The Terrific3 travel blog

We had quite a long day today—left our villa at 730am and returned at 615pm, though admittedly the last 45 minutes of that was sitting in gridlock traffic in Ubud in the last mile before our Villa. I both enjoy and despise these long days of driving to see places. Enjoy because it’s really quite lovely in the countryside outside Ubud, and I feel like I’m seeing the “real” Bali, of which I’m growing more fond. And the sites we go to see are totally worth the long drive as they are unique and beautiful. Despise because no human body, especially my human body, was made to sit in a car for 5-6 hours of a day. Somehow we still got 15k steps in, but it was a lot of driving! Thankfully we have a very kind and sweet and pleasant driver (Wayan).

First stop was Tanah Lot, which is an ancient water temple, carved from the rock in the ocean. It was simply breathtakingly beautiful. The time to really see it is at sunset, but that didn’t fit well into our schedule with kids, so we did a morning visit.

Our second stop was the Jatiluwih rice terrace, one of the biggest in Bali, and again, totally worth seeing.

Third stop—the Ulun Danu Beratan temple, another water temple with a beautiful garden around it. They had a playground and a cute man made water park you could walk around, but I knew we were going to be tight on time, so I got the kids gelato instead :-).

The last stop was the Banyumala waterfall. Our guide told us it was a “5 minute walk” down (like everything is in Bali, haha), but it was a good at least 15 minutes almost straight down hill and multiple giant steps down. This time, I got into the waterfall with them. We didn’t quite have enough time for me to change so I made an impromptu swimsuit with my dress and in I went. It was refreshing.

On our way back, we stopped for “glamour shots.” There are these “Bali swing” places that charge up to $20-$30 per head to sit on these swings and get photos. That seems a bit excessive to me and I refused on principle. But this place was a cheap $10 for all of us in multiple places, so we stopped. All in all, a great day, just long, and I’m glad we don’t do these back to back. It’s our last long driving day of the Bali trip (I think). Most of our other activities shouldn’t be more than an hour out and then back.