Day 151 and 152: Workshops and Temples

Day 151

Today is the day of our workshop and we've decided to try something out that neither of us have done before, a Silversmith workshop. It's not till this afternoon though so we use the time to plan the rest of our time in Indoneisa which now includes a beach trip to Sanur as we are missing the sand too much. We grab a hotel on Agoda's secret deal which is meant to be 4 stars and I can't wait to go, it looks great :D

We grab a quick bite to eat before we head back to the hotel where we are being picked up from, all included in the price. Ayu, our teacher comes and picks us up at 1.45 and we grab another lovely couple who are from Denmark on the way through. Her place is about 30 minutes out of the city and we head into rice paddies with quacking ducks. I can't let you know what we made as they are presents for some lovely people but it was so much fun! We spent the first hour designing then we get given 5g of Silver to make what we want with. It was a little frustrating as they didn't go exactly to plan but we are both happy with the end result and I'll add some pictures when we've given them out :)

We get a lift back and get chatting to the Danes who were meant to climb Mount Kinabula (Ben's epic one) but the earthquake happened 4 days before and they couldn't go, which is rubbish but to make it worse they still haven't got their money back. Thinking they paid the same as Ben (£80) I didn't think too much of it but turns out they paid £600 each!! Which is crazy but shows what happens when you don't go with Jungle Jack. Spend tonight watching Commando as conveniently Ben bought mainly Arnie films with us, oh it's so bad it's good. 

Day 152

Today is our temple tour day and I can't wait. We have our scrummy banana pancake breakfast and then go upstairs to meet our driver. Turns out we are the only ones who want to go on the temple tour we picked (the cheapest) so they offer us a tour upgrade for free and this one looks brilliant, winner! We get into the car with one other couple, who are French, on their Honeymoon and absolutely lovely. 

Our first stop on the tour is the Elephant Temple. It's quite pretty and the main bit is a cave like temple that chokes you with incense as soon as you walk into it. There is also the ruins of a Buddhist temple where half of it has fallen away which is pretty cool.

Next up is my favourite temple of the day, the Holy Spring Temple, it is set in the valley of 2 luscious green hills with stunningly bright flowers and thick leafy trees surrounding it. We wander round taking in all the beauty and observe the people washing in the springs, the water here is said to bring you luck and prosperity if you wash in it and there are a lot of people giving it a go as well as bringing huge offerings of flowers and rice for the gods. 

We have a break from the temples now and head off to a coffee plantation. It's the best part of the day, we head around a cool garden that is full of plants and our guide points out cloves, coffee plants, cinnamon, ganglion, pineapple, cocoa, vanilla and more. We also got to meet a Luwak which is the little creature that eats the sweetest coffee beans and the poops them out whole, the beans then get used (after they have been cleaned) to make so delicious coffee. He was very cute.

We then got to see how the beans are hand roasted and then the best bit, the tasting! On the table were Bali coffee, hot cocoa, ginseng coffee, vanilla coffee, rosella tea, ginger tea, lemongrass tea, coconut coffee and Luwak Coffee. They were all very yummy, I even drank some of the coffee ones and they weren't half bad. Actually some of them were insanely amazing, especially the ginseng and the rosella tea. Whilst we were sipping we chatted the the guide about Bali in general and its religions and class system, very interesting. 

After our coffee overload we go and take in the beauty of Lake Bahar and the volcano behind it, it's very pretty. All of our tummies start rumbling now so the driver takes us to a resturant with incredible views of the rice paddies below but with eye. Watering prices, the buffet lunch cost us £15, an extortionate amount of Indonesia. 

We head to the Mother Temple now which we are warned can be very scammy. We haven't walked 10 metres in when one guy is trying to get us to "leave a donation" and then once we are at the bottom of the main gates we have to pay a "religious guide" to get in. You don't, you just walk to the side steps and go in there. The lower levels are quite unimpressive but the temple at the top is incredibly beautiful and if the weather was clear I reckon the view would be too.

The French couple are chatty and we get on with them quite well which is nice, I never realised the French liked our royal family so much! Next up is a rice paddy which I don't think is as nice as the one at lunch and then an average museum. We head back now and once we've said our goodbyes, we head off out to our coffee shop to work out how to get from Ubud to Sanur tomorrow. A taxi is just too expensive but after a little searching I find a bus company, horah! It's only a short walk from the cafe so we pop in and grab our tickets, then go back to pack.