On the Monday after we arrived, we hired a guide and a driver (a chap called Wyan and his brother) and travelled
north to visit Ubud and Kintamani. Ubud is a small town famous for its craftwork and artists, and surrounded
by the rice fields that Bali is known for. This picture was taken a few miles outside Ubud. |
Another view of the submerged rice paddies on the outskirts of Ubud. We spent some time driving through this area visiting
a lot of craftwork centres. |
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Vanessa with Wyan and his brother. Wyan works most of his time as a waiter in Nusa Dua (where we met him) but has aspirations
to be a tourist guide, which in Bali is where most of the money is. |
Mount Agung, visible through the clouds, lies a few miles east of Ubud. It is one of the highest mountains on Bali
and is a particularly holy place in the local culture. We happened to drive past it when Wyan lost his way and took
us on an unexpected detour for two hours. |
A craftsman 'processing' the wood carvings. Every craft centre pays the guides a kickback to bring the tourists to see
their work, whether it is wood or stone carvings, gold or silver jewellery, batik silk prints or paintings. We must have
been taken to nine or ten of these before we got fed up with it! At each stop we were taken for a two minute tour
to see the craftsmen 'processing' the stone / wood / silver / batik etc., then shepherded into the craft shop where a
guide followed you round until you bought something. Guess what - they had a special price for us too! |
We went to a restaurant on a cliffside overlooking the volcano at Kintamani, in the north of the island. The balcony
at the restaurant had fantastic views out over the forests below, and the indonesian buffet was very good indeed. |
As you can see, the restaurant and car park really were hanging out over the edge of the cliff. |
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As we drove down from Kintamani, we stopped to buy fruit from one of the many little stalls by the roadside. |
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