The Sun Sets On Bali

Our last full day in Bali was, by design, a split day.  Spend the morning in Ubud and the afternoon touring other parts of Bali.  Ubud is not a quaint little village, it is a sprawling tourist town.  That said, it is a good place to walk around.   There is A LOT of shopping, everything from high end boutiques selling beautiful batiks to marketplace tourist stalls selling carved penis bottle openers (they were even available in 5-packs to make it easy to share with friends).
 

We skipped all of that and headed to the Sacred Monkey Forest, a 10-minute walk from our hotel.  I had been here once before and wrote about it then.  I knew that it would be an hour well spent for us and we weren’t disappointed.

First off, the Sacred Monkey Forest is just that, sacred.  There are temples that are pretty much overrun with monkeys.  Over a thousand of them live here.  They are fed by monkey keepers who also keep track of the monkey/human interactions.  And there are plenty of signs reminding you not to make direct eye contact with them or feed them.

My favorite spot is down some stairs and over a stone bridge that arcs its way through a massive ficus benjamina while crossing a small river.  On the other side is a temple surrounded by moss covered stone carvings.  It reminded me of King Louie’s Temple in The Jungle Book, but Christopher, rightly so, said it also had the vibe of Tomb Raider.  Regardless it was something to see.

We continued to walk around for an hour, visiting the main temple and the monkey cemetery.  The cemetery had monkey graves with tombstones.  The graves also had high mounds of dirt covering them, almost comically high.  This cemetery also begged the question as to why weren’t these monkeys cremated as is the practice in Hinduism?

We ate a quick lunch in the hotel restaurant before meeting up with Joyo again.  This time we were off to a couple of temples and sunset cocktails along the Indian Ocean.  Driving anywhere is Bali takes far longer than Americans would expect.  The roads are narrow and crowded and rarely do you go over 50kph most of the time.  Most intersections are not controlled, that is no signal lights or traffic cops.  In other words, it takes a while to go places.

I noticed a couple of things have changed since we first visited Bali 8 ½ years ago.  First is that the ration of scooters to cars has dropped.  In 2010 we saw entire families, perhaps 5 people, on one scooter.  Scooters were hauling just about anything; multiple large water bottles, 5+ meter-long bamboo poles, or even sacks of concrete.  Now there are significantly more cars and trucks, but still plenty of scooters everywhere.

One other thing is the gasoline for these scooters.  Our first time here we say racks of vodka bottles filled with amber liquid.  I Initially thought that they were filled with some sort of Balinese moonshine.  Our driver explained how once you are out of the city there are no gas stations and that these liter bottles were an easy way to sell gasoline for scooters.  (My issue with this was that with the narrow roads you were only one sneeze away from a driver swerving into a rack and exploding in a fury of flames.)

Today you see these racks, but need to look a lot harder for them.  They have been replaced with mini gas pumps.  These kiosks have two grades of fuel stored in built-in reservoirs in their base—each one holding be 50 liters.  The attendant pumps the gas up where it fills a glass bowl, just like in the old pumps from the 20’s and 30’s.  Once filled with the desired amount, there is a hose and nozzle to dispense the fuel into your scooter.  Simple and efficient.

Our first stop with Joyo was Taman Ayun, a temple that Julie and I visited 8+ years ago.  It is very recognizable with its many towers and the moat that surrounds it.  This is one of the 6 royal temples in Bali.  And unlike most temples, you can’t enter, just view inside from the small, low wall that surrounds it.

It seemed more manicured then the last time we were here, whether that’s true or not, who knows.  But it is lovely.  There were quite a few people inside preparing for some sort of fete. I enjoy how temples pay a part of everyday life in Bali.

As we were walking around, we heard music in the distance and set of to find the source.  Just beyond the temple grounds there was another modern temple being built.  Still an incomplete construction site, there was music coming from thetop floor, the source hidden by bamboo screens. We sat and listed for a few minutes, enjoying the experience.

Our last temple of this trip was another that we had done before, the famous Tanah Lot.  This recognizable temple sits on a rock formation, just offshore.  Christopher was looking forward to seeing this one as it is constructed in Legos at Legoland Malaysia. 

We left Joyo and bought our tickets to enter the grounds.  The thing is that here the grounds start off with stall after stall of tourist shops.  It was a veritable market place of carvings, fabrics, other knickknacks.  The good thing is the proprietors were not that aggressive so it was pretty easy to keep moving on.  That said, it did detract from the experience.

After taking pictures of the temple from the shore (tourists are not allowed inside) we walked around for different views.  We realized that when we were here 8 years ago we approached from the west and didn’t have the shops to parade through.  We ended up 

having a beer at a small café on the cliff just above the temple, a nice, chill experience.

It was then off to the last stop of the day.  Julie wanted to end the day at a beach bar at sunset and I had done a little research.  We ended up at The Beach Bar at the Alila Hotel in Seminyak .  And what a great choice it was.  We arrived about 75 minutes before sunset and while all of the good tables (and prime view bean bags) were taken, we did find a sitting area with a sofa and a couple of chairs.  Not prime view, but it was great.

We ordered some drinks and snacks and waited, watching the colors of the sky change almost by the minutes.  We made several trips to the deck just above the sand to take photos.  It was gorgeous.  There was also live music that just added to the experience.  It wasn’t too young of a crowd and we enjoyed it.  As Julie said “You did good finding this place”.  Enough said.

We headed back to Ubud, navigating the traffic of Seminyak (making us happy we stayed in Ubud).   We felt good about our visit and bought enough small things to remind us of his visit for a long time.  Bali is wonderful.  Yes, it is touristy, but it isn’t overrun with Americans. We never thought we would make it back when we first visited 8 years ago, yet we did.  Will we go again?  Who knows, but I would sure like to.