DAY 11 was perfect!
We started the day by checking out a waterfall that Aaron found a picture of online! After asking about 10 people for directions along the way, we finally arrived, and it was DEFINITELY worth it! We paid .50 cents to enter the area, grabbed some snacks at the small stand at the top of th mountain and then began the 171 stair decent down to the river where the waterfall fell into.
It was a bit of a task to get close to the waterfall. There were lots of slippery rocks, deep and shallow water, and mud to get through before getting there... but once again, it was WORTH it!
Oh, and I guess I should mention that for the first 45 minutes or so, we were the only people there! AMAZING huh?!
Next to the waterfall, there were tall cliffs with cool spring water coming from bamboo holes into the river. The landscape here is like nothing I've ever seen! It's almost magical!
After the waterfall, we took the scooter to the famous Puri Saren Agung (Royal Palace, Water Palace) It's only about 150 feet from the place we were both staying at. This was the palace of the kings of Ubud until the 1940s and some royal descendants still live there to this day. These are the doors leading to the palace.
And this is inside the palace. There were a bunch of rules about what you had to wear to enter (and if you were "menstruating," you WERE NOT ALLOWED! I snapped this picture from the left door, which happened to be open (lucky for us!) This was, hands down, the most beautiful Palace Temple I've seen yet.
Most of the statues of Hindu gods are wrapped in this black and white checkered cloth. I'm not sure the significance... I'll try to ask someone before I leave.
These young Balinese boys were fishing in the small pond in front of the water palace. Believe it or not, under the masses of Lotus flower lily pads, there were lots of fish!
When we had seen every nook and cranny of the beauties of the water palace, we headed over to the Art Market to buy a kite to fly over the rice paddies! This handmade, hand painted, one of a kind Balinese kite was only $6.00! It came with a ball of string, which Aaron kindly wrapped around a water bottle so we could actually fly it! Don't be fooled by the bored look on his face... he was definitely as excited about kite flying as I was!
We decided to ride the scooter through the small towns and rice fields on the outskirts of Ubud, and try to fly the kite behind us, but there was ABSOLUTELY no wind, so it basically either flew in wide circles between the air and the ground, or just drug behind us while we, and the locals all laughed! It may not have flown, but it made for a really funny experience!
Aaron was trying to compensate for the fact that he's holding a butterfly kite!
After flying the kite, we stopped by the monkey forest once more to say goodbye to our monkey friends... The only food we had were rasberry mentos, so we bit them in half and would give one 1/2 to 1 monkey and the other 1/2 to another. Believe it or not, they LOVED them! Go figure, huh?!
The sun was going down and we were starving, so we stopped in at this charming restaurant on Monkey Forest road and had a drink and the most delicious food, all for about $5.00!
It was definitely an adventure packed day with lots of laughter and beauty!
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