Day 4 - Pura Ulun Danu and Jatiluwih - Excursion
We were picked up by our driver at 8am. The traffic was already close as we drove north. As we came outside the urban area covering the whole of southern Bali, the landscape became more agricultural with rice and vegetable fields, banana palms and fruit trees. The road went uphill with beautiful views of the countryside. The first stop of the tour was the Pura Ulun Danu Bratan Temple, located on Lake Bratan in the mountains near Bedugul. It is a so-called water temple. The temple was built in 1663 and here came the Balinese with sacrifices to the water goddess Dewi Danu. Lake Bratan is 1200 m above sea level and we noticed as soon as we got out of the car that the climate is significantly cooler than anywhere else in Bali - very comfortable even with lower humidity - like a nice Danish summer day with a light breeze.
From here we continued upwards in the mountains, from where we could see the area's two other large lakes - the Danube Buyan and Tamblingan at Mount Lesung.
The lakes are surrounded by rainforest. The rivers of the lakes are important water reserves for the rice terraces.
On the way down the mountain again we made a stop at a place where we were met by an army of macaque monkeys who are clearly used to being fed.
Now we drove off the major roads, through authentic small towns and lush areas of plantations and growing vegetables. The next destination was the Jatiluwih rice terraces, designated by UNESCO to be worthy of conservation (world heritage). The name Jatiluwih comes from jati and luwih which means true and beautiful. And that's no exaggeration - it's indescribably beautiful. The stretch of rice fields extends from the foothills of Mount Batukaru to the sea. The terraces ensure that water can flow from one level to the next and a mind-boggling 'Subak system' of channels ensures that the rice plants get the necessary amount of water throughout the growing season.
Three different types of rice are produced, white rice, brown rice and black rice. We went for a marked walk in the rice fields, in one of the few small stalls where locals sold their goods, we bought a bag of plain white rice, a bag of red rice and a bag of black rice - each with 500g.
From the rice terraces we drove back to Nusa Dua Gardens - a trip of about 2 hours with a lot of traffic.
There was time for a few hours by the pool.
In the evening we enjoyed Sate Plecing Besar with fish. For dessert See Teler which is a fruit cocktail with fresh coconut, jack fruit (seeds), avocado (a special dessert species) served in the frozen hollowed out coconut with ice cubes and coconut syrup (coconut syrup of condensing milk and coconut milk). Another exciting holiday in Bali is over.
