THE TEMPLES OF BALI (PART II)

The next morning we left Ubud to drive through farmland, jungle and mountainous terrain to see the 13^th century Royal Family temple and the Balinese rice terraces, both UNESCO sites.  It took a couple of hours to get there and along the way the traffic thinned a bit but remained intense in the villages with Putu deftly dodging swarms of motor bikes, cars, livestock trucks, Nyeti demons on flatbeds and the ever-present dogs that would stand right in the path of our car until the last possible second. 

The names of the towns and temples are impossible to pronounce and difficult to spell so I will simply describe them.  Our first stop was at the 800-year-old Royal Family Temple, an ancient complex of structures made of stone, volcanic lava rock, and brick surrounded by a lush green park with meticulously maintained hedges, lawns and flower beds.  Below are some pictures which I hope will do it justice.  My love of signs was well nourished with the instructional poster at the entrance.  Priceless.  Later I asked Komang some questions about it and he had logical answers for each.

Approaching the temple

Before entering temple grounds, we are not yet dressed in our sarongs.

A lake on the temple grounds.  Note the small offerings in the niche on the right.  

Because of the extreme heat and humidity, everything is in a crumbling state and covered in moss and mold.  But thanks to UNESCO, the site is beautifully restored and maintained.   The black mold and green moss just add to the other-worldly ethereal quality of the site.

Here we are at the lake on the temple grounds looking especially fetching in our sarongs.  This fashion statement definitely becomes Beloved more than me however.

Many of the structures have thatched roofs which of course are not original.   All of the stonework is original though.