Carstensz Pyramid 11/25/08 dispatch

Stone sculp­ture in Ubud

Hel­lo from Ubud! We were relieved to see Pablo arrive today around noon. The whole team is now here and we had a free day to take in some sights. The town of Ubud was high­ly rec­om­mend­ed, so we hired a van and went for a good road trip. Along the way we made sev­er­al stops to check out artists and crafts­peo­ple in action, pro­duc­ing some of the amaz­ing things that Bali is known for: batik fab­rics, stone carv­ings, huge wood carv­ings, sil­ver smithing, and beau­ti­ful paintings.

Pura Desa Ubud

We wrapped up our excur­sion with a vis­it to the Pura Desa Ubud. Pura is the local word for tem­ple. Bali is pre­dom­i­nant­ly Hin­du and the tem­ples are every­where. The com­plex archi­tec­ture of many of these tem­ples is mind blow­ing. We were all required to wear sarongs to cov­er our low­er body in order to enter the temple.

Inside the Temple

The group enter­ing Pura Desa Ubud

We head­ed back to the hotel to wrap up pack­ing in the evening, but found out that there was a prob­lem with the flight to Timi­ka and we will be here one more day. We are all anx­ious to be on our way. Every­one knew that this trip would require a great deal of patience and flex­i­bil­i­ty, but the sus­pense of play­ing the wait­ing game already is mak­ing us a bit anx­ious. The plan for tomor­row is to leave ear­ly and dri­ve up to Batung Agung, Bal­i’s high­est volcano,and go for a hike to the crater rim. This should allow us to make good use of the extra day, tak­ing in views of the island from it’s high­est peak and get­ting some much need­ed exercise.