On Monday morning we walked out the lane to the road to meet up
with Made whom we had asked to drive us to Candidasa, stay over night, and drive
us home the next day. Made is a beautiful, kind and thoughtful man as well as
knowledgeable, speaks English well, and is an excellent driver who can
negotiate the frenetic throngs of motor cycles and vehicles with a calm mind
and a smooth drive!
The drive to Candidasa started out through the busy, narrow
streets of the little villages around Ubud. Made suggested a couple of stops.
First we stopped off to see The Elephant Cave Temple – Goa Gajah – in Bedulu.
The major attraction is the 7-metre deep cave in which we saw a statue of
Ganesha, three stone “lingghas” plus some other statutes. The temple is
basically of Hindu origin but there are some statutes which are more Buddhist
and this illustrates the mix of both religions playing a part in Balinese
culture.
Our next stop was the Royal Palace – Taman Gili - at Klungkung.
This is laid out in a square and is believed to have been in the form of a
mandala. Most of the original palace and grounds was destroyed in 1908 by the
Dutch and in fact a gateway is all that remains of the original palace. Two
important buildings have been restored and we amazed at the detailed roof
paintings depicting several stories in the Balinese culture.
We arrived in Candidasa around lunch time, found a hotel on the beach – Puri Bagus – and went off in search of Geoffrey’s recommendation for lunch “”Bali Asli”. We drove through some little villages and up into the hills to find this restaurant nestled amidst the rice fields with views over to Mt Agong. It was stunning. Beautiful open building, even the loo was open so that you could sit on the toilet and look out to the rice fields through the shield of leaves from the banana trees. The view was the “typical Bali” that one dreams of – green, lush, palms, rice paddies, and then on the horizon, the mountain trying hard to peak through the haze and clouds. They offered a tasting lunch of 6 Balinese dishes and desert. Absolutely delicious!
Lunch was a lazy affair, and then we headed back to the hotel,
checked in, and went straight to the pool to cool off. The beaches are
volcanic, so grey sand, and we watched the brightly coloured outrigger boats anchored in
the little stone harbour by the hotel.
The sky turned a deep shade of red when
the sun set, and we made the most of every minute before heading for a shower
and dinner. I don’t think we were really hungry for dinner after the beautiful
lunch we had eaten, and I think we all had a salad of some description. It was
delicious, and soon we headed back to the room and a sound sleep to prepare us
for the morrow.
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