As promised, here are pictures and accounts of our adventurous and exotic day on Monday. In the morning we left in the direction of Ubud again. On the way, we passed this huge statue in the middle of a large roundabout on the main highway here:
I didn't catch the name of the guy depicted in the statue, but the legend is that he fought the big bad dragon here and once he warded him off, he acquired the holy water for the island. Go figure! Anyhow, the statue is gigantic, and pretty cool to look at too.So we drove about an hour and a half to the town of Taro, just north-west of Ubud, in the jungle and the rice-terrace area of Bali. Taro is said to have been one of Bali's earlies settlements. We came here to visit the famed Elephant Safari Sanctuary, where Sumatran elephants are brought to be cared for. This is the place where they have that famous painting elephant! Anyhow, we came to feed and pet and ride the elephants through the jungle. Once we got into the park, we were escorted to the observation area where you just stand right there with the elephants and watch them roam around and take baths and hang out together. As we were walking down the path to the observation area, there was a hedge separating us from where the elephants were. They were growling and making noises that I have only ever heard when I saw Jurassic Park, and I was instantly terrified. I have never been so near an elephant willingly (my mom says I rode one at the LA Zoo when I was 5, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't my own educated choice of activity that day), and I was seriously almost ready to turn around and run away because I had free will on my side on this day. Elephants are HUGE and Emmett and everyone else there, including kids, were feeding them. I was happy to stand back, admire them, and take pictures. I was, after all, going to actually board one and ride it through the jungle. I didn't need to feed it. Did I mention they are HUGE? But here's a picture of Emmett feeding one:
And here she is close up! They are pretty magnificent...
So I did get over my initial fear enough to actually touch the elephants and sit on one! They have the elephant place it's front two legs out of the pool and kneel down, and they let you sit on it's front right leg and take a picture with it. They even "smile" on command, which is when they lift their trunks up in the air (they also open up their cheeks so that you can see inside their mouths, which is how the elephant's health is checked every single day, so they are used to this command). Here we are sitting on and petting the large (and, from what we were told, somewhat naughty) male elephant (you can tell by the tusks, among other things, which are male and which are female):
And here is the piece de resistance....our finale after the jungle cruise on our elephant taxi...the elephant actually "shows you" it's wading pool, where they socialize and frolic (we watched a few completely walk down into the pool backwards and submerge themselves completely under the water). Well, the elephant walks into the water with you on it's back. I was terrified that our elephant (Dina, her name was) would take us for a dunk with her, but luckily, she behaved. She was a great elephant--20 years old and very gentle. Here we are on Dina, coming out of the wading pool:
That was an awesome experience. (You can click on the pictures, by the way, if you want to enlarge them and check out the elephants close up!).After our elephant safari, we drove not too far from Taro just east of a little town called Tampaksiring. Here we went to visit Gunung Kawi, a temple and Royal Monuments. Gunung Kawi is a valley that is bordered by the Pakrisan River, and into the sides of the valley are carved nine immense monuments. In order to get to the monuments, you have to go down a ridiculous amount of ancient stone steps that are surrounded on all sides by rice terraces. Not realizing that this area would have it's own climate, we weren't prepared for the fact that it was raining cats and dogs and we were wearing flip flops and trying to get down moss-covered ancient stone steps in a country with a complete disregard for hand railings. Seriously, you don't really see hand rails anywhere! The people here must have great balance!)
Anyhow, back to the monuments. They are shaped like candi, which are Buddhist-Hindu shrines, and are carved into a natural rock wall. There are 4 on one side of the valley, and then 5 on the other, separated by the river running through the valley. There is a temple at the center of the valley and also a holy spring. Even though these shrines are commonly called tombs, they are shrines. Shrines to the 9 wives of legendary king Anak Wunksu from the 11th century. Check it out for yourselves:
A warning sign saying that you have to wear a sarong and special sash to enter, and that if you are a woman menstruating, you can't enter. Luckily, I was safe. Who wants cramps and bad karma?
The rice terraces all around the steps down to the temple:
Rice terrace up close:
Another view of the terraces. They really are stunning.
Just a small portion of the steps we had to walk down.
Finally, the entrance to the actual valley & temple area. You are asked to sprinkle holy water on your head before entering. We made sure to get it everywhere else too (it was already raining).
The river running through the valley floor:
The temple in the middle of the valley:
And finally, the shrines. Here are the 4 on one side:
And the 5 on the other. They were HUGE (bigger than the elephants!) and awe-inspiring. It felt like an ancient, sacred place we were in. We were actually in an ancient, sacred place...it didn't just feel like one!
This next picture was taken outside on the road to the temple steps. It just begs the question: why did the chicken cross the road? (Sorry, I had to):
This next picture was taken outside on the road to the temple steps. It just begs the question: why did the chicken cross the road? (Sorry, I had to):
And this is the view down a little side street right outside the temple. It is such a small and poor little village, like most of the villages on Bali, but they really are beautiful. The large, yellow pole-looking things lining the street in the distance are special decorations for the huge Hindu holiday that takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week (don't ask me which one...I won't know how to spell it or say it). Every family cuts down a tree branch, dries it so it bends like you see in the picture, and decorates it and sticks it into the ground on the left side in front of their house. It takes days and days to make the decoration, and to see all of the streets, residential and commercial, filled with them is really quite pretty and cheerful, even in this jungle rain.
And alas, our trip to Bali has come to an end. We leave tomorrow (Thursday here, Wednesday in Los Angeles) and return home on Thursday morning. I have some more things to post about, and might do so during our layover in Hawaii, but if not, I will post them when we return and I am surely going to be up in the middle of the night due to jet lag (I would also place money on the fact that at least one or two days that we get back we will wake up in the morning and instinctively put on our bathing suits instead of clothes, but that will correct itself as soon as we have to go to work on Monday!), so I will post a little edited video of all the sights and sounds that I've shown you here just in pictures and words. I also have more fun facts about Bali to document, so even though the trip will be over, there will hopefully be a few more posts summarizing our favorite moments and stuff like that.
All in all, we have loved this little "Island of the Gods," but I can't wait to get home after the LOOONNNNNGGGGG trip home ahead of us (24 hours of traveling....straight!) and two weeks of a bed that is not our own (that's always the best part of a vacation, isn't it? Getting back into your own bed?)
Thanks for coming along on this trip with us via the blog...hopefully you've enjoyed it, learned something, and shared our joyous time with us. Check back for a few updates if you can/want! See you all on the mainland soon...
xoxo,
Daria & Emmett
