Down from the Mountain and Brought the Rain

I left the mountains early in the morning and set off to Ubud, but on the way I stopped at Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, a water temple on lake Bratan. As this lake is vital for irrigation to most of central Bali, the temple is very important to the people here. It contains elements of both Buddhism and Hinduism within it's many structures, along with uniquely Balinese touches. As I was there pretty much as it opened, I had the place to myself. More then one worker mentioned how lucky I was to see it in the peace and quiet of the morning, as tourists flock and flood the place around 11am making it hard to get around or appreciate the serenity of the place. One point for this freshly minted morning person!

I'm not exactly sure what these guys are for, but they were guarding the deer enclosure and they looked extremely un-spiritual, but absolutely hysterical to me. The old guy is totally making fart noises with his armpit.

I said don't pet the monkeys!

I'm not sure what this guy is, but he looks like a fox-deer to me.

Once I got to Ubud, I dropped off my things at the next homestay and headed out to explore, but I only got a little ways down the road before the rain started, so I ducked into a nearby restaurant hoping to wait it out. It was a lovely spot with it's own lotus flower pond and a temple across the street (which actually turned out to be a spa), and when the rain didn't let down I settled in, ordered a cappuccino, and wrote out some postcards. When it still didn't let up an hour later, the restaurant manager offered to lend me one of their umbrellas, which was extremely kind as he had no guarantee that I'd bring it back. I found a supermarket up the street and finally, FINALLY found decent sunscreen (though it cost me an arm and a leg), some mosquito repellent, some snacks and a cheap umbrella.  I dropped off the borrowed umbrella on my way back to the homestay and wished they had a canoe to lend me once I got to my room. The lovely water lily pond in front of my little house had overflowed from all the rain and turned my entire porch into a small lake. I waded over to my front steps and set about settling in. I'll be here for a few days and I'm hoping that despite the forecast, they won't all be rainy like today.