After the longer than necessary trip to tanah lot, I figured it was a good idea to get a proper map of bali…I’ve always loved maps…I feel much more secure when I can point to where I am on a map…after looking at the map for a while, I figured out how I’d taken the long way to get to the temple…figuring that out also made it easier for me to figure out how to drive north…I’d been baking on beaches for a little over a week, and I’m as dark as I have ever been…(which still isn’t dark compared to some people, but that’s besides the point…you should see my tan lines!)
I counted on getting lost several times while trying to bypass denpasar, and I tend to drive more slowly than most people on this island, so I got on the road early…it was Sunday morning, which meant there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic…yay! I managed to get all the way to munduk without having to turn around at all…woo hoo!! I was actually able to keep track of where I was the whole time…signage isn’t always there, but I’ve gotten better about guessing which way to go if I’m forced to make a turn…when going through towns the main road often turns several times, which is hugely annoying…I’m always terrified I’ve gotten off the main road without knowing it…
I was only wearing shorts and a shirt, figuring that would be enough…but as I got north of denpasar, I realized I was constantly going up, at least a little…and I was cold…eventually I pulled over and put on my jacket from lululemon…(thanks mom!!)…it didn’t block the wind completely, but it made a big difference…toward the end of the drive, the road was a lot steeper, and quite twisty…when it went through shady patches it was downright cold, I was relieved to have the jacket…at a couple points along the twisty parts of the road I saw places on the side of the road where people could pull off and enjoy the view…with a whole lot of monkeys joining them…what is it with this island and monkeys? I’ve had enough monkeys for the time being, lol…
The last 10km or so to munduk involved driving along the ridge of a crater…a lake on one side, hills and rice paddies and coffee plantations on the other side…fantastic views all around…more twisting road, so I wasn’t able to look around nearly as much as I would’ve liked, but I spotted a few lookouts, and knew I could come back…munduk itself isn’t anything exciting…just a little hill town…not even a town really, just a village…I found a place to stay on my first try…it’s twice as much as what I was paying in kuta, but it’s at least twice as good…breakfast is included, there is a drying rack, they provided a towel and toilet paper, the lighting is good, the view is amazing, the room is spotless and there is a mirror…
After settling in and figuring out what I wanted to see, I got back on the bike…drove back in the direction from which I came, stopping at a few of the viewpoints…at the last place I stopped, I zoomed in a bit with my camera and saw a temple…it looked a bit like the temple I’ve seen on gbillions of postcards, and it looked like there were a lot of people there…when I got to the bottom of the particular hill, I realized traffic was absolutely nuts…soooo many cars and bikes pulled off the road to park…I didn’t know where I’d find an official spot, so I just pulled over where I found room, and started walking from there…
I thought I was going to see the famous temple…but I was wrong…the temple I did see has a very similar name though, and is on the edge of the lake, as opposed to on the lake itself…I saw pura ulun danu buyan…it turned out that the gathering I’d seen from above was a political group gathering…PDI PERJUANGAN…according to angie there are over 180 political parties in Indonesia…the colours of this party were red and black, and everyone was wearing them…flags all over…I could hear plenty of comments in English as I walked down the path, but I pretended not to…across from the temple there was a stage set up, and just as I got there, someone started speaking…needless to say, I didn’t understand a word…lucky for me, the temple was completely deserted…I didn’t know whether I’d be able to go in, but the gates were open…it wasn’t a very exciting temple, I think it’s relatively new…
On the way back I had to walk past all the same people…being a single, blond foreigner makes me really nervous at times…fortunately, it was easy to get back into traffic from where I’d parked…driving down the road I got to the turnoff to the temple I’d been looking for the first time…pura ulun danu bratan…(notice how similar the names are)…there was a big carpark, and I was directed where to go…at tourist spots like these there is usually an area for motorbikes…I bought my entrance ticket after passing a bunch of souvenir stalls…(just in case you REALLY need that bingtang t-shirt right now)…it was crowded with tourists, but not unbearably so…tourist money gets put to use, the temple is in really good shape…unless you’re a local and in traditional garb, you don’t get to go in a few areas, which is fine by me…I was able to see the temple on the lake, and have my photo taken with it…people in general were doing a good job of noticing others taking photos and staying out of them…yay!! It was sunny, the sky was blue, life is good
JI ended up eating lunch across the street…
Driving back toward munduk I stopped at even more viewpoints…so pretty…I like the lake side views better than the valley side views…I stopped at a tiny area that said parking for a waterfall…it said 246m to the waterfall, but I’m guessing that meant height, not distance…there was a clear path, much of it steps…some of the steps were quite large…I’ve got good knees, but that wouldn’t have been easy for anyone with slightly bad knees…I heard the waterfall before I saw it…quite pretty…15m or 20m high? To get to a decent viewpoint, you cross over the top of the waterfall, then come down…when I crossed it I didn’t realize just how close I was to the top of the falls…there is a tiny little restaurant looking over the falls…peaceful, and quiet…the water falls hard enough that you can feel the splash a ways out…I liked that…unfortunately, you can’t hike behind the falls…I followed the path a little way down the creek, to see if it went anywhere in particular…It didn’t…
Climbing back up I drove back the rest of the way to munduk, skipping signs for another waterfall…maybe tomorrow? I parked my bike at my guesthouse, (they call themselves a homestay, but it is more of a guesthouse) and took off walking…walking to the edge of town didn’t take long…along the way I passed tourist information, so I stopped in to ask about possible treks in the area…I’d like to trek, but don’t really want to pay a fortune to do it…at that point it seemed like it had been a long day already, though I don’t think it had in reality…I read in my room for a while before going to get food at a local warung…I ordered something written on the menu outside, but she said they didn’t have it…oh well…I had something else and it was fine…
A number of the treks I’d seen in the information office had waterfalls, and my guidebook had a couple listed, including the one I’d seen my first day in the area…my second day in the area ended up being a day of waterfalls…I started by going to gitgit, which angie had recommended…I had to get back to the main road, and head north…the entire way there was twisty, and I was constantly amazed at the blind corners on which people passed…I don’t have the guts for that kind of driving…I was expecting a bigger sign, but I only saw one…and the carpark was tiny…the guidebook said entrance was 6000rp, but it was only 3000rp…(less than $1USD either way, so it didn’t matter much)…there is a path all the way to the waterfalls…there were actually quite a few in this spot…while first walking on the path I came to a spot where I could either keep going straight, or cross a bridge…I went straight, and eventually got to a spot where I saw two waterfalls pouring into the same pool…beautiful…I could see a rainbow toward the bottom, but it doesn’t come up very clearly in any of the photos…I had fun putting my camera on a timer and posing…I can be really shallow sometimes
J…after running down the battery, I walked across the bridge and followed that way until I got to see a whole bunch more waterfalls…each of them very different from the others…awesome…after checking out every path I could find, (including one that took me close to someone’s home, and the dogs came howling after me) I got back to my motorbike, and drove a little further…
the guidebook said there was a second set of waterfalls about 2km down the road, and angie had mentioned something like that as well…the second set was by donation, and the donation wasn’t actually required, which was nice…I gave anywho…this set of waterfalls wasn’t nearly as good as the first bunch…but there were several more paths to check out, and at one point I realized I’d hiked back up to the first set of waterfalls…nifty…I realized that when I ended up in front of a house I’d walked by earlier…I was about to go back, when I heard a little voice say hello…it wasn’t loud, and I couldn’t figure out where the kid was at first…then I looked up into a tree, and there he was…he then proceeded to rock out, much to my amusement…singing quite loudly, shaking the tree…it was awesome…I watched for a couple minutes, then went back down toward the waterfalls…I checked out every path this time as well, and ended up trekking around for over an hour…fun…it’s a beautiful area…
the only thing I didn’t like about these waterfalls was the way “guides” try to forces themselves upon you…they ask if you want to know anything about the falls, and tell you they are trying to create jobs…they start to walk with you, and you have to say no thanks, I just want to walk by myself…if you let them walk with you, they’ll end up asking for a guides fee when you leave, and it’s usually quite large…I know that much of what is said wouldn’t be remembered, and I don’t need a guide when I can see the paths on my own…I did end up seeing several small groups with guides, though none of them were the guys who tried to talk to me after I parked my bike…I’m guessing these were official trekking guides, and that these people had signed up for treks the day before…given that I found various paths on my own, I was relieved I hadn’t signed up for a trek…I’m sure they have plenty of information, and could’ve shown me great places, but I was content with what I did…
on the way back to munduk I saw a pretty temple and pulled over to check it out…I don’t know how I’d missed it on the way down, but I guess it wasn’t in my line of sight as I was driving…the main area was closed, but the front bit was open…I’m guessing it’s a fairly new temple, the rock still had really sharp edges from the carving, and no moss growing…at least, not yet…
the waterfall I’d skipped yesterday was where I stopped next…there were two carparks for this one, each really small…and unlike yesterday, there was an entrance fee for this one…still less than $1USD, so I’m not complaining…the path took me straight there, the only time I had to choose which way to go was at the spot I paid the entrance fee…there was a sign there pointing which way to go, so I went…that was the most crowded place I went all day…four other people were at the bottom of the waterfall when I arrived…it was pretty, though not spectacular…the falls were thin, but strong…a couple of the guys had clearly gone swimming…as I walked back up to my bike, I took the other path at the ticket office, just to see where it went…it ended up at the back side of a resort, after winding through quite a lot…I’m pretty sure that’s not the way people usually get to the resort, as the path was quite narrow…
after returning to my bike I realized I was quite hungry, and had a very very late lunch at a roadside warung…I got to have what I wanted last night, yay…from there it was back to my room, where I finished a book and relaxed for the rest of the eveningJ
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