When Elizabeth sees for the first time Mr Darcy’s Pemberley estate she has a remark along the lines of how there has never been another place so well situated so as to make the most of its natural entourage. Well. This morning I visited such a place, though definitely not in England.

Yesterday at lunch time I arrived in amed. This is the general name given to about 10-15km of the North Eastern coast of Bali. It encompasses a few fishermen villages spread along the coast and so far it is by far the most beautiful place I’ve seen in a long while. On the one hand you have the sea, and on the other big and green mountains, culminating in Mount Agung that overlooks over everything from its 3142m height.

The funny thing is that I didn’t even refer to this place when I wrote the first paragraph!! Since the main occupation here is diving and since my relationship with the sea is still undergoing some building and strengthening, I decided to take the less beaten path and go up the mountains! After 30mins of motorcycle ride (will write about that soon enough also) I arrived to the Pura Lempuyang temples.

Imagine a big mountain (I believe it reaches about 1800m) where the Hindus have built (like 2000 years ago) seven temples. To reach them you just need to go higher and higher and higher…sometimes on unpaved road, but mostly on stairs…1700 of them to be precise!

Now, there’s nothing necessarily special about it so far. I’ve visited similar  Buddhist temples in Japan, though granted they had fewer steps. But they greatness here came from the views. It was amazing. Almost every turn of the road would show you a new perspective and an even further outlook.
I was quite early there (highly recommended as after 10am clouds tend to hide the peaks of the surrounding mountains) so I got crystal clear views of Mount Agung and all the villages around it. I could see far onto the sea….so far that I could even make out Lombok!! I then read that if you’re super lucky you can even make out Rinjani on extremely clear days. This was not one of them unfortunately but I was extremely happy with what I saw anyways.

Apart from the absolutely amazing views (I am not kidding you…it made you feel grateful and humbled and powerful at the same time!), this expedition had some extra massive points:
– there were very few tourists!!! I basically had the whole walk to myself. Which also meant I was a bit lonely when the grey monkeys appeared (crazy stories go on about it so I was a bit scared) but it also meant it was super peaceful and quiet. And I could take it all in…the sounds of the jungle, the peacefulness of the temples, the sweat of the climb 🙂
– there were quite a few locals. Who were super nice and talkative. They explained to me about how they pray and the ceremonies they perform there (I got to be in one too:)). They told me about the holy water that they get from the bamboo trees at the last temple, but only if they are truly worthy of it. And they let me take photos of them all in their pretty costumes. And hug their kids…super cute babies in this country!!
– the ride from Amed to get there is absolutely jaw dropping!! Such green and beautiful scenery! And I got to buy fruit from a lady selling it on the side of the street. So now I officially ate snake fruit (weird but I like it!).

I am now relaxing on the black sand beach, waiting for the sunset. Indonesia is truly beautiful!