restday in Lovina: sightseeing

September 18, 2006

We arranged a tour last night to take us into the mountains South of Lovina. Patrick wants to see both the Bedugal and Batura areas, but it proved to be hard to combine the two. Patrick had seen Batura and the "temple on the lake" on his earlier trip, so we decide on Bedugal.

We get up very late for us, 8am and have coffee and a pancake at the hotel. At about nine, we ride out of town in a minivan with Gede our guide and driver for today. First stop is the waterfall at Gitgit, pretty but to get there you have to walk guantlet of about half a mile past small tourist shop, most of them are still closed. We buy more souvenirs, three more sarongs for Rachel and a nice wood carving for Patrick. After the waterfall it is all uphill to Lake Beratan and the beautiful lakeside temple of Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, a 17th Century temple on the shores of Lake Bratan.

Back in the van, we stop again barely a mile down the road at the botanical gardens. Our interest is the orchid garden and views, but the gardens are huge and there would be much more to see if we had the time and energy. After that we stop for lunch, but then think we disappoint our driver when we walk right back out of the restaurant at the sight of a 60,000 Rp buffet lunch along with a room full of tourists. We think he would have had a commission for dropping us here, but we ask to go on and stop at a more moderate Indonesian restaurant with a menu.

We turn on the road that follows the crater rim, high above Lake Buyan on one side and the coastal plain on the other. Very nice views and it is cooler up here. We see orchards, grapes, tangerines and tomato plants. At the gardens we bought a box of strawberries that we munch on. The driver stops at another touristy restaurant with somewhat inflated prices but the food is good and the views superb. We then drop down back to the North coast, stopping a few times for pictures of the nice terraces near Munduk. The last stop is to visit the only Buddhist temple on Bali before heading back to Lovina.

After the tour, the swimming pool sure is refreshing! We go to an ATM (spending a bit more than the $50/day budgeted, but not too bad considering we bought 3 carvings and half a dozen sarongs already), and then to the beach to see the sunset. The hawkers are thick on the beach, but after a while they leave us alone. We go back to the "Dutch" place for more bitterballen, beer, spaghetti and pizza. Patrick sent a few emails to the family and that's about it for today.

To get to the Gitgit falls, we have to walk past many stalls.

This temple is used for offerings ceremony to the Balinese water, lake and river goddess Dewi Danu, due to the importance of Lake Bratan as a main source of irrigation in central Bali. The 11-storey pelinggih meru in the complex is dedicated to Shiva and his consort Parvathi. Buddha's statue is also enshrined in this temple.

Lots of fruit available, we bought strawberries to munch on.

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