Up and out early to meet our driver at 7am outside the villa.  OMG, the puddles.  Or really I should say the lakes!  The alleyway to our villa is a muddy, puddled mess and the lane outside the gates is virtually a lake!  It obviously rained like crazy all night long for this to be the outcome. 

Our driver arrives right on time – Dadek – and off we go on our full day odyssey to the center of the island for temples and rice fields.  Dadek is adorable, young and sweet, with an awesome playlist that keeps us musically entertained on our long, long drive.  It takes almost 2 hours to get up to Ulun Danu, our first stop in the mountains on Beratan Lake.  The traffic is terrible, and once we are out of the more populous areas, the roads are teeny and narrow, winding up into the mountains.  Slow going all the way! 

Once we are through the mountains, Lake Beratan appears in front of us. The second largest lake in Bali, it is the source of irrigation across the entire Bedugal Village here in the mountain valley.   The lake was at one time the largest lake in Bali until a huge earthquake occurred, splitting the lake into 3 sections:  Beratan, Buyan and Tamblingan.

Towards one end of the lake sits Ulun Danu Temple, the first stop on our all day tour.  Built for the Goddess Danu, the queen of water, lakes and rivers.  There are 4 sacred buildings:  Linga Pura, 3 levels high, the place of worship to Shiva; Pura Puncak Mangu, 11 levels high, dedicated to the god Vishnu; and Pura Teratai Bang and Pura Dalem Purwa, the main temples, to worship Sang Hyan Widhi, where people pray for fertility, prosperity and well-being.  It is such an important temple, it even appears on the 50K Rupiah note.

The Shiva and Vishnu temples are on small islands, seeming to almost float in the lake.  It is a perfect day for photos – cloudy, but with the sun trying to break through providing enough light to show off the different structures and colors of the temples (red for Brahma the creator, black for Vishnu the balance and preserver of the universe and white for Shiva the destroyer). The temples are just majestic out there in the water, a lovely view with the shimmering water and forested mountains in the background.  A lovely walk and exploration as Dadek plays photographer for us – snapping a bazillion pictures at every scenic point. 

We aren’t allowed in the main temple area, but we can snap a few photos as there is a ceremony being held.  The main event here tough, are the 2 temples in the water and then the large gardens surrounding the main temples – filled with oversized frogs and fish for kids and a very fun pair of kissing swans for us adults!

Leaving the temple complex, we wander past some naga statues and various other garden areas before arriving at the now packed parking lot – oh, timing is everything!! There are 4 busloads of school children and visiting teens just arriving.  Time to skedaddle!

Our next stop are the Bloom Gardens – a combination ticket with the Ulun Danu temple.  Divided into 7 different areas, the gardens are the largest flower recreational garden in Bali with over 11 acres of flowers and statuary.  We start our explorations in the Welcoming Garden, following the stone pathway up into the hillside past the Dutch Garden with the requisite Windmills.

Then into the Garden of Love, so named for all the hearts and beautiful red flowers spelling out the word love on the garden grounds. The whole garden area is just gorgeous, which gently sweeping hills and different features dotting the landscape.

As we climb up to the Topiary Barong, we have incredible views of Mt. Agung covered in wispy clouds in the distance. 

Then it is into the Topiary that represents the sacred Barong dance that celebrates the mythical depiction of animals, particularly the lion which is the king, with supernatural powers.  There are tons of cool, over the top animal statues and these great huge animals carved from what looks like massive trees. 

At the top of the hill there is an amazing waterfall that resembles the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore – at least the superstructure does.  The Barong whose mouth makes the waterfall is a bit of an exaggeration of the Singaporean lion though.  But still, pretty fun and a great representation. 

The centerpiece of the garden is the Goddess of the Lake Garden – a huge statue of the Goddess Danu, symbolizing the fertility of crops and of course the goddess of Ulun Danu.  There is a replica of the Gates of Heaven in front of the Goddess Danu statue that makes for an iconic photo of both national treasures.

Surrounding the Goddess of the Lake Garden is the Oval Garden, which is fairly hard to make out, unless you have a drone.  It may have been a little bit easier to see from the base of the Goddess, but we didn’t climb up there. 

The last garden was the Peacock Garden, with the massive peacock topiary with gardens stretching out behind the bird to make its tail feathers.  Just incredibly beautiful.

Back into the car we go for another hour drive out into the country to the Jatiluwih Rice Fields.  Paying our entrance fee at a booth at the bottom of the fields, Dadek drives us through the gorgeous rolling fields that gently climb up along the mountain sides.

We can see paths all through the fields, and at the top, a viewing platform where Dadek drops us off in the “no parking/no drop off” area.  Oops.  Then he just drives off.  Um….is he coming back?  Will he drive back down the hill to pick us up?  Well, guess we’ll see!  In the meantime we take the few minutes we have to snap photos – the rice has just been planted, maybe a week or two ago, so the gorgeous green plants contrast against the mirror-like surface of the water in which they are planted.  Beautiful.

About 10 minutes later, here comes Dadek walking down the hillside toward us.  Oh, ok, now we’re going to explore!  He takes us down the pathways and into the fields themselves – stopping along the way to play photographer. 

There are great scarecrows along the way, carved from coconut shells, and just more and more incredible views across the fields and out to Mt. Agung. 

The whole area is just gorgeous – and in our opinion, far more interesting than Tegalalang Rice Fields we visited a few years ago.  Reversing our course, we climb back out of the fields and back to the car for our drive to coast and our last stop Tanah Lot.

But first, lunch!  We’ve been talking to Dadek about Babi Guling – and Pande Egi, which everyone knows about! So he says he’ll take us to a great place for lunch – turns out it is Babi Guling Jero Kawan, a fabulous suckling pig place in the back of some alleyway.  It’s great!  There are only 2 meals – either the big plate combo or a smaller plate. Well, you know we’re going for the big one – what the heck!  And it was fabulous – almost as good as Pande Egi!  Dadek ate with us and it was an enjoyable 30 minutes or so just hanging out, and playing with the dogs that surrounded us begging for food.

Then we’re onto our last stop – Tanah Lot – the temple whose name means Land in the Sea.  The history of this temple in the sea goes back to the 16^th century when Dang Hyang Nirartha, who created the 3-temple system of Brahma in the north, Vishnu in the center and Shiva in the south, spied this little rock-island and decided to spend the night.  He decided the island was a holy place to build a shrine, but the leader of the Beraban people was angered by this and tried to banish Nirartha from the island.  Nirartha was said to have supernatural power, so he moved the whole rock island to the sea and then built the temple and named it Tanah Lot to worship Bhatara Segara, the sea God. 

As you approach the walk to Tanah Lot, you first see Batu Bolong temple, perched on a cliff with a natural rock archway.

If that wasn’t gorgeous enough, as we walk around the little cove, views of Tanah Lot come into view.  So magical – sitting out in the water all on its own. 

Unfortunately, it is high tide now, so we can’t walk out there.  During low tide there is a walkway that appears out of the water providing a bridge to the temple. But for now, we simply watch the temple from afar – that’s actually probably better than actually going out there, to be honest. 

Dadek plays photographer some more as we turn to leave, avoiding the hundreds of school kids on a tour that have just arrived.  Once again, timing is everything!  We get a couple of last shots at the entrance gate, and then it’s back to the car for our ride home.

On the way, we chat with Dadek, who is excited that he will have a short day today – the tour is normally 12 hours, but you know us, we are speed tourists and no way could we take that long to do all this stuff!  As we head toward Sanur, we drive through Denpasar, right down the same street we walked yesterday from the museum to the markets.  This time, actually getting a photo of the Brahma statue in the main intersection.

Along the way, we learn that Dadek has only been guiding for 6 months.  Aha! A baby guide!  That probably explains some of his silences and sort of timidness.  He’s great though and we’re sure he’ll have a great career!

Dropping us off at the villa, we say goodbye and tell him to have a great rest of the afternoon as we head straight for the pool and an evening at home with cup noodles for dinner.  Great day, but long and hot (not that we expected anything different!).  We’re happy to just veg tonight.