Temples, Rice Terraces and Gardens - Oct. 16, 2010

Senne's Summary: Today we took a tour and saw some rice terraces, gardens and temples.

Today we had booked a package tour with one of the agencies in town. We wanted to see a rice terrace and a temple and this particular tour had both of those things (plus it was only $12 a person). We figured we would be on a bus with about 12 other people, but since nobody else booked the tour they just sent us a private driver! Score! Guess what his name was? Ketut! 😀

The first place on our tour was a rice terrace. Actually, it was just a rice field just like we see out the back of our hotel everyday… but we did find out some information about how rice grows (pretty much like wheat!).

On to the next stop which was the Royal Family Temple.

When we went to buy our entrance tickets there was a little boy about 1 ½ years old sitting with his mom at the desk playing with an apple. He took a piece off the apple and threw it at me. I caught the apple on my arm, and gave it back to him. He just popped it in his mouth and giggled. His mother and the other lady were mortified, but he was smiling away.

Interestingly, we didn’t need to wear a sarong to enter this temple, although I had heard you would need to wear one to enter any temple. Maybe it’s just because it’s so touristy? Or maybe because we could only see, but not enter the inner part of the temple? There was a big sign that said women are forbidden to enter the temple during menstruation, which apparently goes back to Hindu tradition.

Anyway it was interesting to look around as we’d never been in a Hindu Temple before.

After the temple we were suppose to go to the coffee plantation, but we asked Ketut to skip it since we weren’t really interested. I guess that’s the benefit of having a private tour, you can do what you like!

Next we saw a view of a real rice terrace. It was really beautiful. (You’ll see it in the photos!)

After this, we went to the Botanical Gardens. This was more like a large park with certain areas of specific flowers (roses, orchids, begonias, etc). It was okay, but I probably wouldn’t suggest you go out of your way to see it if you are here. Ketut was surprised we wanted to walk around because usually the drivers just drive through the park while the tourists look. It was a beautiful park, but the flowers were not nearly as nice as what we are used to at home.

While we were in the park something odd happened. While we were by the big statue (which Steve loved!) this group of people asked if they could take a picture with us. We said okay, but weren’t really sure why. There were about five of them and they all wanted to be in a picture with us. I wondered if they were on a scavenger hunt and had to get a picture with strangers… Steve thinks they wanted a picture with us because we were pretty much the only white people around. Steve thinks someone has a picture on their facebook page captioned "us with the white giant".

Next we headed to the Ulan Danu Temple and Lake Beratan. This place was lovely. Even more lovely than the Botanical Garden in my opinion. Again we didn’t have to wear a sarong, but weren’t allowed into the inner part of the temple. I suspect that is reserved for worshippers, not tourists. After a nice walk around the temple and the grounds we headed back home.

For me one of the interesting things was driving through the parts of Bali that are not touristy. It seems like a very simple and pleasant life. The school children were all walking down the streets (adults not worried to send them out on their own) laughing and talking, people were working in the fields and at their stalls/shops, people were making their daily offerings and sweeping up around their homes… it just seemed very peaceful.