And so off we sped over climbing mountain crater rims on our little pink motorbike back from Lovina in the north heading south down to Ubud going back on a different route from the way we came.
The weather changed from tropical humidity to cloud forests to just plain cold.... and I mean freezing!
We stopped at a hillside town to fill up a liter of petrol (Benzin) from a used water bottle into our tank and put several layers of clothes on. Brrrr!!!!!
The ride was a truly breathtaking journey that lasted about 4.5 hours. When we finally reached the highest town, Kintamani, we stopped at the towns major intersection to gave up at the oldest Pura on the island. I guess we had stopped a moment too long since a little women ran out to us frantically holding a big plate of offerings and incense telling us she needed to bless our motorbike.
IN one feel swoop (before we really had the chance to say yes or no) she threw holy water on us, chanting while walking a circle around the bike. next she took a square banana leaf plate of flower offerings, folded it in half, then shoved it into the space between the bike and the licence plate. She then lit some incense and stuck it straight through the top of the folded mound of offering. She then stuck flowers in our ears and pushed grain of holy rice onto our foreheads.
She looked like a professional. We were thoroughly blessed.
After some picture taking with the women we asked if there was any hot Soto Ayam (delicious Balinese chicken soup w/ ginger and spices) shops near by, since we were wet and freezing from driving through clouds in the past hour. She made some more frantic gestures, told us to park our bikes and follow her. She then proceeded to run into the building of a small shop across the street, shout a few things in Bahasa, and motioned for us to sit outside.
She then began cooking Soto Ayam for us in the small shop/house/building place while the people who actually lived there worked around her hastily. Soto Ayam appeared in less than 2 mins with sweet hot tea and as we ate we laughed about this whole event, all the while flowers and rice falling off of us as the clouds continued to roll by on the street. All the ladies involved in the operation were very sweet and let us snap a picture before we sped off again, this time warmer!
About 30 mins past Kintamani we rounded a corner and the distant half blown shape of Mt. Batur surfaced from the left to greet us. The view was stunning, (and really cannot be captured in this measily little photo here.)
Shortly after the mountain view we began to decend in altitude and the weather became warmer once again. Thank God! The drive past Mt. Batur was the coldest place in Bali we had experienced so far. I think temp. plus wind chill factor had us driving through 45 degree weather --- we were prepared only for 85 degree weather.
Upon decending we stopped to take off our layers and found ourselves along a hillside town of rice paddies and spontaneously decided to go off the major bi-way in search of a stroll through some lovely fields... and boy did we find a nice walk!
We hit Ubud by about 4:30pm surprised our friends at Gandra house and a surprised Nung-Ah returned our lovely pink motorbike back to where it came from.
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