Bali : Day 3

Today, we got ready and went downstairs for breakfast .... the menu was essentially the same ...

Fried beehoon, egg, potato salad and papaya .... 

View of the water feature from the breakfast terrace ... 

Pak Awan brought his son, 19-year-old Rama, who was a university student on a holiday break. Pak Awan told us that he was very tired after driving the whole of yesterday, and so Rama would drive us around today. Today's itinerary would be more relaxing, as we only had 3 places to cover - Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, Alas Kedaton and Tanah Lot. 

We drove to Tabanan and on the way, we were stopped by enforcement officers ... people like Pak Awan do not have a tourist license, and he wasn't supposed to use his vehicle to ferry tourists; so Pak Awan had to negotiate with the officers ..... and they were bought off at the price of IDR100,000. 

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, a water temple at the shores of Lake Bratan. This temple was built in 1926, and is the second most important temple complex of Bali. The temple is dedicated to Dewi Batari Ulun Danu, goddess of lakes and rivers. Ulun Danu literally translates as “head of the lake”.

The most iconic structure here of Ulun Danu Bratan
The Supreme Water Temple of Pura Ulun Danu on the edge of Lake Batur whose crater lake is regarded as the ultimate origin of every spring and river. Pura Ulun Danu is part of the UNESCO Heritage List in Bali ...

The weather was perfect .... I had a great time here, just taking in the beautiful and serene sight ..... 

Lunch was nearby at a restaurant called Pacung ... 

The restaurant was located at high grounds, overlooking these beautiful rice terraces .... 

Lunch was served buffet-style, and compared to yesterday, today's lunch was tastier. 

Sampling a bit of everything ... 

Tomatoes with creamy salad dressing, fried chicken, potato wedges, fried noodles, fried rice, tempe, spinach tempura, corn soup, pisang goreng and mung bean dessert 

Satay

I ate one .... this one was flavoured better than yesterday's too 

Today's noodles was the best that I'd eaten throughout my week in Bali - lots of crunch from the vegetables and slightly sweet seasoning on the noodles really suited my palate. I also enjoyed the fried chicken, spinach tempura and pisang goreng ...

The buffet line ... 

Our last attraction of the day was Tanah Lot. Normally, people came to watch the sunset here. We'd reached Tanah Lot quite early ....

Walking towards the beach ... 

Lined along this path on the left and right were souvenir shops. It was distracting. Heh. We browsed from shop to shop ... and it took us 2 hours to finally reach the beach. I bought 4 necklaces - each at IDR10,000, a shift dress for IDR28,000 and a sarong for IDR60,000.

My friend, J, were shopping for barong shirts for her brother and sister-in-law ....

Source : https://baliswalayan.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=45

They were purportedly very cheap, and over here at Tanah Lot, J did manage to buy 4 pieces in which prices ranging from IDR20,000 to IDR25,000.

Shopping done, we headed towards the beach .... 

 Pura Tanah Lot

The temple was built on a rock formation overlooking the Indian Ocean

Tourists lined up to seek blessing from the priests .... 

The sign said "Ular Suci" or holy snakes

I tried to view the snake but couldn't enter without a "donation"

Moss-covered rocks on the beach ....

After Tanah Lot, we were brought to dinner at Ambassador Cafe. But when we reached the place, we found that the cafe had closed, and in its place was thinkAsia Noodle Bar. Hmn .... it served food like Thai Tom Yum and Hainanese chicken rice and Vietnamese Pho .... 

Hmn ... I wasn't going to eat Tom Yum in Bali ..... 

We asked Pak Awan to bring us to Simpang Raya again ....  and we had exactly the same food that we had yesterday; 9 dishes ... but in place of the sauteed cabbage, they gave us .... 

Ati Ampela Balado
Liver and Gizzard in Hot Chilli
The chicken offal was crunchy and well-flavoured with chillies .... 

That evening, we walked along Jalan Legian; we found this area to be rowdier as there were more young people and more entertainment outlets ... 

Ground Zero Monument 

This was the site of the 2002 Bali Bombing, where 202 people were killed ..... today, a monument serves as a grim reminder of this tragedy. After walking down the street a little bit more, we headed back to our hotel.