Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore, November 2022 - Part 4

Waking up to our last day in Ubud. As if the Gods were on our side, they woke us to the best weather we had seen since we got here, mind you, this is not a complaint. But a bit of blue sky is always welcome, and it certainly does improve colors of photos :-D! After Jannies daily Yoga session and a bit later the breakfast, we set course for todays main target: The Campuhan Ridge Walk, https://goo.gl/maps/GFSRWjizW7KqA6w59, which we had been recommended by our tourguide two days ago. Walking there we came by several temples, some new and some that we had not seen before, and the most interesting one was the Saraswati Temple, https://goo.gl/maps/mnWnKvYS7Wq9MxoL7, again a temple with magnificent figures and God statues, which are extremely important in order to fullfil the function of the temples: Bring people comfort, healt, fortune, luck, keep the bad spirits away, etc., etc.. For us a bit abstract, but to them dead serious with several times a day offerings to the same Gods protecting and helping them.

Moving towards our destination, a ridge, I guess that you have to go down before you get to the ridge. So we did, following along the heavily trafficked road, passing several beautiful temples. Getting the the start of the walk, also meant getting to another very popular temple, the first we have seen with several pagoda towers. Pura Gunung Lebah does according the "Mask Man" mean the temple at the bottom, and that is actually also where you find it, it is truly beautiful, even just seen from the outside https://goo.gl/maps/KRmUcDzXxYqUo9jN6

Starting to climb the Campuhan Ridge Walk, one has to again admire the diversity of the city. One moment you are afraid of getting run over by cars or mopeds alike, and the next you are walking amidst nature in the shape of jungle and cultivated land, rice paddies and fruit trees. You do not hear the city, nor can you smell it! Walking in town you are constantly reminded of all the mopeds, not only by the noise, but also by the smell of the 2 stroke oil burning engines. Nevertheless are there as mentioned, a lot of rice patties along the route where we saw both fields needing a bit more time before being ready to harvest, some ready to harvest, and some being harvested.

We continued our walk up the ridge, and little by little it became more civilisation and less jungle/nature. Ricefields, shops, cafe's houses and eventually we got to the resorts. Some of them magnificent resorts, plunge pool or jacuzzi in the rooms and a view to the jungle on the other side of the canyon. We stopped at one to have something to drink, we were drenched as not only is it warm, but also very humid. Even Jannie was sweating, I mean real sweat, running down and into her eyes!

This resort was called Katana Resort & Spa, and was really spectacular. We also found that the resort that Jannie's Yoga teacher (WEB based) is using for her Yoga retreats to Bali, was just a few hundred meters further down to road. Heading back to town the same way we came wasn't quite as hard as the sun had burned some of the moisture, but it was then on the other hand just warmer, so guess it must have been because it was generally downhill :-)

We managed to back in town just before the heavy reains set in, and we got frontline seats to enjoy the rain and the cooling effect, as we had a great lunch at a local restaurant. Very good food indeed and their juices were freshly coldpressed, so also very nice! Our last mission for the day was to go the the Mask Man and get two masks for the Summerhouse. Enroute there we came upon a few other temple entrances, spectacular in their own right. Anyway, back to our mission: He had sooo many beautiful masks, and as we bought two, he reluctantly allowed me to take a few pictures. We asked his advice, but the answer was: It is not me who will be looking at them for many years to come, so you better chose yourself! We chose one symboling Barong, which his brother had been carving and painting. Barong is the king of the spirits, leader of the hosts of good, and sworn enemy of Rangda. The other we picked was of course Rangda who a dear friend of his has carved and painted. Rangda is the demon queen of the Leyaks in Bali. Terrifying to behold, the childeating Rangda leads an army of evil witches against the leader of the forces of good, Barong. The battle between the two is featured in the traditional Barong dance which represents the eternal battle between good end evil, black and white, day and night.

Back at the Resort we finally got the view of the surroundings as it had stopped raining and the air cleared. Impressive amount of volcanos all round!

This was the last words from Ubud. Tomorrow we are off to Lombok with a 07:00 hotel pick-up to make the 08:30 check-in and 09:30 departure, with ETA Lombok 11:30.