Indonesian                                      
    BALI    DIARY  5

18/6. I have actually worn out all the sights for today, and just improvise some entertainment. At the first crack if light, I have have a rudimentary shower in the icy water. Then I find the recommended trail way into the mountain side. Here are some humble farmhouses, scattered over a huge area. A bit closer to the sealed road, I find the factory, producing lightweight but huge fantasy animals for parades.

Back in Bangli to find the local market, where everybody apparently are. It is fantastic, with everything you can imagine. And so many sorts of bananas, chilli, onions, rice and whatever they sell. First target is a cup of coffee. I find it in the butcher’s area. No cooling, but all is freshly butchered. Here are more meat than I have seen previous.

I see the entire market, and make way too many photos, which I can only hope turns out great. A few actually ask for their photo to be taken. They are clearly not use to tourists in Bangli!

I don’t feel like eating at the market, as it is almost entirely meat which are served, and from real humble joints. I find a nicer restaurant, and have a long chat with a local, who have studied in Germany. I am invited to his home, where he practice healing. Meanwhile, his wife pay for my meal.

I have found a little and long road towards my next hotel. It connects tiny villages, jungle and rice fields. I really enjoy it, but only stop at a slightly bigger town, with a market. It is charming, but also by far the most dirty, I have seen. Both the tables and the floor, made up by wet dirt. I find a single carver, working in anglers. I go for a tiny scull, just to be friendly, but his bigger works are truly amassing. Then I head out in the wild and farmland again.

I pass the area where they make the odd looking glass bowls, melted down over roots. Then I reach my new home in Pujung, which is more a scattered gathering of houses and temples, than an village. It is yet another great looking temple-like home, so quiet.
I get a cup if coffee, here at 575 meters height. Luckily, there is a hot shower. The I start exploring the local craftsmen’s work. It is fare from my liking, more cartoonis, brightly coloured wood and metalwork.

Way out of town, though a steep jungle road, I meet an area with ancient ponds and new tourists. It might actually be the Pura Tirta Empul water temple. The tourists are brought here from far away, in huge air-con busses.

Behind the stands with colourful dresses and sarongs, I find a tiny trail, leading out to a mix of jungle and bananas, ginger, coconut and other crops. It is a great walk, which eventually ends at a hut with a sleeping farmer, at the edge of a gorge.

Back at the pools, I treat myself with an overpriced coffee. Another little concrete trail leads between two creeks, out in the rice fields. I see several rats, fearless enjoying life at the creeks. Skinks are way more shy, so are the dragonflies.

Back in the rather scattered village outside Tegallalang, tourists clearly newer comes. I have to ask for vegetarian meal four times, but are then served a delicious meal for 60% of the coffee. I have walked most of the village, then I return home for coffee on my porch. The room comes with an electric kettle. The only sound here is dripping water from the garden decorations, swallows and a distant cock.

After the GPS and I have charged, I head out through the back of the town of Tegallalang. I pass some real impressive doorways to temples – unless it is private homes. Then I find some tiny trails, into the slightly cultivated jungle. One leads out to the rice patches, which in general are ripe or harvested. Water runs in so many levels, and even crosses on bridges.

I follow a concrete path way out of town, and just enjoy the rice, coconut palms and finches, pinching rice. Eventually, it connects with a bigger road, and I make a pit-stop at a mini-mart, selling coffee.
A little stand outside is selling banana roles, kind of crispy pancakes rolled around a banana, sprinkled with chocolate, vanilla of something else. They taste absolutely great.

The clouds are getting suspicious darker at four, and I head homewards through town. Well, after I have seen the wood carvings in this edge of town. None I feel like bringing home either.
It is real hard to find dinner without animals in, in this town. I kind of do, but it is tiny serving, probably missing the half chicken. Well, bisques can be bought. Home to a long and events-less evening.

The plans for tomorrow are made, I just have to add a more generous ATM. A friend informed me, there is a volcanic eruption on the nearby island of Flores, where Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki is sending ash ten kilometres into the air, cancelling flights to and from Bali. That does explain the layer of light brown dust on the car's windows.
 Day's highlights       All the better photos of the day

19/6. The first sight of the day is the local market in Tampaksiring. It is held only three times a week, and a real treat. I get a great breakfast at one of the first stands, and the young girl, sitting on the bench next to me, pays.

It a real mellow place, where people are just enjoying life. I make a bunch of photos, especially because so much is outside in the morning sun - or at least light.
Home for a coffee and the car.

Then I find Tegallalang, with the extensive rice terraces. It is s bit greyish, but they are ready for tourists. Actually, it is tricky go get a proper picture without the new concrete buildings with restaurants and souvenir shops. I enjoy a coffee at the M-Mart with quite some good view, but a tenth of the price.

I did not plan to enter the area, but as I had to pay anyway, I might as well, while I patient wait for the sun. I get lucky at an ATM machine, expected at this tourist trap.

It is actually a nice stroll up and down the tiny patches of rice, and the sun starts to play along. I see a metallic blue bird, must be a starling, several wild orchids, and several plants I expect to be invasive, like the floating plants from Amazons.

The last little bit is steep up through bananas and a lot of native plants. As a great sign, I reach the road right at M-Mart, and that calls for coffee. Looking through the few FaceBook photos on my phone, I expect I have plenty in my camera by now.

I head back pass home, and stop at a little village, for a half euro dinner, which is quite good. Then I’m out in the farmland, mixed with jungle, and the non-farmers produce woodcarvings and the strange bowls on roots.  

Then I reach the waste parking-lot at the Pura Tirta Empul water temple. It is so unreal after the maze of tiny roads – although I might enter from the back. Here are endless rows of souvenir shops, but not that many tourists.

It is a real nice place, where the unholy only get to dip in one pond. At the entrance, a magnificent Bodhi tree is covered in bird’s nest ferns and many other epiphytes. The centre piece is a huge square pond with a well in. Fish and plants thrive in the crystal clear water, but I only get reflections on my photos.

I do several loops, hoping for some sun, but it is off for the day. I do the souvenir stands on the way out, and some have real nice objects.

There is only a kilometre to the Pura Mengening water temple, and I walk along the river. It is a complete different experience. Only a few Indian guests pray, and here are no shops. Creeks and ponds are everywhere, one with some giant carps and a pond turtle. Way up, a large temple is, as usually, reserved for the believers.

I walk slowly back, and see odd climbing plants, a giant Golden Orb Spider and several species of orchids.
At four, it darkens, and I find the car and head home. It is back through the farmland, and a light drizzle starts. Newer the less, I stop in one village to try my luck at a restaurant. Well, it turns out to be the one I had lunch at, and I get a second serving.

I do a stroll in the home-village in a real light drizzle, but after I return home, the rain starts. Not really much to do, but make corrections on the diary. I’m a bit off, but can’t sleep.
 Day's highlights       All the better photos of the day

               And then into the next page; Diary 6.