Bali Day Tour

On week three in Ubud we were visited by the dynamic duo, also known as Elvira and Felix. And because they are not as lazy as us, they booked a taxi driver for a day by the time they arrived from the airport. Actually they had booked three days but we only joined them for the first one. This is how it went.

Entry of the temple.

Center of the Temple of All Things Templish.

The first stop was the Taman Ayun temple. Yes, a temple. Which was very templish. With unidentifyable temple things. They were existing all around even though I didn't understand their purpose. Behind the temple was a park but we didn't spend time there because I assumed (and I was right in my assumption) that our time will not suffice to visit everything that was in our plan.

OoOOh spread your wings and fly, butterfly!

Our second stop was at the Bali Butterfly Park. They also had other bugs and some spiders in boxes but their main attraction was butterflies. I loved them (no homo)! I thought that the very colorful depictions of butterflies were the stuff of fantasy because all I have ever seen live was the brownish ones but these here were wild, beautiful, big, sometimes colossal to the point of being scary. Not hairy-spider-scary but still scary.

I have to look up what this is before it kills me.

This is some kind of bug and NOT a leaf.

Also not leaves.

I hadn't thought that the butterfly park would be interesting for me but it was.

Third stop were the Jatiluwih Rice Terraces which were impressive in their own, very different way. Nothing I could say about them that isn't explained better with pictures.

Rice fields.

Sky mostly.

Our fourth stop was supposed to be a bath in hot springs but time was running out and we went straight to Danau Bratan. I think that is its name because Google Maps has an alternative spelling. It is a temple in the water. This was more exciting than the first one because of the surroundings being more interesting and varied and there being a playing field for children. We rode a kind or round swing for two when you sit opposite of each other. Wheeeee!

Temple in the water.

That was supposed to be our last stop. What we didn't know was that our guide had another stop planned for us (not pictured).

What I liked in Bali compared to Thailand was that people seemed less inclined to relentlessly try to sell you things at overinflated tourist prices. This is true at least apart from the taxi drivers in Ubud. Those keep each others back like a wall of scam you can't penetrate. Our taxi driver for the day offered a price that was a significant pay day for him but wasn't more expensive than taking a taxi in Australia. Which brings us to our last stop.

Also close to the water temple just to break up the text a little.

Our driver asked us if we wanted to try Luwak coffee. We didn't. He asked if we want to do a coffee break and the friend who sat on the front naively said yes. We were brought to the most obvious and most deliberately evil tourist trap where got a tour of how they make their own coffee and let us taste different sorts of coffee and tea. Then they took us to their shop where we paid prices four times higher than what we found later in normal shops. I knew they were scamming us but agreed to buy something anyway because the price for the ride was pretty low, he was a good guide otherwise and I accepted that he gets a percentage of the things sold there.

I got a package with vanilla coffee for myself and Diana drank all of it.