Happy Birthday Dad!
The driver and car I hired for today, picked me up at my hotel at 8:30. The driver's name was Arta. Our itinerary includes five sights that I thought would be interesting. The first stop was about an hour away at a theatre to see the famous The Barong and Keris Dance. Actually it was more of a dramatic play than a dance, and even though I had an English translation of the storyline, I couldn't really make sense of it. It started with about fifteen minutes of an ensemble of musicians playing Balinese traditional instruments, but to the uninitiated it sounded like an orchestra tuning up. Then the Barong came on stage. This is a mythical creature that they created as a puppet with two men inside, much like a pantomine horse. There were a number of characters and the acting looked similar to a play at the elementary level. However, the costumes were interesting. Enough said.
The Indonesians look and act like Indians. They are not quite as aggressive, but definitely more than Thais, when they are trying to sell you things, which is most of the time.
The second stop was a Hindu temple called Goa Gajah, but billed as the Elephant Cave. The sight is in a lush little valley with stone carving decorating it, including the entrance to a man carved cave. Inside the cave is a statue of Ganesh, the elephant God of Hinduism.
The third stop was at the former palace of one of the old kings of one of the areas of Bali. The palace is nothing special to speak of and is no longer in use. It's so exciting they don't even charge admission to it. I told the driver that I wasn't impressed so he took me a little further to a temple called Kertha Gosa, a royal garden and a small museum of the royal family. This was a little more interesting.
The fourth stop, another hour drive, was at what they refer to as the Mother Temple (don't know why, but I asked a couple of people and didn't really get an answer). The official name is Besakia Temple. This is a huge complex of temples built on a hill with a mountain behind it. The scenery is spectacular and the temple construction very beautiful, built in pagoda style. I wandered around there for a couple of hours. I took that photo of the cute little boy, and right after I did, he chased me around the site trying to get me to buy postcards.
Then a final hour long drive to site number five. This was Goa Lawah Temple. It is a small temple built at the mouth of a large cave that is the home of a million fruit bats! There are so many bats that some of them roost around the outside edge because there is no room inside. I walked up a few steps and got right up close to these bats, and could smell the colony as a breeze blow out of the cave. Unfortunately I was told I wasn't allowed to climb those steps. So I took photos from a little ways away. Amazing to watch the bats. There were also rats feeding off food offerings that the faithful left on the ledge of the temple.
Then we had an one and half ride back to Kuta, where my hotel is. On the way back I asked Arta about a barbeque restaurant on a beach called Jimbaran that all the tours seemed to end at. So, he took me there and it turned out there are dozens of seafood restaurants right on the beach. So, he dropped me off there, and arranged for the restaurant to shuttle me back to my hotel afterwards, and I settled at a table to have another romantic dinner by myself watching the sunset (which was beautiful). At the table beside me were two women who asked if I was alone, and then invited me to sit with them. They were Sharon and her elderly mother Jill from Adelaide Australia. So, I had a great meal and a couple of people to talk to. Shuttle back to the hotel and phoned Dad to wish him a happy birthday, and then got ready for bed.
Fantastic bats!
ReplyDeleteg