June 10th, 2016

Day 71: Bali – Batukaru / Jatiluwih / Pura Bratan / Tanah Lot

So we were woken up by a frantic phone call from Igor’s mom at 3AM – apparently our credit card had been compromised and there were a half a dozen charges attempted at Walmart, Best Buy and other US retailers within the last few hours. We suspect that one of the two stores we visited in the Discovery Shopping Mall in Kuta the night before copied and sold our credit card number. We read warnings to never, NEVER use your credit card in Indonesia, but we let our guard down in Bali. Luckily, the Citi Fraud Department is quite good – none of the fraudulent charges went through, and the card was cancelled. Unfortunately, sending us a replacement card overseas is not a simple task – we asked them to send it to the Marriott in Medan – our final hotel before flying to Malaysia. Keeping our fingers crossed!

After our poor night’s sleep, we were very tempted to just stay in our hotel room all day and skip sight-seeing in Bali. All the crowds, and traffic and over development is not why we came to Indonesia. But then, we had to admit we did not come all the way to Indonesia to hide out in a resort either, so we reluctantly dragged ourselves out of the hotel room in search of a taxi.

One of the downsides to staying in a resort, is that you are a captive consumer. We didn’t have the option to go out into the city and haggle with multiple taxis like we did in Kuta – we were at the mercy of the resort transportation desk, who tried to tell us that a half-day taxi hire would be 900K IDR, but quickly dropped the price to 600K IDR (USD$45) when we started to walk away. We still overpaid, but we reasoned our time was more valuable the USD$10-20 we would have saved by walking ourselves out of the resort and trying to find another taxi driver. In addition to convenience, we also got an English-speaking driver with a very clean, air-conditioned car. We agreed to hit 3 attractions, plus a stop for lunch, in 6 hours – giving us plenty of time to relax and enjoy the resort in the evening.

Our first stop was the Batukaru Temple, at the foot of Batukaru Mountain. While it is Bali’s second highest mountain, it’s off the beaten path for tourists and you get a more authentic spiritual experience here. Unlike the other temples we visited, there is a dress-code enforced for anyone entering the temple grounds (sarong + sash for both men & women – loaners available at the entrance), and the majority of temple visitors are actual worshippers – not tourists.

 

Visiting the Batukaru Temple – a *real* place of worship, so there are quite a few rules to follow

 

Sarongs are required to enter the temple complex – Igor needed a loaner

 

Real worshippers & offerings

 

The stunning water-garden & 7-tiered roof shrine of Batukaru

 

Batukaru – the only truly serene temple we visited in Bali

After the temple, we continued on to the Jatiluwih Rice Terraces for a quick photo-op then on to the Ulun Danu Bratan temple AKA “The Lakeside Temple” – one of the most iconic temples in Bali. Of all the locations we’ve been to in Bali, this one just screams, “TOURIST TRAP.” Complete 180 from the Batukaru Temple – the place was teeming with tourists taking selfies and there was a friggin’ motor-boat zooming past the lakeside temple! We were in and out of there as quickly as possible.

Jatiluwih Rice Terraces – a UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

We only had a little time to wander about the fields as we had a 6-hour time limit with our driver – if only we could rent a car/ojek – we could have lingered

 

Joining the herds of tourists to snap some pics of the Bratan Temple

 

No doubt – the temple is picturesque – but trying to get a clear shot without a dozen fellow tourists required a lot of patience. Not the place to go for a “magical” experience – at least not at noon. Who knows – maybe the place is empty at sunrise…

 

Posing for as many photos as possible, before the rain clouds break open

There are several buffet lunch options near the Ulun Danu Bratan temple – looks like it is the thing to do when visiting the area, so our taxi driver took us to his pick. No complaints on the food – we ate as much as possible (given the high prices at the resort restaurants, we had skipped breakfast and would likely have a small dinner) before heading back.

 

Indonesian buffet lunch near the Bratan Temple

 

Retreating to the serenity of the Pan Pacific Nirwana Resort

We spent the rest of our afternoon at leisure in our hotel room, enjoying the lightening-fast Wifi and the luxuriously cool AC. Since we are literally right next to the Tanah Lot Temple, the resort offers a complimentary walk through the golf course to view the temple at sunset, so we headed out around 5:30PM to check it out. Not only did we get a better view than you would get as a visitor to the temple, we discovered there is a BACK-DOOR ENTRANCE to the temple complex without paying admission! (Oh, and there are several restaurants, where you can get breakfast/lunch for a few dollars, rather than the USD$25+pp the resort charges.)

 

Super excited about our resort-view of the Tanah Lot Temple

 

OMG! We have our own secret entrance to the Tanah Lot Temple! This is awesome!

 

Just like Ulun Danu Bratan, this temple is a Disneyland-esque zoo of tourists – complete with many gift shops where you can buy Buddha merchandise. Note: Bali is 90% Hindu – there are very few Buddhists. The Buddhist statues are *purely* for the tourists – as one of our Hindu taxi drivers informed us

 

While I already explained my moral dilemma with Kopi Luwak (we didn’t buy any more), we couldn’t help but linger at the Bali Luwak Coffee shop that had 3 pet civets! Unlike the coffee plantation we visited before, at least these civets weren’t in cages – they were just laying out front like house-cats!

 

The coffee shop even had a flying fox! He wasn’t tied down – I assume he was free to fly away if he wanted to, as you can’t really clip a bat’s wings. Guess he was just a pet…AND SO CUTE

 

Final view of Tanah Lot, back at the resort

 

Evening stroll around the resort pool and a Chinese wedding scheduled for the evening. We felt really bad for them – it started pouring at 8PM – hope they had a back-up location inside!

 

The rain didn’t bother us! We ordered a small room-service dinner (complete with Bintangs we picked up at an Indomart outside the resort), and washed all our dirty clothes in the bathroom sink. WE CLASSY.