The second half of the day will be less of a pleasure, with the rain setting in quite brutally as we begin the climb into the mountains.
We stop as best we can on the side of the road, first under a tree which will be far from doing the trick, the rain intensifying, we cross the road towards an empty shop to shelter ourselves properly.
Continuing once the rain had calmed down, we climbed up to Kedisan, where a superb viewpoint awaited us (Danau Batur, right at the foot of the volcano).
To get your bearings, here is the actual map I had:
From this moment on it will start to rain regularly (there is literally a micro climate on the mountains where the clouds are almost permanently concentrated there, in any case in this month of April...) We will have to stop for a few moments under this fruit stand (without anyone to run it by the way...) to take shelter a little.
The view upon arrival was a little blocked by the clouds.
And good appetite, of course !
The poor doggie made us feel sorry for him looking at us like that...
Being hungry we settled for the only restaurant in the area, the breathtaking view made us forget the price a little, but in addition to the view it was an all-you-can-eat buffet so...
While eating, the view clears.
The traces of recent volcanic activity are unmistakable.
The ground is still black from the previous pour.
Street vendors are everywhere whenever there are tourists (who here hardly strayed far from the restaurant, only Indonesians (at least I assume) were taking pictures in the surroundings)
Portrait.
As it started raining heavily again we stopped again under a small shop. Some kids greeted us and immediately tried to sell us something. They purposely went out in the rain to get us postcards after having said that this was potentially the only thing that interested us.
In addition to a kind of rain poncho (very effective) we took some postcards.
Our next stop.
Sometimes it's pretty crazy to see the faces in the photos.
And then, be careful, there is abuse in this temple, having our sarongs we thought we would be safe but there you go, after having paid our entrance tickets, we are ordered to go under a kind of covered playground where tables are lined up with fabrics used for sarongs among other things but also for turbans, which as a man I am forced to wear, in addition for each of us a colored ribbon to wear around the waist (in addition to the sarong that we were already wearing).
All this to take something like 30,000 Rp from us again, which is more than the entrance ticket! (which was 20,000 Rp each) And the worst thing is that it's ONLY rental!
That is to say, wear it for a few minutes while visiting (i.e. €2…). If you have nothing against tradition, the prohibitive price is all the more difficult to accept because once inside, you will come across a few rare tourists, but not all of them had turbans and other items… Only a sarong which is actually obligatory regardless of the temple (and even the “rental” is normally included in the price of the ticket…).
Knowing that the “playground” in question is accessible via an entrance sign placed next to where you pay the ticket, while the temple is opposite, on the other side of the road, so there is no need to follow this sign… (we did it because we thought it was a sort of museum and we were kindly encouraged to go there…), at that price we could have bought them outright, Jitima was angry and got relatively angry (which is rare…) when we brought them their pieces of fabric…
Don't go in there!
The only good thing is that the rain stopped during our visit...
On the other hand, the fog is there.
A clearing that will not last.
One of the few rays of sunshine during the day.
Further on another temple to visit, this one is supposed to offer a superb view just like the restaurant.
Jitima tiring, the rain starting to fall again and the weather being overcast anyway it's a miss for the view, and above all it's almost 17 p.m. we are forever from Ubud and have to go back down the whole mountain while night is about to fall... So we quickly give up on climbing the steps and decide that it was time to go home.
And it's easier said than done, between the fine drizzle rain, the fog (fortunately not too thick)...
…and nightfall, which at least will offer us a pretty sunset without rain by miracle at that time (the clouds being very concentrated and almost systematic in the mountains of Bali, at least in this season)
It's only been a good half hour since we left the previous temple and night has already fallen, the remaining journey is still long.
And there, a real challenge to return to the hotel, on a mountain road that we don't know... at night.
This one was also dotted with holes, what's more, when it wasn't the rain that was getting in intermittently... Not to mention the almost non-existent signs... In short; it was a long time...
It took us a good 3 hours to get there! Longer for me, actually, since I'm the one driving and I'm really stressed out!
We were also alone, we hardly came across any other vehicles or houses, sometimes really lost because they are really angry with the signs, as if it was obvious that such a place is in such a direction...
As for the map I had, the scale was too small and tended to mislead me a little... By dint of asking for directions, after probably a detour, I don't know where (by going back down too far in particular), we will end up arriving, back in Ubud without any problem to report, phew!!
