Uluwatu- Sun Sep 21

After snorkeling and lunch we headed off to visit Uluwatu. It was a long trip because Padang Bai is on the eastern side of the southern part of Bali and Uluwatu is on the western side.

This is the site of another seaside temple called Pura Luhur Uluwatu. It was built in the 11^th c and is of the 7-9 directional temples meant to protect Bali from evil spirits. 

 Adi warned us that the monkeys here are more naughty than the monkeys at Ubud. He actually recommended that we remove our glasses/sunglasses and hats. So I tried to walk with Brad giving him clues as to the stairs, etc., as we walked through the area with the monkeys. We didn’t see any until we were all done walking the temple site itself.

Here, if your legs were covered, you were give a sash to wear to honor the traditions. And we watched a performance of a Kecak dance/theater. They gave us a written account of the plot with its five acts. There is no speaking during the play. Fifty men wearing just a kamben sit around in a circle and chant a lot saying Kecak a lot and during the play they provide background noises and chanting. There were only a few actors. I got confused right from the start because having read the story I couldn’t understand why there were 2 female characters. Only later did I re-read the text and discovered that one of the female actors was actually a deer. Ahh!  The funny element was an actor portraying the character of a white monkey. He was funny. There was a pretty bird character as well.

This was a great site to watch the sunset as well. The sunset happened during the production and was pretty. Enjoy!