Social media realities

After leaving the waterfall, we continued our tour of the northern part of Bali.  We started to move higher up and the forests started to thin out.  The driver suggested a place for lunch and we agreed.  The moment we walked into his suggested restaurant, we knew it had been a mistake.  We had been asking the driver to take us somewhere local, Todd had even asked him in Bahasa, but unfortunately he seemed to think that "local" meant "tourist trap".  We found ourselves eating an overpriced meal of poor quality food with other bus loads full of tourists.  The one saving grace was the view.  The restaurant overlooked some impressive rice paddies as well as one of the larger mountains in Bali.  The mountain was sadly shrouded by the clouds, but the rice paddies were a impressive. 

From there, we closed our eyes and napped in the car as the driver took us up to Lempuyang Temple, or the famously named "Gates of Heaven".  We had all seen photos of this place, and since we weren't too far it seemed like a nice place to visit.  Todd has been to Bali countless times given its close proximity to his home in Jakarta and even he had never been up here.  It was a bit too far out of the way of the usual places people stay.  The trip up took longer than we expected and the final part of the drive was an extremely steep and winding road.  Once we got out of the car, we still had a bit longer to climb to get up to the temple itself.

At the top, we saw the Gates of Heaven.  Two perfect halves to a doorway which frames the large mountain in the background.  Looking out at the gates, they were incredibly photogenic and it was understandable why so many people wanted to come and visit.  With the mountain in the background and a slight smattering of clouds, it presented a postcard like picture that almost seems fake.

What was far less understandable was the lineup to get that perfect photo.  We had heard stories about how long you needed to lineup, but none of us were prepared for just how bad it was.  If you want to get that perfect photo between the gates, the wait is anywhere between 3 to 4 hours.... even if you arrive early, it turns out you will still be waiting as others all seem to have the same idea and try to beat the rush.  The line has become so intense that the local authorities have built a large shelter to shade the poor tourists as they wait their turn.  Even the photographing itself is now controlled by the authorities who have employees seated in the middle and who direct people to come for their photos or to move along.  There wasn't the slightest chance we were going to wait that long, as none of us had that required level of desire to wait for a photo between the gates.  We stood around, admired the view and I was personally more intrigued by the lineup than by the gates themselves.  The pictures of the gates by the social media influencers don't show this brutal reality.  The perfectly crafted pictures they post make it look like they are standing at the top of the world by themselves, but the reality is that they have been standing in a crowded line waiting for only a brief moment to strike that insta worthy pose.

At this stage, Renee's jet lag was kicking in hard and she was getting grumpy.  She didn't say it, but I suspected that she had held out a slight bit of hope that she could have taken a photo between the gates.  We all knew this wasn't happening though, so we decided to move on.  We got back in the car and we headed off to what was meant to be our final location, a beach club on Keramas beach.  Renee and Todd quickly fell asleep in the car, but I wasn't tired. I looked out at the road and its surroundings as we descended the mountain.  The environment changed quickly as we moved away from the highlands and towards the water, and everything became a bit drier and sparser.  When we reached the beach, the sun was beginning to set.

The beach was serene and the air was refreshing.  We sat at the restaurant which was on the very edge of the sand and ordered some cocktails.  This was an incredibly calm part of Bali, far away from the crowded areas to the west of the island.  Here, there were far more isolated resorts and retreats designed with this calm in mind.

We enjoyed the calmness of this beach club.  The beach was beautiful and the drinks were good, but we didn't like the look of the food.  Other people were eating and it seemed to be the standard resort food you see everywhere.  Given the prices, it didn't seem worth it at all.  Todd looked at his phone then looked up and suggested we get BBQ back in Ubud.  It was only another 40 minutes drive, so we all quickly agreed.  We moved away from our original itinerary and instead of having dinner by the beach, moved instead to the loud and crowded tables of Naughty Nuri's.  It was a dramatic change from the calm beach club, but a welcome one as the long day meant we had built up strong appetites.

As it got later, we went back to the villa.  We were tired, but we convinced Todd to come with us for a few more drinks.  I had brought a few bottles of the wine I had brought back from France, and this seemed like a good time to have a few glasses.  With the promise of a nice drink, Todd agreed to make a diversion.

It had been a long day.  We sat out in the garden listening to the sounds of the waterfall and the croaking of the frogs.  I didn't expect to hear and see so many frogs.  I grew up looking for and catching frogs as a kid in Melbourne, but as I had grown older I had definitely noticed them becoming less abundant.  It was nice to see all of the frogs now leaping in and out of my small swimming pool.  I opened up the bottle of wine so that we could enjoy this whilst listening to the frogs.  The mosquitoes buzzed near us, but stayed away from the burning repellant coils I had lit.  It was a dramatic change of location we were in.  Only a few months before, Todd and I had been drinking red wine in the south of France, and now we were all here drinking a similar bottle of red in the Balinese humidity.