Our journey to Candi Dasa on the East coast was quite a short transfer in terms of distance, 24km, but it still took an hour due to lots of hills and bends along the way, passing through local villages. We were awarded a beautiful view from the top before we travelled down towards the coast.

We were staying at a lovely hotel with a great pool and ocean view - courtesy of Dan who had won 2 lucky dips on the lottery. Consequently, that afternoon was spent lying by the pool and swimming. We decided to venture out in the evening and the restaurant sent a free shuttle to pick us up. This is quite normal in Bali if you are staying out of town - what a great service, and they take you home too. The restaurant of choice was Vincent's with everything decorated with Van Gogh memorabilia. After dinner we decided to visit the Crazy Kangaroo for a few drinks and they had a live band. Ooops, the whole town was empty and the band were playing to us and another 4 people from our Hotel. Apparently, it is always this quiet out of season, not sure how they all stay in business. So, after one drink they gave us a free taxi home!

Next day we did some sightseeing around the east coast and our first visit was the ancient mountain temple, Lempuyang. The locals were busy preparing for a big celebration happening in a few days so it was already beautifully decorated with yellow and white umbrellas and we watched them put up the huge Penjor's they had made. There are 7 levels of temples in total and to reach the top would be 1,700 steps up a steep staircase and 2 hours climbing - apparently it is believed by the locals that if you complain the journey will be harder - something Dan didn't want to risk so we went to the 1st level. This level has the "gates of heaven", a stunning split gate style of Hindu Balinese architecture that represents the boundary between the outer world and the outer realm of the temple and framing Mt Agung (although on this occasion is was covered in cloud).

Many tourists come here for the Instagram worthy shot of them standing in the gates of heaven and consequently there was a queue for this, which we did join having come all this way. 45 minutes later it was our turn and the guy who was sat there taking the photos for everyone (for a small fee) asked us for a mobile phone. We didn't have one with us which was a real shame. He uses a mirror so that the photo captures a reflection of the gate and looks amazing.

Onwards and upwards, we then went on to visit a former royal water garden palace called Tirta Gangga, which means water of the Ganges. The main features were tiered fountains, gardens and stone sculptures of mythical creatures spouting water and we had a bit of fun on the stepping stones and looking at the extremely large golden carp in the pond.

It was getting really hot now so we decided to make one more stop at another water palace called Taman Ujung with its mix of Balinese and European architecture. It has a mountainous backdrop and the ocean in front and is very popular for wedding photography - not difficult to see why as it was really beautiful.

Late afternoon was spent by the pool enjoying their Sunday happy hour and we were rewarded, courtesty of mother nature, with a spectacular sunset. We had one final day which we decided had to be a day of rest and we did nothing very much apart from enjoy the pool, the view of the sea and some reading - a perfect little stop on the east coast before our journey to the north of Bali to a town called Lovina.