Most of the places are already closed until the 31st (on the North side of the island)
of the sad events going on in the World!
We're Gokce and Steve.
After trying cat poop coffee and
discovering Eastern Bali and it's incredible temples we were hoping to
make the most of our last full day and explore more of the island
Good morning!
How are you today?
Thank you, how are you?
Our first stop of the day was Ulun Danu Bratan temple.
Today he came prepared with cash, finally.
Yin and yang!
So which side is good and which side is bad?
I mean, right side is good, left side is bad!
So these are all offerings made today
It's right before Nyepi here in Bali
see everybody's coming to make sure they're in good graces and good spirits
before the Hindu Balinese New Year
Why did they sacrifice chickens?
Yeah because this is inside of the tradition
chicken, duck and pork, they are very important
with our ceremony of the sacrifice in Bali.
I don't know if the camera is doing the job but it's
absolutely gorgeous around here
We call it Melasti, for Melasti we bring a
symbolic of our God because all the symbolic in every temple of the God we
Starting from a week before the silent day, they are praying almost
everyday whole week but every village has their own specific day to do that he was
talking about.... when did you do it?
In our beliefs we do on Saturday
We're not gonna sit through the ceremony because apparently
it may take a very long time
up to an hour it has been an incredible and beautiful to actually
see their Namaste ceremony, we're lucky because this is a once in a year
opportunity leading up to Nyepi.
Next up was the world's most famous golf resort entrance
It seems to me this is more like a Heaven Gate, because the scenery is unbelievable right now
this is just gorgeous! I'm surprised they didn't name this one Heaven Gate either
So this is actually called Handara Gate and it's actually the entrance to a golf course
but of course, there's a mountain right up behind it when the fog
unfortunately clears out, hopefully, and you can see straight up to the top of
the mountain from Hondara Gate as well. Luckily it's not too crowded over here
So we're here at the Twin Lakes and unfortunately most of the north side of Bali is a bit closed
so the great thing is though that the Twin Lake lookout is still open
there is beautiful lake on that side and naturally the name of the lake on that
side, two lakes that kind of come together
that's dividing them up here in the north of Bali
Blessing in disguise, it's not crowded here a lot of places are closed just
being out here in the nature is what we are very thankful about right now
especially now, a lot of people are stuck indoors
After receiving the upsetting email, and with most of North Bali closed
we head back to Ubud and its famous Monkey Forest.
We are here at
the Ubud Monkey Forest, the monkey forest, yes! There are going to be a lot of
monkeys here, obviously. We were told that we shouldn't have any eye contact
Because they are fixing for a fight
Alright are we ready for the adventure?
they(monkeys) were always here and then this place is saying
that also they're going outside because this is the forest and they also they are going
outside because they have many hotels and restaurants close by here
yeah restaurants are feeding them? Yeah
That's really funny
Gokce has made new friends
I really like this skirt!
Go into... to your left!
Go to your left
They are gone right?
What's the best way to make them stop? Just walk away?
Keep walking on and that's it, just don't panic and dont make the monkey panic also
or true yeah I wasn't panicking and I was like well, they're trying to play and
We are actually in a forest! Amazing! They were not lying when they said Monkey Forest
okay I'm glad, just wanted to double check!
Who are you gonna tip, to the monkeys? Why would I tip?
We could do a selfie, hey, we are doing a selfie!
Selfie!
Little seconds that I spend with you,
even though I can't look at you I'm hoping that you are looking at the
camera right now, right? I'm sure you are so thank you so much! Bye!
The smell is heavy!
It smells really bad though
you know that there's a lot of animals around
I made a new friend now!
Hello my friend!
I hope you don't have lice!
He's just a little thirsty!
Thank you so much for everything!
He's amazing!
Our last stop on our makeshift tour was Bali's most famous rice terrace
you have to give donations in order to get in
well you dont have to but they welcome the donations here, there's no fixed price!
You don't have to, but you should, be nice and donate!
Wow, this scenery is incredible! Steve is too scared to go onto the swing
but I think I'm just gonna try
I am kinda ready and scared
Alright
This is a great experience! Wow. Wow can't believe it!
So they just swung Gokce right down
below me and I'm just too big of a coward, let's be realistic
this is amazing
Have you ever done that? Yeh. You did? Many times?
"My bag looks really good on you" I was telling him!
These are rice paddles right?
Rice paddies!
Not rice paddle! when you use a kayaking and rafting yes with a paddle ahahaha
sorry, excuse me!
so Tegallalang rice terrace there's also
another one Jatiluwih that is a bit less crowded
unfortunately, due to the times right now Tagalog is also not that crowded
and it's definitely something
that you have to see in person to really appreciate kind of the Balinese culture
it's beautiful here, we're gonna head back off to our hotel now
thankfully back at the hotel we were able to confirm our flight was not actually cancelled
and we freshened up and decided to check Ubud center on our last night
so Gokce is over here talking to her parents on skype but we're waiting right now
the hotel we're at actually has free shuttle buses into Ubud city center they run
every hour and from between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. so that's really useful
there's a polo, there's a Starbucks here... So you know, the US chains have made it
here even to Ubud in Bali.
Gokce and I are gonna play a real-life game of Frogger right now
here we go, all right, survived crossing the street her in Ubud
So we've made it to a night market I believe
the bikes are allowed down this road keep your head on a swivel here in Ubud
You could get a foot massage here for an hour for a hundred thousand indonesian rupiah
which is like seven or eight dollars right now, i mean i know
I would love to have some massage right now
I know it's just not the right time...
Unfortunately it's very quiet right now due to everything going on in the world
We're looking now on this main strip for a place to eat for tonight
we want to have traditionally Balinese food, we had some last night at our hotel but here in Ubud
hopefully we find something even better
after dinner with the food mostly empty
due to the coronavirus, we grabbed the last shuttle back to our hotel to get
ready to leave Bali the next day
My life...