As it was an eight thirty start today we decided to eat breakfast in our room. It was a bit overcast so Helen sent me back to the room to collect the brolly- just in case we experienced one of the downpours we keep expecting to witness.
Today our plans included a visit to a volcano and surrounding villages, Besakih the mother temple of Bali, and to drive through the iconic rice terraces of Sideman and Iseh.
However, our first stop was to a local wood carving family business. On our way we saw another aspect of Balinese life that we didn't really expect to take place. In the storm drains (a channel at the side of each road where the water runs away) we saw people bathing, washing their clothes and even washing their motorbikes!! It made us realise that life over here is hard and whilst we complain back home about getting the jobs done- we really do have it easy in comparison.
Met by a young man at the carving business, we were given an overview of the types of wood used, the process and the length of time it can take to finish a carving! We were quite amazed that some could take up to a week to complete - although having witnessed them carving today, we could almost understand why as time really wasn't of the essence! Clearly many tourists buy the carvings but you would also expect that many families have the more elaborate, meaningful carvings as decor in their homes, purchased at the local market. Needless to say we were tempted to spend a few thousand so we had our first attempt at bargaining!! Perhaps we might get better next time we need to do it....
Another long journey towards the area known as Kintamani and we were starting to we realise why travelling by two wheels or on foot for the locals is better than travelling by car! The potholes are enormous and so many of them make the journey much longer as vehicles have to slow down, establish the best route around them or stop until passing is safe. It's at this stage, when we were climbing such high roads that our ears popped and we had no choice but to drive in first gear, avoiding potholes, negotiating the mopeds, beeping at the dogs to pass in the roads and passing other vehicles on narrow roads within an inch, that we realised that our driver, Eddi was a fabulous driver as we felt completely at ease. Probably the most fascinating aspect of all is that there is no road rage- no glaring at drivers, hand gestures or even tutting! Perhaps I could learn a thing or two from the Balinese (Helen- but you probably guessed that).
Mount Batur is an active volcano and last erupted 3 years ago; Lake Batur is in an old volcanic crater. As you can see from the photos the mountains and lakes are an impressive vista.
The scenery was amazing and whilst driving we again observed the rich sights Bali has to offer daily- ladies carrying offerings to the temples, lush vegetation, mountains, snakes at the sides of the road, hens, terraced rice fields, a chameleon, cattle kept outside homes, mopeds carrying passengers and whatever else needs transporting, (even a push bike on top of a moped).
The temple we visited today is the main temple of Bali and is made up from 9 smaller temples. We almost didn't visit here because I had read some bad things about over zealous guides and stall holders, however I am glad we went. Arri had told us not accept a flower from any girls as they will expect payment for them. As we sat in the centre of the main temple a young girl approached Helen selling post cards. She couldn't resist getting into a conversation and was getting her to count-the teacher coming out in her. However the girl was now under the impression Helen wanted ten lots of post cards. I miscalculated the cost to be £70 instead of £7 which quickly put Helen off that idea. We ended up getting 2 lots and even got some crocodile tears as part of the bargaining process.
We ate lunch looking out over some rice paddy fields and had an amazing view.
As we left the restaurant we found this enormous fruit bat that was a popular photo oportunity.
It was quite amazing to discover the things growing here- rice (obviously), a huge range of fruits, coffee, tobacco (almost all Balinese smoke), herbs, spices, vegetables (cauliflower) and even all of the large leaves are used to feed the animals. Bali is obviously a very self-sustaining country.
In the evening we went to see some Balinese dancing but as we only made a last minute decision to go we were right at the back and could hardly see, so we didn't stay until the end.
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