There are not many places in the world that evoke a vision of tropical paradise and sun-soaked surfing beaches to the extent of Bali. It is also known for being quite touristy, and I found the latter to be unavoidably apparent. Even in the more “remote” locations there were just…a lot of people, with Indonesians seeming like the minority. I based myself in the “cultural” town of Ubud and spent a few days doing day trips to a Hindu temple called Pura Luhur Batukaru, a waterfall, and the Unesco World Heritage Jatiluwah rice fields. It was beautiful, but because I was there at the end of an extra long dry season (blame El Niño) many of the famously emerald rice terraces, tropical vistas and mountain lakes were, well, on the dry side. I also watched a Kecak dance performance in Ubud. It is a traditional Balinese fire dance and if you have seen the movie Madagascar then I bet it will be very familiar!* My favorite aspect of Bali was the historic and contemporary Hindu (as opposed to Muslim and Buddhist) architecture and culture. It seemed like every other residence had a private home temple, and each one felt like a little slice of an older, more “authentic” and peaceful Bali.
*There will be a video at some point… Having iPad storage space issues..
The rooftop view of Ubud from my hostel was one of my favorites.My next door neighbor for a night.Entrances to family temples like this were everywhere. Most of the time it looked like the temples were bigger than the family home!Not a family temple.
Pura Luhur Batukaru is one of nine directional temples on Bali intended to ward away evil spirits. The most important shrine is dedicated to Mahadewa (second to last photo), the god of Mount Batukaru (background of the first picture in set). The temple is still very active and there were at least 100 Hindi visitors doing various Hindu activities. Most were either eating, praying, or offering gifts at the many altars…or doing all at the same time.Local
The Jatiluwah rice terraces in central Bali were fun to wander around for a few hours. It is a huge system of terraces, farms, huts, and small water temples that together exemplify the Balinese idea of Subak. Subak in turn reflects the philisophical concept of Tri Hita Karana- the spirit, human and natural world are unified into one. What is reaamazing to me is these terraces (and many others in Bali) are “run of the river”. The water that feeds them flows into and out of the huge system as a normal river. This means all the water in the paddies is also flowing, and the impact on the natural state of the original river appeared to be small, if any. This is a really impressive feat of hydraulics the farmers have pulled off over the centuries!Here is a waterfall we made a short trek to see. It caused me to wonder how there is still so much water flowing after many months without rain, while being located near the top of a mountain.. Maybe its just a crazy pump system for the tourists….Had to get my Kuta Beach sunset pic
The rice terraces are beautiful. What an amazing lesson in working with what mother nature gives us. I’m having a fast forward vision of decades (centuries?) of construction as new paddies are added upstream of the previous, swallowing up the river as they are built but preserving it’s flow and allowing the surrounding environment to thrive.
potravels 
The rice terraces are beautiful. What an amazing lesson in working with what mother nature gives us. I’m having a fast forward vision of decades (centuries?) of construction as new paddies are added upstream of the previous, swallowing up the river as they are built but preserving it’s flow and allowing the surrounding environment to thrive.
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