After a few months or preparation and excitement, finally, it was December 25th, and we were on the way to the most famous tourist location in South East Asia – Bali.
We reached Bali airport by around 1pm and we had a hectic schedule in front of us. We had planned to drive around and see Bali and had booked a Suzuki Jimny online, and it was waiting for us in the airport parking lot :) I was a little cautious while driving on the first day, as I was driving a car after 7 months or so.
We took the car and planned to cover Ulun Danu Beratan/Bratan lake and lake temple. We reached there by around 4:30pm and the place was so quiet, serene and beautiful. We were overwhelmed by the sight of a few hills overlooking the lake, and a temple at the edge of the lake. There was a temple procession going on, few kids enjoying themselves and a few tourist “snapping” around. After our round of snaps, we walked around, saw the temple and enjoyed the serenity around.
After Ulun Danu, our next destination was one which I had found in google maps and written down. As it was not a “well-known” destination, I was almost sure that we would lose our way and this was one of the rare occasions where I did not go wrong. However, we ended up in a farm near a lake. It was a marigold flower farm, again, overlooking the lake, and it was another beautiful sight. We walked around, saw a temple nearby and asked permission and entered. After we entered, two people came and greeted us and it turned out that the place was not a temple, but their house. The head of the family was one of the 158 Bali priests. They were quite happy when they came to know that we are from India, land of Holy Ganges, and happier when they understood that we were Hindus. They talked to us a lot about their culture, their gods, showed us their albums. They also treated us with a fine tea, and few sweets. I have read in many places about the hospitality of Balinese, but to experience it was something really different. The people there were so calm, respectful, and had high regards for others. They explained about the procedure of them getting “converted” to holy priests, in which they should sleep and act as if they were dead. After sleeping for 11 hrs, they will be taken to a place where some rituals are performed and they are “reborn” as priests. After spending more than an hour there, and exchanging phone numbers, we decided to take our leave.
Then, we drove across to North Bali, Lovina where we planned to stay the first night. The hotel was not so good, but we had no other option as we had already booked the accommodation. After checking in, we went out to Lovina beach at night, which was kind of weird without lights and a few locals playing card games and likewise. We had dinner at a nearby hotel, returned to the hotel and called the day off.
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