We were rewarded for the long climb up to Kintimanti by great views and relatively cool weather. We actually used a blanket at night for the first time on Bali. We were also rewarded with a lot of downhill the next day.

We coasted along the crater rim and had great views for the first half hour. We stopped for a drink at a place right on the rim. We watched people carrying loads on there heads down a trail part way into the crater. We could see lake Batur in the distance.

The main road turns off down into the crater or down the hill back to Ubud. We continued on the crater rim road. It wound through a beautiful wooded area, unlike any other place we rode on Bali. Occasionally we saw more fantastic views of the volcano. The crater sides are so steep and high it was almost like looking down from an airplane.

Eventually the road turns and heads down the mountain. Several other roads make more direct routes down to Ubud and Denpasar. This road however, goes past Pura Besakih - the oldest, largest and most important temple on Bali.

A ceremony would be going on the next day and preparations were underway. Almost all the vehicles that past us that morning were bike loads, car loads, or truck loads of worshippers wearing formal attire: sarongs and head dress. Trucks passed us loaded to overflowing with them.

We coasted downhill for quite a while, passing small villages from time to time.

The road doesn't go directly to the temple. We had to take a transverse road for just a few miles. Just like the time we made a wrong turn leaving Ubud, we went in and out of a couple very steep ravines. We actually had to walk the bikes.

We parked the bikes against a guard shack at the entrance to the temple. Immediately, six or seven young men swarmed around us. One of them spoke English fairly well. We had to wear sarongs into the temple and he showed us how to wear them. (We had each bought a sarong in Denpasar.)

Reluctantly, we left our bikes at the guard shack. The English-speaking young man became our tour guide. We never asked him or agreed on a price. He just latched on to us.

We didn't mind. He proved fairly knowledgeable and spoke pretty good English.

Pura Besakih is really a complex of 23 or more separate temples built on a hill part way up Bali's highest mountain, Gunung Agung. I'm at a loss to describe the temples. I can't possibly do it justice in words but here's a few things we saw. There's a great ancient black stairways; huge stone entrance ways; buildings with as many as 11 roofs (always an odd number); many stone statues of creatures, good and evil.

We didn't know how much to pay our guide. At first he said he didn't want anything but we insisted he take 10,000rp. He said some people give him as much as $20US! We offered 20,000rp. He said he only works one day a week and the many will have to last, perhaps a little more. We gave in, so he got 30,000rp. A waiter at a restaurant in Ubud makes 300,000rp in a month. We probably gave this guy too much.

After the temple we reached one of the most beautiful roads in the world. From a town called Muncan (pronounced mun-chon) we started to wind through amazing rice padi terraces. Maybe the locals find us crazy but these fields are magnificent. Everything is so green you can't imagine. We shot a roll-and-a-half of film.

Some people work the fields with a couple of cows pulling some implement. Others work with a hoe. Some carry huge baskets.

In the middle of the fields you see palm trees, little huts for cows, and statues for offerings. I can't explain why but it's just incredibly picturesque. I also can't explain why we are not happy with a single photo we took. We could never capture the color and grandeur. Good photos of rice padi terraces now really impress me.

I missed the best photo op. I tour bus pulled off the road in front of us and a dozen middle-aged German tourists came running out like the bus was on fire. The rushed to the side of the road where a Balinese women worked the field with a hoe and started snapping pictures. We thought is very funny, although we had done the exact same thing, just in less of a rush. It would have been great to have a shot of the ten tourists surrounding the Balinese women.

In Muncan we stopped at a warung for lunch. It started raining hard while we were there so we stayed for a long time. We practiced Indonesia with a very nice woman named Ida. We spent a pleasant hour and a half at her warung communicating pretty well and it felt great to talk to a local who was not trying to sell us something. I played a few tunes on the adventure horn. Interestingly, the sad songs get a better response here.

At a town called Duda we turned south and the road got very bad. To this point most of the roads had been in great shape or at least acceptable. The Duda to Klungkung road through Sideman is awful, but the scenery is still good.

We ended up that night getting a whole beach side cottage to ourselves in Padangbai.

Next: Naked women wave to Eric

  Bali Main Page   Indonesia Main Page   World Trip