Tampaksiring is a small town north of Ubud with a large and important temple and the most impressive ancient monument in Bali.  We used the scooter and drove to see this monument ? Gunung Kawi.  On the road there, there are so many workshops and stores selling all kinds of arts and crafts. 

Gunung Kawi consists of 10 rock-cut shrines ? memorials cut out of the rock face in imitation of actual statues.  They stand in 7m-high sheltered niches cut into the sheer cliff face.  Each shrine is believed to be a memorial to a member of the 11^th-century Balinese royalty, but little is known for certain.

Rice fields on the way to the shrines

The shrines itself

A waterfall closeby to the shrines

After this monument, we drove to Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave).  "The cave is carved into a rock face and you enter through the cavernous mouth of a demon.  The gigantic fingertips pressed beside the face of the demon push back a riotous jungle of surrounding stone carvings.  In the courtyard in front of the cave are two square bathing pools with water trickling into them from waterspouts held by six female figures." - Lonely Planet

After return to Ubud, we had a late lunch at Warung Enak.  The d?cor was eclectic, with a mish mash of wood and metal furniture, and statues of large monkeys dressed in bikinis and sun hats.  Besides all of that, the food was GREAT!

More food we’ve been eating.  This was a plate of Danish salami, olives, and cheese from the resturant Deli Cat.

Roasted duck, stuffed with Indonesian spices.

From the Lonely Planet:

"Perched on the gentle slopes leading up towards the central mountains, Ubud is the other half of Bali ?s tourism duopoly.   Unlike Kuta, however, Ubud maintains it?s identity as the center of ?cultural tourism? on Bali.

It?s not surprising that many people come to Ubud for a day or two and end up staying longer.  There are a lot of expats here, drawn by the rich culture and myriad of activities.  Besides the very popular dance and music shows, there are numerous courses on offer to become fully immersed in Balinese culture.

More consumptive pursuits are amply rewarded with some of the best food on the island.  From fabled world-class resorts to surprisingly comfortable little family-run inns, there is an ample choice of hotels.  Many places come complete with their own spas for hours or days of papering packages."

Today, we arrived in Ubud, an hour north of Kuta.  When we and 3 other foreigners got dropped off, we weren?t really sure where on the Lonely Planet map we were.  Conveniently, the owner of Warsa?s Bungalows and another inn were there to greet the prospective customers.  We decided to look at his bungalows, which turned out to be quite nice, with lush grounds, and of course, a swimming pool.  This place was $16 USD a night with air conditioning and $13 USD with a fan.  The A/C wasn?t that important to us, but the room with A/C was nicer and more private, so we took that one. 

Our little bungalow

We did a little walk around Ubud today, and saw why it?s the center of Bali?s art and culture.  There were many shops that sold painting, jewelry, wood carving, textiles, and ceramics. 

Typical shops

A Balinese painting by one of the many artists in Ubud

Another painting for sale

We rented another scooter ($3.75 USD for 24 hours) and drove to Petulu to see the herons.  "Every evening at around 6pm, thousands of big, white, water birds fly in to Petulu, squabbling over the prime perching places before settling into the trees beside the road, and becoming a minor tourist attraction.  The herons, mainly Java pond herons, started their visits to Petulu in 1965 for no apparent reason. " - Lonely Planet

One of the many beautiful rice fields in Ubud

A heron

Herons perched in the trees

More rice fields

My first Ubud sunset

We rented a scooter today and decided to try and go to Tanah Lot.  From the Lonely Planet:

"The brilliantly located Pura Tanah Lot is possibly the best known and most photographed temple on Bali.  It’s an obligatory stop on many tours from South Bali, very commercialized, and especially crowded at sunset. 

For the Balinese, Pura Tanah Lot is one of the most important and venerated sea temples.  Like Pura Luhur Ulu Watu, at the tip of the southern Bukit Peninsula, and Pura Rambut Siwi to the west, it is closely associated with the Majapahit priest, Niratha.  It’s said that each of the ’sea temples’ was intended to be within sight of the next, so they formed a chain along Bali’s southwestern coast - from Pura Tanah Lot you can certainly see the cliff-top site of Pura Ulu Watu, and the long sweep of sea shore around to Perancak, near Negara."

Scootin’ is FUN!

Tourists look at a huge bat at one of the souvenir shops.

Moi

Pura Tanah Lot - crawling with tourists.  Unfortunately, only Balinese may enter the temple.

Guess what else!?!  I saw Bjork in Bali!  As we were walking around Tanah Lot, we were making our way back up the hill to see a different section of the grounds.  Someone familiar walked by me, and I did a double-take, thinking, ?Oh my god.  I think that?s Bjork!?  I looked back behind me to get a second look.  She was wearing something that looked like a rayon muumuu with her bra and large panties clearly visible.  What really convinced me, were the weird sandals she was wearing, maybe reminiscent of the Icelandic Ugg?  I eagerly told Ras that I thought it was Bjork.  He asked me, ?How do you know??  ?Come on!  Look at the way she?s dressed!  She looks like an eccentric musician wearing wacky clothes brought from a Goodwill in Iceland.?  In all honesty, I?m not even a fan of Bjork, and don?t even know one song she sings.  Still, I?m a celebrity gossip monger, and am SURE it was here.  I distintly saw the cirucular tatoo on her left arm.  You can find a link, with a picture of her and the tatoo HERE.  My first celebrity sighting was eeing Bjork in Bali? weird.

Visible pantie lines.  That’s SO 80’s.

Oh No!  Somebody stop the water from touching my feet!

We did a lot of walking today - from Kuta to Seminyak, which is the area north of Kuta.  It was a little cloudy today, and the beach in that area didn’t look too impressive.  According to the Lonely Planet, "Seminyak is the most exciting part of South Bali

.  It’s the home of the best restaurants, bars, and clubs."  We went during the day, so it wasn’t as fun or exciting.  It was more of a hot, tired, and sweaty experience.  Plus, we didn’t want to be bothered with making it up there later in the evening, when thing wouldn’t get hopping until after midnight.  You’ll have to use your imagination for the Seminyak nightlife. 

Seminyak

For the last couple of days, we’ve been seeing foreigners go into convenience stores, and coming out with cartons of cigarettes.  Sometimes there’d be not drinks bought, just one or two cartons.  I finally remembered to look at cigarettes prices when I went to pick up a guava juice.  One box of Marlboro’s was $0.81 USD!  Eighty one cents!  No wonder everyone was smoking so much!

Legian Street

The new Paddy’s.

I’ve never stayed at a "resort" before.  Staying at the AP Inn has been the closest thing to a resort I’ve stayed in, even though it’s far from a "real" resort.  Usually when I’m backpacking, I stay in a bungalow, guest house, or some form of low quality hotel.  This is the first time I’ve backpacked and stayed somewhere with a pool… extravagant, I know. The amazing thing is, practically every sleeping establishment in Kuta comes with a pool (of varying sizes).  Before we had the pool experience, Ras and I wondered why one would need a pool if the beach was within a 5 minute walk.  Well, today was the first day where the skies cleared up and it was sunny for the entire day.  We decided to hand out by the pool, since the beach was washing up a lot of trash after the rains.  Hanging out at the pool was so NICE!  No garbage to look at, snacks and drinks nearby, and nobody asking if we needed transport, watches, bags, manicures, or hair braiding.  It was just… relaxing.  And all for $10 a night - AMAZING. 

For dinner, we went out to Jimbaran Beach and had a seafood dinner by the beach.  The restaurants on the beach were dead.  Most had an average of 3 tables filled, which was probably 10% of capacity.  Our waiter also mentioned how quiet it was there, and informed us that 1 km from where we were, was where the October 2005 bombing occurred.  I had my first taste of lobster EVER here.  The meal was delicious.

sauces, vegetables, and potatoes

My first lobster.  Not super cheap… about $20.

Grilled prawns