5 things we did in Ubud Bali

We woke up to rainy wheather this morning. It was okey for us since we needed some extra hours of sleep due to the difference in Hours from Norway and Bali.
We used the morning to eat a late breakfast and make a plan for our first day of sightseeing in Ubud.

Our goal for today was to see:

1. Campuhan ridge walk
2. Goa Gajah temple
3. Pura Taman Sarawati
4. Taranungan Waterfall
5. We stumbled on the Pura Dalem Temple

We started looking at Pura Taman Sarawati temple which is a beautiful little temple located in the main street of Ubud. It has two small lakes on each sides and a fabulous temple in the end.
As expected there was a lot of tourists present, which makes it hard to take the "perfect picture". The temple was designed by I Gusti Nyoman Lempad following a commision by the Prince of Ubud Cokorda Gede Agung Sukawati.

He moved to Ubud after a big disagreement with the king of Blahbathuh. He was then employed by the Sukuwati royal family to construct many palaces and temples in Ubud.
He startet constructing the Pura taman Saraswati temple in 1951 and it was completed in 1952. It is dedicated to Sarasvati, the Hindu deity of learning, litterature and art.

After visiting the Pura Taman Sarawati temple, we stumbled on the Pura Dalem Temple on our way to the Campuhan ridge walk. Pura Dalem temple had no tourists, except us, so we could walk around in our own pace and take pictures.
It was not a lot to see inside this temple during the day, but after reading online afterwards we could see that it hosts Keack & Fire Dance in the evenings.

We walked 5- 10 minutes more in the same direction until we found the entrance for the Campuhan ridge walk. It is a 2 km long walk on flat stones leading up to a cafè called Karsa Cafè.
The campuhan ridge walk has a lot of forest and jungle on both sides and it is a beautiful scenery. It is very warm to walk along the top, so it is best to walk during the morning or evening. We did not walk the whole lenght because we wanted to see the rest of the attractions on our list too.

When we came down from the ridge we found a nice taxidriver that wanted us to call him "Supa". He took us to the Goa Gajah temple and Taranungan waterfall.

The Goa Gajah temple, also known as Elephant cave, has a lot of beautiful stone carvings and a small cave that you can walk into, but today it was a lot of maintanance going on so it did not give the whole "Bali- sensation". But we got some nice pictures and the oportunity to again study the amazing talent the Indonesian people have in stonecarving.
The indonesian people do not know the exact origins of the cave, but it was probably dated from the 11th century based on the style of the carvings. The cave was rediscovered in 1923 by some Dutch Archaelogists, while the fountain and bathing pool was discovered in 1954.

After visiting the Goa Gajah Temple, Supa drove us to the Taranungan waterfall. We had high expectations based on pictures seen on the internet in advance, but we could both say that we were a bit disappointed.
The waterfall itself is very beautiful, except that the water was a bit brown today because of the rainy weather, but all the tourists made it hard to walk around, take a picture and enjoying the view. But the place itself it quite beautiful if you manage to look besides the tourists. A good solution is to be there in the morning before all the other tourists arrive.

Supa then drove us back to Kubu Tropis Garden where we could take a shower and relax for a few minutes before finding a restaurant to eat dinner.

We ended up at Semujaen restaurant were Christoffer ordered beef and Stine rice noodles. The food and service was very good and the prices as it is through Bali, quite cheap.

So that is all for today folks. Tomorrow we will be heading out to see the rest of the attractions around Ubud.