Where Is Calderon?

I have spent a few days on Bali, but I haven't been able to see anything except the main city of Denpasar and the airport.  The 2 days I was here earlier I spent trying to get to Komodo and resting because I was sick.  Yesterday I got back to Bali from my Komodo trip, but again spent the day resting and getting cleaned up.  Tomorrow I leave for Krabi, Thailand back to my favorite hotel (Krabi Tropical Beach Resort).  I will be there for 1 whole month before going back to Penang, Malaysia to visit with my friends one last time before heading home on November 10th.  So that only leaves today to explore as much of Bali as I can.  Now you might be thinking well why are you leaving Bali so soon and spending a whole month in a place you have already been to.  Well Bali is not cheap.  It is cheap compared to America, but it is out of my budget for this trip.  It is not that expensive here I just don't want to spend the amount of money required to stay here.  After all I have been traveling for 2 months and I still have 1 month left.  So my budget is smaller than what one needs for Bali.  There are not really that many cheap hotels and the island is big with all the attractions spread out across it.  So you have to take taxis everywhere and it really can add up.  So today I hired a car for the day and went to Ubud, which is the artsy area of Bali and not too far from my hotel.  Along the way I saw many, many temples.  The temples are not huge, but they are everywhere.  Here is a typical looking Balinese temple.



Once I got to Ubud the first thing I did was walk the main market.  This is the place to go to find all kinds of fruits, foods, herbs, and souvenirs.



The market was 2 stories and packed with vendors all over the place.  It was early in the morning when I got there so not all the stalls were open yet and most of the vendors were still setting up their stalls.  After the market I looked at a few of the temples nearby and then I continued onto Goa Gajah, also known as Elephant Cave.  Goa Gajah is located 10 minutes from the market in Ubud.  Here is an overview of the Goa Gajah complex.



The complex consisted of a temple, many shrines, a sacred bathing pool, and of course the cave.  Here is a picture of the temple.



Here is the sacred bathing pool.



Here is the entrance to the cave.  The stone carving was truly amazing.



The inside of the cave was not huge.  Basically you have a "T" shaped corridor inside with a few shrines at the end of each corridor.  One shrine was of Ganesh the Hindu elephant god and here was another one of the shrines.



The best thing about Goa Gajah, which most people probably miss out on because it is hidden and relatively unknown, is this.



If you can't figure it out the sign is pointing in the direction of the jungle temple.  I saw this sign in the back of the complex off to the side of a walkway.  It was kind of hidden and no one really noticed it.  I decided to I would go see the jungle temple.  The path started off very beautiful with a nice wide trail clearly showing the way through the jungle.



Then things started to get wet, slippery, muddy, and steep.  In otherwords the path became a bit dangerous.  To my disadvantage I am walking around with my small backpack that is loaded with all of my valuables that I did not want to leave at the hotel (like my computer, camera, passports, etc.).  The bag is actually pretty heavy and in the heat of the day with the humidity carrying this bag makes you sweat even more.  On top of carrying the bag I am in sandals, holding my camera with one hand, and wearing a sarong (traditional Balinese attire that is required to enter almost all temples if not all temples in Bali).  Luckily there is an old man who acts as a trail guide for a small fee and he will walk you down to the jungle temple.  Here is my guide and the beginning of the real trek to the jungle temple.



You can see in th picture that I am looking down at him and we are climbing down the rocky mountain.  All the rocks and floor you see is wet and muddy.  At times, like right here, my guide offered me a hand to make sure I did not fall.  I was very cautious because I did not want to fall on my bag and break my computer or fall and drop my camera.  Plus I just didn't fell like getting all muddy and having to return to the taxi man like that.  He probably would have left me there.  Also parts of the trek were very steep and most of it was along a cliff with a long ways down.  Anyways,  we continued trekking down the mountain to the river and had to cross the river using a bamboo bridge.  Here I am crossing the bridge wearing the traditional sarong.



I got to tell you that wearing that sarong did not help my trekking abilities.  I was constantly stepping on it and trying not to get it dirty.  Besides I am not accustomed to wearing what is basically like a dress, but if you want to see temples in Bali you have to wear it.  It would be disrespectful to not wear it.  In fact they wouldn't let you in.  It is part of the adventure I guess.  After crossing the river I had to walk through some large boulders along the river to final reach the jungle temple.



The temple reminded me of something I would see in Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones.  The river flows right through the temple so you can't go in it, but it was quite amazing to see.  Here I am sitting on a rock with an old traditional Balinese man admiring a hidden jungle temple that requires a semi-dangerous jungle trek to get to it all while waering a sarong, sandals, and trying not to kill myself or break my valuables.  It was quite an adventure and I sure was glad when I made it back safe and without breaking anything.  Although I did break a major sweat.  Right away I ran and got a nice refreshing coconut to drink.  After the coconut I went back to the hotel and cleaned up.  Then I enjoyed a nice meal of chicken fried rice and a local Bintang beer.  The food and beer were both delicious.



Bali seems like a very interesting island.  One I would like to explore more of one day when I have the money to do so.  Actually I would like to explore more of Indonesia as a whole.