Today is our last full day in Bali and we have a lot to see and do.  We have our rental scooters, so we have complete control which is nice after having drivers take us around on many days.  If you were wondering, the scooters only cost $10 USD each per day.  If we got the smaller scooters it would have been only $5 USD each, but we wanted the extra power since most of today will be on winding, mountain roads.

Before leaving we had breakfast (me: Egg Fried Rice; Tim: Scrambled Eggs & Toast) and were on the bikes heading out the gate before 9:30 AM.  We will go to the furthest site first that is about 1.5 hours away.  Right after leaving the villa, the fun began...check out the Google Maps screenshot:

Those kinds of curvy road was most of the 1.5 hours of riding.  We did pull over a few times to take a break.

This was a pull off at the top of the road.  I noticed others stopped here, so I pulled over.  It was great views of what is called twin lakes.

Also at this viewpoint stop was a crazy guy with animals that you can interact with.  I took one step towards it and then two steps back.  Do you see what is under that umbrella?  Those are giant bats!  Tim was crazy enough to go over there and "play" with all the animals.  He was even scratching one of the bat's heads like it was a kitty cat or something.  Need less to say, I wasn't there to take that photo.

There were even some monkeys enjoying the view.  It isn't a proper day in Bali without seeing a few monkeys.  These guys are wild and has nothing to do with the "bat guy." 

We road all the way down to those lakes then rode inland to finally arrive at Jatiluwih Rice Terraces, an UNESCO designated world heritage sight.

There are many trekking routes you can take through these fields.  We originally planned on doing the longest, white route, but it said on the map that the route would take 3.5 - 4 hours.  It was already almost noon, so we didn't really have time for that and to get back to the villa before dark.  There is no way we want to ride the scooters on those curvy mountain roads in the dark.

We opted to do a hybrid round which worried us a bit because we weren't sure how the trail markings were going to be, buy once we started the walk, we noticed very nice markings with signs (as below) as well as maps at all the intersections.  The scenery along the walk was just amazing. The volcano in the photos is Mount Batukaru.

Here is a short video that shows the beauty of these rice fields.

Of course there was a couple of temples scattered throughout the rice fields.  This one is called Pura Besi Kalung.  We had the place to ourselves giving us the opportunity to take some gate photos.  

It was getting late, so we continued the walk and actually cut it short a bit. We still got to experience much of the rice fields alone.  It wasn't until we got closer to the center that we saw many more people. 

We arrived back to the scooters about 1.5 hours after setting out for the trek.  It was now after 1 PM and we still have a couple of stops left before heading back to the villa.  First thing is first, we need some food.  I read about a strawberry farm that serves everything strawberries, so we headed that way.  20 minutes later we arrived at the Strawberry Stop.

We ordered two Strawberry Milkshakes, one Strawberries and Chocolate, and two Strawberry Crepes.  Everything was delicious and all cost 93,500 IDR => $6.25 USD.

The last stop is one of the most popular temples in Bali, Ulun Danu Beratan Temple.  It is not the biggest temple, but the setting is amazing.

This temple is quintessential  Bali.

These photos makes it looks like we are alone here, but there are hundreds of others here taking the same pictures.

It was now after 3 PM and we have at least a one hour ride through the mountains to get back to the villa, so we hopped on the bikes and headed back up the mountain with a few stops to rest along the way.

The end of the ride was 20 minutes down a steep, winding road.  We had to pull over multiple times to let the brakes cool off.  Luckily there were small stores along the way that made for good places to pull over and have snack before continuing down the mountain.

We arrive back to the villa at 4:15 PM.  The host made a reservation for us at a beach club for dinner with a driver picking us up at 5 PM.  That gives us just 45 minutes to get a quick swim in and showers before leaving.  Somehow we managed it and was heading down to the beach just after 5 PM.

I love the way they put reservations on tables here.  And what better to go with beer on the beach than pizza.

The sunset, which we had front row seat for, was super nice tonight.

After we ate, we were ready for the ride back.  They told us that the driver was out picking up other customers and it would be about 30 minutes.  No problem. We can sit here and watch the waves on the beach some more. After 30 minutes the manager told us that the driver was still busy and asked if we minded to back in the open car...sure.

 I asked the driver if he knew where to get Arak, a drink I have heard about that is made here in Bali.  He asked if I wanted a plastic or glass bottle.  I took that to mean do I want a homemade one or a store bought one.  I said plastic, but he insisted on taking me to a store to buy the "safe" kind.

Can you believe that we drove 5 miles partly up a mountain in that golf cart like vehicle?!?

We arrived back to the Villa at 8 PM and opened up the Arak.  The girl at the store suggested I buy the strawberry flavored one. 

Today we leave Amed Beach and head northwest to Buleleng.  But first, a shower...and what a shower it is:

Since our days in Bali are now limited, I decided to have a traditional Bali Breakfast instead of the American Breakfast that has been offered at the places were were staying.  This is Mie Goreng (Fried Noodles) and it was so delicious.  This is definitely comfort food.  Tim stuck with the American Breakfast. 

We packed up and were at the front desk by 8:15 AM.  The driver was already waiting for us even though we weren't supposed to be picked up until 8:30 AM.  One thing in Bali you don't have to worry about is if your driver will arrive when expected.  They are always there and always early.

We checked out and jumped into the car for the long 2.5 hour drive to our next lodging in Buleleng.  This driver was very fast and was always trying to get in front of the car that was in front of us.  It wasn't the most enjoyable ride, but I guess he got us there.

​After that anything but relaxing drive, we arrived at the most relaxing looking place so far.  The room was clean and bright and there were flower accents throughout.  The best part...the outside shower.  I can't wait to use it.

Check out this view from our front patio.  I will definitely be using that pool later today.

The owners of this villa are super nice and suggested a grilled fish restaurant for lunch and then a Buddhist Temple to see afterwards.  This sounds perfect since we don't want to do too much today and enjoy the pool.  I told them when I made the reservation that we wanted to rent two scooters for the two days we staying with them, and the scooters were there and waiting.  The service here in Bali is amazing.  

Around 12:45 PM we headed down to town for the 20 minute ride to Warung Ikan Bakar Xenia, the restaurant suggested, and ordered two parrotfish, as suggested.  They fish was fresh and seemed to be caught this morning. 

We grabbed a table with a view and awaited for our lunch.

It was definitely worth the wait.  The fish was grilled perfectly with a bit of sweetness that must have been the sauce they basted it with as they grilled it.  Yum!!  Oh...this whole meal (Tim's serving was just like mine, only his fish was a bit bigger) was 88,000 IDR => $5.87 USD.  I would eat this everyday if I lived here.

After lunch we rode the 15 minutes to Brahmavihara-Arama, Bali's largest Buddhist Monastery.  It had many different levels and gardens and buildings and was beautiful.

The monestary had a gate that we were able to take some fun photos in since the place wasn't very busy.

This is the view from the top of the stairs, inside the gate.

We walked around the grounds for about 45 minutes enjoying the views and the tranquility of the place.

We had to take some more photos with the gate before leaving.  

We left the monastery and was back to the villa buy 4 PM.  I put on my swimsuit, grabbed a bear from the fridge, and headed to the pool...ahhhh.

Dinner was served at 7 PM.  I had that delish Mie Goreng again for dinner...who can't go for a little more comfort food...and Tim had Chicken Satay.  After dinner we headed back to the villa for blogging and quiet.  Well...it was quiet until about 9 PM when the neighbor decided it was a good night for Karaoke.  The Karaoke lasted until about 11 PM.  Tim listened to music though headphones, and I fell asleep with little problem.

Tomorrow we ride the scooters south to see the sights.  It should be a wonderful day.  Until then...

We woke up and was ready for breakfast by 8:45 AM giving us 1 hour until the driver should arrive to take us to Amed Beach, just about 1 hour north of here.  As I looked off the balcony I caught a boat returning from a morning of fishing.

We again ordered the American Breakfast ate it, then returned to our room to finish packing.  We headed down to check out at 8:30 knowing that the driver will probably be early, which he was.  We got on the road to Amed right after 9:30 AM and enjoyed the drive up and over to the other side of the mountains.  It was quite the view from the top of the pass.

We arrived at our lodging in Amed before 11 AM.  They said they were almost done with our room, so mean while we enjoyed the welcome beverage.  Soon after the mixed fruit juice we were able to check into our room which was awesome since it was before noon.

The whole reason we are here at Amed Beach is to snorkel.  This area is supposed to be amazing for snorkeling and diving.  What makes this area unique is that you can dive right off the beach.  You do not need to go out on a boat.  

Before heading out, we decided to relax a bit, so we sat out on the chairs in front of the hotel on the beach which happened to be under some trees, so it was perfect.  We were discussing what we wanted to do for lunch, when one of the workers approached us and said that there was freshly caught fish from this morning and if we maybe wanted some later.  I told him that we were hungry now, so we said that it will be ready in 30 minutes.   About 30 minutes later, lunch was delivered to the table in front of our bungalow...freshly caught baby tuna and mixed vegetables with rice.  It was delicious.

By the way...when i paid our bill upon checkout the next day, they didn't charge for this lunch.  I asked about it and they said that it was a gift from the worker who caught it...WHAT?!?  I did leave a generous tip in the tip jar from that.

Anyway...after lunch we changed into our swimsuits, rented snorkeling gear from the hotel ($2 USD per set) and headed down the street looking for a place called Bobo that has a public access to the beach.  After only 5 minutes we arrived at Bobo, grabbed a couple of seats, and ordered mango fruit juice which they kindly served with popcorn.

It was now finally time to go snorkeling.  I geared up, got in the water, and put my face in to see amazement.  You didn't have to go far to see fish everywhere.  So many different colors and kinds.  it was amazing.  The coral was right off the shore, so the fish were as well.  I must have been out there for 1.5 hours before I came in for a break.

As we were sitting there resting up some, a couple came up from the water and said they saw a sea turtle out there.  I quickly grabbed my gear to see if I could see it as well.  After just a bit of swimming around I spotted it.  I then shared the new with others within earshot and we were now a group looking down upon a sea turtle doing its thing.  We even got to see it surface twice for air...amazing.  This was probably the best day of snorkeling I have ever had.

After snorkeling I returned to my chair, ordered a beer and watched the sunset while talking to other travelers sitting around.

We were going to order dinner from Bobo, but decided to head back to our lodging and eat there.  We picked up a couple of beers on the way, and ordered a couple of Greek Salads and Satay (me: Fish; Tim: Chicken).  I must have been starving after all those hours snorkeling because i didn't get a photo of the satay, but it was delicious.

After dinner we headed into the bungalow where I thought about blogging, but I fell asleep with the computer on my lap, so no blogging today.

Unfortunately we are only here in Amed Beach for one night.  Tomorrow morning a driver is going to pick us up at 9 AM to drive us to our next (and last) lodging.  Until then...

Today should be fun.  We rented a couple of scooters to ride around the area today, so we will have complete control of our day.  To start the day,  we had an American breakfast at the hotel that should last us a bit.  

We then took off on the scooters around 10 AM with the first stop being only 10 minutes away, Tenganan Pegeringsingan Village, an ancient village where villagers still live a traditional life.  While most of the villagers are rice farmers, some sell their crafts such as egg painting, weaving, and carving / painting on palm leaves.

The village was very picturesque.  You can see the craftsmen at tables outside their homes selling items that they made. 

There were many traditional buildings throughout the grounds of the village.

We spent about 1 hour walking around the village and talking to some of the people.  We talked to one man who was making something in preparation for the upcoming village festival.  He said that the kids aren't interesting in learning about how to do any of the traditional crafts or living anymore...they just want to play on their phones...sounds familiar.

Our next stop is Lempuyang Temple.  We thought we could ride our scooters right to the temple, but we were directed off the road into a parking lot 1.5 miles away.  Because of the popularity of this temple, you have to take a shuttle bus up the mountain to the temple.  We were pretty surprised by all this and we wondered what made this temple so popular.

When we bought the tickets for the shuttle bus the person mentioned something about waiting 3 hours for a photo...what?  We had no idea what she was talking about.  We bought the ticket and headed up the steep, long mountain road.

From the shuttle stop, we had to walk a another 5 or so minutes up a very steep road until we finally arrived at the entrance.  There we purchased the tickets for the temple and was given a number...ours was 410.  It winds up that this temple is so popular because people want to take a photo of themselves inside the "Gates of Heaven" with Mount Agung volcano in the background.  When we arrived they were calling number 180...now we understand what they meant about waiting for 3 hours to take a photo.  There was no way we were going to wait...we just snapped this photo in front of the "Gates of Heaven."

The crazy, or is it sad thing about it was that today you couldn't even see the volcano due to clouds. Such silly people waiting for the "Insta-worthy" photo.

On the other side of the courtyard from the "Gates of Heaven" was this cool staircase that we didn't have to wait to get a photo in front of.

This is a photo from the top of those stairs:

By the way...this is what the backside of the "Gates of Heaven" look like.

The next stop was 20 minutes away, Tirta Gangga, a royal water palace.  There were many people, but the place was really beautiful.

It was now 2:30 PM and I was starving so we decided to eat at a restaurant inside the water palace.  We didn't want to eat anything too big since dinner was only a few hours away, so we ordered snacks of Chicken Quesadilla (Tim) and Vegetarian Nachos (me) along with a couple of fresh mango juice.

I needed to get one more shot of that cool tower before leaving.

Oh...here are the bikes that we rented.  We paid extra to get the bigger 155cc engine versus the 125cc ones.  The cost to rent each of these scooters for the entire day?  150,000 IDR => $10!

One lasst stop is Virgin Beach, not far from our lodging.  I brought our swimsuits, but it was already after 4 PM, so we didn't have much time to go swimming.  Instead we just walked on the beach a tried to find a temple that I thought was here.

We walked to the end of the beach and up a flight of stairs and found a parking lot, but no temple.  I asked someone and they said there was a temple but it was not opened to the public, so we just walked back down the stairs and back to our bikes.

Here we are getting ready to ride the bikes the last stretch to home.

Speaking of home...here is the view off our balcony just after sunset.

After a full day of running around on the scooters, we decided to eat at the hotel.  We both ordered the Barramundi fish which tasted delicious and wound up being a pretty healthy dinner.

After dinner we went back to our room.  It was already after 9 PM...wow...that was a late dinner.  We were both very tired, but managed to watch some YouTube, and a bit of blogging before calling it a night,  Tomorrow we have a driver picking us up at 9:45 AM to take us to our next lodging location about 1 hour away.  Until then...

Today we headed to Mt. Batur to climb it, and we are in no hurry.  We  have to check out of the hotel by noon, but our driver isn't picking us up until 2 PM, so we woke when we woke, showered, then went down for breakfast.  After breakfast we hung out in the hotel until it was time to check out.  We then found a comfortable place on the premises to hang out.  This is where we settled and where I worked on yesterday's blog...not too shabby.

Around 1:15 PM we decided we better get some lunch because we do not know when we will be eating next.  We both decided on the pizza, which was served with ketchup?

As we finished the pizza our driver showed up, so we payed the bill and loaded up for the 1 hour drive to the base of Mt. Bater.  About 45 minutes into the drive we caught our first glimpse of what we are about to climb up and camp on tonight.

We arrived at the start of the hike, met our guide, Yon, and started up Mt. Batur.

Mt. Batur is an active volcano that is 5,633 feet high.  It last erupted in 2000 when it just spewed ash into the air. Today we are hiking up the volcano to experience the sunset.  We are then going to camp up there for the night and wake up to see the sunrise.  

The sunrise on the top of Mt. Batur is supposed to be amazing and a bucket list item although I have never heard of it until researching what to do in Bali.  In order to catch the sunrise, you have to join an official tour that picks you up from your hotel at 1 AM so you can hike up the volcano in the middle of the night (in the dark) and arrive at the top for sunrise.  I kept going back and forth trying to decide if I want us to do this, but with the early wake up and knowing that we would be wasted the entire day after, I thought not.  When I mentioned this to a fellow traveler in Malaysia, she told me that when she was in Bali she did an overnight on the top of Mt. Batur.  I immediately looked into it and found this great guide that we are with today...and here he is...well, the back of him anyway.

Here is one of many break partially up the Mt. Bater.  Tim is staring across Lake Batur at another high mountain on the other side.

There were nice sitting areas available for breaks throughout our climb up the volcano.

The trail was pretty easy for the first half, but then it got steep and rocky, but I was enjoying the entire thing.

Here is a great photo of our guide, Yon.  He was a great guy and a really good guide.

We finally made it to the top of Mt. Batur 2.5 hours after we started.  My watch said we walked about 4.5 miles, just over 7 kilometers as the guide told us it was.  The time was 5:40 AM, so we have about 20 minutes until sunset.  This is another plus of doing the overnight camping trip.  You get to catch sunset and then sunrise the next morning.  When we arrived at the top, Yon prepared a snack of hot chocolate, fruit, and a candy bar for us.  It really hit the spot.  The hot chocolate was especially appreciated since we were sweating from the climb, and it was pretty chilly on the top.

According to Yon, we were very lucky to see a sunset tonight.  He said it has been a while since one was visible like this.  Usually there is a cloud bank that obstructs the sunset.

These next photos point east, towards a different view.  Yon took my camera and did a bit of magic to get the second photo below.

I took this photo back at our campsite looking east..wow.

After sunset, the guides (there was actually 5 of us camping here tonight with 3 guides between us,) prepared dinner which was chicken (tofu for me) with rice.  They then made a campfire and we all sat around and talked until around 9 PM.  We need to go to sleep a bit of an earlier today since we have to be up before 5:30 AM for breakfast and the sunrise.  I told Yon that I thought waking at 5:30 AM would be early enough, he said that it will be impossible to sleep past 5 AM because all the people will start to arrive from the sunrise hike and they will wake us up.  How many people will arrive?  Over 500 people will start hiking up Mt Batur at 3 AM to make it to the top in time for sunrise! Yon said that in the summertime the number is closer to 1,000 people.

It was much colder sleeping up here than I thought it would be.  I only have shorts and a t-shirt to sleep in and the sleeping bag they provided wasn't very thick.  I tossed and turned a bit before falling asleep and then awoke at 12:30 AM along with Tim.  We thought we would take the opportunity to head out for a "relief" break.  I think I was then able to fall asleep until around 4 AM and then on and off for the next 45 minutes until the people starting arriving.

We gave up and got our of our tent around 5:15 AM and was greeted by a warm beverage before the sun started rising.  Breakfast was then served (banana sandwiches, hard-boiled egg, candy bar) and then sky started lighting up.

At 7 AM the clouds started moving through the valley which is actually the crater of this volcano.

Ten minutes later it was time to start the hike back down Mt Batur. Unfortunately, the other 500 or so people thought it was a good idea as well.  The first half mile or so of the trail is rocky, steep, and slippery causing a backup on the trail.  Don't forget, these people haven't slept all night making them even slower than usual.

We managed to finally get down the steeper part and the crowd started splitting up after the first break point.  Speaking of which...here is the wonderful view at the first breakpoint:

After a few more breaks we made it towards the bottom of Mt. Batur where there a a couple of smaller temples.  Since we were in a bit of a hurry going up, we didn't stop.  Now we had a bit of time to check them out.  Isn't this a pretty good composed photo?

Woohoo...we made it.  It took us just over 1.5 hours to get down....not too bad.

It was now just before 9 AM and it was time to head to the hot springs for some well deserved soakings (and a flushable toilet).

I kept the phone in the locker while we used the facility, but I did take photos on the way out.  The temperature of the water was really nice and the place seemed very clean.  The pools seem to get colder as we got lower down towards the lake and there was a fully cool pool over on the other side.  It was an enjoyable way to relax for 1.5 hours after the hike up and down Mt. Batur.

The driver then drove us the 1.5 hours to our next hotel in the village of Candidasa, a resort town on the south-east coast.

When we arrived at the hotel, just before 1 PM, we were both very hungry, so we dropped our bags in the room, changed into our swimsuits, and headed to the pool.  From there we ordered a couple of beers, lunch (me: Squid Satay; Tim: Chicken Satay) and they also brought us some welcome drinks made from a  local fruit called Snakeskin Fruit.

Here is our lunch with a view:

After lunch and swimming and napping we headed back inside to relax before dinner. The lunch was so good that we considered eating a the hotel again for dinner, but I did some research and found a seafood restaurant in the next village over that had really good reviews...and they will come and pick you up for free from your hotel.

I made reservation for them to pick us up 6:30 PM which gave us time to see the sunset over the beach in front of our hotel.

The restaurant was set back off the main road in a garden and was really beautiful.

The reservation marker was a leaf with our name on it...pretty cool.

One of the fish specialties in the area is called Guarmi Asam Manis which is a local, freshwater fish fried with sweet & sour sauce on it.  I was expecting it to be a whole fried fish, but what was delivered was the carcass of the fish on the bottom with the flesh lightly fried in nugget sizes and the sauce poured on top.  Wow...it was so good and I didn't have to do the work of removing the flesh from the bones.  This dinner made me very happy.  Tim went with the Grilled Prawn Satay.

Oh...we started the meal with a bowl of Avocado Soup that was actually served warm.  That was very good as well.  And we finished with a chocolate mousse...another great dish.  ​Overall, this was my favorite meal we had in Bali so far.

After dinner, the driver returned us to our hotel where we watched some YouTube, blogged, and then went to sleep pretty early.  It was a long day since we were up before the sun and we needed sleep.  Tomorrow we will rent scooters and ride around the area checking out the sites.  Until then...

Today we were supposed to rent a couple of scooters and ride around the area visiting temples, but we decided to hire a car and driver instead.  One of the nice things about Bali is that you can hire a car and driver for the day for very little money.  In this case, we hired a car and driver for 500,000 IDR => $33 USD for him to pick us up at our hotel at 8:30 AM, drive us to anywhere we want for the next 7-8 hours, wait for us as we see what we want to see, and drop us back off at our hotel.  How amazing.

Before Made picks us up, we headed to breakfast at the hotel.  They had quite a buffet set up with traditional fruit, toast, and eggs made to order.  But then add noodles, sweet & sour fish, fried rice, and so many other foods.  Since we had such a huge dinner last night, I wasn't too hungry so I just had a plate of fruit.  A server convinced me to order eggs as well, so I shared a plate of scrambled eggs with Tim, but that was all I could do.

After breakfast, the driver showed up right on time.  We jumped in the back seat, I told him where I wanted to go which was pretty much what he thought we would want to see, and we were off.

First stop was Tegallalang rice terraces.  For a small fee ($3.40 USD for both of us), you can walk around beautiful rice terraces that make for amazing photos.  If the natural rice terraces aren't enough for you, you can swing on giant swings or zip line across the field for "better" photos.

We of course had to take a photo with the I ♥️Bali sign.

We were not about to ride the swing, but here are others taking that "Insta" photo.

This guy was willing to pose for you for a small donation.  I quickly shot the photo thanks to others paying for it.

Here are some more amazing photos we took while walking around the rice terraces:

It was now time to hit some temples.  The first temple we visited was the Tirza Empul Temple (dating back to year 962), a very popular Hindi water temple.  This temple had many tourists learning about and participating in ritual bathing,  We just watched.

After watching everyone jumping into the water, we continued our walk around the grounds.

The next two temples are pretty much neighbors of Tirza Empul Temple and only a couple of minutes down the road.  First was Mengening Temple.  Rule number 2 is quite interesting, but I have no idea was Run 3 mean.

Unlike the last temple, this one only had local people doing the ritualistic bathing.

The third, and last temple in this area was Temple Gunung Kawi, also known as The Valley of The Balinese Kings.

This temple was way down in a valley requiring us to walk down many, many stairs.  All the down was worth it since ​Gunung Kawi was our favorite temple of the day.

Check out these amazing nooks that were carved right into the rock in the wall of the cliff,

We then walked over a bridge, and the other side of the river also had niches carved in the rock, but with a water feature.  Very cool.

This was an interesting part of the temple.  There was a sign saying that we needed to remove our shoes before entering this entryway...OK..we'll bite.

Wow...what an amazing area on the other side.  This is definitely an area that you can sit for long periods of time meditating.  You couldn't hear any noise from outside, and there was water dripping in one of the corners making our a peaceful sound thoughout.

Hidden behind the peaceful entryway was some more carvings in the rock and more water features.

This was another cool looking part of the temple.

We now had a bit of a drive to get to the last of today's temples.  This is Goa Gajah Gianyar, also known as Elephant Cave and dates back to the 11th century.

More starting high and walking down to the temple.

Here is the namesake cave, Elephant Cave and was rediscovered by Dutch archaeologists in 1923.  You can see the elephant on the right side of the door (Tim's left).  I read that what is interesting about this temple is that there are both Hindi and Buddhist imagery carved into the stone, although I could not recognize it.

Inside this cave was somewhat dark with areas set up for offerings with incense burning causing the cave to be very smoky.

There are 6 woman holding water pitchers (the 7th one that was in the middle was destroyed) depicts the seven holy rivers of India.

When we thought we were done walking around we noticed the stairs kept leading down, so down we went where we saw some more incredible images.

Like all the other temples today, when you are done with looking around, you have to "exit though the gift shop." In other words, you had to walk by many stall of people asking you to look and buy.  It was pretty annoying, but I know that these people only want to make a living.

Although we wanted to get back to the hotel to enjoy the facility, Made insisted on us eating at a restaurant close by.  The setting was beautiful, but it was one of those places that i think pays the drivers some amount for bringing tourists to it. 

The food was about 30% more expensive than any place we had been and the food wasn't any better.  It wasn't bad, but it really wasn't worth the extra expense.  

I ordered the same as yesterday, Tuna Sambal Matah and Tim ordered the area specialty, Crispy Duck.

It was now after 3 PM and Made finally dropped us off back at the hotel.  This is how we spent the next couple of hours...hanging out at the swim-up drinking some Bali beer.

Last night when we got back to our room, there was a flyer in the door advertising taco specials for the next night (tonight) and live music.  So, after swimming we went back to the room, showered, dressed, and waited for 7 PM to go to the hotel restaurant.

We ordered some water and some fruit juices. Check out how fancy these drinks are.  Even the water bottles are cool.

The special tonight was if you order the tacos, you get a fourth taco free (that was placed on a separate plate). I ordered the Fish Tacos and Tim ordered the Pork Tacos.  They were both very good.

To make things even better, there was live music.  This guy played some great acoustic guitar and sang songs from Eric Clapton, Radiohead, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, and many other greats.  It was really enjoyable.

After dinner we went back to the room and we both fell asleep pretty quickly.  I thought about doing the blog, but it just didn't happen.  I am actually finishing this up a couple of days later.

As promised yesterday...here are some photos of our room and facility...very Bali-like.

This was a great stay.  I can't imagine anything better.

The roosters were back again starting around 4:15 AM, but this time I was ready.  I inserted earplugs I saved from our flight over from Chicago and they worked well enough to let me fall back asleep.  Our driver is arriving at 9 AM, so we got up, packed, and ate our American breakfast of eggs, toast, fruit, sausage (Tim), and juice.

The driver showed up right on time and we were off, but first, we saw from a distance the night before, a large statue of Garuda on the horizon.  We asked the driver to take us there before leaving town.  We thought it would be an easy drive-by, but it wound up being a whole thing.  We arrived at a huge parking lot and then was whisked away on a golf cart to an entrance and then was asked to pay around $16 UDS per person to walk in and see Garuda.  Oy...this is just wasting time.  We want to get to Ubud since we have a long walk planned.  Tim and I decided to just shoot this photo of the large statue of Garuda in the background and head back to the parking lot. 

By the way...this is what Garuda looks like. The statue itself is 249 feet tall, with the base it is 400 feet tall.

We got back to the car and was finally headed north to Ubud.  The distance is only 27 miles, but due to road congestion it took us 2 hours.  We drove by lots of small, but impressive looking community temples, but whatever this is was the weirdest thing we passed.  Thanks to the traffic I was able to get photos of these weird frogs that look like they are not happy with each other.

We arrived at our lodging in Ubud around 11:30 PM.  We thought we would just have to leave our bags at the front desk, but our room was ready so we were able to put our bags into our room.  But not before our welcome drink, every worker thanking us for staying here with them, a tour of the facility, and a tour of our room.  Wow...this place is so nice.  I will include photos of this resort at the end of tomorrow's post.

I had the driver wait for us to check-in so he can drive us to the start of our walk, so we dropped our bags and headed out.  The walk started right in the middle of Ubud at the Royal Palace.  Although this palace looks old, it was built in the 1800's.  It still was pretty cool, had a definite Bali feel, and had some interesting, intricate carvings.

Next our walk takes us out of town, but was we were passing restaurants we started getting hungry so we picked one and had lunch.  I had a traditional Balinese dish called Tuna Sambal Metah and Tim had Meat Lover's Pizza.

After lunch we finally got on with our walk, and just after 1:30 PM we arrived at the start of the Campuhan Ridge Walk.  We saw many other tourist walking along this route, but I think most were doing an out and back for a 2.5 mile or so walk.  We plan on doing a loop that takes us up the ridge and then back around though the rice paddy fields for a 6.5 mile walk....let's see how it goes.

One of the first things we saw was a traditional Bali Temple tower.  This is what the temple yesterday was missing since it was being renovated.

These temple towers are definitely one of the iconic symbols of Bali.

The trail continued climbing and climbing up to the ridge, but the scenery was beautiful, so climbing didn't seem so bad.

We made it to the entrance of a village and decided to take a little break before continuing on.

We entered the village that was a bunch of cafés and villas with a small road going through it that seemed only wide enough for scooters.  After about 10 minutes we were out in the country with beautiful scenes of rice fields.

We then took a left turn and road became busier and hard to walk along since it was narrow with car and scooters constantly passing by.  We had about 1 mile of walking along this road.  Luckily there was many small temples along the route that allowed us to take a break of walking this crazy road and seeing some sites.

Finally we made it to the turn off the main road and enjoyed the walk through smaller, more quiet villages.

And then the road because pretty much a pathway for only pedestrians and the occasional scooter.

We saw many people harvesting the rice.  This woman was separating the rice from the husk using the river running along the road.

We loved this part of the walk.  It was so beautiful. 

We then made a turn and wound up back in a larger village with traffic-laden roads.  We still had over 1 hour left of the walk to return to the Royal Palace in the center of Ubud, but decided we had enough.  

Oh...I forgot to mention that in every village we passed though, some always offered us a taxi ride. It seems everyone here is a taxi driver.  This time we really did want a taxi, so I approached the taxi stand and negotiated a fare back to our lodging.

Another thing I need to mention is that our plan for tomorrow is to rent scooters and ride around the area looking at temples.  All day Tim has been talking about how hesitant he is about riding scooters on these crazy roads.  So, as we were taking a taxi ride back to our lodging, I asked the driver if he was free tomorrow to drive us around.  He was, and he said the cost would be 500,000 IDR => $33 USD to pick us up and 8:30 AM and drive us around for most of the day.  For that price, and for Tim's piece of mind, I had to accept, so we will see Made tomorrow morning for a tour around Ubud.

Made dropped us off at our lodging around 4:45 PM and we immediately changed into our swimsuits and hit the pool.  The pool has a swim-up bar, so we took advantage of that and had a few beers.  By around 6:15 PM we were getting pretty hungry so we headed back to the room to shower and get dressed.  Instead of heading to town, we decided to try the restaurant in the resort which turned out to be a great decision.

We left very full and quite sleepy after our 7 mile walk today followed by beer and a large dinner.  Tomorrow our driver will be here at 8:30 AM, so we have to be up around 7 AM to ensure we have time for breakfast.  We went back to the room, tried blogging (failed), tried watching some YouTube (failed), and finally went to sleep.  

​Until tomorrow...

Well...all isn't pleasant here in Bali.  Around 4:30 AM a rooster started cock-a-doodle-dooing and continued throughout the morning.  I was able to fall back asleep till 5:30 AM and then till 6:15 AM, but that was all I could handle with the noise. Actually...as I type this at 10:47 PM, the rooster is at it again...oy!

This morning at 5:30AM I did check the reviews of the next place we are staying in and many of them say that it was nice a quiet.  We only have one more night here, so it isn't as bad as it could be.

So, we did get up early, showered, had breakfast delivered and left the lodging in search of an ATM around 9:30 AM.  With our pockets full of 2,500.000 Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) we ordered a Grab (Uber) and headed to the starting point of our hike, a parking lot high above Nyang Nyang Beach.

There was a very steep road leading down to the beach that was closed to cars, but scooters are allowed.  As we walked, we watched scooters stopping at the turns to allow their brakes to cool down...it was that steep.

That beach down there is our goal.

When we got to the bottom of the road, in the scooter parking lot, was three men selling rides back to the top of the hill....and yes, they had a very steady business.  Our entire time hanging out at the beach, Tim kept contemplating taking the ride as well.  Do you think he does?  Stay tuned.

Anyway...at the beach was a cool bar that provided shade and seats that allowed you to look out at the ocean.  We bought a water and peanuts so we could use the facility.

The waves were pretty large, and the surf was quite high making it fun to sit there and look out.

Then we noticed that there were surfers out there...cool!  These guys were really good doing flips in the air and riding the backside of the wave to return to the starting positions.  We noted that there was no cell phone service down here, so these guys really need to know what they are doing to be out here.

I walked a bit down the beach to take this photo of the bar we were hanging out at (in the background) and the people hanging out on a beach ledge above the beach.  It was a pretty nice place to hang for about one hour.

Time to head back up the hill.  By the way...the walk back up the hill is less than 1/2 mile and will only take 10 minutes, but Tim thought about it long enough and made me pay 25,000 IDR => $1.68 USD for him to ride on the back of the scooter.  By the way, it cost us 68,000 IDR => $4.57 USD to get here from our hotel 30 minutes away, so this is a pretty extravagant ride.

I, on the other hand, opted to walk back up and enjoyed every minute of it.  😎

Now that we were both at the top of the hill it was time to walk to a viewing point 1.2 miles away.  Here we are walking down a small road on the way to the place.

About 30 minutes after setting off, we arrived at Karang Boma Cliff and it was definitely worth the walk.

We now had to go back the way we came from and then make a left on the main road that will take us to Uluwatu Temple, the highlight of the day.  It was pretty hot when we weren't in the shade and we kept asking ourselves why were were out here walking when everyone else was riding around on scooters.  As a matter of fact, when I told the guy at the desk of our lodging what my plan was for the day he questioned why we didn't rent and take scooters.  I told him it was because we liked walking and he gave me a look like I was crazy....which I just might be.

It was just over 1 miles to the entry of the Temple, but first we need some food.  The guide I am following mentioned this café and said it was one of the best cafés they had been to in Bali, so we decided to check it out.  We started with mixed berry smoothies that I sucked down in one long sip and then Tim had Chicken Quesadilla and I ordered the Sunshine Rice Bowl...finally something that our friend Mary would enjoy!  It was healthy and delicious and just what I needed.

We then entered the grounds of Uluwatu Temple is a 1,000 year old Bali temple that sits on a cliff.  Unfortunately, the famous Pagoda that is regularly photographed was under renovation so we didn't get the "money shot," but it was still well worth the visit. 

Sarongs were mandatory for both men and women that had shorts on.  They did provide loners, but I brought our own.

Where there is a temple there seems to always be monkeys.  These monkeys are know to steal items from people and then try to bargain with them for food in exchange.  As we walked into the temple, a man warned Tim to take off his hat and sunglasses and store them away from view, and this is why.  Check out what the monkey on the left has in his hands...a pair of eyeglasses.  Some poor man was now without his prescription eyeglasses...can you imagine?

We were not allowed to enter the holier parts of the temple, but I was able to get a few shots through the gate.

There was a long walkway that went along the cliffside that we continued to follow to make a loop around the temple grounds.

More monkey sightings.  These ones are actually swimming mourned a statue of a monkey.  A monkey actually climbed up and sat in the hands of the statue monkey.

Here I am at the end of the walking path along the cliff.  From here we double back just a bit to return to the entrance.  

But wait...there is one more thing to see.  This is Danghyang Nirartha.  He was a Hindi priest and traveler in the 16th century and founded some sort of priesthood.

At this point the walk was supposed to continue to two more beaches and go for another 3 miles.  We just didn't have it in us, so we ordered a Grab and headed back to our lodging.  On the way back I texted the hotel and asked them about scheduling a massage for myself when we got back.

Upon arrival, I changed into my swimsuit and cooled off in the pool....ah!  The masseuse showed up soon after, so I took a shower and then had a wonderful 60 minute massage.  I haven't had many massages in my life, but this one was the best I have had.  And for the cost (200,000 IDR  => $13.40 USD) how could I not have one?  I may just have to make this a habit while here in Bali.

Durning my massage, Tim found a restaurant on Google Maps that we could walk to for dinner, so we got dressed and headed out.  On the way to the restaurant I spotted a vender selling grilled fish, so we decided to buy fish and corn from the vendor next to the fish, and take it back to our lodging to eat.  Could you believe that two whole grilled fish, a small salmon and a baby tuna cost the equivalent of $6.70 USD!

We ate the fish and corn and a couple of bottles of beer and then chilled in our room blogging and internet surfing.  Tomorrow we go to Ubud, about 1 hour north of here, to check into a different lodging and explore that area for a couple of days.  I arranged with one of our Grab drivers from yesterday to pick us up at 9 AM, so I better get to sleep now that it is almost midnight.

​Until tomorrow...

The alarm went off at 6 AM and we jumped into action.  We have 1 hour to shower, dress, pack, and catch the bus to the airport.  When we got outside the sun was barely up and there was lightning in the sky.  We managed to catch the bus I planned to catch, although if we had missed it there was another one just 15 minutes later, so I wasn't too worried.

Here we are on the bus.  We didn't bother taking our backpacks off since we get off this bus in less than 10 minutes to transfer to another one.

We successfully transferred buses in the pouring rain and arrived at the airport bus stop less than 1 hour after we left the AirBnB.  We then had a 10 minute walk to the terminal.  We checked in to our flight more than 2 hours before the flight, so we have plenty of time to get through security (where they took my little cuticle clippers that I have been traveling around the world with for the past 9 years) and grab breakfast.  We picked the place with the shortest line, the fried rice stall, ate, then headed to our gate.  They actually started boarding about 1 hour before the scheduled flight time, which actually made for an early departure.

The only hiccup on the flight is that since it was a discount airline (AirAsia,) they didn't even provide free water and they would only take cash.  This seemed a bit odd to us since we were on an international flight from Singapore to Indonesia and they would not take a credit card.  Needless to say, we didn't have any cash and we went without the snacks and drinks we wanted to buy...lesson learned for the return flight.

We landed in Bali about 10 minutes early.  This is the photo of us on the way to immigration.

Since we ate breakfast around 9 AM and we couldn't buy lunch on the flight, we were pretty hungry.  I found a seafood restaurant on the beach that looked good, so we ordered a Grab and drove the 20 minutes to Jimbaran Beach for dinner.

Here we are...well Tim...with front row seating for dinner and a sunset.  When we ordered, the waiter actually suggested we wait till after 6 PM to eat so we can enjoy the sunset before we were preoccupied by eating.  So, we ordered a couple of beers and an appetizer and waited the 45 minutes till 6 PM when the sun started setting.

And the sunset didn't disappoint.

Tim even managed to get a landing aircraft right when the sun was setting.  If only we knew the airlines, we could many sell this shot to their marketing department.

And then our dinner was delivered.  We ordered the Seafood Basket and it was filled with a large grilled fish, grilled shrimp skewers, grilled squid and pineapple skewers, and a large crab.  For the sides we had green beans in something, and 2 different sauces for the seafood.

It was quite the feast and we delicious.  And then, unexpectedly, at 7 PM 2 dancers came out and performed a traditional Bali dance.  Putting an end to our delicious and very enjoyable seafood dinner at sunset on a beach.

After dinner we took a Grab back to our lodging and relaxed in the room surfing the internet and blogging.  Tomorrow I have a long walkabout planned, so we hope to get a good night sleep and wake up early enough to give us time to finish the walk and return to our lodging to enjoy the pool.  So, until tomorrow...

This is our last day in Singapore and we need to make the most of it,  After walking around the reservoir with the big buildings yesterday, today we are going to walk around the Singapore Botanical Gardens and check out nature. But first, we need to eat and there just happens to be one of the most famous of the hawker markets,  Newton Food Center, on the way to the Gardens.

We took the bus that stops right in front of our apartment after 11 AM and arrived at Newton Food Center around 11:45.  I guess we needed the extra sleep after last nights fiasco in the AirBnB.  But, it wound up being a good thing since many of the stalls at Newtown do not open until around noon anyway.  

I did some research and took note of the stalls to eat at since these places can be a bit intimidating since there are so many stalls and it is hard to figure out where to eat.  I picked out for myself a place that sells Fish Porridge and for Tim I found a Satay place that was actually in Crazy Rich Asians.

Both of us really enjoyed the meal.  Plus, we had a fresh squeezed juice to go with it, Tim: Mango Juice, Me: Sugarcane with Sour Plum Juice.

After breakfast, or was it lunch, we went back to the bus station and continued west to the Singapore Botanic Garden, that we arrived right at 1 PM.

The Singapore Botanicl Gardens is 121 Acres of a 164-year-old tropical garden and is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I knew that we wanted to see as much of the park as we could, and I found a website that mapped out a path to do just that in 10 kilometers (6.2 miles).

This is pretty much the route we took walking from north to south, although we skipped the part that jutted out to the left saving us a bit of time and miles.

The entire park was pretty amazing covered with water features and tropical plants that mode for amazing scenery.

This part of the park is called Evolution Garden.  It takes you though 4.5 billion years starting from when the earth was just rocks with no plants, through mosses, ferns and cycads before reaching the higher plants that are most common today.  The area was very well done and parts of it felt like you were walking though Jurassic Park.

After Evolution Garden we popped out to Symphony Lake...gorgeous.

What is a stroll through a park without a monkey encounter?

This is called Symphony Lake because it has a stage on it where orchestras play regularly.  There wasn't a concert today, but this area is amazing with or without music.  Check out those lily pads...have you ever seen lily pads that big before?!?

Two hours into our walk we arrived at the National Orchid Garden.  This is the only part of the garden that actually costs money to enter ($15 USD each).  We contemplated going in, but in the end we decided to not and continue on with the walk.  It was already 3 PM and we had a brewery to get to.

Just past the Orchid Garden was some of the only flowers we saw throughout the park. It seems this isn't the time of year to see flowers bloomed.

This area is called Swan Lake.  There was actually a pair of swans living on the lake, but for some reason I didn't chose any of the photos I took with the swans.  So, just image a pair of swans in the water in the photos below.  🦢​ 🦢 🦢 🦢

We then entered the rain forest part of the Garden. Check out this enormous leaf and we also came across a monitor lizard.  This was actually one of three monitor lizards we saw throughout the day walking around the Garden.

As we walked we somehow wound up on a boardwalk that because elevated and crossed over a lake.

I followed these butterflies for like 5 minutes until I finally got a shot of the two of them sucking down nectar.

Here is a nice view off the raised boardwalk down to the lake.

By this point we were tired, hot, hungry, and thirsty with about 30 minutes left of the walk.  I made a reservation at the brewery, so we were on a bit of a time crunch, but we still stayed on the trail and continued seeing as much of the Garden as we could.  

I thought it was way cool that they had a bonsai portion of the garden.  These little fellows are so cool.

This is Sundial Garden.. It had a unimpressive sundial in the center, but being a cloudy day it wasn't putting out any readings, but the water feature with lily pads made up for it.

Speaking of lily pads...I told you they were huge!

Finally, after 4.5 hours of walking around, we made it to the end of the Sinapore Botanic Garden.  Next stop, Red Dot brewery where I made a reservation in 20 minutes from now.  We walked along the road adjacent to the Garden and in 15 minutes we made it . Check out the entry to this brewery.  It is about 0.5 miles from the Botanic Garden, and it is keeping the theme going.

We each ordered a pint and since we were pretty hungry we ordered a pizza as well.  This wasn't any old pizza, it was a Okonomiyaki Seafood Pizza with Prawns, Squid, Bonito Flakes, Onion, Shredded Nori, and Okonomiyaki Sauce.  I don't know what Okonomiyaki is, but we both loved this crazy pizza.

Check out this brewery.  They did an awesome job making it just right.

souvenirsWe were both exhausted and done, but we haven't really seen Chinatown yet and it is our last night in Singapore. So, we boarded the bus and got off in the center of Chinatown with the idea of doing a 1 hour or so walking tour.

We exited the bus and walked to this pedestrian only street called Pagoda Street.  It was filled with venders selling mostly suveneirs with restaurants behind them.  We came across Telok Ayer Square, a local hangout with a bunch of people line dancing to local music and old men playing checkers.  It definitely had a very local feel to it.  Crossing the street we saw a pink Ferrari...those Crazy Rich Asians.

Behind the square was this awesome looking building. It was the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.  Unfortunately, it was closed, because it would have been super cool to see Buddha's tooth...darn it.  Although the temple looks old, it was just built in 2007 at a cost of $5,500,000 USD.  

The walking tour we were following said that if we climbed some stairs we could get a great view of the temple.  At first we couldn't' figure out where the steps were, and then we saw an apartment building with outside steps...aha.  We walked up about 9 stories and got this great shot of Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

The tour continued, but we just couldn't.  I woke up with a bit of a neck ache and suddenly it was feeling really bad, so I was done and Tim agreed that he was done as well.  Although we were "done," there was still one more thing we needed to do...drink a Tiger beer in the county it is brewed, so we walked across the street to Maxwell Food Center, were we ate 2 days ago, and bought a couple of Tiger Beer.  While we were at it, we also bought an Oyster Egg Omelet to go with the beer.  The omelet was incredible and the beer went down way too easy.

It was now almost 8 AM and we were DONE.  We walked to the bus station and took the bus home.  We arrived at the apartment just after 9 AM, took showers, and went to bed. 

Tomorrow we have a 10:45 AM flight to Bali. The alarm is set for 6 AM, so we need to get to bed early.  Until tomorrow...