After the first of our photo shoot days, our next sightseeing tour took us through central and northwest Bali. Our first destination was Ubud, sometimes referred to as the spiritual capital of Bali, but along the way we stopped by three local craft production sites. The first was a factory/shop where they produced Batik fabrics and garments, a handcrafted way of coloring and patterning fabrics. I bought a nice shirt as a souvenir. The other place we stopped at was a jewelry shop that had handcrafted gold and silver pieces. The last place we stopped was a shop where they produced beautiful hand carved wood pieces. I picked up one of these as a souvenir.
We finally got to Ubud where we visited the famous Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. We had been warned that they can try to steal things, but it was a very hot day and the monkeys we saw seemed fairly subdued. They seemed to be mostly indifferent to the people, as I’m sure they have tons of people looking at them every day. Although, the guides kept warning people not to look at them directly in the eyes. It was interesting to see their intelligence as they used tools, like stones, to smash up food items to eat. After the visit, we went to lunch at a place famous for crispy duck, and I had duck for the first time ever. The restaurant was nice and had a nice garden atmosphere.
After lunch, we headed north. Along the way we stopped in Tegalalang at a coffee shop, Uma Pakel, that featured ‘Agro Tourism and Swings’. On the coffee side they displayed the production of kopi luwak coffee, supposedly the most expensive coffee in the world where the beans are processed after being eaten by the Asian palm civit (luwak) and then separated from the animal’s waste products. I’m no coffee expert, but I figured I’d try a cup (it wasn’t expensive there), and it was ok, but didn’t jump out at me as the the greatest premium coffee in the world. The restaurant (like several in the area) sat on a cliff edge overlooking a valley, and they had installed swings, that our models tried out. It was a bit of a racket as they charged pretty steeply for each ride, and each photographer, and they also had long dresses you could borrow. One of the models described it as an Instagram factory. But it was a nice view.
Afterwards, we continued northwest and stopped in Kintamani, which is on the edge of the caldera of a volcano, and went to an overlook inside a restaurant where we had a beautiful view of the valley and the lake that was in the caldera, Lake Batur (Danau Batur). After that brief stop, we headed back south to a Hindu Balinese water temple, Tirta Empul. There were lots of beautifully carved statues and architecture. We were required to wear sarongs out of respect to the location. We spent some time there touring around and taking pictures. The only negative was that you were guided out of an exit that sent you into a maze of tourist souvenir stands. It reminded me a bit of the vampire stuff at Bran Castle, but they were much more aggressive. I made the mistake of stopping once, and ended up getting pressured to get a bunch of stuff. But it helps the local economy, so I can’t complain too much.
We finally made it back home after a long and interesting day and had a nice dinner at our villa. After dinner, Ayu, our local model performed a traditional Balinese dance for the group.