Bali

My first stop in Indonesia was Bali.   Indonesia is a mostly Muslim nation made up of 10,000 Islands.  Bali is primarily Hindu.  I want to mention that the crew on our ship was mostly from Indonesia and they were the best crew that I have had on a ship.  They were courteous, friendly and happy.  I hired a car for a half day at the pier in Bali.  It was quite a culture shock. 

New Zealand is incredibly clean, pristine and sparsely populated with 4 million people and Australia is the size of the US with only 20 million people. So not too far from that, with the exception of the big cities,  I could drive for an hour or so in New Zealand and not see another car or person.  Bali is densely populated, has lots of cars, people and temples. 

It is not the cleanest place either.  It also burst with color and life.  There seem to be temples every 50 yards.  People have their own temples, each town has its own temples, organizations have temples and I think temples have temples. 

These are Hindu temples and incense from them fills the air.  It seems like they are always burning something and not sure if this is for religious purposes or other.   As New Zealand is minimalistic, Bali is ornate.

As we drove to the first temple, I caught brightly colored boats out of the side of my glance.  We stopped at a little shipping village where fisherman where bringing in their catches.   There were a number of small restaurants that were empty and people were sleeping sleeping anywhere in the shade. 

My driver took me to my first major temple which was really stunning. 

I bought a whole coconut to drink at a stand at the shrine. 

Then I walked through a gorgeous ravine that contained parts of the temple.

Man Directing Traffic at Temple

I had to put on a skirt to go into the temple as your knees need to be covered.  The temple was absolutely beautiful in an amazing picturesque setting in a tropical ravine. 

Next stop was the Monkey Temple and Monkey Forest.  Here is a temple devoted to monkeys.  The monkeys run around, playing, fighting, swimming. 

People feed them fruit and they seem tame, I did not see them bother any one. 

 There were a few mother monkeys taking care of their babies.  I really liked watching them and taking their photos. 

Think this one is looking for fleas

They are very much like young human children.

After the monkeys, we went to another temple and drove passed several small towns that each had some amazing statues. 

When we got close to the boat, I went to massage spa in the hills.  It was in  a very tranquil spot and I had a massage outside.  It was a bit like paradise. 

They train crickets to fight like cocks.

Last Temple Visited

Balinese woman with sweets

Statue at last temple