Temples and Rice Terraces...


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October 28th 2008
Published: October 28th 2008
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Okay... Where to begin. Today was a huge day. Last night while trying to figure out how we were going to get back to Kuta from Ubud we ended up booking a car and driver for the day to take us to about a million different places before depositing us back in Kuta. I have seen every color of green ever created today, more rice terraces than you can count, and beautiful temples. So bear with me... I will give you a little background (thank you Lonely Planet) and a lot of photos...

First stop was Goa Gajah. It was discovered in the 1920s and is believed to have been a Buddhist hermitage. I'm not sure if it translates as Elephant Cave or it's just what it's called in English but needless to say, no elephants or carvings of elephants were seen.

Second stop was easily the most amazing. Gunung Kawi are stone shrines cut into cliffs on either side of a lush, lush valley. According to Lonely Planet, "The shrines are thought to have been carved as monuments to an 11th century royal family headed by King Udayana, though this theory is open to conjecture." This stop is
Goa GajahGoa GajahGoa Gajah

The opening to a very hot and humid cave.
totally worth the 365465843521 stairs it took to get down there and back up. I have never sweat so profusely in my life, and that's saying something. Anyway, we took a walk through the rice terraces to a waterfall which was an adventure in itself. Absolutely gorgeous.

Third stop was a view of Mt. Abang, a volcano that apparently last erupted in 1996. There was also a view of the lake. Some lady there kept feeding me weird tropical fruit, including something that starts with an R and looks and tastes like lychee but apparently is not (this might have something to do with the language barrier), salat (or something like that) which looks and feels like it's covered in snake skin and tastes like a cross between maybe a tart apple and a pineapple and leaves a chalky feeling in your mouth, and passion fruit. The lychee type thing and passionfruit are very weird textures and the salat is about the texture of a clove of garlic (and actually looks quite a bit like garlic now that I think about it).

Next stop, after winding up and down the sides of volcanoes and such was Pura Besakih,
Goa GajahGoa GajahGoa Gajah

Instruments.
or Bali's "Mother Temple." Let me point out that by this point we had walked about a million stairs. After the 1km uphill climb to the temples, we were rewarded greatly. The temple is actually a complex of 35 different buildings 1000m up the side of Gunung Agung, the largest mountain on Bali. We had a guide and he told us a lot, but I can't remember all of it and I didn't understand some of it. Here's what I remember though... The temples were built around 800 AD, making them about 1200 years old. There are seven levels of temples built up the hillside corresponding with the seven incarnations you must go through before you get to heaven. Hinduism is all about Karma. Mess up and you have to be reincarnated something like 8,400,000 times before you get to heaven. So count your lucky starts you have good Karma and you're human. Mess up now and you're back to being an animal. Anyway, there are four castes in the Hindu religion and the temples at the top are reserved for the highest castes and descend from there. We went to all the temples we were allowed to go to.
Goa GajahGoa GajahGoa Gajah

More instruments.
The temple roofs are thatched with palm (I think) and it's sturdy enough to last 300 years, according to our guide and it takes about 600 trees to put a roof on a temple. They have to rebuild the temples more often the roof. I learned a lot about Hinduism today and can't even begin to explain it all here. Pura Besakih is also home to the mangiest dogs on the face of the planet. Basically walking, festering sores.

Our last stop was a Klungkung. According to Lonely Planet, this was once the center of an important Balinese Kingdom. There is a "floating palace" and there are some very interesting Balinese paintings on the ceilings of two of the buildings.

Okay, it's been a long day, as you can tell, but I wanted to get it all out while it was still fresh.


Additional photos below
Photos: 65, Displayed: 24


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Goa GajahGoa Gajah
Goa Gajah

A shrine and offerings.
Gunung KawiGunung Kawi
Gunung Kawi

The stairs. Some of them.
Gunung KawiGunung Kawi
Gunung Kawi

Shrines.
Gunung KawiGunung Kawi
Gunung Kawi

The waterfall we walked to through the rice terraces.
Gunung KawiGunung Kawi
Gunung Kawi

Rice. Apparently it takes about 4 months for it to grow enough to be harvested.


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