Bali Day 2

ah, our second day in bali. we woke up and were delighted to eat breakfast on the top floor of our hotel. 

 the view from the top was amazing.

 breakfast was delightful. nice jus and food. (note roro's komodo shirt!)

 note b's lombok tee.

 so many flowers and so many offerings.

 we took a taksi into the countryside surrounding ubud. here, we got out to walk into an agricultural field.

 a petani working in the fields wearing a traditional topi.

 the fields were so green.

 our taksi that took us around.

 a large sculptural figure.

 a great view.

 i like that there are still offerings in front of this militaristic statue.

 istana means palace.

 we stopped at "the sukarno center." a museum/archive on land owned by sukarno's family (his mother was balinese). this was too good to pass--so we stopped and looked around for awhile.

 the library.

 although we found this stop interesting, we didn't buy any t-shirts.

 we did buy a bung karno key chain and sticker though.

 a mug b is holding up.

 we liked the english translation here: "attention the footwear released please."

 such elegant figures...and even more so with a butterfly resting on this one.

 the sign in sheet.

 old indonesian money.

 wah! a huge garuda. and look how big that vishnu is!

 b and i really enjoyed these old pictures of him with famous world figures. sukarno with che.

 sukarno with fidel.

the us constitution. i wonder how that inspired sukarno.

 sukarno with his trademark dark sunglasses and hat.

 what?! a statue of liberty and a garuda. oh, the juxtaposition.

 sukarno with jfk.

 sukarno with khrushchev.

 cin cin!

 a cross stitched likeness of bung karno.

 a close-up.

 a mosaic. i can only read and understand "negeri ini," which means this country.

 the tile floors were really cool. it looked and felt rather mexican to me.

 

 all of us acting very casual.

 what an official looking family.

 sukarno and monroe.

 b and i liked this impressionistic and thick, thick impasto likeness of bung karno.

 we never get tired of these.

 a carving of sukarno straight out of the wood.

 the first thing i noticed in this montage was the swastika. 

 this is cool. look at all of these old coins.

 after we left the sukarno center, we happened upon a celebration of some sort. 

 the clothing and music was wonderful.

 and these women who can carry things on their heads--totally amazing.

 we got out of the taksi and walked down towards some temples. along the way, we saw lots of stalls selling all sorts of oleh oleh.

 we put on sarongs. (one of the first things i noticed about bali was how often you see this black and white checkered cloth. it's all over the place. i'm not sure what the significance is, but often statues are dressed in this checkered kind of cloth.)

 

 an interesting ginger-type flower.

 the scenery as we went down to the temples was gorgeous.

 rice fields.

 with other plants growing too.

 it's so lush there.

 an interesting elephant sculpture.

 another angle. the previous one almost blends in to the background.

 b admired her shirt.

 a carved cow skull.

 

 me and b!

 the stairs were steep.

 roro looking cool in his sarong, komodo t, and tilley.

 some neat carved caves.

 s sprinkling some ceremonial water on us.

 look at the carvings in the rock wall.

 wah! i had a hard time taking my eyes off of them.

 so wild looking. this is a gorgeous view.

 we crossed the river to look at another pura (temple in balinese). 

 the river was beautiful.

 could that be a dried snake skin?

 s being happy.

 a great shot of roro, w, and cathy admiring the view.

 and now me too.

 i love how you can see the plants and moss growing on the rocks. it's definitely a wet place.

 these almost look like small boats.

 we wandered inside this pura complex.

 so ornate and colorful.

 a mermaid-type figure.

 what a door. wouldn't i love to have that be the front door to our house.

 w wearing his "seatlle" shirt and bali hat looking at the ground. he's a kid who is great at keeping his eyes down--looking for whatever treasure he can find.

 a big spiderweb. 

 in this part of the temple grounds, we walked barefoot. 

 

 we met this nice man who carves coconut shells for a living. he was a true artist. some of his shells were so intricately carved. we loved the idea of buying one from him, but they were pretty pricey. so we just talked with him and admired his work.

 burung hantu are popular everywhere.

 cathy and i admired these wooden tree images. they look like the tree of life.

 we walked down to the river to get a closer look at it.

 on our way back up we saw this large and very cool skink!

 what a gorgeous image.

 on our way back up, we saw a group of women carrying loads on their heads.

 it's amazing to think of carrying something on your head, walking down all of those stairs.

 as we walked up, we got more serious about buying some oleh oleh. we bought a few carved coconuts (one for us and one for roland and cathy) and some little trinkets for the kids. cathy also bought the batik dresses for whitney's girls here.

 we then took the taksi over to another pura. this one had a lot more people at it.

 me and b with our sarongs in front of another impossibly beautiful balinese structure.

 this temple is famous for having sacred water. you could go into the water to cleanse yourself.

 most of the people milling around just watched those in the water (which is what we did).

 i did feel the water though.

 we continued to walk through the temple complex. once we got away from the water, it was much less crowded. 

 a neat shot of the wash hanging out to dry.

 koi!

 lovely reflection.

 a beautiful structure with neat statues. i loved all of the statues in bali.

 wah! look at that detail.

 a cool image.

 seekor gajah.

 a hindu swastika.

 s blending in with her surroundings.

 i love roro's sarong.

 papaya. oh man, the papayas in indonesia were so good. other than one really good papaya in hawaii last year, i had never really had a good papaya. i can fully understand now why people like them.

 note the checkered cloth.

 all of us. what a fun shot.

 jeruk bali! it's like out of a dream. they are so huge.

after we left this temple, we saw some scenic rice terraces, which were beautiful. then we came back into ubud proper. s and cathy went to a spa and got a mani/pedi. roland rested for awhile, and b, w, and i walked around our hotel area. 

 i loved the rice fields around our hotel.

 we saw some cool birds.

 w identified this one in our birds of indonesia book and marked it off for the three of us.

 we also got a quick glimpse into the big pasar in ubud--but we didn't have much time to spend there.