Night into Day

We ventured out in the evening for two reasons. One, I knew they lit up some of the temples and wanted to get some pictures, and Two, our hotel grounds were being smoked for mosquitoes. It was not yet dark enough for the lights to come on when we walked by, so we ended up getting dinner at the 3 Monkeys, the same restaurant as the previous night. One cannot go wrong with some pasta and pizza. After dinner, we worked our way through the chaotic crowds of central Ubud until reaching Saraswati Temple, the one next to the Starbucks.

The unfortunate thing about this town is that it doesn't really cater to photographers. The only reason the temples are illuminated at night is because many of them play host to a dancing show. Luckily I was able to sweet talk the people selling tickets into letting us snap a couple quick photos before going on our way. We later ended up back at the Pura Dalem Temple, where we had previously worn special attire so as to not offend. Now, however, these strict rules were no longer required as they too had a show. I took one picture from just outside the entrance and called it good enough. We walked back to our hotel a bit annoyed.

It is incredibly hypocritical to require specific attire during the daytime, when no ceremony is occurring, and simply not care in the evening because more money can be generated if they just let anyone in. We Herschers have a long history of being annoyed by nonsensical religious dress codes. 20 years ago, my sister had to buy special pants to get in to the Vatican because she was deemed too skanky in her nearly knee-length skirt. My mom had to put on some kind of shawl/dress over her pants while visiting a monastery in Greece because apparently women shouldn't wear pants. And at the Pura Dalem Temple, it is strictly forbidden for a woman to enter while menstruating. It's really tough being a woman. Though, at 7:30pm, all bets are off as long as you have 80,000 INR.

Perhaps it was all the walking we did throughout the day, or the heat, or a combination thereof that led me to fall asleep around 10pm. As a result, I woke up around 7am, and decided to take advantage of the situation by doing a bit of exploring before the crowds of tourists consumed the town. I first walked down the hill toward the ridge hike where we saw our first temple a few days ago. A pair of young women were laying out offerings in front of the temple. These types of offerings are all over town and it's hard not to accidentally step in one.

After my brief stop at temple #1, I thought I'd try and go back to Saraswati, the Starbucks Temple, as it will forever be remembered in my mind, and power-walked into town in hopes of grabbing a couple shots before the selfie takers started to arrive. I had the place to myself and was able to enjoy the solitude of it in spite of the constant drone of motorbikes in the street just meters away.

Today we must check out of our hotel, but our flight (or any flight going to Sydney for that matter), doesn't leave until 1030pm. This makes for one of those awkward days where we are kind of stranded in Ubud for about 6 hours. We've been told we can still use the hotel facilities, just not our room, so we my spend some time at the pool, and Nicole may get a massage as they are quite inexpensive here. I think we are both ready to leave Ubud. While our hotel is very relaxing, the town is a little wild for our tastes. On to the next adventure . . .