Day 3 - Another full day in Ubud

This morning was a very civilised start of 0900. Breakfast had, walking boots on we boarded a very tiny very rickety minibus and headed for the Campuhan ridge within Ubud. We started our walk in a tiny village situated among small rice fields and were invited in a mans home. Each home consists of 2/3 buildings and a temple. 1 room for the kitchen, 1 room for sleeping and another room for prayer, celebrations and funerals. We had coffee and tea while our guide explained about the traditions of a local Balinese person. We learned a few words to speak to locals and then headed off up to the ridge for a short walk with huge valleys either side. The sun went in for a short period which meant that there was a lovely cool breeze. Just what was needed!

After the walk we had a free day so 5 of us decided to head off to eat and then go see a few temples. Trying to explain that I have a nut allergy was interesting and after landing on a gesture that seemed to do the trick my meal turned up of a chicken leg with a sauce (looking alarmingly like Sate but wasn’t thankfully) and rice. All done in a nice slice which was lovely! After lunch we headed to the Lotus Temple which is exactly that. A temple with two large Lotus Ponds on either side. We had a look around and took some photos then headed to one other Temple in the hopes that we might be able to go into one of the temples, unfortunately this one was closed too but was still very impressive even just from the outside. Everything has ornate carvings and is covered in gold leaf.

With a few hours to kill before meeting up with the group again I passed out by the pool and then headed off to a traditional Balinese Dance Show!

Well that was ... interesting. We all walked down this dark alley and sat in a semi circle outside a small temple. We were told we would be watching three dances, we didn’t realise each dance went on for 25 minutes! There must have been at least 50 people involved in these dances, each in traditional costumes and all of the music was done just by the “choirs” voices. They went into some kind of trance when they were in the middle of each song. It was quite an experience. The dance ended with a man dressed as a horse setting fire to coconut shells and then kicking them around the floor very nearly hitting the audience... we came away not quite sure what we had witnessed but it was interesting none the less!