Ubud exploring

After renting a scooter, the main mode of transport here, we made our way north of Ubud to see two beautiful Hindu temples, Pura Tirta Empul and Pura Gunung Kawi. We meandered through small roads lined by palm trees, temples and houses, surrounded by patches of rice paddies. What a heavenly ride!
The former is renowned for its fresh drinking water spring which is seen as holy and therefore people flock here to do a spiritual cleansing and pray to the hindu deities. It has become so renowned that we saw almost more tourists doing the cleansing ritual than locals.
The latter temple we enjoyed much more as it's much less renowned and therefore nice and quiet. It is built in a little valley surrounded by lushly vegetated hills giving it a feeling of an oasis.
On the way back we drove through towards the Tegalalang Rice Terraces and had to turn back as we encountered a road which had totally collapsed down into the valley below due to a landslide. Quite the experience to see whar monsoon rains can do!
The Tegalalang Rice Terraces are very accessible to the Ubud throng, and hence very touristy. The rice terraces had just been replanted (it's done 3 times a year), so they weren't covered in beautiful greenery. Nevertheless, it was still a lovely and impressive sight!Read more