Indonesia: Back to Bali Continued!

This monument was actually in Ubud and I believe it is a warrior or a mythical god. Again, I didn't bother to ask to find out, so I'm sorry.

Heidi and I wanted to take a trek up into the mountains and see some rice terraces and the biggest mountain in Ubud, which is also a volcano, so we managed to find a driver who would drive us around for about 4-5 hours for a really cheap price, so away we went. he first place he took us was a temple, which we could have done without, but we went anyways.

On our way to the temple this man was carving a coconut shell. The detailing was stunning and absolutely incredible. The view on the way down to the temple at which point it had started raining. Rice fields were everywhere in Indonesia. There shouldn't be a rice shortage there. The rock formations inside the temple were breathtaking. The temple paled in comparison to Angkor Wat, but had it's own distinct features. We were required to have our knees and shoulders covered in order to enter the temple, so we had to borrow sarongs and make a donation in order to borrow them for wandering through the temple. This was pretty much the temple. Nothing overly exciting, but it clearly holds meaning to the Balinese.

Since, it was raining and the temple didn't have much to offer we headed back up the hill to our driver and headed to view the mountain. I was not at all prepared for just how breathtaking the view would be and how the fresh and clear the air would be. A brief history, the mountain is also a volcano and the last time it errupted was 1994 and it killed thousands of people.

This is just a random view of sky, mountain and landscape. This is the volcanic mountain that erupted over 10 years ago. You could actually still see the area that burnt.This is by far my favorite picture I took this day because of the cloud formation. Our last stop was to visit some rice terraces. The driver to took us to the most popular terraced rice field in the Ubud area.

When we finally got back to the city it was dinner time, so we met up with Jen for dinner and then the three of us headed to a Shadow Puppet Play. The play was called, The Sacrafice of Bima, which is an old Balinese fable. Jen, Heidi and I had no idea what the story was about or anything that was going on, but we enjoyed the play all the same. It was incerdible to us that only one man moved all the puppets and did all the voices. Jen didn't want to come out with Heidi and I after the play, so she headed back and Heidi and I headed to OziGo, yet again.

This time there was a different band playing called, The Assassins, we some how befriended them instantaneously. They wanted us to sing and dance with them, Heidi obliged to do both and I just danced, but not without putting up a fight.

Heidi rocked out to Green Days - Basket Case with the band and they loved it. I most definitely got dragged up by all members of the band to dance this routine with them. I'm also the 'friendly GIANT' next to them. Heidi and I pretty much befriended every band we encountered in Indonesia and it had its benefits...Some may call us 'rockstar groupies' and we are ok with it. Wisma would not leave me alone all night with wanting me to sing and dance. We bonded, so I had to get a picture with him.

We ended up staying out later than we had anticipated and had to get up early to go the Monkey Sanctuary. We managed to get up early than we thought after the night we had, so we headed straight to the Monkey Forest. This is a place where Balinese Macaques roam around freely and have been known to jump up on people and leave the forest briefly and roam the streets. I was absolutely terrified the entire time I was in the forest because I didn't want them jumping on me (animals scare me) and I had a killer burn that was blistering on my back and if they clawed/scratched me it would hurt like a biatch. There were so many monkeys in this forest that I'm not even sure who was family and who wasn't.

These two could be a dad and baby, but I cannot be certain. The monkeys loved them some food. There was so much food scattered all over the forest, but there was still more monkeys :) This monkey was enjoying his/her freedom from the forest to chow down on an offering outside a store.

We did the monkey forest on our last day in Ubud before we had to catch the bus that would take us the hour drive to Kuta, where we would end our vacation :( We managed to do last minute market shopping the night before and we each left with about 3 pairs of sandals that we paid about $2/each for. When the market closes they are willing to sell at any price. Anyways, the bus we took to Kuta was so hot, sweaty and dirty that I literally wanted to shower the minute I stepped on it, but it only cost us $6.