Day 4 - 5 / Believe it or not! Uber!

The more the holiday goes the harder is to keep track of the posts! Our flatmate Alex and us met in Ubud on Tuesday night. We ate at a wonderful place called Bebek Bengil were their speciality is the duck. The dinner was gorgeous and we enjoyed talking about our mutual adventures in Bali. For the next day we decided to organise a trip to go up the north and see Pura Ulun Danu Beratan which is a temple located on the lake Danau Beratan and the Sekumpul Waterfall. 

So, now, getting Uber here is not impossible, but you have to be very cleaver with who you are calling. People are scared to show they work for Uber, because the other taxi drivers they can have repercussions on them; we ordered a cab the next morning and as soon the taxi driver arrived we agreed to turn off the Uber GPS and having him taking us around at an hourly pay.  

Deal was done.

In the car we started bombing him with questions about the Indonesian culture and religion and he was so patient and clear with us, explaining so many things I've never even heard of. We learnt a lot about the Gods, the offering, why people has to be good for their Karma and also few other things about the locations of the temples in the villages, the reasons why they have yellow flags and checked black and white. It very clarifying!

In the late morning we arrived to the temple. Again full of tourists, the view was breathtaking, but still my favourite remains the one visited the previous day. We had a bit of walk around, what always surprises me is the architecture of temples. Thinking about how poor the population is and seeing what they are capable of building for their Gods is just something astonishing.

Just after lunch, we jumped back in the car and drove up to Sekumpul! Now, the car was a normal city car and the roads were just full of curves and continue up and down; we were 5 people in the car, can you imagine how hard was for the Bayu especially in uphill road. Journey was very harsh and we had a few times to teach Bayu how to proper change the marches, I guess he doesn't get to drive so many people up there. After a tedious journey we ended up arriving safe and sound.

The path to the waterfall is a long way down in the forest, but the view is magnificent, is sort of valley with a river and in one side and the other one 300m waterfalls. We spent couple of hours around the area and got closer enough to the waterfall to get that paradisiac rain of water coming down from it that feels just like heaven! So strong and energising! People around are just looking in astonishment and you can't do differently than enjoying your time there and feeling so blessed. 

Couple of pictures and falls in the water from my side 😰 we got back up (453 steps) We bought a few beers to keep us company and we start to drove back to Ubud. At one point Bayu was talking and whilst driving he pointed us out a old abandoned place that looked like an hotel, he told us that has got the fame of being hunted by ghosts.

He did not have to repeat himself twice. We asked him to drove us back there, paid 5,000rp ( to an abusive guardian ) and entered the place.

It was one of the incredible thing I've seen the place itself was just huge. The history says that about 10 years ago whilst they were building it, some workers died and after this that their spirits wonder around the place. 

Didn't happen to have any sort of encounter, but I have to say, we sticked together without getting lost! I guess when doing this sort of things there is always some kind of respect mixed with the adrenaline of doing ghost hunting. :)

We've got back to the car and after thanked Bayu, we eventually got back on the way to Ubud, really tired and happy for the day. 

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We met up for dinner in a cool place called Lake Leke where at night if you can enjoy traditional balinese theatre 🎭! It was very entertaining ! We had some traditional food on a terrace in the beautiful garden sitting on the floor and the atmosphere was great. Shame that our time in Ubud was coming to an end!

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