We asked to go to the Tengenungan Waterfall first as it's on the way out of Ubud. This waterfall was featured in one of Anthony Bourdain's shows, and it looked really cool (both figuratively and literally). After a 20 minute car ride and an entrance fee of 10,000 IDR per person, the car stopped at the top of a hill, where we could look down and see the waterfall. The sun was starting to get hot, but we didn't want to only take a few pictures and leave right away, so we headed down the stone paved stairs.
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| Tengenungan Waterfall |
The sound of the waterfall drowned out everything else in the area, like the gush of crisp clear water cleansing your thoughts, I can't help feeling refreshed. At the bottom of the stairs there were these stone built showers attached to the side of the hill as well as a big gazebo where a few locals were chilling out. The natural showers were really cool to see, with water some how flowing through the mountains and out of the openings. We could hear tourists screaming and shouting as they get ready to jump into the water, so we continued a little further. But the road ended shortly after and we were forced to skip across rocks on the riverbed, so we soon headed back up the hill.
Next stop was Tanah Lot Temple.
I hesitated on this one initially, as it seemed too touristy. But was I happy that I didn't skip it because the entire experience was absolutely gorgeous. In fact, though we have see many beautiful temples along our trip, this was the most impressive looking one. All Hindu temple grounds consist of 3 temples, Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu. I forgot which one this was, but I knew it wasn't the main temple (so, not Shiva). It stood in the middle of the ocean beside pounding waves, on top of a naturally formed rock that looked like it bridged the island to the main land, the weather was perfect, and I was in awe.
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| Tanah Lot Temple |
It couldn't have gotten any more picturesque than this. Clear sky, white waves, dark volcanic rocks, and green grass. There were even 2 surfers surfing right beside the temple, it was too cool. We eventually made our way down to the main temple, which was actually completely detached from the main land. The temple is only accessible by locals when the tide is low, and at noon, the tide is high and still rising. At the bottom of the hill on the path to the main temple is where all the tourists were. We heard some broadcast but didn't understand what it was. I stepped closer to the edge of the rocks when we finished taking pictures, letting the wave wash over my feet. It wasn't till we re-adjourned with our driver that he told us the broadcast was a warning of the rising tide. He also told us about a Chinese tourist that got washed off these rocks last year and died from the accident as he points to a red flag a little further down. "That's where he was last seen" he said. It was then that I realized I was playing with fire standing so close to the edge.
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| Tanah Lot Temple (main) |
We continued to head South shortly after, and were ready for lunch. We had picked out a restaurant in Seminyak for us to eat some "clean" food. That's right, after my 3 day near hell illness from what they call the "Bali belly", we've decided that eating whatever we could get our hands on was probably not the best idea. Seminyak is 2 neighborhoods North West of Kuta, and is supposed to be the more expensive neighborhoods with high end stores and restaurants. We had booked an amazing looking villa through Airbnb and were excited to see what our new home has to offer.
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| Our Villa in Seminyak |
Bo & Bun was situated on one of the busier streets of Seminyak. It is a Vietnamese fusion restaurant and our stomachs were really happy to finally eat something not overwhelmingly spiced. Our driver came back to pick us up after an hour and we headed over to the villa to check in. The roads leading to the villa was quite crappy and we were about 15 minute walk away from any stores. But I wasn't worried though, as the villa was the most amazing modern place I've ever stayed in, and being locked in would mean to have 3 days of luxurious peace and quiet. We told the driver to come back in an hour and a half, checked in with our host Rachel, and passed out for a nap.
At 3:30 pm, we headed back out again, this time, to Uluwatu Temple. This was definitely one of the ones I was planning on missing out because of all the vicious monkeys the internet has so kindly warned us about. But since we have time, and our driver was very enthusiastic about it, we decided to check it out.
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| Uluwatu Temple (the cliff) |
Uluwatu is on the South Western most tip of South Bali (Nusa Dua), and the temple is famous for it's cliffs and evening performance of the Kacak Dance (which the majority of people go for actually). By the time we got there the parking lot was starting to fill up. Our driver said it would be cool to watch the dance, but we should expect a huge traffic jam heading out after the dance as everyone would be leaving at the same time. The dance was an extra 100,000 IDR and I've seen plenty of footages on youtube so we thought we'd walk around first and see how things go. We headed down the cliff for about and hour, saw one of the most gorgeous sunsets ever and a wedding party taking photos, and decided that we could miss the dance after all. Plus, we really needed to get some supplies for our new home, and I didn't want our driver to work too much overtime. So we stopped by Carrefour and quickly got all the supplies we would need for our 3 days of luxury: some rice, bread, chicken, some oil and what we thought was salt (turned out to be MSG), some coffee, and juices, then headed home and passed out some more.
To be continued...
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