Our last stop.....

We left Lovinia this morning. None of us were that enamoured with the place! We drove up, over and through the volcanic mountains in the middle of Bali. It is definitely the lushest if the 3 islands. 

We stopped at Tirta Empul Temple, a temple built around hot springs in 962AD. There are strict rules about who can use which springs and in which order. We just watched rather than join some of the other tourists who decided to partake. That just seemed somewhat crass.

 We did watch a priest blessing a 4 year old girl though. She didn't look particularly enamoured with the whole thing!

Then we headed further up the road to Tebing Gunung Kawi Temple, built by a king in the 11th century on a spit were 3 rivers meet. After a war in the 14th century it was abandoned and only discovered by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. The temple and palace complex are in a valley surrounded by the most beautiful rice paddies. But boy it wasn't half hot walking back up the 320 steps!

And it was at the top of the steps that I randomly met Zoe, from our Jersey office! On the way into Ubud we were stopped in our tracks by the locals having a harvest festival ceremony. Such a privilege to watch. 

Arriving in Ubud was quite a culture shock. Where did all of these tourist spring from, and do many shops! We are generally the only westerners around, and any other tourists are Indonesian. Not anymore! Apparently they get 500,000 Australians a year! My hotel room is awesome. Carved double doors, a balcony overlooking the gardens and pool, a king size bed and full on mosquito net, which when pulled around the bed makes me feel like the princess in the tower!!!