Pura Tirta Empul

We headed out of Ubud after a great breakfast and drove up into the mountains a bit to Pura Tirta Empul, the water temple...there is a natural spring that comes up out of the ground here and the water is considered holy.  This water will help you with whatever you need.  It is an absolutely beautiful spot.

 This is at the beginning of the temple where you enter.  It is lush and green and cool.

There are canals all around the temple site with beautiful tropical landscape.

 These creatures guard the entrance to the temple and the black and white checks (found on many statues at temple sites) represent good and evil.

Loved this sign but have no idea what it means.  I think it means that this is a historical site and is protected.

As everywhere in Bali, the doorways are so beautiful.  It was hard to get a good photo because the back light was so strong.  

Looking up to the top of the doorway.  

 This is the roof and the colors are incredible.   I loved this beautiful carving.  I think sometimes while walking through these temples I sometimes forget to breathe.  Everywhere I looked there was something incredible to see.

Making our way back into the temple, we saw the first pool, so beautiful, but by no means the main draw; below I am walking thru another doorway and looking up.

The colors here are fabulous...rich oranges and yellows.

 I took so many photos of just one doorway.

 Guardians of the temple.

 We continue up into the deeper parts of the temple and find the typical Bali gate.

Heading to the main offering table.  All offerings get left here.  

 These are the offering baskets that are brought to the temple.

Anyone who wants help with any particular issue bathes in the water and stands under the fountain spigots.  Each one has a different purpose:  fertility, health, male strength, etc.  

No one is shy about dunking heads directly under the spigot.  

There is lots of incense burning among the flowers, food, and offering boxes.

My favorite bathers were the young men.  There were many tattoos-very intricate ones- and I thought it was sort of the opposite of an anachronism...modern men in such an old place, but Margie reminded me that tattoos have a protective significance in Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and so not what we might think of them as biker and gang affiliations. 

This side seemed to have more men while the other side had more women.  Don't know if this was the male "strength" side and the other side more connected to fertility and women's health.

Above these pools were more gates and ritual spaces where priests performed religious rites.

More wooden doors carved in exquisite detail.

Here there was a lot of gold in the detail carvings and paintings.

It's hard to see here but this is the natural spring that bubbles up and where all the holy water comes from.

More offerings were brought to a site behind the pools and here is where the priest performed the ritual.

Here is one ritual.  You can see  the offerings on the ground.

Incense being lit.  We could only observe but not enter into the place of worship.

These women wanted their picture taken with us, so we did and then we took a picture of them.   I love all the different dress and the different religious affiliations. 

Me and mom as we were getting ready to leave.  This temple was such an amazing place.  I loved being here.  Bali is so incredible.

More later about our trip to the coast.  

Tanah Lot

Bali has may temples and the Hindu base of the religion is very strong.  There are Muslims but not as many as on the other islands.  We had a 7 am breakfast so we could be on the road by 7:30 to travel to Tanah Lot, a beautiful temple on the west coast.  I had camera trouble that day and the sun is so incredibly bright that even without sunglasses it was hard to see the settings to fix my problem.  Therefore I have good photos of the first part of the day and a lovely (NOT!!) drawing effect for the rest of the day.  

We arrived and donned our sarongs and scarves. This rule was not enforced at this temple, but we felt better being culturally correct and respectful.  This temple has several areas to walk through.  The first part (where I got good photos) was on the north side of the temple area.  Walking through the open gate is the first step.

This is Pura (temple) Batu Balong.  It is not the main temple.

View from Batu Balong south.

The gate in to the temple.  

There is one on each side of the entrance.

Here is the temple inside of the gate. And here is the view up the coast.

Of all my screwed up photos, these are ok:

Looking down on the beach from Batu Balong.

Now for some google images of what I couldn't get with my  camera.

People walk over the rocks to the temple-we can't go there although rituals are still carried out there.  

There were a lot of people that day and you can see the different religions represented by the clothes they are wearing.

Tanah Lot is claimed to be the work of the 15th-century priest Nirartha. During his travels along the south coast he saw the rock-island's beautiful setting and rested there. Some fishermen saw him, and bought him gifts. Nirartha then spent the night on the little island. Later he spoke to the fishermen and told them to build a shrine on the rock for he felt it to be a holy place to worship the Balinese sea gods.

Bali

We flew Air Asia to Bali, a very bare bones operation.  They did give us a reserved wheelchair for $20.00 but we had to push it ourselves...so Margie pushed Mom and I brought up the rear with the walker.  Security is at each gate so we walked thru Changi Airport and then waited in line to pass security..it's the only place where we didn't get to go thru priority.

The flight was only 2 hours and we brought food from the airport-much cheaper than in the US.  Our airline charged for drinks too, so we used our own water.  We were met by our hired driver, Mr. Sunjaya-it's all "mister" and "madame" in Bali.  He surprisingly had an extra guy with him to help with mom-a misunderstanding.  It meant we three -not mom, but Mr. Sunjaya, Margie, and I were squished into the backseat.   This was not ok for the long drives so Margie paid him off with a tip and we kept our scheduled driver.  We were not sure why we had two.   Theories:  they thought mom was more disabled, Mr Sunjaya wanted to be the boss and have an underling, or he just wanted work for his friend.  

He was incredibly kind to Mom, but knew next to nothing about Bali and had no ideas about where to go.  We needed good toilets and accessible restaurants, both of which he could not provide.  He is a former student of the guide Margie used in Feb.  That driver was out of the country but he had recommended his student, who was obviously absent the day they were all taught to know something about the country they were driving us around.   We tried very hard to praise him for what he did well, which turned out to be packing the trunk with mom's walker in a very space-conscious way:  Margie took to complimenting him incessantly about these skills, (so she wouldn't lose her temper and alienate him while we were out in the middle of the Bali mountains)and as we, jokingly said, bestowing an engineering degree on him because he obviously didn't have a completed travel degree.

It may all be funny some day, but not yet.   He also drove way too fast through towns so we only saw where we would have wanted to stop by looking out of the rear window.   He got a 10% tip-which means we were not super happy and Margie will email him and cc his former teacher in about a week.  

So the first two nights we stayed in Ubud, the town made famous by Eat, Pray, Love.  It is a hippy place, for rich ones, that is, full of spas and boutiques. But it is really nice and so fun and active-a good night life too.  There is good shopping and I would love to go back. We stayed at Lumbung Sari Cottages, on Monkey Forest Road.  Nice small place.  We were there at off-season so all rooms under $100/night.

A nice little pool but no space for lap swimming.  All the hotels in Ubud are off the major streets but look like nothing until you get back inside.  Lovely alters outside the rooms and so welcoming.

We did go shopping for sarongs and scarves for the temples and then we had a late dinner.

I love how open everything is-no walls-because it's so warm. Bali food is different from other Indonesian food I've had.  Very good though.

Most meals have this salad with green beans and fried onions, with the variation of bean sprouts and grated carrots and maybe cabbage.  There is a strong lemongrass taste too, very refreshing.

Singapore-day 6

This was a low key day...we went back to the mosque so that we could go inside before prayers.  This is a mosque that accepts visitors, even non-believers, and is used to them.  The only requirements were to take off our shoes and wear proper clothing-a sarong is fine for women. They do have robes to put on, but we had brought sarongs.

Inside is a huge prayer hall-of course we could not enter there (or upstairs to the women's prayer hall either.  They were concerned about Mom's walker since it had been outside and who knows where but they did allow us to bring it in provided we stayed on the tiles and did not have it touch the rugs. This must also be why you have to remove your shoes...since you could have been walking anywhere'

This photo shows the size of the hall...it's really big-they do have it roped off so no one goes in.  Even men who have washed and want to come in and pray seemed to come in on the sides.

Not a very good shot off the alter in the front of the hall.  I am still getting used to the new camera and lighting and blurring are sometimes a problem..you can see the blurring of the photo below of the speaking platform used by the Imam.

Above is the men's washing area and then they can use the side entrance of the mosque.

Here is the women's washing area...they also come in through their side entrance. 

In the evening we went to Orchard Road, and incredible upscale shopping road (Beverly Hills??); it should be seen but it's huge and very opulent.  We went to visit a great Japanese bookstore-Kinokuniya-to look for local  maps and local mysteries.  We ended up eating there; unlike the US, mall food is very good.  There are good restaurants and food courts. People do hang out in malls.  It's free air conditioning and so much cooler than outside.   We have eaten a couple of meals that way.

Here is only one mall building...there are many and it really shows how much money is in Singapore.  

This is the bookstore-it is huge and has many different sections.

On to Bali tomorrow.

Singapore-Day 5

This was our day to go to Kampong Glam, the historic part of Singapore, where Malay royalty lived.  It used to be a fishing village when it was on the waterfront...Beach Street is one of the borders of this neighborhood.  The Arab-Malay influence is strong here and it is the place to go for beautiful fabrics.  The main part of this district is the Sultan's Mosque, which allows visitors.  We did not go in today, but did the next day because  you must go in before noon so as not to disrupt the prayer times. 

Anyway, the neighborhood is lovely.  Many beautiful fabric stores and silks.  Also, you can buy any number of sequins, laces, ribbons.

There are, of course, shophouses-another lovely enclave of low buildings amidst the skyscrapers of Singapore.  The mosque is a strong presence.

It is on Bussorah street, a lovely walking street where we had a delicious Turkish lunch

While mom rested at the restaurant after we ate, Margie and I walked over to Haji Street, a  wonderful alley which has become the Soho of Singapore with galleries and expensive shops mixed in with more shophouses.

Mom was well cared for by the owner of the Turkish restaurant who kept her ice tea filled and helped her up and down the stairs.

This neighorhood definitely deserves another visit.  

I think the part of Singapore that stands out for me the most are these wonderful neighborhoods that are  so culturally diverse.   You can change cultures just by going from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Margie went off to work and we went home to rest and then met her for dinner at the Singapore Botanical Gardens-so lovely at twilight.  The flowers are incredible and you can walk and jog in the evening since it is too hot to go out during the day...many dog walkers and runners.

There are lilies that look a lot like the Victoria Regia on the Amazon in Peru.

We saw incredible varieties of ginger flowers. We will try to get back there once more-there is still so much to see.

Singapore-Day 4

Day four was an easy day...we hung around the apt after a swim in the local pool.  The  Singapore government is on a health kick and there are neighborhood pools all over...my sister's pool in nearby and the swimmers make our El Cerrito swimmers look like neurotic, anal lane owners.  The etiquette here is much more relaxed. 

We went to the market in Little India for some shopping.  It really does look like India-the colors and the  activity are so wonderful.  I was able to use my Peru bargaining skills.

there are many aisles like this and you can choose from fabrics and silk scarves and other typical Indian style goods.  The prices are pretty good.  

Flowers made into necklaces to leave at the temples.  Some are made of jasmine flowers and smell incredible.

Typical streets in Little India...so colorful.

We had made lunch at home so our meal out was ice coffee and bites of Indian sweets.  The coffee is strong, milky and sweet.  I don't usually like sweet coffee but it is very refreshing in the heat.  Also, Singapore water is clean and purified so you can drink from the tap and ice is very safe.  We ended up eating leftovers from lunch for dinner and salad.  Resting up for the next day in  Kampong Glam-the Arab neighborhood.