Friday, August 23, 2019

Indonesia Trip 2019: Going to Bali (July 22nd)

Komodo Island is one of the few islands that have Komodo lizards, and my cousin wanted to go and visit it. So that's what we did. We flew from Jakarta to Denpasar/Bali, and on the way, we passed by some mountains formed by volcanoes. As someone who comes from a mountainous region formed by plates moving instead of volcanoes, I found this pretty interesting.



When we landed, we went straight to our first destination, the Tegenungan Waterfall. It's very beautiful, but there are a lot of steps. We had to take a couple breaks to catch a breather. There's also a waterhole at the bottom, so if you want to take a dip, you are free to do so! We didn't want to because we didn't want to get our feet wet with no way to dry them. Plus, some of us were wearing jeans, which was a mistake. 

From there we went to get some lunch. Our tour guide kept on describing it as suckling pig (which my uncle disagreed with), but nevertheless it was very good. Unfortunately, I forgot to get the name of the place. 

We then went to a monkey forest in Ubud. Which was quite an experience for me. There were monkeys everywhere, and they're not afraid of people. Our tour guide warned us that the monkeys are not afraid to steal from people. So leave your food in the car, hold onto your phones and cameras, and take off shiny things like necklaces and watches. I'll add my own advice here, just take off anything dangling from your bag, because a monkey took one of my key chains. I had a colorful pink, beanie baby sort of toy that was hanging off my backpack, and a monkey just leapt onto me. It was on my back, so I didn't do anything, for fear of getting bitten. I just let it do it's thing. I heard a snap, and it leapt away to munch on my poof.  

After that, we left (the monkey kept the poof, we didn't try to get it back) to go to the Tirta Empul temple. Which is a temple famous for its holy spring water, and many Balinese Hindus go there for ritual purification. When you arrive, if you are wearing shorts, you'll be requested to wear a sarong. Which is kind of like a long skirt. Also, if you're a female and are menstruating, you're not allowed to enter. The carvings everywhere are very pretty, and it's overall a gorgeous area. You can go around to the back and see a pond where the water comes out. 

If you visit there, you might see some swastikas over the doorways. This isn't the Nazi swastika. Nazi swastika's are rotated a little bit, so it is standing on a point, versus a flat edge. 



From there, we ate more food before checking into our hotel and going to sleep.

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