Woke up early at about 8 (?) and went for our breakfast at the hotel. They don’t provide buffet here, they just provide set breakfasts and u choose whether u want the local breakfast or the American one and with which type of eggs, etc. It was ok, but I can’t take the coffee here. It’s just too bitter and sweet and just plain weird to me hahahaha.

After that we started our tour with Astrawan’s cousin, Komang and I-forgot-what’s-his-name driver. Komang is a nice honest kid and we had no problems making friends with him at all hehehehe. First stop, Batubulan where we watched this cultural play called the Barong dance. Barong is a mythical character that looks half lion, half dragon, half a lot of other things. There are Rangda, some prince, some monkeys and some people in the dance cum play. It was VERY interesting nonetheless and I sat there transfixed (of course, I was also trying to understand the storyline). We took some pics there coz it was sort of a temple site and there was a nice pond yada yada.

After that we went to some silver and stuff outlets but we didn’t buy anything there coz it was targeted at tourists and they’re quite expensive. But we did buy some stuff at the local batik store, though slightly more expensive than roadside stalls, I love the fact that there are price tags and we didn’t have to haggle!! Hahahaha. Next we went to Ubud to see the local painting sort-of factory.. the paintings are niceeeee though the painters look like ur regular indon. One thing great abt Bali is the people take effort to dress up and all to show u their real culture. And we realized soon enough that they dress the statues as well with the ’sarong’, some kind of religious Hindu thing I guess. We didn’t buy any painting either, though very nice, not fit to put into luggage home and we don’t have our own hse to display it anyways.

Afterwards, we went to ‘padi huma’ or ‘padi bukit’ place in an area called Tegalalang. My goodness what a pretty place!!! The rows of nicely aligned padis planted is just so pretty and we took many pics. But this is also the place we started to get annoyed with street peddlers. If u as much as look (but if u touch, ur almost dead!) they will chase u right up into ur vehicle man! We did get conned by this shop lady who offered to take our pics and then she started pulling my hands into her shop and showing me this and that and all of it she said “niceee pretty” hahahaha and I was obliged to buy a few things but only coz she was nice and not rude. But we realized soon enough we could get the items at a fraction of the prices we paid there.

Afterwards, we had buffet lunch at Mount Batur, a nice mountain facing the Kintamani volcano. It was very cold there! These tourguides have their commission paid by the restaurant people so they had to bring u to certain places for ur food. It’s not too bad really, but if we had our own choice, we would find some roadside stalls. Much cheaper!

Next, off to a cocoa plantation where they also produce Balinese coffee. They gave complimentary drinks and I had a taste of their cocoa. We had fun looking at plants and taking pics pretending to be ‘cooking’ coffee hehehe. Next in line was Tirta Empul temple. In the car park we saw a motorbike with real dog skeletons I think for the handles. Real scary hahaha. Oh well just see the pics here http://gallery.azahan.com/thumbnails.php?album=22. We start to become really amused with Balinese architecture and building art (?) seeing the statues and temples of long long ago. In the temple area there is sort of a pond with ‘holy water’ where we can see devotees bathing and cleansing themselves. The water flows in from the mountain and comes out of the mouth of statues built by the side of the pond.. real cool stuff I tell ya. There is also a natural spring consisting of water coming out from beneath the mountain! There were people praying all about. The scene did have some sort of ‘culture shock’ effect in us as the men were all wearing sarung and sort of head scarf similar to what ‘tok kadi’ (someone who solemnizes wedding) and the ladies wore ‘baju kebaya’ as what the muslims do in Malaysia. But they’re Hindus!

Next we went to Goa Gajah, another temple but in a cave filled with elephant statues. Devotees of long ago pray to the elephant statues and even meditate in holes built into the cave walls. Cool! There is even a statue of ‘motherly’ thing where people pray to get kids, etc. Outside the temple area we bought more stuff but I sorta got the hang of haggling and since the people are friendly and really wanted business, it’s not all that bad really.

The tour ended there, we got the tour guide to bring us to tapau some McDonald’s, we had dinner outside our hotel room facing the pool, then we walked about some more around the area.. we finally found the way to the beach by foot and we saw the famous clubs mentioned in websites and the maps by the sea… before we retired for the day. Long tiring day!