Viking World Cruise 2025: Day 50 - February 22, 2025 - Saturday

As I went up one deck to get my first cup of morning coffee, the dawn was beautiful. There were numerous small boats in the bay fishing.

For our second day in Bali, we scheduled an 8 1/2 hour "vintage 4x4" trip into the central part of Bali. The tour description said after a 1.5 hour drive, we would visit a "typical" home in rural Bali. Then we would proceed for another 30+ minutes to an 11th century Hindu Temple. Bali has the greatest concentration of the Hindu faith in Indonesia at about 86%. Although there is large number of different religions practiced in Indonesia, by far the majority is Islam. Following the Temple visit we would drive another 30 minutes for lunch at the Bamboo Forrest Restaurant. This facility is at an isolated mountain resort. We then make our way to the Jatiluwan rice terraces, and eventually back to the port.

The weather was looking good.

Here is our "vintage" 4x4 along with our guide Luci and our other traveler Jamie. After we were loaded, we acquired another passenger, Angle. Unfortunately, I didn't get her photo. Jamie is traveling with her mother and Angle is the wife of one of officers in the World Restaurant. I felt we were fortunate to have such a young group traveling with us since Carl and Janet were not on this excursion. Carl is still having difficulty with his ribs from his injury and it was recommended that persons with back problems not do this trip. They were going to a beach hotel instead.

The following photos are for my son, who loves vintage 4x4's. I wish I had been able to photo all of them at once, there must have been 20!

This is our vehicle.

Today was a Hindu holiday. I didn't fully understand the explanation, but they celebrate their demi-god of intelligence or as I heard two different people refer to it as sharpness. Apparently they decorate their autos and motorbikes to honor the development of tools and machinery to help the people. This explanation is highly oversimplified.

If you haven't been to a large Asian city, it is difficult to describe the traffic. It appears highly unorganized with motorbikes and vehicles everywhere, often disregarding traffic lanes, even it there are any marked.

In the next two photos, I try to convey some idea of the congestion, but "you have to be there" to fully comprehend.

This was the second, woodworking shop I have seen in two days. It appears most of the work is performed outside.

Cement statuary is a very common business you see along the roads, we must have passed at least a dozen shops today.

After about an hour and 20 minutes, we turned onto a very narrow lane for a couple of miles and arrived at the village where our home visit was to be.

Here it is being demonstrated how to make offerings, which are made and placed daily at their doorstep, their shrines and temples.

Here Leo, our host is preparing small rice pancakes with coconut.

Leo lives here with his wife, children and his mother. His father has passed. This is their family home for several generations.

Leo's mother is baking the pancakes on a open fire in their kitchen. The "home" consists of several different building which each serve a specific function.

This is the Family shrine. Many families have their own shrine in addition to the clan shrine and the "public" village shrine. Leo explained that the clans and often the individual families have different methods of worship. The village shrine allows everyone to come together and be comfortable with their individual worship styles. (again highly simplified)

The Balinese people love their pets. Our guide said she has 4 dogs. I saw a number of pet shops in the city as we passed thru.

I had to share this photo of their toilet paper holder. This has to be the most unique one I have ever seen.

As we made our way to the Temple, we passed several rice terraces

It was in a rice field that I saw my "bird of the day"

The Eastern Cattle-Egret, common in rice fields.

We reached the Batakau Temple.

I didn't take too many photos since we have visited a number of Hindu temples over the years. Luci, our guide, left offering that had been made at Leo's house.

Our good weather finally broke and it began to rain. Just a few drops at first, but then in a downpour.

Kay and Jamie, trying to stay dry as Luci took Kay's umbrella and went to get some ponchos.

The rain didn't stop, so we braved the downpour to return to our vehicle.

When we arrived at our 4x4, we found out why it was called vintage. The sunroof leaked heavily and the seats and floor were soaked. We climbed in and were on our way. After about 20 minutes either the rain stopped or we drove out of the cloud. We were at about 3000 feet elevation.

This was the road to the Bamboo Forrest Restaurant

After leaving the vehicle, we had a nice walk to the facility.

The restaurant is aptly named.

There was plenty of delicious food.

In a beautiful setting.

Kay and I enjoyed the local Bintang beer. I remembered it from our previous trip to Bali.

The restroom facilities were a little less than we westerners are accustomed to, but they were clean and much better that some I have had need of.

Another photo of the beautiful bamboo along the trail as we left the restaurant.

Just as we reached the rice terraces of Jatiluwih, the rain started again. These are the largest rice terraces in Bali and are at about 2400 feet elevation. At Jatiluwih, there is a village and many exhibits and activities. Unfortunately, as the rain continued and only became harder, we voted to forgo the terraces and begin our 2 1/2 hour trip back to the port.

The drive back was an ADVENTURE. I mentioned that the roof leaked. Well, the windshield wipers did not work and there was no rearview mirror.

Luci, trying to slow down the constant drips from the roof.

The two photos below show how hard the rain was, and the view thru the window without wipers.

I honestly don't know how our driver was able to negotiate the lanes of traffic with motor bikes weaving in and out constantly. Rain in this volume is so common during the wet season, the locals just continue as normal. They walk, ride their bicycles and motorbikes as if it were a sunny day.

As we neared the port, the rain did lessen in it's intensity. I spotted this street art, which was nice. It was interesting that you saw very little graffiti.