The storm got worse through the night. It kept waking us up and it was pretty scary- it was the worst storm I have ever heard! At one point the storm was literally above our room and the loud bang and rumble of the thunder woke us up with a shock and shook the room! It didn't stop all night so we knew by the morning that there wouldn't be much chance of doing the dolphin trip. We got up at 5 anyway and tried to ring reception to see if they knew anything. They told us if the storm carried on then it would be cancelled but if the rain stopped by 6 then it might go ahead so still to get ready. That was pretty annoying as we knew it wasn't stopping for anything and didn't really see the point in getting up and ready for nothing. I rang Mr Made and woke him up to see what to do and he pretty much told us the same and just wait in our room and see. We knew it wouldn't be going ahead so we took our very sad selves back to bed for another couple of hours- well we tried anyway- there was really bad torrential rain and we could hear it on the roof. We were so gutted about the dolphin trip but there wasn't much that we could do. The weather is very much out of our control so just had to get on with it!
We got up for half 7 for breakfast which wasn't very good but it filled us at least. Mr Made had arrived whilst we were finishing breakfast. We could see people on the beach cleaning up, from the storm I presume. Once we were ready and set off the weather cleared up a bit. It was still raining on and off but not too heavy at all.
Our first stop of the day was in Banjar where we visited the natural hot spring pools. They are viewed as very holy and people also come here to pray at the temple. Mr Made said that the water is thought to heal some people and the water should make you feel better. He got in with us too and he was right- it was so relaxing! The water was so warm! There were three different pools with hot water spilling into them as each pool was a different size and temperature. We stayed relaxing for about an hour and were revitalised and ready to move on with the trip after!
Our next stop was in Gitgit where we visited the highest waterfall in Bali. It was really nice and very powerful! We could feel the spray of the water from far away. Next was Gobleg where we pulled over to a viewpoint by the edge of the road to see Buyan & Tamblingan Twin Lakes with the surrounding forests and hills. It was a really nice view from high up looking down on them. The twin lakes are the 3rd and 4th biggest lakes in Bali. The lake yesterday is the biggest and the crater lake that we visit today is the 2nd biggest. On the way back down the windy roads through the hills and forest we passed Puncak where there was a cluster of towering trees with hundreds of monkeys living in them. We could see them all running about and sat by the edge of the road.
For lunch we stopped in Bedugul at a restaurant near the crater lake. It was another buffet lunch which was lovely! After the lunch we visited the Serene Lake Beratan which fills the ancient crater of Mount Batukaru. This was a popular place to visit in Bali.
The next stop was the Temple of Ulun Danu which is dedicated to the Goddess of Water. This is one of the most visited temples in Bali for tourists. It is the temple that you see on all advertisements for Bali with it's tiered roof and overlooking the water and mountains. It was beautiful! Mr Made told us here a lot about practices of Hindus. The reason that the roof is cone shaped on top of Hindu temples is to represent the mountain peaks. Hindus believe that mountains are sacred and should be visited for prayer, but as this wouldn't be possible every day, the temple is shaped to represent this for prayer. This temple had 8 tiers to represent 8 forces of nature; north, south, east, west and land, sea, air and water. This is drawn in the shape of the 8 pointed star- a symbol in Hinduism. Mr Made also told us about the cost and practices of burials in Hinduism and that in some villages they still leave the dead body on the surface of the ground where it rots until they cremate it maybe a year later. This isn't common in modern Hinduism though. He explained that common practice is to bury the corpse for up to a year until a specific date in the lunar calendar when it is it believed the right time to cremate and all the corpses from that village over the last year are cremated on this date and their ashes are scattered in the sea. It was all very interesting!
After the temple we drove to Candi Kuning where there was a fruit and flower market- not too much interest to us. We swiftly moved on to stop at some rice fields. This wasn't on our agenda but Mr Made said we would have time to stop here which was good. It was the same picturesque rice fields that you see in pictures of Bali. The rice fields were set in a mountain backdrop and because they were on a hill, they were tiered which made them look lovely!
Another stop which wasn't on the agenda but we were brought to was a monkey temple. We were brought round the grounds by a woman who worked there so she could shoo the monkeys away if needed. The monkeys at this forest weren't too friendly! They looked cute though! There was also a family selling photos with bats in the grounds. It was pretty weird. Something had clearly been done to the bats as they weren't attached to anything but couldn't fly, which was sad! They were also the biggest bats I had ever seen! We decided against the picture though.
The last stop was the Tanah Lot Temple where there were three separate temples at the sea edge. The main famous temple is a 16th century temple built on a rocky islet 200 metres off shore. There were 'holy' people trying to scam people to walk up about 5 stairs of the temple saying that you couldn't go up the temple unless you paid money to be blessed. Very religious of them. We didn't fall for it but saw many people who did! It was pretty funny as they would think they were getting to go into the temple and then the steps would curve around a corner and that was it- you couldn't go any further. Scams everywhere as always!!
The temple was famous in Bali to see the sunset but it was too cloudy for us to see anything so that was a shame! The weather hasn't done much for us whilst we have been here! We sat and had dinner at a restaurant looking out to the temples, where the sunset would be. I had a seafood platter and Nath had an Indonesian platter. Made sat with us for dinner and told us loads of stories about his family and about corruption in the country. He was very honest! He told us that the average wage for a person with a government job is $150 a month, which is nothing! He told us how he and his family moved to a tourist area to get better jobs and that tourism has done the island well, but may end up ruining it for the people of Bali as international companies are now buying and running many businesses, meaning less jobs for Balinese people. It was pretty sad to hear about how some people have to live and the money they are paid for their jobs, especially Mades wife who was a teacher but getting paid pittance. You could see how much it annoyed Made.
That was the end of the trip for us. On the way back to Ubud we got a flat tyre from a large nail! Poor Made must have been pretty annoyed but he still had a smile on his face and was more worried about the inconvenience for us, which it wasn't at all! He is such a nice guy! We really enjoyed the trip with him and were glad we booked the trip! We give him a 200,000 rupiah tip and he was over the moon. We would have spent that on the trip anyway as we got the money back for the dolphin trip which was 200,000. It was still a great trip, just a shame about the dolphins. We would definitely recommend Mr Made and Bali Creative Tours to anyone!
We were so knackered after the trip that we just wet back to the room and chilled for the night.