The Holy Spring temple and the Cliff temple, Bali, Indonesia

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Day 3 in Bali was reserves for visiting the must-see sites in Bali. We were still yet to see the Holy Spring temple ( Tirta Empul) and the Cliff temple ( In Uluwatu).

As we spoke to the driver, he told us that the places we wanted to visit were at opposite ends of the island and that would hence have a long travel time. He renegotiated the price to 350000 ( around 35 USD).

The holy spring temple was nice and resembled one of our Indian temples with holy water. The difference here was that you are allowed to dive into the water. And it was super clean! Other than the spring, the temple once again resembled the other temples.

On the other hand, the Cliff Temple was fabulous. As in mind- blowing. The temple is at the edge of a cliff with a view dripping down into the ocean at about 100 feet. Really amazing. Watch te pics. Really awesome.

They also had a Fire and Dance show showing a few scenes from the Ramayana. This was much better than the Barong dance that we saw earlier. Costs around USD 7 per person of I remember right. A little overpriced I thought. However, the temple is a MUST SEE destination. Don't miss it for anything. Be careful of the monkeys though. So many of them arous and they're out to grab your stuff. So secure everything.

We got caught in a lot of traffic heading to the temple and back. Each journey took us close to 2 hours. We were so tired by the time we got back!

The shops around the temples sell some amazing souvenirs. Bargain heavily to get a good deal.

We leave tomorrow for Jakarta to get to Bandung. I really don't have any regrets for leaving Bali. I think it is highly over rated and filled with too many tourists. However, it's worth traveling to Bali during the off peak season to immerse in the culture filled with Hinduism and Buddhism. And for people traveling to Bali for the beaches, I would advise you to think again. You may as well make a trip to the Philippines for that - Boracay or Palawan. For starters, most Filipinos speak English and they're also a polite bunch.

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia - Eat, Pray, Love

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Right as I start punching in this information, you must know that Ubud is an absolutely MUST VISIT city in Bali. Not only because the movie Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts was shot here but for the fact that there's something about this town/city that makes you feel warm and comfortable. Ubud was voted the number 1 city in Asia and the number 5 city in the world by readers of the travelers magazine.

We visited the temple here which was nice. However as I mentioned earlier, each temple was beginning to increasingly look like the other now!

We then took some time to walk into the Ubud market which instantly transports you into a novel with cobblestone roads and prim and proper stores. The whole area felt like you were out in some European tiny village street with small cafes and book stores.

We wanted to go back there again but we never did get the time to manage it. Put aside a minimum of 2 hours for
Ubud and I would recommend half a day to walk around the place.

Definitely worth your time. If you're really not interested in hitting the parties and clubs at Kuta and Legian, you may consider staying in Ubud.

Annoying things in Bali, Indonesia

Here are some of the things I find very annoying in Bali. Some are unique to Bali while many of them are common to Indonesia.

1. You need to bargain for everything - trust me when I say that anything and everything can be bargained for ( hotel rooms included). If a person asks you for 100,000 IDR ( around 10 USD) for a product, remember that you can buy it for even 15,000 to 20,000 IDR ( around 2 USD).

2. Taxis never use their meters. They ask for absurd prices. Try to find bluebird cabs and you may be lucky to find a nice cabbie!

3. The traffic is horrendous. And all the time. If you enter Legian street or Kuta it would probably take you an hour to get out! There are just too many cars and bikes on the road. To add to these woes, you have all these Australian and American tourists who rent bikes and create mayhem on the roads!
( I am currently in the middle of a traffic jam too! )

4. There really ain't that great a beach! Or maybe I feel that way Coz I'm so used to the white sand blue water beaches of the Philippines.

5. The craziness of Legian street. Crazy parties are fun but then you need to feel safe. That feeling doesn't come at the crazy party places in Legian. Drugs are sold freely and people don't stop bothering you either to sell something to you or offer their various services. We chose to stay away from this area except when we wanted to shop.

6. You have this continuous feeling that you've been cheated or you may be cheated. Most of the locals and vendors are out to milk tourists for all they are worth. Even after you've finished bargaining you are still left with that feeling that you've paid too much!

7. The rental car guys can really becoming super annoying. You pay them to take you to where you want to go, but in reality they are taking money from you to take you to where they want you to go! You give them a list of places you want to see, they give you a fresh one and sell the idea to you saying its the best thing to do. You realize later that they want to take you to Batik stores, Silver/Gold stores, Spice gardens, Wood carving places etc ( All of whom are giving the driver money for bringing you there). Even the restaurant they took us was crappy and super expensive. By afternoon, you've realized that the drivers just taking you where he wants and you're wasting most of the day doing useless stuff!

Note: Put your foot down in the beginning. Say no to batik, spices and everything they say. Insist on eating where you want. Trust me, you will land up saving a lot of money and time. You can always buy batik or spices from the hundreds of stores in the evenings when you have more time.

8. They don't really allow you into tue actual temples. It's like they've set up tourist areas at all temples! I'm a Hindu and I wasn't allowed in too.

Well this doesn't mean that Bali's a bad place to be in! It's just that the place is so dependent on tourists that they try to suck the last penny out of you. So be on guard all the time.

Happy New Year from Bandung Indonesia

To all the folks out there reading my updates - here's wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Have arrived in Bandung and we're staying at Le Provence. We booked the room over the phone. Will update with pics once I get there!

Kintamani, Batur active volcano - Bali, Indonesia - "Worth the view"

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Well, yet another active volcano in Indonesia, only this time in Bali. When we first saw the itinerary presented to us by the folks at our hotel, we wanted to cancel the volcano from our list. Felt like we've seen and had enough of volcanoes!

However since the driver insisted, we went along. We just prayed that there would be no rain or fog to play spoilsport to ruin our view.

The drive to the volcano was a wonderful experience. So much of greenery to be found in Bali. Also, the architecture as we passes the country side was amazing. So many temples all along the way.

You have a view of the Batur active volcano and a huge lake from the view point that we were taken to. Reminded me of Tagaytay in Philippines a wee bit. Worth the drive and the view.

We also got to see the famous rice terraces on our way back. This driver also took is to a spice garden. Basically, it's like an estate where they give you sample coffee and otter drinks to taste and try to get you to buy coffee. I'm pretty sure the drivers make a commission from them here also. We got to taste the famous (for the poop reasons) Kopi Luwak - the cat poop coffee. Basically there are these wild cats livid in the coffee plantation and they feed on the coffee Cherries. This goes through the digestive system and comes out in the poop. They clean it and make it into coffee. It's now an exotic variety. We bought some too. Was pretty expensive though.