gunung kawi, tampaksiring AND sebatu

Posted on | July 29, 2009 | No Comments

my usual water temple haunt in bali is the gunung kawi temple at sebatu.
last week, i booked my wonderful driver rai for a 6.30am start and a trip to gunung kawi, then a stop at a place with coffee/cocoa/spices and other exciting delicacies (more later) then tegallalang to look at the rice paddies on the way home.
i just assumed we’d be off to sebatu as usual, so i was a little surprised when we turned up in a village i’ve never seen before in my life.
everything was closed and there were very few people moving around on the streets.
ella and i got out and started walking down some really steep and extensive flights of stone steps, into a steep deep valley.
i kept saying, man, i’ve never approached gunung kawi from this direction, this is so weird…..

the views on the way down were indescribably wonderful.
rice paddy terraces stretched out far to either side of the steps and away into misty depths, and farmers were already out with their ducks.
we kept trotting downhill and all i could think of was that we were going to have to come back up eventually.
finally, we got to the bottom and to the enormous temple complex there and i knew i was somewhere else.
we had the entire place to ourselves and it had a very eerie mystical deserted feel to it.
there is a deep rushing river cutting the valley in half and temple buildings on either side.
also, the balinese have carved enormous i-don’t-know-what-they-are out of the solid rock sides of the valley itself.
they were stupendously huge, ancient, magnificent and awe-inspiring.

i honestly do not know what goes on at this temple and whether it is used regularly or not.
the thatched roofs looked well-kept and there were fat goldfish in ponds and structured gardening going on.
i’d love to go back sometime when there is a ceremony happening there….it must be stunning.

it was a serious work out to get back to the car, and rai most obligingly took us on to sebatu to see the OTHER gunung kawi….which was as jewel-like as ever.