Bali Tour Guide

We arrive in Gunung Kawi around 7.30AM. None of souvenirs shops along the step down open yet. The rice and the grass are still a bit wet from the rain the night before. We sprinkle the holly water to our head before we enter the rocky gate as we reach bottom part of the valley.

We take a left turn to see the first section of this ‘candi tebing’. Candi is mountain (triangle) shape carving or building, usually made of stone. Tebing is rock wall of the valley. Gunung Kawi has a similar meaning to it. Gunung is mountain, Kawi mean made or create or carve by men. The whole name means the men made mountain carved on rock wall. On this first section there are four ‘candi’ carved again the west side of rocky wall. A staircase leads to it. On the left side, there are big hole/cave look like roofed room. One big wooden building, well carved and painted located on the right. A small shrine built next to it.

We move to the eastern side of the Pakerisan river by crossing a concrete bridge. We take right as we in other side and walk up to eastern wall of the valley, passing the temple’s kitchen in the outer yard. After walking on few muddy steps up we see the 100-meter carved wall. Grass and green moist grow on the wall. Small water streaming from the top on the wall. A green wet old carving on the wall. The carving look like a several set of windows and door between it. Some are deep as deep as 50 centimeters and it look like a cave with post and roof. Some are very shallow like unfinished work. Perhaps the rock was too hard to carve with only simple tool available at that time. On the south part of the wall there are square area with wooden building in the middle. The carving on the wall around it is deeper, as deep as 1 meter; enough for men sleep in it. We take a rest here a while, enjoying the silence sound of the nature.

We heading back and hike up to the north east side of the valley. This is ‘beji’ part of the temple. Beji is holly-bathing place where water spring is located. There are several flat platform made of cement built in here. The spring from the upper part are channel down to a small pool inside surrounding wall. A shrine built in the middle of the pool. We then walk back down and go to the middle part of the temple. We enter the inside part of the temple and put a small donation to the box. We take off our shoes before entering the most sacred part of the temple. Inside, there are caves look like rooms surrounded by rocky wall with low gates to separate the rooms. Room on the left side consists of one big ‘candi’. There is room/cave inside the candi. There is tomb like stone inside the room covered with offering and yellow/white clothes. However, no evident of human body buried in here. Entering the room on the right side, there is a square unfinished carved stone in the middle, surrounded by carved wall. The carvings on surrounding wall are deep so look like caves but square.

We exit the holiest part of the temple through the northern side gate where other group of candi located. There are five candi here. Below the candi there are water fountain but dry. Old Javanese writing on the candi can still be seen. The writing tells a time. Perhaps the time when this whole complex was built. The complex is predicted to be built during the ruling of Old Bali Kingdom, Anak Wungsu, around 1049. The complex is start re-known by the public since 1920 after archeological research.

We continue our walk following the terraces path amongst the rice field on the eastern side of the river. We see two small but high enough waterfalls as we look to the other side of the river. By the end of the rice field we see another waterfall. It is not that tall but has wide and strong water. My client skips my challenge to bath under the waterfall. From here, the path start to be disappears. There are not too many people go beyond this point. Coffees, bananas, ‘elephant’ grass, sweet potatoes, yams are some of the farming vegetation we see on this path. When the hike starts climbing up, the vegetations are change into more wild vegetation like long grass and small fern. After bit struggles hike up on very dense long grass, we finally reach the top of the hill. There is a small temple on the top of the hill. The temple is consist of several shrines and located within many big old trees. We take a rest a while here gaining our breath.

We walk down west of the hill and get to Mengening temple from the eastern part. We go around the temple to find the gate on the west side. There are many shrines in the inner yard of the temple. The most interesting one is the Candi on the north side of the compound. Unlike candi in Gunung Kawi that carve on the wall, this one is built on the ground by sand stone. As we look down west from the gate of the temple, on our down right we see a pool with wall surround it. While on our down left we see river and two complexes bathing pool with fountain. Other water fountain complex coming out from the wall above it. We stop at this one, take some water to wash our faces and head before hike up on the step to the top west side of the valley. We stop at the local warung, get simple breakfast of coffee and crackers. We pay the temple entrance before we continue our walk.

We walk back following the small river behind people backyard. On the same water, we see duck swim on it, people wash clothes and kid playing on the water. We get back to our car at 10AM where cold tower wait for us. Few tourists just arrive as we depart the place.