"Tampaksiring - Where Gunu ..." a Tampaksiring Travel Page by myspices

Tampaksiring is an outskirt little town. The main attractions in this little countryside are :-

1. Gunung Gawi - where, in the valley, you can find one of Bali's oldest and largest ancient monuments.
2. Tirta Empul - holy springs within the temple

We boarded the orange bemo (mini bus) at Ubud market place and paid 17,000Rp for 2 paxs (for locals, the maximum fare is actually 5,000Rp) for a 20minutes ride to Bedahulu terminal (which doesn't really look like a terminal at all). From Bedahulu, we got onto another bemo which was blue and paid 10,000Rp for 2paxs (from an honest bemo driver) for a 40minutes ride to reach Tampaksiring terminal. The walk to Gunung Kawi gateway, at the main road, from the Tampaksiring terminal was only about 5minutes. The path leading to Gunung Kawi , was lined with small stalls, all trying to sell you "sarongs" (wrap-round batik materials) which was required to be put on when you enter Gunung Kawi). Well, actually you need not buy those sarongs as you can rent them at the entrance at Gunung Kawi for a small donation fee of about 2,000Rp. We didn't buy any as we had brought along ours but somehow we still need to pay the donation fee as we did not have a sash (also required, to be tied around your waist). We noticed that if you are in long pants or 3/4 pants (whether men or ladies), you need not wear the sarongs but just tie the sash around your waist, otherwise, you need to put on the sarongs and the sash as "official costumes" when you visit the "pura" (temple). One must note that women who are menstrating are not allowed to enter the "pura".

From the entrance of Gunung Kawi, you will walk down a flight of steep, concrete stairs to the valley where you will find one of Bali's ancient and biggest monuments. From the stairways, look forward and you will find a lushful green terraced rice fields dotted with little houses and palm trees in a distance - behold! it is an awesome sight!

Gunung Kawi consists of 10 rock-cut memorials called "candi" (shrines) which stood about 7m in height. It is believed that each of these "candi" represents a memorial to each member of the 11th century Balinese royalty.

Upon descending down the stairs (also lined with stalls selling souveniers), you will first see the 5 monuments which is said to be dedicated to King Udayana, queen Mahendradatta, their son Airlangga and his brothers Anak Wungsu and Marakata. A few steps up and you will be entering the pura, which will then lead you to more monuments

Walk further away from the monuments, you can reach a waterfall. (we did not go there due to time constraint).

Once you are done with Gunung Kawi, you can actually proceed to Tirta Empul, the holy springs within the temple which is believed to have magical powers, which is about 1km away from the main entrance of Gunung Kawi. Too bad, we could not make it as we have to move onto another destination to meet up with some friends.

You get to meet locals at bemo rides. We had the opportunity to chat with the locals in the bemos and found out that they are really nice people. Many commute by bemos to bigger markets to sell their wares/handicrafts. Most of the bemo drivers are very helpful. Eventhough the passengers come with huge loads of goods in big bags, when they disembark from the bemos, the drivers will get off the bemos to help them unload - isn't it so courteous of them? Harry did the same - how sweet!

An ancient history with a beautiful surrounding - greens everywhere shaded with palm trees. Terraced rice fields are a common sight. The word for this is ... tranquility