Temples Temples and More Temples

It was another full day. We started out with the driver at 11 am, after the boys had a chance to go scuba diving that morning.  

Our first stop was Kurtagosa, the former royal courts of justice in the town of Klung Kun. Kertagosa was the end of the line of the law system for serious crimes at that time in Bali. Criminals facing trial were kept in a building where the ceiling held gruesome murals depicting good vs evil and what happened to sinners.

 Some of the scenes depicting what might happen to the "sinners"

 Good to know

We met a group of boys that were hanging out inside the site. One boy was not shy about sharing his chocolate crepe with Jeremy.

After finishing at the palace we walked across the street to a market, which I doubt many westerners go to. We were met with gawking locals as we searched through the bolts of traditional indonesian batik fabric.

Our next stop was Goa Lawah bat cave. legend has it that the cave goes all the way to the mother temple, some 70km away. No one knows for sure if this is true because no one has ever been that deep into the cave. This is because the legend also says there is a large vicious dragon guarding the inside of the cave.

The temple at the entrance of the cave. If you were really wealthy, this is where you paid to have your funeral. Inside you could see bats covering every inch of the walls. It didn't smell the best.

When driving in the country side it is common to see students of the nearby schools marching. We were told that they did this on a regular basis. 

We arrived at our hotel on the north side of the island in Tulamben just before night fall. It is a tiny town in the middle of no where that has only a few restaurants on it’s ½ mile main road. It was exactly what we were looking for. Seclusion. We ate at one of the 3 local restaurants and for a main dish, appetizer and drinks for both of us it came out to about $12usd. Something I could definitely get used to. Another thing I loved about the city and being in the middle of no where were all the stars. With so much light pollution in Geoje, it’s a rarity to have such a clear sky that you can see the milky way.  

On the way to the hotel we passed one of the many lava flows that lead into the ocean from Mt. Agung volcano

Drinking Coffee from an Animal

We started early in the morning and rented a driver for the day to take us around. It’s a great and often cheaper way to be able to cover a lot of ground for one day. Plus they like to suggest local attractions along the way that you may not have been able to see or know about.

We stopped to have lunch over looking some rice paddies. Mixed in were fields containing different fruits. All throughout lunch we could see these ladies heading out to the field with empty baskets on their head. Within twenty minutes the baskets were full of watermelons and they were walking back to the pile to drop it off.Our next stop was to a coffee plantation. This is the pathway to the coffee shop at the back. All along the path were different chocolate and coffee plants.

Most of bali's coffee is microground so it can be drank just by adding water. We were also able to see how they make luwak coffee, some of the most expensive in the world. Long story short: a palm civet (the weasel looking animal above) eats only the best of red coffee beans. While inside the intestines, the beans undergo chemical changes. They then poop it out (tasty). The poop with the coffee beans is collected, roasted and stripped of the outer layer and cleaned, then finally ground into coffee.

 We had a taste test of lemon tea, bali coffee, cocoa coffee and ginseng coffee (our favorite)

Next up on the list was the Bali zoo which we picked mostly because you were able to get up close and personal with several different types of animals. 

Fruit bats. If you swung them back and forth they would open their wings and try to fly.

Me and Alissa trying to prove we were tough by holding an alligator. Tt was surprisingly squishy. Right after we gave it back the calming drugs that it had to be on seemed to be wearing off. Good thing if was after we held it!

Everyone makes fun of me for this but this is my dream car. vw thing. Just in case you were wondering what to get me for christmas this year.

 Our last stop of the day was the monkey forest sanctuary in the city of Ubud. You had to be careful not to wear anything shiny or have food on you. If you did, the monkeys would climb on you to find it and grab it.

 The temple had a lot of morbid sculptures of demons trying to eat babies

Rice paddies line every open area in bali. they make the most of the land they have by terracing all of the mountains and hills.

A Week in Paradise

After almost 24 hours of traveling, we finally arrived in Bali! We spent half of the trip at the southern part of the island in Nusa Dua then moved up to the north east coast to Tulamben for the remainder of the trip.

We were moved up to business class for the first leg of our trip!

This is how hubs stayed occupied during the flight.

We arrived at around 3am so we crashed as soon as we got to the hotel. The next morning we woke to an enormous American style breakfast. Living in Korea, traditional American breakfast is something we really miss.

Our pool side villa complete with outdoor kitchen and bathroom.

It even came with a pet.

American style breakfast! Complete with Bali coffee with coconut cream, a new favorite in the Diamond household.

We were constantly surrounded with the smell of incense. Every morning you will find baskets with flowers and incense as offerings to the many Hindu gods. You will even find them strapped to the windshields of cars.

Anywhere you are on the island, you can see kites being flown. They can be a little inconvenient to carry in order to get to a good flying spot though.

We spent the first day recovering by lounging by the pool and checking out the beach.

Hubs and Mike decided to check out parasailing. 

 

As he landed, a swarm of men came over to help him. We found out later that all the men who help with parasailing get paid in turns. That means that if there are 5 men working, each one will get paid $10 for every fifth customer.        

                           

One of the many wood sculpting booths.



Our hotel rescues turtle eggs from the local market and hatches them at the resort. They then take them out to the sea to release them. So awesome! Unfortunately we missed the release but at least we got to see them before we left!

At low tide you can walk out far into the ocean, through coral and tide pools until you reach the water.

He always keeps me on my toes!



You can see where all the boats are now beached, but in the morning they will be floating in the water once again!