Continued from yesterday”¦ We made our rounds around temple Tirta Empul, looking at all the structures, and then headed back to the car. We managed to sneak out the entrance so we could avoid the row of hawkers awaiting us at the exit. As soon as we were out of the temple complex, the pushy banana salesman was back, and despite having told her no at least 50 times, she managed to beat us into submission and we bought some bananas.

The next stop was a town called Bangli. We ate in a restaurant called Batur Sari that offers a nice view of active volcano Batur. While the setting was nice, the food was only mediocre and extremely over priced. Christi’s main course was $8.50, the same price as her gourmet meal in the fancy restaurant Kuta. The volcano never rumbled or spit up any lava or smoke that we could see, so we didn’t even get a show with our meal. We were also attacked by touts as we left, who literally surrounded us, all of them shoving their wares in our faces and demanding we buy their goods. We had a hard time getting through them to the safety of the car. That is our worst hawker experience to date.

We made a quick stop at a view point to take photos of some terraced rice fields just outside of Ubud. In Bali, they do wet rice growing, where they flood all the little terraces with water. The water glimmers in the sunlight and looks like hundreds of mirrors outlined in green stair stepping down the mountain. It is supposed to be spectacular, much prettier than the dry rice fields we had seen on Flores. Sadly, the rice had just been harvested and they didn’t need to keep the terraces full of water, so we were looking at empty green terraces similar to what we saw on Flores. Still pretty, but not spectacular. All the tourists must stop at that spot, because as soon as we stepped out of the car to take photos, we were mobbed by hawkers shoving their wares in our faces and demanding we buy from them, just like at the last restaurant. Once again, we had to fight our way back to the car.

We headed back to the marina for a little rest. Wayan picked us up at 1700 (5:00 pm) and took us to temple Pura Luhur Ulu Watu, one of several important temples to the sprits of the sea along the south coast of Bali. There was a Kecak (one of the many traditional Balinese dance styles) show that began at 1800 (6:00 pm) on the temple grounds. The temple is on a cliff overlooking the water and is supposed to be beautiful. It is also full of mischievous monkeys. Wayan had warned us to be careful of monkey theft he had personally had his shoes stolen and thrown over the cliff while worshipping at the temple. The monkeys are ruthless, sometimes stealing the glasses right off your face! By the time we arrived, it was close to 1800. We decided to try to get a good seat for the show instead of touring the grounds, and headed straight for the amphitheater. We saw several monkeys scurrying about as we headed down the walkway. Here is a shot of one of the altars on the cliff’s edge, taken from the amphitheater.

The show opened with a large group of men sitting on the ground around a large candleholder with several candles and chanting “chaka chaka chaka chaka” over and over again. Eventually, four women came out in the beautiful, elaborate costumes the Balinese theater is so famous for. The costumes were probably silk and very feminine and pretty. They wore lots of ornate gold jewelry, including large headpieces, and heavy make-up. The dancing was very slow, with subtle, deliberate moves as they weaved their way between the men on the floor who never slowed down on the “chaka chake chaka” chant.

One of the men on the floor was yelling a narration of some sort over the chanting. The women left. Throughout the rest of the play, a variety of characters came out wearing brightly colored, detailed masks and equally elaborate costumes. We recognized the masks as the various gods we have been seeing at the temples, including the demon at the Goa Gaja cave and a monkey god. The characters rarely spoke and usually moved with the same slow, deliberate actions as the women, though occasionally there would be a burst of sudden activity.

The men on the floor kept up the incessant “chaka chaka chaka” chant, with the narrator occasionally adding some commentary. The play climaxed with a war between all the masked characters, and in the end the women came back and won the war for one of the sides. When the play was over, we were very ready for the “chaka chaka chaka” to stop. We probably would have enjoyed the play a lot more without it. The costumes were amazing, though, and seeing them made the play worth it. We were hungry and definitely templed out, so we skipped seeing the temple and went back to the car where Wayan was waiting.

Our last stop for the day was dinner at Kedonganan Beach, an area famous for its seafood restaurants. Several taxi drivers told us we needed to go there and we had read about it in Lonely Planet. The street that parallels the water is an endless row of restaurants. You choose the whole fish, prawns, lobster and other types of seafood of your liking out of buckets of ice displayed up front and they cook it up for you right then. Wayan dropped us off in front of Ayodya Cafe. The staff escorted us out of the car and herded us over to the buckets where they pushed us to quickly make a selection. No prices were displayed anywhere. Lonely Planet had said you paid by the ounce, all the restaurants were about the same price and they were reasonable, so we didn’t worry about it. After all, it couldn’t be more than the fancy French place, right?

Once the seafood selections were made, we were escorted out to a nice table on the sand right near where the surf breaks. Our table had candles on it, and looking up and down the beach you saw an endless array of candle lights from the zillions of similar tables all along the shore. It almost looked like stars. We were quickly served a yummy soup, which we didn’t realize came with the meal. In no time at all our fresh cooked seafood arrived, along with some vegetables, rice, French fries and peanuts. The seafood was absolutely delicious, though we didn’t love the veggies. The portions were big and the staff was very courteous, helpful and attentive. They brought us fresh fruit for dessert, which was included in the meal. A band came by and played some songs for us while we ate, similar to the mariachi bands in Mexico, which added a sense of festivity to the atmosphere.

When we were ready to go, we went up to the register to pay. We were told the total was $90 USD. We were quite surprised. We had just gotten screwed over really badly. We knew that at the very most it should have been $40, and $20 was probably a more accurate number since we didn’t get an appetizer or dessert. Eric debated about not paying and putting up a fuss, but after already eating the food, we were kind of stuck. We were upset with Wayan for bringing us to a place that had blatantly ripped us off. We know that Wayan gets a commission from every restaurant and shop he brings us to, and with 100 almost identical restaurants up and down this street, he could have easily chosen one with fair prices. He obviously took us to the place with the biggest commission. It completely spoiled what had been a nice day overall. We still highly recommend Wayan as a yacht agent. He did a great job for us in that capacity. And overall he did a good job as a tour guide, but now we are ambivalent about recommending him in a tour guide capacity after the Ayodya Cafe.