June 6, 2015
Day Ride to Danau Beratan, Danau Buyan & Danau Tamblingan 
128 km round trip
 
It was time to break our around-town Ubud routine and scooter out to the volcano we could see from our hotel on a clear day. There are three lakes in the caldera: Lake Bratan, Lake Buyan and Lake Tamblingan. It did not matter if we actually got there because we were mostly interested in the rural Bali life we might stumble upon along the way.

Ascending

Main roads in Bali appear to drape down from the volcano tops toward the Denpasar like threads of a spider's web. Crossing sideways to the next main thread (or road in our analogy) is cumbersome. So moving west out of Ubud, we took our scooter on a footpath through the Monkey Forest. Everyone does it and it saves us having to do a big loop on the car roads. We were quickly on country roads traversing rice fields. A lovely ride through charming villages with its myriad of family temples protruding above the walled off compounds and decorative gates with statues of revered deities. As we ascended higher, the hillsides were covered in terraced rice paddies. We did some off-roading until we got to the busy road which climbs the rim of the caldera and Lake Bratan. 


Roadside Zoo
 
Near the top at one viewpoint, a guy had a menagerie of local animals to show and tell. He educated interested people who stopped by for closer look at his bat, diamond back snake, iguana and bird and on preservation of habitat. I picked up and handled his Flying Fox Fruit Bat and his monster Diamond Back snake. See video.

In the Caldera
 
Lake Bratan, Lake Buyan and Lake Tamblingan, about 64km North of Ubud, are in a large caldera of a volcanic point. Hotel and restaurant signs welcomed us to this touristy zone. The busy market of Bedugul is on the shore of Lake Bratan. We only made a brief stop at pedal boat rental place. We were not too impressed and set our sights on a spot on the northwest edge of the caldera.  

We then ascended through forest from where Lake Buyan came into view. Local ladies were selling bananas to feed to the pesky little monkeys. We took a sharp left turn on very scenic ridge drive. Vistas spread out on our right across endless fields of blue hydrangeas towards the Bali Sea and the green hillsides bordering the lake on our left. We made many stops to take in this scenery. Numerous roadside stalls sold mandarin oranges and irresistible bouquets of hydrangeas...of course I bought some:). 
   
After about 4km on the ridge, the twin lakes Buyan and Tamblingan came into view. We had hoped to drive back roads along its shore and thus end up in Bedugul again. We couldn't. The furthest we got was to a small but lovely temple on Tamblingan's western shore. Some boys were cleaning debris of coconut husks out of the lake. We checked out the peaceful temple from every angle. It seemed deserted but remains of small offerings proved otherwise. When a few local tourists showed up in their cars, we were ready to head back.

By now clouds obscured our view towards Bali Sea. We only partially retraced our route. In Bedugul we bought strawberries. We stopped for lunch for a disappointing lumpia (Indonesian spring roll) but Dave's satay and rice dish was tasty. 

 
Descending 
   
We found a different road leading back toward Ubud and deliberately explored even smaller side roads which google showed ending in green areas. The road went farther on pavement than google indicated but invariably would end in rice fields and we'd have to improvise a route back to a legitimate highway. But this is exactly why we like to have our own wheels.
 

We got a close up look at rice culture with small shrines loaded with offering, kids flying kites, and everyone contributing to the work in the rice fields. We stopped when we saw people in traditional dress and carrying objects from a gathering spot in the field back to the road.

Whoops. We accidentally had intruded on a funeral ceremony. 

 
Alchemy To-Go
   
Back in town, we picked up a scrumptious dinner salad to-go at Alchemy vegetarian restaurant. I just love the cleverly folded eco friendly take away containers.