May 28, Thursday
Today’s plan was to have a temple morning and then a shopping afternoon. Our first visit was to the Goa Gajah temple, a sacred cave temple dating from the same era as Borobudur. When you visit a temple in Bali you must dress in a sarong and sash. Before leaving the hotel we all got a lesson in how to tie sarongs which is slightly different for men and women. Despite the heat and humidity we added yet another layer of clothing to descend 100 steps into a ravine to visit a cave.
After the cave temple we drove to the Tirta Empul Temple, or the Temple of the Holy Springs. The temple was teeming with people bathing, praying, chanting, lighting incense, etc. There were colorful flowers everywhere (yellow, red, white) being offered to the gods.
We headed to the northern part of Bali to see Mt. Batur (1717 meters), a volcano that last erupted in 2000. The lava flow from the mountain down to Lake Batur is still visible and not much has regrown. Our next stop was lunch overlooking extremely lush rich terraces.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon in Ubud looking at textiles and shopping. Scott enjoyed a late afternoon swim in the hotel’s 33 meter pool.
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