After an exciting experience with elephants and rapids, my next few days in Bali were more of a cultural experience. Our group signed up for a guided tour which lasted the entire day. Our first stop was at a small village community of silver workers. Each village in Bali specialized in a certain craft or service and these family communities lived and worked together for generations. This particular village created fine jewelry out of silver and jewels. Our next stop was to the Royal Family Temple which was located near the town of Ubud. Like other temples, it is common to see a sign that says “no menstruating women” outside.

 Afterwards we tromped through some rice patties on our way to try some Balinese foods. I’m not exactly sure what each treat was but the first was a sort of deep fried sweet potato fries and the second was breaded honey balls which tasted uncannily like honey comb.

Next stop was to the Sacred Monkey Forest. This was a sanctuary for the wild monkeys live in and it consists of a small village and a temple. Here we could feed monkeys and even though we weren’t allowed to touch the monkeys, they had no problem climbing all over us, searching our pockets, and in Nick’s case, slapping us across the face.

Our final stop of the day was a marvelous one. The temple of Tanah Lot is built on a volcanic rock formation just off the coast. During high tide, the island is cut off from land but at low tide a land bridge is revealed and people can walk back and forth. Just my luck, just as I started walking out the tide came in but it was still an amazing seeing it from a distance.

Tanah Lot