September 26, 2011 / Visiting Temples and a waterfall

Today we hired our favorite driver, Madi, to take us around to some sights in north central Bali. He picked us and our luggage up from our Ubud hotel at 8:30am. We headed towards a landscape of rice patties which are so beautiful they are nominated for a Unesco world heritage site. The breathtaking views of how a juggle could be turned into such beauty and with little machinery, but rather manually, is extraordinary.
Next we visited a Lonely Planet top pick temple, Pura Luhur Batukau. It is set in the nature of the juggle and it was not hard to see how easy it could be to find God here. The third stop was to a waterfall where we stood at the base and were heavily misted with water. This was the coolest waterfall I have seen next to the half frozen one I saw in Iceland in 2009.

Our final stop was at a temple, called Ulun danu Bratan, which usually is surrounded by water, but to the dryness, it was not surrounded by anything but a valley of dirt. This would be interesting temple grounds, with its larger than life painted statues and one statue made of rice, but rather it was plagued with throngs of loud tourists oblivious to the sacredness of the place.
Madi made the long trip back to our hotel in Nusa Dua, where we were checking back into the marriott for the rest of the week.
After settling into our room, we made reservations for a volcano trek and a snorkeling cruise this week, making sure to leave time for surfing and the beach.
We went to a local chain store for some local souvenirs and foods to take home and then finished with a lovely dinner where Matt had wok fried crab.

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