Feb 23 – Benoa, Bali, Indonesia - Day 2. Today we are heading out into East Bali proper. This area is supposed to have the best scenery on the island. Hope it does. It's not as hot today but it's cloudy and looks very much like rain.
Because Klungkung Kertagosa is just east of Benoa our first stop is a repeat of somewhere we stopped yesterday. I don't mind visiting a nice place twice because instead of listening to the guide I can go off on my own and find the best locations for pictures. In fact, some of the pictures I sent yesterday were actually taken today. A cloudy sky makes for great color saturation. Direct sun washes things out.
I didn't mention yesterday that in the Floating Pavilion there's a couple who paint copies of the Ramayana pictures on parchment like paper. There are large, medium and small ones, but they also do fans. Since Diana collects fans she decided to get one today. She likes to get a picture of herself with any new purchase of that type (made by a local artist) at the place she purchased it or with the artist who made it. Since I had already bothered the couple for pictures we decided to take her picture with the Floating Pavilion in the background.
Unfortunately we are headed high into the hills to see the Mother Temple of Bali in Besakih, the Pura Penataran Agung. It son the volcanic slopes of Gunung Agung at about 1,000 feet. It's hard to judge cloud height but I'm guessing it's a bit less than that 1,000 feet.
We drove on very winding roads across bridges that span steep sided valleys. Our guide said that many of them were formed by former lava flows. Some of these steep valleys have very flat bottoms consisting mainly of lava rock ground fine during the eruptions. These flat bottomed valleys are very fertile and instead of water they contain a river of rice, corn and taro fields.
As we drove higher into the mountains it was clear that we would be entering the cloud bank before we got to our destination. In addition it started to rain, at times heavily. Apparently our temple pictures will have that mysterious quality to them that you see in Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes movies, foggy London and all that.
The driver got permission to drive us to the parking lot in the middle of the temple grounds. This will save us a walk up the hill through the village. Once again as we dismounted a team of temple staff had to gird us with a sarong. Mine was so small I wore it with the opening to the side. They were also renting umbrellas for a dollar. On the bus, when it became clear we were going to get wet our guide passed out disposable ponchos and I have an umbrella in my Duluth bag but when the temperature is over 80˚F I'd rather be wet. First the rain is usually cool, and second, later when it stops raining the evaporative cooling effect when my clothes are drying feels great. Every woman with an umbrella to rent asked me if I wanted one, even when they just heard me say no to the lady next to them. I guess they are used to tourists trying to keep completely dry. If I were a girl with hair to consider maybe I'd be worried too. But I'm and old bald guy who is perpetually hot and prefer to get all the cooling effect I can. A few people from Britain told me I was going to catch a terrible cold.
Medical Note: I just remembered by old friend the italic. Apparently that old wives tale about being damp giving you a cold is still alive and well in Britain. Colds are a virus and if being cold and damp reduces your immunity response then, yes, it can lead to getting a cold. But hot and damp never gave anyone a cold or the people who use saunas and steam rooms would be sick in bed all the time. Actually a good steam can help alleviate the symptoms of a cold.
It was about a 15-minute walk to the temple complex and then we started climbing. This is when you are very happy that they build with volcanic rock. By its nature it's about as anti-slip and anything known to man. Being wet is not a problem on lava rock. The exception is if moss or lichen has been allowed to grow on it, then all bets are off and it's very slick. Except for a few small patches that were easy to avoid that was not a problem here.
Besakih is Bali's largest temple area on the island's largest mountain. It has 23 separate but interrelated individual temples. The most prominent of these is Pura Penataran Agung, a six-tiered temple that is terraced up the side of the mountain. Since I knew it had six levels I was pretty impressed by the stairs to the first tier, there were a little over 50. I took some encouragement from remembering that the stairs to the first level of the Pura Kehen Temple yesterday were the longest of all the levels.
Well, I'll have to admit it was the longest stairway of the six, but not by much. There were pictures to be taken but we have to be satisfied with an atmospheric look. (Pun definitely intended) The temple's shapes, shrouded in fog, made for an otherworldly overall impression. We trudged up all six levels looking out over the cloud cloaked cacophony of celestial sectors, one stair at a step. (Ouch, talk about tortured prose.) I just couldn't help myself. It's like it jumped onto my laptop fully formed and final. (Sorry!) I guess the fog got to me.
As we walked down through the temple's levels the cloud had started to lift and at the first level was just a bit of mist. Too bad we didn't have time to do the circuit again but no telling how long it would take to completely clear up. When we got back to our starting point the guide said that the bus had moved to the lower lot so we should just continue straight ahead until we came to the parking lot on the left.
We'll we walked, and then we walked some more, and then we walked some more. At this point we were completely down out of the clouds. At least I can see the string of my fellow travelers heading down the street. The walk, downhill, was at least a mile. I'm glad we didn't have to start from there.
Wet and a bit tired we headed back down the mountain to go to lunch. I'm not sure how HAL ever found this restaurant. We turned off the road down the mountain and then drove for at least 10 minutes on a very narrow, not quite dirt, road past small houses and lots of tropical forest. Finally we arrived at a very nicely configured entrance with a gravel parking lot. Mahagri Restaurant and Resort is a bit of work to get to but well worth the trouble. As we walked into the grounds the sounds of two Indonesian bamboo xylophones drifted out to us. The restaurant is configured onto several terraces on different levels around the family temple. The entire restaurant looks out over a multi-terraced rice field that is almost too perfect. If the clouds had cleared we could have seen the large volcanic mountain we had just been up. But no such luck.
The food was good but again, I'm sure at HAL's request, it did not have the spiciness that Indonesian food has to have to be great. They did have two kinds of sambal available for those of us who like real Indonesian food. It's not quite the same as having the chilies and spices simmered in the dish but it elevated the food to very good. The view out over the rice paddies was spectacular. National Geographic Traveler Magazine used exactly this shot for its cover in January 2014. I wonder how long they had to wait for the volcano to come out from behind the clouds.
Our last stop of the day was at the Puri Agung Karangasem, built in the 1800s by the first king of the Karangasem Kingdom. The architecture of this water palace combines three different styles: Balinese influence can be found on the carving of the Hindu statues and the reliefs on the walls of the building; European influence is seen in the architecture of the main building with its large veranda; and Chinese architecture is seen in the style of the windows, doors and other ornaments.
In addition to the king's living quarters, there's a floating pavilion, a raised pavilion like the Judgment Pavilion we saw earlier and further back in the area more living quarters that are still in use by someone. Behind the living quarters was a cliff side patio that looked out over the village in the valley below. Pretty much a Muslim town as there was a large mosque but after scanning the mall village there was no sign of a Hindu temple.
After another long day of climbing temples and driving through very green and hilly countryside, it was back to the ship. We were too late for our dinner seating so we went up to the Lido for dinner. We probably would have anyway because neither of us was ready for a long dinner in the dining room. I really don't mind the Lido dinner at all. You get to the table, you eat and then you're free to do whatever you want.
I'm still behind in my writing so I skipped the show, Maddy and the HALCats. I can hear them in the Ocean Bar any night.
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