On the third morning on April 16, the eyes opened early. We enjoyed the sunrise while sitting under the balcony of the bougainvillea on the same lawn and sipping tea. Even today we had called Putu at around ten o'clock so that we could prepare breakfast and dinner for the day and take it with us.
Mustache monkey
At exactly ten o'clock Putu came with the car and we went with him. First he took us to the famous Monkey Garden in Uluwatu. There are red-faced and relatively small sized monkeys all over the park, whose mustache is surprising to see. There are many sculptures of monkeys and other animals, birds and aquatics in that garden which attract the attention of the viewer. There are many male statues here whose eyes are round like a ball. The corpulent human figures of Aurangutans with plump lips and puffy cheeks also amaze the onlookers here. There is not a single statue here which is considered normal or ignored. Some tourists brought bananas to feed the monkeys. Some monkeys were taking bananas from the hands of the tourists and were eating decently, but many monkeys were sitting on the shoulders and heads of the tourists to get the bananas. Seeing some of the idols located here, it is estimated that the monkeys of this forest have been sitting on the heads of humans for centuries. We stayed at Ubud Vanar Forest for about two hours. The experience of seeing this forest is one of the never forgotten experiences.
King's gloomy palace
After leaving the world of statues and moustache monkeys, we came to the main part of Kuta city where we got to see the palace of the ancient ruler of Kuta. Much of the palace is in ruins and all that is in good condition has almost been closed. It is a group of buildings made of red colored bricks. The construction of these bricks seems to be similar to the bricks made in India, that is, the bricks made of raw mortar have been cooked in high flame. The whole palace seems to be standing sad, losing its grandeur.
Dance-drama practice among the general public
In one part of this palace, some local female and male artists were practicing some dance-drama in Indonesian language. In a large wooden pavilion adjacent to it, many artists were playing a variety of instruments. The shapes of most of these instruments do not match with Indian instruments. Dozens of tourists from different countries of the world stood in a circle to see these artists. It was very nice to see that here the dancers come and practice in the open space, whereas in India this type of practice is often done in closed rooms.
History and Culture Books
Around this palace, there is a very busy market of Kuta. At a distance of about a furlong from the palace, we found a large book-store containing many books related to the history and culture of Indonesia. Like any other commodity, books were also very expensive. Still, we picked out a few books we liked.
Silence in Artifact Shops
From here Putu took us to the Terrace Fields where rice is cultivated by leveling the slopes of the hills like a ladder. To reach there, we had to pass through an urban area. It was not much to our surprise to see that there were hundreds of shops of decorative artefacts located on both sides of the road. Artifacts made of bamboo, wood and other materials. Beautiful paintings, shells of hundreds of different types of sea creatures, colorful ornaments, what was not there!
More than half of these shops were closed and hardly any customer was seen standing in any shop even in the open shops. This was the reality of the life of the people of Bali. The livelihood of many families here depends on the arrival of tourists. Since it was not tourist season and there were very few tourists on the island of Bali, there was silence at these shops.
Rice Terrace Fields
It was a mountainous region, with rice terrace fields situated in the middle of very dense forest. Farmers were working in some fields. Their pointed conical caps captivate the beholder. We felt as if we had entered a different world. Putu stopped the car at a place and asked us to walk down the hill and enjoy the terrace fields after reaching the hill which was visible about half a kilometer away. We also saw many tourists going there. We did not have enough strength in our legs to reach there by descending one hill and climbing another hill and then return after walking only for this. So we postponed going there and requested to proceed to the next destination.
Mars in the Jungle
After a short walk, the chain of rice fields ended and dense hills began. There was such a dense forest here that the greenness seemed to have reached its peak. We requested Putu to stop the train at some place where we could have lunch. Putu was familiar with every place here. Soon he found the verandah situated near a temple on the side of the road. There was no human here. The temple was locked and the baramada was also completely empty. We decided to sit there and have lunch. This was our first time sitting in the woods with the family and having a meal like this. This food had a taste that is impossible to describe.
Charity and worship plate
There was a closed shop near the place where we sat down and had our food, outside of which it was known from the list board that coconut, flowers and other worship materials were sold here. The title was inscribed in Roman script on this catalogue – “Ring Pura Dalem Wali Worship of Charity”, which means charity and the value of the items of the round plate of worship in the temple. I could not understand the names of the items on this list, but by reading their rates, it could be easily understood that they were very expensive.
Chicken feat
While we were having food, a colorful chick of a bird wandered from somewhere and came to us. It was a bright yellow bird that could not fly. As soon as one and a half year old Deepa's eyes fell on him, she followed him. Just like the chick came to play with him. He started running after Deepa, going round and round. Deepa tried a lot but could not catch him. When Deepa stopped tired, the chick would come and stand beside her and Deepa would again run to catch her. This sequence went on for a long time.
God's Place
After having dinner, we started walking like this for a while and saw the forest. I saw that another platform was built nearby, around which there was a boundary wall about one and a half feet high. I went near him out of curiosity. On the platform there was a small Devra, in which an unearthed stone statue was kept. A tall tree stood at the back side of the station, which was casting a shadow on the temple. It was almost the same as there are places of Gogaji and Bayasan under Khejdi in Rajasthan. I took many pictures of this place.
Temple of Indra
After enjoying lunch in the forest, we again started in Putu's car. This time he took us to a temple built in the middle of the mountains. It was an ancient temple dedicated to Indra. To reach the temple, one had to descend a lot of steps and climb back up. Our team members were not prepared for this. One of the reasons for our reluctance was that to see this small temple, we had to spend a lot of money and buy tickets. Being Indian, we did not like to buy tickets to enter the temple. A separate ticket had to be taken to park the car. So we gave up the idea of going down to the temple and looked at the temple complex and the building standing on the road above. It seemed to be a very ancient temple. According to the tradition of Bali, the entire temple was made of black stone, with moss growing on the walls indicating that it receives heavy rainfall and the walls are wet for most of the days of the year. The water-pools built in the temple premises and the lotus flowers in them were producing such scenes as the scenes depicted by Lord Vedavyas at many places in the Mahabharata. Especially in the case of Yaksha-question.
Frustration from the waterfall
Putu decided to take us to a natural waterfall. It was a very green hill station. Here too, the tourism department of the Indonesian government had put up a ticket. There was also a separate amount to be paid for parking the car.
Since we had traveled only in the car since morning and did not see any place closely by walking. So here we decided to stay. After walking for about half a kilometer and descending a few steps, we reached the place from where the waterfall was visible. There were many restaurants in this entire route in which many things like coconut, black coffee, cold drinks, chicken, fish, omelet were being sold but none of these things were of any use to us. We wanted to have tea, but it was impossible to find tea in Bali, that too with milk.
Dad and I stopped at the spot where the waterfall was visible. Madhu took the children along and went near the waterfall. The waterfall was about a kilometer away from here. It was so small that I thought that even bigger springs than this could be seen in the Arna-Jharna hills in the middle of the desert during the rainy season. It is regrettable to see that the Indonesian government is charging tourists for ticket money even to show it. After about an hour Madhu returned and told that this place is for those who want to drink and enjoy the bath in the waterfall. Below are some wine shops from where European tourists are buying wine and bathing in the waterfall.
Return to Service Apartment
It was almost three o'clock in the evening. We returned to the service apartment. Mangvi was about two hours away from here. By reaching there, the light of the sun god started diminishing. On reaching the service apartment, Bhanu made tea and we drank on the lawn opposite the glass verandah that opened directly into the rice fields. There was no limit to the joy of getting hot tea. We were told by Putu that the next day we might visit a couple of temples and the beach but we fixed the next day for rest. It had been almost a week since we left Jodhpur and now we needed rest. Whatever had been seen so far also needed to be recorded. So we asked Puttu not to come the next day.