3rd Day in Bali

Day 3 in Ubud and the morning weather looks good enough for a day excursion to northern Bali! Of course kor-kor & I were absolutely delighted. :)

And with the paddy fields looking just as great as before, there was just 1 other thing to do while waiting for our brekkie to be served.
Blowing bubbles! Hee hee...

We put out mouths to better use though, when the breakfast came... which we gobbled down in record time so as to make to be on time for our excursion trip.
The hotel provides a personal excursion trip, with a driver and it can customize different itineraries. The rental charge? Only S$7 per hour... pretty reasonable. And we decided to tour the northern part of Bali, with Daddy promising us that we'll be eating our lunch in full view of a volcano. Kor-kor obviously can't wait.

Our first stop - Goa Gajah or Elephant Cave.
The main attraction of the temple is the cave above, which is carved into the rock-face. The cave possibly dates back to the 11th century and the entrance features the mouth of a mythical creature with many detailed carvings in the surrounding stone.

Kor-kor was pretty scared of going into the cave, 'cos it was quite dark. He kept muttering that he wanted to go out while we were inside... but there were no problems for me! Heh.

Guess he felt much better when we went to the holy water bath pools instead.

The outside area has two deep, stone bathing pools, filled with water from spouts held by six female figures. So we all touched the water for good luck.
The temple grounds was quite vast and there were plenty of steps going up and down as we continued to tour the place. Daddy and Mummy reckoned it was such a good slimming session for them as they lugged us monkies around. Good hor? And best of all, we don't charge. :P
We then proceeded to the Tirta Empul Temple next and before stepping into the compound, all of us had to tie this blue sash around our waists so as to signify a cleansing to our thoughts when we are in the temple.

The temple is fronted by a long rectangular pool carved of stone, filled with koi and fed by the sacred spring via 12 fountains. The water emerges from underground and is thought to have curative properties. Well, all kor-kor & I know is that the water felt so shiok and cooling when we both dipped our hands into the water!
Daddy & Mummy liked this place a lot... 'cos there were hardly any steps! HAHAHAHA!
Which also meant kor-kor & I pretty much ran freely in the compound, bringing welcome relief to Daddy's arms and Mummy's shoulders. :P

Next up - a tropical fruit plantation and a coffee farm. Ahhh... this one Mummy liked 'cos she loves kopi!
There were different kinds of fruit plants grown there, and one perculiar looking fruit was this snake-like textured fruit. It's called buah salat, and kor-kor needed no invtiation to pluck it off the plant for immediate testing!
That was our driver cum tour guide for the day... very nice uncle who always carried me or kor-kor around when either one of us deicided not to walk. Heh.

The highlight for Mummy had got to be when she and Daddy got to sample the many different types of coffee sold there... and all in front of a spectacular view!
So shiok right? But kor-kor only cared about adding sugar into the kopi. Hahaha...
After getting high on caffeine, our next stop was Penelokan, which offered a superb view of the volcano, Mt. Kintamani and Lake Batur.
We also had our lunch at one of the restaurant there, and this was the view from our table.
Absolutely stunning, commented Daddy... together with the really cool breeze, it didn't feel like we were in Bali anymore. And did I mention the food? It was a buffet and the price was S$8 per person and free for kor-kor & I!
No wonder kor-kor whacked at least 10 sticks of satay lah... hahaha...
One more stick...
And yet another for the record!

Me? I was just happy to play with the sticks. kekekeke...

With buldging tummies, we made a last stop at Ceking to gawk at the rice terraces before heading back to our hotel for an afternoon nap.

And what do you know... it was time for dinner! And this time, we were going to catch some ducks.
Dirty ducks actually... at Bebek Bengil. Slurp!

The restaurant had a pretty nice atmosphere, with a nice pondok for us to sit in and enjoy our meals. Which also meant I had found great thrill in climbing up and down lor...
Daddy brought us around the restaurant surroundings as we waited for our food to arrive...

Finally, the duck was caught and served... all crispified and definitely very yummy!
A truly satisfying meal... and we headed back to our room to pack up as we have to check into another hotel the next day.
Well, not before a final photo I suppose. Notice that I have learnt how to strike a pose like kor-kor while taking photos. Hahaha...