Today we were booked on a tour to Kintamani Volcano in the North with South East Indonesia Tours. Our guide was Saskara J Ketut (J Ketut means he is No. 4 Male in his family) and he was very knowledgeable and friendly. There were only one other couple on the bus – a man and wife from Singapore and their young daughter. We travelled north through the centre of Bali through Batubulan where we saw the ‘Barong Kris Dance’ – a traditional tale about good and evil told through music and dance. From here we went to Celuk and visited a silver factory (where I bought a bracelet and pendant) and then we headed to Mas and saw the wood carvers at work. The scenery after this was spectacular as we headed through the rice fields of Tegallalang and then through the main street which was one long shop! From here we drove to the Tampaksiring Tirta Empul Spring – a beautiful Hindu temple complex with fresh springwater which ran through the fish ponds and into a local pool which looked very inviting and cool! All the local kids were swimming there but we had no swimmers and had to move forward anyway – next time maybe… Then we continued north to Kintamani where we stopped for lunch overlooking the volcanic Mount Batur and Batur lake to the right. To the east we could also see Mount Abang and Mount Agung – Bali’s highest mountain at 3142m. We returned south via the coffee and spice growers and also visited Goa Gajah. Goa Gajah is the Bedelu elephant cave temple and is actually a series of temples and a cave where locals used to pray at the time when Hinduism was outlawed. It was a long steep walk but it was great to get out of the bus and stretch our feet. On the way back we drove through Ubud and Denpasar but we were all too tired to stop and just ready to get home. That night after dinner at another local venue we discovered Heaven’s Bar where we danced till after midnight and received the most amazing service from the ‘hostesses’ who bought our drinks to us on the dance floor to sip!
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