by PEDRO F » Mon Oct 29, 2018 8:20 pm
ULUWATU, THE BEST TEMPLE IN BALI?
That day seemed to be the perfect day but it was about to change into the worst day ever.
Our stay in Bali had been the best destination to have a dreamed holiday so far. Few things were left unseen from the hundred of places tourists visited in the island.
Those were our last three days in the island and we wanted to relax in the pool after a ten day trips around. We visited the north with the endless rice fields and its magnificent beaches, the east with the caves and the giant bats sleeping in the forest, the west with the traditional towns where each of them did a special thing; silver, woodcarving… We only missed a thing that we decided to left for the end of our journey: the Uluwatu Temple near the south coast of the country.
Uluwatu was supposed to be one of the best temples in the whole island. It was built on top of a cliff looking on one side to the sea and on to the other side to the jungle and the mountains. Everybody was delighted to spend the afternoon there waiting for the sun to set. A very romantic moment to spend in company. We decided to hire a car with a driver so that we weren’t loosing time to make our way to the temple. The driver was kind during the travel and he was telling us stories about gods, temples and offerings. It was strange, though, that he didn’t want to go with us inside the temple once we arrived. He just said he had already seen the temple many times and he preffered to wait for us outside having a drink. We didn’t know that our worst nightmare was about to start.
We pay the entrance fee and headed for the little path going up to the temple. It was a great walk as it was on the edge of the cliff and the views were stunning. But soon after that we met the first couple of tourists coming back from the visit. They seemed quite anxious and as they reach us the man told us “Be careful with the monkeys” and he quickly passed us by. We looked each other and laugh. We had visited other temples were monkeys were annoying tourists and we never had a problem.
We realized quickly that our thoughts about monkeys were about to change. The first annoying moment was when we were taking a selfie. The first monkey appeared from nowhere and grabbed the camera. It took the camera away disappearing from sight. We tried to run after him but we weren’t lucky. We decided to go on with the visit after we realized the camera will be lost forever. But everything was going to get worse… The second monkey reached us. It was looking at us with a peaceful face and with slow movements, we could see it was a female. She got nearer and then all of a sudden she took my glasses in one hand and pulled the long earrings from Silvia with another hand. Then we realized all the monkeys, about twenty of them, were approaching us from different places around the Temple. They were attracted by the food we had in our bags. We had bought some snacks to have something to eat before watching the sunset.
We start to run to the exit as fast as we could and that was the end of the nightmare. A Balinese turned up from the entrance cabin and he offered himself to be our guide and a protector from the monkeys.
Finally, we could see the sunset but with the Balinese bodyguard next to us.
ULUWATU, THE BEST TEMPLE IN BALI?
That day seemed to be the perfect day but it was about to change into the worst day ever.
Our stay in Bali had been the best destination to have a dreamed holiday so far. Few things were left unseen from the hundred of places tourists visited in the island.
Those were our last three days in the island and we wanted to relax in the pool after a ten day trips around. We visited the north with the endless rice fields and its magnificent beaches, the east with the caves and the giant bats sleeping in the forest, the west with the traditional towns where each of them did a special thing; silver, woodcarving… We only missed a thing that we decided to left for the end of our journey: the Uluwatu Temple near the south coast of the country.
Uluwatu was supposed to be one of the best temples in the whole island. It was built on top of a cliff looking on one side to the sea and on to the other side to the jungle and the mountains. Everybody was delighted to spend the afternoon there waiting for the sun to set. A very romantic moment to spend in company. We decided to hire a car with a driver so that we weren’t loosing time to make our way to the temple. The driver was kind during the travel and he was telling us stories about gods, temples and offerings. It was strange, though, that he didn’t want to go with us inside the temple once we arrived. He just said he had already seen the temple many times and he preffered to wait for us outside having a drink. We didn’t know that our worst nightmare was about to start.
We pay the entrance fee and headed for the little path going up to the temple. It was a great walk as it was on the edge of the cliff and the views were stunning. But soon after that we met the first couple of tourists coming back from the visit. They seemed quite anxious and as they reach us the man told us “Be careful with the monkeys” and he quickly passed us by. We looked each other and laugh. We had visited other temples were monkeys were annoying tourists and we never had a problem.
We realized quickly that our thoughts about monkeys were about to change. The first annoying moment was when we were taking a selfie. The first monkey appeared from nowhere and grabbed the camera. It took the camera away disappearing from sight. We tried to run after him but we weren’t lucky. We decided to go on with the visit after we realized the camera will be lost forever. But everything was going to get worse… The second monkey reached us. It was looking at us with a peaceful face and with slow movements, we could see it was a female. She got nearer and then all of a sudden she took my glasses in one hand and pulled the long earrings from Silvia with another hand. Then we realized all the monkeys, about twenty of them, were approaching us from different places around the Temple. They were attracted by the food we had in our bags. We had bought some snacks to have something to eat before watching the sunset.
We start to run to the exit as fast as we could and that was the end of the nightmare. A Balinese turned up from the entrance cabin and he offered himself to be our guide and a protector from the monkeys.
Finally, we could see the sunset but with the Balinese bodyguard next to us.
