Barley Part 2: Taman Ayun Temple, Bedegul Floating Temple, Candi Kuning Market, Tanah Lot

The key to an enjoyable romantic getaway in Bali is by hiring a good driver who takes you around to attraction spots. Days before our romantic getaway, we hired Wayan by smsing him. Wayan was a local guy who speaks good English. He was polite and friendly. The best thing was he only charges Rp 300K per day. We hired him for three days. Both Bean and I really enjoyed his company throughout our trip until the point we miss him so much when we could not see him the next day. Till now, we still miss him. He became more like a friend than a driver.

On the first day, we went to three different temples of the same kind. Our first stop was Taman Ayun Temple.


Not too sure about the history of the temple. But I know the things you could do at Taman Ayun Temple are:

1) walking around the temple which is a square. If you are lucky, you get to see people doing some ritual prayers in the vicinity of the temple which you are not allowed to go in.



2) climb up a little tower which is located on the left hand side after you pass the entrance to enjoy the view around Taman Ayun Temple. Nothing particular spectacular though.


3) camwhore around the temple. =P


The next temple we visited was Bedegul Floating Temple. As the name suggested, this place was famous for the temple floating on a lake.


We were quite lucky to eye witnessed a ritual ceremony at Bedegul Floating Temple. Ermm... do not know what was it about but it involved a bunch of woman supporting a 'tikar' touring around this special tree with music of traditional instruments accompanying them. Along the way, a man would cut out some leaves which would be caught by the woman using the 'tikar'.



And that's about it. We spent only 20 minutes there.

We did a little pit stop at Candi Kuning Market famous for selling fruits? And some Balinese souvenirs which we were totally not interested in. All I did there were answering some nature's call- wee wee. I had two options.


The word 'deluxe' had caught my eye. Together with 'western'? OMG!!! That was heaven!!!!!!!!! I didn't care that it cost Rp1000 more. I picked that one and had an enjoyable peeing time. Ahhhh....

The last place for the day was Tanah Lot. Due to our fast-walking and a-bit-too-fast-speed-looking at the places above, we ended up having about 3 hours at Tanah Lot till sunset. Tanah Lot is another temple famous for its spectacular view of sunset.


You honestly could not believe what happened once we reached Tanah Lot. I had stomach ache and needed to solve some big business. After the great experience at Candi Kuning Market, I was expecting the same 'Deluxe Western Toilet' at Tanah Lot. Of course right?? I stopped by at this public toilet with full expectation of what I had in mind. But I was WRONG!!!!!!!! There were no flush! No strings to pull to flush! Where in the world still using toilet without flush? I know now. BALI! Gahhhhhh... How to do what I was suppose to do la?

Me: I don't want use that!
Bean: Just pour the water la!
Me: I DON'T WANT!!!!!!!! NO FLUSH ONE!!!
Bean: Okay... there is another one down there. I used that one before.
Me: With F.L.U.S.H??

Guess what? Bean brought me to the one he went BEFORE. It was the exact same one. NO FLUSH. What was worst was the toilet was DIRTIER!!!!!!!! OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!! I freaking gonna kill him. I screamed at him, 'SO DIRTY!!!!!!!! I cannot believe you could not remember when you had used it before like 5 months ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to go back to the other one!'

Bean became impatient. He wasn't being very nice okay! He was giving me all the why-you-so-damn-mafan-? attidude. All I wanted was him being more considerate for a girl like me who cannot at all tolerate dirty places. The toilet was so dirty and I have never used a toilet without flush before! It would be fine if I just needed to wee. Oh well... in the end, he took me back to the other toilet. And I was still upsest with him after I did what I was suppopse to do. =P

Okay... back to Tanah Lot. It was burning hot that day. Both Bean and I had terrible sun burn. We were tan from walking around Tanah Lot. Not because we sunbath or something! There are four things that you could do at Tanah Lot:

1) before you actually reach the temple itself, along the way you could do some shopping of Balinese souvenirs. There are also shops like Crocs which I believe is NOT fake and Ralph Lauren which I believe is fake. I am not 100% sure but the polos are way cheaper than anywhere else and I do not really want to risk myself buying some fakes. Some restaurants/ stalls which you could drop by to have a drink.

2) pat some sacred snake which you need to pay. Bean and I thought it was a waste of money and therefore, we did not pat the sacred snake.

3) having a priest to bless you with some holy water which you need to pay as well. Nope... we skipped this as well.

4) just enjoy the view around Tanah Lot. Sadly, we could not catch the sunset because rain started pouring. However, we got a few nice pictures taken before the rain.


Though it seems like we did not do much except visiting temples, it turned out to be quite tiring. This is because it is very far journey from one place to another. Traveling time may take up till 1 hour and 30 minutes.

The end of our day 1 romantic getaway.

Admission Fee
Taman Ayun Temple: Rp 3000
Bedegul Floating Temple: Rp 10,000
Tanah Lot: Rp 10,000

Wayan's Contact: 006281338612213