Day 6 - Ubud Area - Excursion
Today it was time again for an excursion. Our driver / guide - his name is Dewa - picked us up at 8am and we drove towards Ubud. We stopped on the outskirts of town - in Peliatan - to visit his home. First we took a walk in the surrounding streets, with many small local traders and cafes. Dewa lives with his wife and two smaller children on a plot where several houses are built around a family temple. Here his entire immediate family lives of 36 people: mother, father, sister and her family, uncles, uncles, cousins and cousins live together, yet in each house. That's the way you live in Bali - the eldest son takes care of the parents - there is no social safety net at all.
After visiting the home, we went to Puri Agung - the royal palace.
The palace is today home to the royal Ksatria family and dates back to the 17th century. The Kingdom of Bali originally consisted of a number of Hindu and Buddhist areas ruled by various kings. Taken as a king heir. Today, there are few royal families left. Their function is ceremonial, for example at weddings and charities. During the visit to the royal palace we were dressed in traditional Balinese costume with sarong.
We now proceeded to the center of Ubud. Made a short stop and took a walk through the market - we weren't intrigued by the city, which we had otherwise read should be one of the highlights of Bali with art and local design. Tourism had taken over - unfortunately - but our guide had prepared us for it.
Now we drove to Tegenungan - a 20 meter high waterfall just east of Ubud. To get to the waterfall itself, we walked down some steep stairs in the back damp heat for it had just rained before we arrived.
On the main road between Ubud and Denpasar lies Pura Batuan, a local Balinese Hindu temple with many ancient Balinese ornaments and paintings. Pura Batuan was founded in the year 1020, ie almost 1000 years old.
Today's program was over and we were back in Nusa Dua at about 14.
We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon on the balcony with newspaper reading and Jessie was a walk by the pool and in the pool.
The dinner for the evening was grilled fish.
