide it would be fun to get something nice to remember our trip by…lots of back and forth and we walk out the proud owners of a Ganesh carving, nicely bundled for its long journey home.

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Back on task we are bound for Pura Taman Ayun which was constructed in 1634 A.D. during the reign of the first king of Mengwi and survived until 1893 A.D. when the Mengwi ‘s were taken over by nearby kingdoms. This is another rather large temple but we cannot enter the inner sanctum, only being able to view over the short wall which surrounds it. This temple has quite a few meru (multi-tiered shrines):

 

After about an hour we called it a day (blazing hot) and were happy for the a/c in the car…..next stop Pura Tanah Lot about an hour away. This iconic temple is Bali’s most popular, attracting over 3 million visitors per year (as a comparison Lourdes attracts 6 million). As often is the case, there was a gauntlet of vendors but with the heat they were rather docile……visitors here are from everywhere …and clearly the selfie stick is universal to all races and creeds…

The most famous views are at sunset but this also means the crowds become overwhelming. While a splendid sight ….roughly 30% of the stonework has been reconstructed, as it was crumbling. We had a nice visit and the crowds were modest given it being low season. For the Balinese this is one of the most important temples. There are 3 sea temples that form a chain in South Western Bali > the idea being that one can see from one to the next. The temple can be accessed at low tide, but only Balinese can actually enter it…..given the tide we had to content ourselves with views from the cliff side.

Life is sometimes curious….the following pic is of a lady draped with a python (two hawkers were carrying this creature and offering to put it on you for a price)……..whatever turns your crank:

We followed the cliff side trail which afforded some nice views and even a few surfers doing their thing:

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Then back to the car and a longish drive with brutal traffic as we skirted Seminyak and Kuta on our way to Sanur. Settled up with Made…poor guy had to drive back to Ubud to pick up his family then drive to Amed ……pray into the night, then drive back to Ubud…but no complaining, just a big smile. We were happy to check-in and hit the pool!