One of our first stops was to Gunung Kawi. Before I get there I should warn you that often you'll see us "dressed up" a bit in our pictures. Many of the sites/temples we saw are used daily by the Balinese, and we needed to adhere to temple dress meaning we needed to have our KNEES covered. For those of you who end up going to Bali, sarongs are almost always provided at many sites. People will try to sell them to you. If you'd like to buy one, by all means do so, but you're not required to buy anything. Some sarongs we got from the temples were better than others.
I think Husband J makes a good model.
Gunung Kawi is split into two parts. It's believed that this portion pictured below is a set of tombs made by King Anak Wungsu for his four favorite concubines. I wonder what the others got? :) They are stone reliefs chiseled from a rock.
The temple at Gunung Kawi
Many of the temples and sights in Bali are smack dab in the middle of some gorgeous scenery.
Bale Kambung (Floating Pavilion)
This area represents the remains of the former Semarapura palace. Bale Kambung was used primarily for important ceremonies.
Another bale next to Bale Kambung, Kerta Gosa, is believed to be an area that was used as a criminal court. On the ceiling, there are intricate drawings depicting what many think are the cruel punishments that awaited criminals way back then.
Scary
The view from Bale Kambung was picturesque in itself.
Bale Kambung's ceiling depicts Balinese astrology.
Taman Gili also has a small but not to spectacular museum that you can walk through rather quickly. One thing the museum was helpful for was understanding the Balinese resistance to Dutch colonization. As Husband J said, between Manhattan and Bali, the Dutch had to give up some great islands.
3 comments:
So cool! I've never been anywhere remotely like this!
Sigh. Bali looks gorgeous. If only we had had time for a honeymoon . . . .
@Mrs. Hot Cocoa - Definitely go somewhere and just call it a honeymoon :) I feel like we had a much better (and much more romantic if I do say so myself) time in Bali than we did on our mini-moon. Hopefully, Husband J doesn't read this. :)
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