Bali of course!: I Love The Way You Are Baby

And the next 3 days slid along way too quickly amongst the foliage of Madu.

There was so much I wanted to do in Ubud and so little time! We had 4 nights there and only 3 full days and I had booked a tour or workshop for every day which is not the norm for me, I prefer to go with the flow normally and not to have the days set in stone.

Today was 'The ancient temple tour' with Ari from Ubuddriver.com. Really good website and quick to respond to emails. Today was guaranteed to give the Newbies a cultural taste of Bali.

Luke opted to go his own way on the motor bike he had hired and rode around on a tour of discovery.

We organised for Ari to come at 9am to try and beat the heat.

Morning Pam! Whatcha' think of Bali so far?

Just chillin' , (though it's more like humidifying :) and waiting for the day to unfold.

Luke and Auntie Pam

Goa Gajah Temple (or Elephant Cave Temple)

Now lets see how much I was paying attention to Ari's very interesting narrative.

The temple was unearthed accidentally by the Dutch in the 20's during excavations and dates back to the 11th.century. It isn't a natural cave but hand carved and is named for Shiva's son Ganesha and there's a metre tall statue of him inside the temple.

Generation after generation of craftsmen, no wonder they are so good at what they do!.

Inscriptions inside the temple apparently tell of how it was built for the monks to meditate in and is still used for this purpose today.

The entrance to the temple, a demons mouth.

Inside the cave are little hollowed out nooks where people sit to meditate.

Motley looking Crue :)

Bali's version of the jungle drums. These cylinders are banged with a stick to summon people to the Temple or as a warning devise.

The peace of the temple grounds was ripped through during our visit by a couple of guys cutting up a tree into planks with a chain saw.

Rockin' that piece of cloth there Min.

A very mystical, ancient place.

The remains of a Buddhist temple

The amazing aerial roots of the Banyan tree.

We mentioned to Ari about our search for something spiritual to put in Darien's Buddha talisman. We were thinking maybe something along the lines of some dirt or a stone from the temple and he got very excited about it. He took Daz back inside the Elephant cave and found a very, very old Balinese coin. Personally if Ari hadn't of done it himself I wouldn't of dreamed of taking anything out of an offering but he didn't have any qualms about it , so I guess it won't bring the wrath of the gods down upon us. Ari was clearly rapt with their find. He instructed Daz to put some black, white and red ribbon or cloth inside also.

Then it was on to another temple.

On the way Ari kept us entertained with the story of Ganesha, which I love and wanted to share with the family. Ari told the tale very well and I was disappointed to learn later that most of the family couldn't hear what he was saying. Damn!

I have a few Ganesha's about the place at home and like to give them as house warming gifts or when someone starts a new enterprise as he is known as The Remover of Obstacles and The God of Success amongst other things.

Ari was obviously in his element when we had questions regarding his religion and he explained things very well. I could of listened to him all day and then some.

He went into detail about 'Sanghyang Widhi', The Supreme Being who manifests himself to the Balinese in three main forms (and the reason why the number 3 is significant) : 'Brahma' the creator, 'Vishnu' the preserver and 'Shiva' the destroyer.

These three are called the Holy Trinity or Tri sakti and are represented everywhere in Bali in the cloth drapings on the trees, statues, temples etc. by the colours :

Red = Brahma for bravery, security, protection ,

Black = Vishnu the preserver of the universe and

White = Shiva the destroyer, re-newer and purity.

PuraTirta Empul is known as theTemple of the Holy Springs and is one of the holiest temples, which dates back to 960!

Laughing

Happy

Smiling

People

The people come here to bathe and purify themselves physically and spiritually, they obviously have a lot of fun while they're at it too.

The sacred hot springs still bubble away in the central courtyard. Ari said there are a couple of massive eels that live in these pools but he personally, has only ever seen one.

Ari was incredibly informative and a really great guy. I will definitely be using his services again. His passion for his religion and his country is infectious and I learnt a lot from him that day.

Then it was off to lunch.

The vista from the restaurant = beautiful.

I wouldn't like my chances of finding it without him though! It was well off the beaten track and is owned by an old school friend of Ari's. The stand out was definitely the lumpia which are the best I have ever eaten, which is saying something as I order this dish a lot in Bali.

Pam had the crispy duck and was very impressed. This was her first restaurant meal ever in Bali and was a good place to start.

During lunch the rain started coming down and the lovely restaurant staff walked us to the car with umbrellas.We had a great trip home to Madu via Jl Tegallalang.

Spotted a shop among many that I wanted to return to. I was after some large handles for a couple of garden (Balinese style) gates at home. But the shop remained elusive on 2 other trips up the Jalan on consecutive days. Min sounded Ari out about some art supplies and we stopped off at an Art store in Ubud where she got some excellent art paper and charcoals at a fraction she would pay at home.

Luke had a good day cruising around until the rain drove him home and we all just chilled for a couple of hours. First class duty free G&T's whilst watching the rain and the jungle in a luxurious villa..

Another heavenly moment in Bali.

We hadn't discovered the delights of Nurdi's cooking at this stage and opted to meet at a well researched restaurant. We had booked her for tomorrows brekky though.

Luke and Min took off on the bike to look for somewhere that did piercings and to try and find the Art store that we had visited earlier. Min was regretting that she hadn't stocked up on more supplies whilst she was there.

The rest of us got the villa driver to drop us in town to have a mosey around. I just love the stores on Jl Monkey Forest. I have become very, very fond of bronze statues and on this Jl I'm a happy girl with many stores catering to that little desire of mine.

Off to Lamak for dinner which was on the 'To Do List'. They have a great website which definitely whets the appetite.

It looks like there's a candle in that drink!

Haven't got a picture but Daz and Maddie had 2 Cookies + Cream milkshakes and a Snickers one to boot!

They do a great job on the drinks here. I had never noticed Lamak before on my many travels up and down Jl Monkey Forest.

It's up just a small flight of stone steps and maybe that's why I hadn't noticed it before because it's not at street level.

Lovely atmosphere at night. I think I'll definitely be dropping in for a drink or 2 in the future. During the day time too. A great spot for a bit of a pick me up during a hard day of wandering the shops.