18th February 1992 Day 213

The Diary
Today we hired bikes and cycled out to Goa Gajah and Yeh Pulu. At Goa Gajah (the elephant cave) we met another local and got quite friendly with him. he took us back to his home in Bedulu and then walked us miles across the paddy fields (not easy) to the village rice temple. We then went to the temple with the relief of tigers, horses etc (Yeh Pulu) and encountered a hatstand old woman and an Indonesian hippy trying to play House of the Rising Sun on a badly tuned pink acoustic guitar.

Goa Gajah

Rice Temple

We went back to our guides' house to pick up our bikes and he offered to show us out of the village. It was obvious he wanted some money but being the poor travellers that we are, we made him suffer by waiting for him to ask us. Eventually Beth gave him 10,000rp (less than 1 quid each) and told him to use it for his education and not as an offering.

We then cycled up the road to Pura Penataran Sasih temple - the moon temple - where a once yearly ceremony was about to happen. (The Indonesian year = 210 days). It had the atmosphere of a fair with a stalls set up outside. Women were bringing offerings of food - fruit, rice, cakes, chickens - all nicely presented in a sort of pyramid they carried on their heads. Beth was propositioned by an Indonesian with poor English but somehow she resisted the offer. We then cycled back to Ubud via the back route, which zig-zaged through villages, packs of dogs, gaggles of geese, down hills, up hills and past paddy fields.

In the evening Beth was stricken by her social conscience and got herself worked up about the Indonesian way of life and her inability to do anything about it.

2012
Not much to add really but you can read more about Bali here.