As Hannah and I biked out of town, we found ourselves flying down fat hills and then getting stuck walking our backs up equally fat hills. The farther we got from urban life, the more beautiful it was. First, we went through a town called Sala (pronounced sei-low). There were little kids running in the streets, villagers spending time with each other at the local restaurants called warungs, workers tilling the rice fields. Local warungs are usually distinguishable by a glass case full of precooked food, and red-and-white checkered table cloths on the tables. We rode right through and continued through the jungle roads to Bedulu, another village near Ubud. We ate lunch at a warung there--a bottled jasmine tea they have called Teboloh and Nasi Campur. Nasi Campur is rice, a variety of meats (usually chicken), and a hard-boiled egg, or some similar variety of foods. The old woman who worked at the warung made sure we didn't see how much the man before us payed for his food. We tried to look over sneakily, but she saw us and hid it well. Of course, it doesn't matter much as a meal here never goes over a couple of dollars when you're eating somewhere local. Our eggs looked old as hell so we gave them to a hungry dog near the warung. We enjoyed our meal with the company of a hundred flies and next door to us, we watched two men train their roosters for an upcoming cock-fight. Ayayay! Next we tried to make our way to a place called Yeh Puluh, a small-cliff face with some thousand-year-old carvings engraved. We went about 4 kilometers too far and ended up at some quiet, abandoned temple. There was a group of 10- to 14-year-old boys outside that I tried to ask, "Ini Yeh Puluh?" (translated, "This Yeh Puluh?"). One of the boys thrusted at me and said, "Yeeeeh Puuluuh." I said, "No, no, no, not that kind of Yeh Puluh." We left the boys to explore the inside of the temple, but one of them came running after us with some polyester sashes that we were to tie around our waists before walking around the temple. Once we were readily equipped with our sashes, body properly split, we climbed an immense staircase to an offering-site at the top of a hill. The view was great...it's rare that I find good views here (I have included a picture). When we left the mysterious temple, we headed towards Yeh Puluh. We kept on asking for Yeh Puluh and continued to be pointed back to where we came from. We couldn't understand how we could of gotten so far off track because we had been asking people all along the way to the mysterious temple. But this is Bali! I should've learned by now not to expect anything. When we finally found the road to Yeh Puluh, there was a dog at the entrance to it that was barking at us. I was afraid he was going to bite us so I yelled at Hannah to go and off we raced down the road, away from the rabid dog that was chasing us. At Yeh-Puluh, we could tell how ancient these carvings were. According to my Lonely Planet book, they might tell the story of Shiva. After Yeh-Puluh there is supposed to be a path through the rice fields that will take you to Goa Gaja (The Elephant Caves) which is a widely visited site with carvings on the outside of a cave, a fresh-water fountain, and some other destroyed carvings that have fallen at a lower site, down some stairs. Goa Gaja and Yeh Puluh are thought to have been built around the same time as they depict similar images among other similarities. We got into the rice field and we yelled to a worker in the rice field, "Goa Gaja?!?" He pointed in a direction and I felt sure we were going in the right direction. I could see rooftops in the distance. We both agreed it was the best adventure we had had in Bali yet. When we approached the rooftops I thought were Goa Gaja we realized we had just ended up at the entrance of Yeh Puluh so we just grabbed an iced tea at the nearest cafe and watched two young sisters play together in the yard. After that, we just decided to ride our bikes to Goa Gaja. Hannah and I tried to pretend to be children so we could get a lower price, but the man selling tickets just laughed at us so kami tawar harga (we bargained the price). We got in for a buck each. The carvings on the outside of the cave were really amazing and reminded me a lot of the art I have been doing recently. i will post some of that soon. When we returned to Ubud we payed five dollars for an hour-long massage to recover from our rigorous bike ride...oooh, our very tired bodies!
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