Around the World for 80 Days: Bali, Day 2

We woke up at our beautiful hotel with a view overlooking rice paddies, and had an outdoor breakfast before embarking on the day's adventures.

Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave)

Before we walked into Goa Gaja, we had to buy a sarong to wear in the temple (they rent them, but you end up paying as much as it would cost to buy anyways). Julia and I spent about 20 minutes haggling with the different women selling sarongs (there were probably about thirty stalls outside the temple)--we were the only customers, so all the women were eager to have us buy from them, but our hardline bargaining was not flying over too well, especially considering we got the price down from about 300,000 rupiyah (a little over $30) to about 35,000 ($4) apiece. I had decided that as I was going to Cape Cod straight from Bali (talk bout beach to beach) I would bring all my female relatives back some sarongs, so the fact that I was looking to buy over ten helped with the bargaining. Asra (our guide) just laughed as we took forever to do this.

As for the temple, since our hotel was right next to the temple, we were the first ones there, and were able to take it in in tranquility with the morning light highlighting the heavily-forested temple beautifully:

The origin of the cave is uncertain. One tale relates that it was created by the fingernail of the legendary giant Kebo Iwa. It probably dates back to the 11th century at the time of the Majapahit takeover of Bali.

The cave was rediscovered by Dutch archaeologist in 1923. The fountains and bathing pool were unearthed in 1954.

The cave is carved into a rock face and you enter through cavernous mouth of a demon. Inside the T–shaped cave you can see fragmentary remains of lingam, the phallic symbol of the Hindu god Siva, and its female counterpart the yoni, plus a statue of the elephant–headed god Ganesha. In the courtyard in front of the cave are two square bathing pools with water gushing into them from waterspouts held by six female figures.

To the left of the cave entrance is a statue of Hariti, surrounded by children. In Buddhist lore, Hariti was an evil woman who devoured children, but under the influence of Buddhism she reformed to be a protector of children and a symbol of fertility.

To the south of the cave complex there are crumbling rock carvings of stupas (domes for housing Buddhist relics) on a cliff face, and a small cave.

Ikat

We then stopped by traditional ikat weaving:

Me in the main weaving center:

A beautiful rice paddy vista outside the weaving center (you couldn't go more than 30 feet without stumbling across one of these views in central Bali):

The whole journey wasn't all easy, though--check out this "bridge" we drove across:

Basakih (Mother) Temple

Besakih Temple has been known as Bali’s ‘Mother Temple’ for over 1,000 years and is perched 1,000 metres high on the southwestern slopes of Mount Agung. Besakih is an artistic and unique complex that consists of at least 86 temples which include the main Pura Penataran Agung (the Great Temple of State), as well as 18 others.

Julia and I had to fight off the "tour guides" who wanted to charge us to give us the tour. Asra wasn't allowed in due to some silly rule, and the tour guides told us we couldn't go without a guide. However, Asra and the guidebook both informed us this was a scam, we could go wherever we wanted and there was nothing they could do about it...so we did!

Besakih is the biggest and holiest amongst the temples on the island and is surrounded by breathtaking and scenic rice paddies, hills, mountains, streams, and much more. It is said to be where the very first revelation from Balinese Hindu's God, Hyang Rsi Markendya, was received.

Along the way we stopped to use the bathroom at one of the 100 or so stalls lining the road to the temple, and met a man who spoke excellent English who translated for his grandmother...who he claimed was over 100 years old (and she looked it, too!) I was also chased down the hill after figuring out the rock bottom sarong price and asking too many women for it--they figured out that I was trying to bargain off one's price at another stall and three or four started yelling at me...oops.

Kopi Luwak

Our next stop along the monument-lined road (some celebrating Balinese heroes after the Indonesian invasion, some World War II heroes from the Japanese invasion):

...was a coffee plantation. While clearly a tourist trap with coffee prices higher than US prices, we did get to see a real-live civet (yup, the animal that doesn't quite digest coffee beans, pooping them out for us to brew into the very-expensive coffee Luwak):

Julia tried her hand at roasting some beans...

...while nearby, a worker sorted male and female beans (one is more expensive and delicious than the other, though I can't remember which is which now):

Tirta Empul

The name Tirta Empul is derives from the large spring in the centre of the temple. "Tirta" means holy water and "Empul" means spring so Tirta Empul is holy water spring. I loved the intricate carvings inside of the shrines:

The temple was built around 960 AD during the rule of Candra bayasinga king from the Warmadewa dynasty. It's divided into three main courtyards: the front yard, the middle yard and the inner sanctum. Here I am at one of the gates into the outermost courtyard:

And again, at one of the inner gates:

Here's a snap of the inner sanctum:

And a ceremony going on inside the sanctum:

There are two rectangular pools in the outer courtyard, each fed by a line of fountains that stretch from east to west and face the south. Each fountain has its own name and function. According to tradition there is a fountain for spiritual purification, another for cleansing from evils, another is an antidote for poison, etc.. Many people were bathing in them for luck:

Suharto built his vacation home overlooking the temple:

We passed an ancient tree on the way out (they tie sarongs around trees and carvings to indicate their holiness):

Gunung Kawi Temple

Our last temple of the trip was Gunung Kawi Temple, which consists of 10 "candi" cut into the rock face:

Each candi is believed to be a memorial to a member of the 11th century Balinese royalty. There are four on the west side of the river and five on the east side. Each of the sets of memorials has a group of monk's cells associated with it (not pictured).

Legend says that the group of memorials was carved out of the rock face in one night by the fingernails of Kebo Iwa (it's uncertain who the real builders were but they may date back to the 10th or 11th centuries). I could see a giant doing this with his fingernails, right?

Julia at one of the temple entrances:

The four monuments on the west side are to Anak Wungsu's chief concubines. Another theory is that the whole complex is dedicated to Anak Wungsu, his wives, concubines and to royal minister. There was a gorgeous rice paddy on the long walk to the temple: