Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
This morning I woke up about 8:30am after a pretty crazy sleep. For some reason I woke up about 3/4ish (?) wrestling with a giant pile of what turned out to be pillows and duvet. I was feeling a bit groggy when I went and met Mum and Dad for breakfast.
After I packed up my stuff and went to swim in the pool/read my book, whilst Dad went off in search of a cashpoint. On his return later was put the last of our stuf away and checked out.
We hopped straight in a taxi and headed for the traditional Balinise village in Tenganan.
The drive there was also very nice, through little back roads surrounded by Banana tree plantations.
When we got to Tenganan we paid a donation, as expected, and were assigned a guide to show us around the village. It was a very interesting tour, but by definition everything there seemed to be so primative - people weaving textiles on the most wobbly wooden contraption I've ever seen, and people making carvings/decorative drawings on pices of bamboo. It was really nice to be able to see and hear about how things worked there, but I couldn't help but think they were doing it for the sake of being a tourist attraction, rather than wanting to live such a 'primative' (sounds insulting but dont mean it in that way..). On the other hand all the have to do to get out is marry someone from outside the village, and that way they have no choice but to leave..
Having completed the tour and taken in what the guide had to say, he headed off in the taxi again to Tirtagangga, or the 'Water Palace'. This I had seen and heard lots about from Fenella, who had taken the family there a few years ago, and was looking forward to seeing for myself.
After a while in the car and coming across a couple of huge processions of people carrying out a religious ceremonies, we reached Tirtagangga. However it was pissing with rain and it was lunch time, so we decided to take cover in resteraunt outside the palace, and hope the rain would stop.
About 2 hours later the rain had relented a little while we ate, and was back heavier than ever by the time we had finished. Much to my annoyance as I had really wanted to see it, we had to sack of the idea of gong to the palace as it would have been crap in that weather anyway, and got back in the taxi to head to the Volcano - the last stop of the day.
It was about a 1.5/2 hour drive up to the volcano, but the scenery was beautiful so it wasn't much of a drag. There were a lot of a rice paddies and coconut/banana trees in the valleys as we climbed the outer slopes of the volcano.
Eventually we arrived, and I began to get some funny De Javu having been there before on the scooter ride with the others. We went down into the crater and along by the lake, until we reached the place we were staying (having booked a room this morning).
It turned out to be a bit of an eye opener - we had gambled a bit as there were no reviews of the place, but it was a better shot than staying at the place Mum and Dad read about, which seemed to be a complete hole. After what they are used to (and I had become used to!) it was extremely basic/a little bit grotty.
We put our stuff in our room, and met a Volcano Tour Guide in reception. With him we booked a sunrise tour/hike for 4am tomorrow morning, similar to the one I missed out on before when I was ill. From there we went looking for somewhere to eat...anywhere we thought would be better than the hotel. Turns out we were wrong, and most places looked worse as we walked along the road. Having gone a fair way and back, we tried as a last resort at another hotel place.
Fortunately there seemed much better, we went for a quick drink to sus the place out, and decided it was the best bet for food. Dinner was ok, and we killed time before having to return back to our room at the hotel.
(Photo - one of the views on the drive up to the Volcano).
- comments