Cultured

After our breakfast, we walked into town to see if we could get closer access to some of the Hindu temples. The rules were a bit daunting as you can see by this sign, so we weren't entirely sure as to how all of this would work. Fortunately, the guy collecting money was able to provide us with some proper coverings so as to not upset anyone. The gentleman providing the scarfs and such could have a career in fashion. He color coordinated our scarves with what we already had on. Nicole got red to match her stripes. I received blue that matched my t-shirt and flip flops.

The best thing about the Pura Dalem temple in Ubud was its lack of visitors. For whatever reason, Nicole and I had pretty much full unobstructed access to the temple without ever having to worry about someone getting in our photos.

Pura Dalem Hindu temples are "death" temples, so the statues are pretty interesting to look at. Everything is a bit spooky and we were there during broad daylight. It would be interesting to return at night since there seem to be some small floodlights, but I don't think the public has access after a certain time.

Following our short exploration of the temple, we continued to another temple called Saraswati. It was somewhat difficult to locate and had kind of a hidden entrance, accessible next to, of all places, a Starbucks. This one did not have as much access, and you could really only see it from the outside, but the lotus flowers and pond leading up to the temple made for a decent view, at least before other tourists found it and started doing selfies again.

It was getting to be quite hot and oppressive, so we made our way back to our hotel, where we returned to see our room was being worked on. To kill time, we wandered around the complex where we discovered a pathway leading to an open door, which led to further pathways which we had never seen before. We weren't sure if this was part of the hotel, but decided to do a bit of exploring. Every time we thought we had reached the end of the path, there would be another gate, a bridge, or some stairs leading in yet another direction. It was very interesting to see this sort of hidden world right underneath our hotel. Our room was ready after we returned from our exploring, and we spent most of the afternoon just relaxing on our porch area with a beer in hand.