NORTHERN BANGLI REGENCY

PENELOKAN

Its name means "Place to Look." From Denpasar's Terminal Kereneng, Penelokan is 56 km and Rp3000 by bemo. This cool, 1,450-meter-high village perches on the rim of a caldera looking out over the sacred, blackened, smoking volcano of Gunung Batur and Lake Batur, an all-important water catchment for south central Bali's agricultural wealth. Sometimes the lake's colors change from glassy blue to platinum, a perfect mirror of the sky and mountains.
Get here by 0800 or 0900, before the clouds move in. Better yet, wake up early to catch the sunrise. In August and September the sunrise is too high, coming up over the middle of the peak, but in June and July it rises to the left of the peak in a golden yellow. At night see the moon sail over the volcano.
Though not a particularly attractive village—the roads untidy, the corrugated tin-roofed buildings decrepit, the vegetation sparse—views here are magnificent. In the mornings you can see not only all the surrounding mountains, but also Gunung Agung to the east, and sometimes even the sea and beyond to Gunung Rinjani on Lombok from here. Penelokan has a high, fresh climate, and reasonable losmen. There are some invigorating walks across the mountains, and along the road the views of Lake Batur, 300 meters below Penelokan, are unequaled. On the debit side, its vendors and street hustlers are rude and unscrupulous. There's also an admission charge for entering Penelokan—Rp1000 for a four-wheel vehicle plus Rp1050 per person and Rp200 per motorcycle. Pay at checkpoints when approaching from either the south or north; keep the ticket so you don't have to pay again if you leave and then return. To get down to the lake, public bemo drivers charge Rp1000 one-way. If driving yourself, make sure you have good brakes before descending this extremely steep, hairpin road.

Warnings
The Penelokan/Kintamani area has one of the worst reputations in all of Indonesia for money-hungry, aggressive people. The many food peddlers, who have no alternative livelihood, hound tourists mercilessly. Beware of road sellers who pull the big switch—substituting a low-quality item for the high-quality piece you agreed to buy. Try not to show even the slightest interest in the wares pushed by the clutch of vendors on the street or outside of the restaurants. If you stop and start bargaining a crowd of pushy, grabbing people will surround you, sticking items in your face. They really come out in numbers when the tourist buses start rolling into Penelokan from the southern resorts around 1030 or 1100. Don't stop when people on the road try to flag you down to sell you tours or boat rides across the lake. They may reach for the ignition key, or say your oil is leaking or they smell gas or you need air in your tires—all lies. One reader reports that this happened to him five times within three kilometers. Don't leave your motorbike unattended. Bystanders may steal a part, then offer their help—for an inflated price—when you can't start it.
Bemo drivers mercilessly hassle women travelers, and have been known to threaten physical violence during price disputes. By the mid-'80s the situation had become so grim the government stepped in and made all the hawkers get licenses and wear identity badges; the authorities also implemented fixed prices on local transport. Now the situation has improved somewhat, though freelancers offering transport deals are still a big problem. One scam perpetrated by bemo drivers involves offering to take you down the hill to accommodations in Kedisan. Even though the driver will insist the service is included in the price of the hotel, he'll ultimately charge you Rp2000 per person. Segara Bungalows has been known to employ this trickery. Motorcycle drivers offering offer to take you down to the lake won't accept anything less than Rp5000. Some bemo drivers want Rp8000 for a charter down to the lake. Just laugh and start walking. Someone will come along and offer to take you for the standard fare of Rp1000, or just hitchhike tourists or anyone else who happens along.

Accommodations
From Penelokan's losmen you'll discover one of the the town's most pleasant activities is just sitting and gazing at the mountain and lake. You'd pay a lot for the view, though, if you stay in the generally overpriced, damp, run-down, and very basic losmen here. Penelokan does not yet have any good-value, comfortable, reasonable accommodations. Power outages are a fact of life. Be prepared for cold, damp evenings and nights when bracing fog creeps over the crater's edge. Except for the most bare-bones places, blankets are provided with your room. You'll need them.
     As Penelokan accommodations go, Lakeview Homestay, tel. (0362) 223464, is above average, though is doesn't really have the right to call itself a homestay. Its 20 tiny Rp15,000 rooms with communal mandi, Rp40,000 bungalows and Rp55,000 "superior" rooms with private baths are damp and smelly. The free breakfast is okay. Facilities include showers, hot water on request, safety deposit box, laundry service, and bar. But even with the 20% discount for guests (ask for the yellow menu, not the black one), the restaurant is overpriced—Rp8500 for nasi goreng, Rp4700 for a large beer, Rp2500 for a pot of coffee. The restaurant is expanding to seat 100 people, the owners hoping to lure the occupants of the tour buses. And it is a fine place to admire the 11 km expanse of the crater. The management can arrange for a guide to take you up Gunung Batur. Make reservations at (0361) 232023 in Denpasar. the homestay is located at the bend in the road just after the toll gate if approaching from the south.
     Below and behind Lakeview, check out the Caldera Batur Bungalows with a good restaurant and clean rooms with private bath and bamboo beds (Rp15,000). For the money it's one of the best budget places in Penelokan. Sitting on its own promontory, Losmen Gunawan lies to the north, 250 meters past the road down to Kedisan on the right. The most expensive rooms with baths, which can hold a family of three or four, sit directly over the volcano and cost a steep Rp50,000 d (no bargaining). A word of advice—check your room first. The blankets could be soiled, the water barely a trickle, the shower and toilet leak, with dirt in the corners and no towels, soap, toilet paper, or hot water. Demand a nice room.
     Economy rooms are Rp25,000 s or d, with a small table, two beds, cold showers, and no views. These smaller boxlike rooms, however, are warmer, desirable during Penelokan's chilly nights. Large, uncarpeted rooms with big bathrooms cost Rp35,000. The tariff includes a decent breakfast (banana pancake, tea, and fruit salad), and a buffet lunch is laid out each day for Rp12,500. Sit in the little gazebo. Telephone and baggage storage services available.
     Another option is to stay up the road in Kintamani, only a 10-minute (Rp300) bemo ride north. Mellower, but not as close to the lake, without the views. Yet another possibility—perhaps the most desirable for the budget traveler—is to stay right down on the lakeshore in either Toya Bungkah or Kedisan. These villages are more relaxed, with inexpensive eateries. The locals are a couple notches friendlier, and it should cost only Rp1000 to go up and down the hill by bemo.

Food
A major drawback to staying anywhere in the Batur area is the poor food. There is a critical shortage of good eating warung, though the fruit stands opposite the road to Kedisan sell jeruk, passion fruit, and other exotic fruit. For less costly fare, try the nasi campur at a few local flyblown warung (Warung Makan Ani Asih or Warung Makan Sederhana) for as little as Rp1500-2000, though they tend to be bland. Request for be jahir, a small, lip-smacking variety of lake fish. Toyah Bungkah has the best budget restaurants in the area.
Then there are the big, sprawling tourist establishments. A string of expensive restaurants—the Puri Selera, Kintamani Restaurant, Danau Batur, The Caldera, Batur Indah, and the 400-seat Batur Garden—are found along the road north to Kintamani, with buffets in the Rp12,000-17,500 range. These restaurants, which serve MSG-laced pseudo Indonesian/Chinese food and Western bar drinks, cater mostly to tour groups. Open only for lunch, the Kintamani Restaurant's (tel. 0361-88282) buffet costs about Rp14,500 per person. Meals at Danau Batur, one km up the road, are also delicious.
Between Penelokan and Kintamani on the volcano side of the road are several cheaper alternatives—Puncak, Gong Dewata, Gunungsari, and the Mutiara Cafe—with views just as nice as those offered by big tourist restaurants. The best of the lot is probably the Ramana on the right about 350 meters past Penelokan on the road to Kintamani; the sweeping views are free. Gunawan's has an assorted menu including fresh fish dishes such as ikan goreng a la Batur, or "Bali Island Noodle," with secret ingredients. Some items wildly expensive (cheese sandwich Rp7000!). They kick you out of the toilets and the restaurant at 2130 after you're finished eating—no reading or writing allowed. Lakeview Restaurant & Homestay, tel. (0362) 223464, open for dinner, specializes in lake fish.

Shopping and Services
The shops along the road include some bargain buys. Chess sets sold in Kuta for Rp30,000 go for Rp20,000 here (no bargaining). Bone shell bracelets cost only Rp500. The shop owners are friendlier than the vendors on foot. The local tourist office (open daily 0900-1500, tel. 0362-23370) is nearly opposite the road down to the lake; scan the bulletin boards for info on charters, guides working the area, and accommodations. A post office located between Penelokan and Kintamani handles parcels; open 0800-1600. A postal agent is located next to the police post, about a five-minute walk north of the market. Change money at the branch of Bank Rankyat Indonesia about 200 meters up the road to Kintamani. The Selera Restaurant also changes at poorer rates.

Getting There
The most popular way to reach this mountain area is on the highway out of Denpasar by bemo from Batubulan station (Rp2000). Bemo pick up more passengers in Bangli, then head straight up to Penelokan. Or take a bemo from Batubulan first to Bangli (Rp1500), then on to Penelokan (Rp1000) on an excellent, paved, steadily rising road. The road north to Bangli and Penelokan begins at the crossroads town of Peteluan, just east of Gianyar. There you can always find public transport during the day for a ride up to Penelokan. From Singaraja in the north, a minibus costs Rp2500.
     Another approach, via Rendang and Menanga, is described (in reverse) in the "Getting Away" section, below. This road emerges at the southernmost point of the crater rim. Take a moment to enjoy the fantastic view—no hassle from sellers or anyone else. Farther on up the road you'll have plenty of unwanted company.
     The majority of tour groups stop at Goa Gajah, Gunung Kawi, and Tampaksiring's Tirta Empul before they arrive in Penelokan in the late morning. These tours on air-conditioned buses are advertised all over Bali; a lunch at one of Penelokan's swank restaurants is usually thrown in. If traveling on public transport, from Ubud you must first go to Gianyar (Rp800), then to Penelokan. Or from Ubud take a bemo first to Sakah (Rp500), then flag down a minibus heading for Singaraja; get off at Penelokan.
     There are also some unfrequented back-road approaches to Penelokan from Ubud. Try the narrow, potholed road through Tegallalang, Sebatu, and Pujung. This road offers nicer landscapes than the one through Tampaksiring. Even wilder is the road from Ubud via Payangan; drive a 100cc (or more) motorcycle through the deep upland interior of Bali. On the way you'll experience variegated scenery, bamboo forests, and remote, hilly, pre-Hindu walled villages. To walk from Ubud via Payangan takes about 12 hours. The higher you ascend the more changes you'll encounter. The aboriginal natives of the Gunung Batur region even look different from the people of the coasts—darker, shorter, more wiry. In few other places is there a folk as stony-eyed as these.

Getting Away
Even getting out of this place is a hassle: men come out of nowhere to claim you promised them you'd go in their car. To get to Lovina, you could end up paying Rp25,000 for a private taxi. Too much maybe, but it's a quick way out. Neither is it easy finding direct transport to Ubud. The closest place one can easily reach is Bangli; then you have to get another bemo to Gianyar, another to Sakah, and another to Ubud. Regular bemo travel between Kintamani and Batubulan (Rp3000); they may stop in Ubud en route. The bemo drivers of Penelokan have established a monopoly on transport down to the shore of Lake Batur. Bemo travel as far as Songan on the western side of the lake and Abang on the eastern side but you generally have to bargain like mad to achieve a fair price for any points beyond Toya Bungkah and Buahan.

VICINITY OF PENELOKAN

An exciting, fun ride is to take a bicycle up to Penelokan on top of a bemo, then freewheel it all the way back down to the southern coast. From Penelokan, you can hike around the crater rim to the rainforest on top of Gunung Abang (2,152 meters) in about five hours, eating raspberries along the way to quench your thirst.
     From Penelokan to Besakih, travel southeast over a fascinating road via Suter and Pempatan running high above the lake across the foothills of Gunung Agung. Move through remote villages; not many tourists take this route and the Balinese are surprised to see you. A little before Rendang (14 km south of Penelokan) at Menanga is the turnoff to Besakih.
     There's a wonderful garden in Desa Teman, one km south of Seribatu, owned by Nyoman Tangun. See loving cultivation of salak, cengkeh, apokat, coklat, ananas, kopi, nanas, durian, mango, mangosteen, papaya, white and black pepper, ginger, and kunyit. Nyoman sells packets of spices (Rp2000 for six vanilla pods) plus fruits, cold drinks, and snacks in the back. Nice view over a river valley. Farther south is Quilt Alley.
     In the highland jungle, among the slippery ravines and steep hills between Gunung Batur and Gunung Catur, are the Bali Aga villages of Selulung, Batukaang, and Catur. See remains of primitive pre-Hindu monuments, lichen-covered stone statues, small Polynesian-style megalithic pyramids. In these mountaineer Bali Aga villages, the bale agung (council house) is the heart of the political and religious life of the community. The longest council house on Bali is in Taro southwest of and downhill from Penelokan near Jati on the road to Ubud.

Climbing Gunung Abang
This old 2,152-meter-high volcano ("Red Mountain"), on the eastern side of the crater southeast of Penelokan, is the highest point on Batur's outer crater. Climbing it is demanding but easier than climbing Gunung Batur. The trailhead lies about six km southeast of Penelokan. From below Lakeview Homestay, drive or walk down the Penelokan-Suter-Rendang road around the rim east for five km (no public bemo on this route). Go one km past the turn south to Suter until you see several warung. Continue on this trail to a temple, then head down a steep incline for another one km. Walk straight along the rim of the caldera up through a slippery and muddy thick scrub forest. At the top is Pura Puncak Tuluk Biyu, surrounded by trees. About halfway up you'll pass another temple, Pura Manu Kaya, then after an hour you'll reach the windy, misty summit. The view is sensational. If you have a guide, descend down the other side of Gunung Abang on a track that emerges just above Songan, one of the nicest places to stay on the lake. The descent to Songan is much longer than the one on the Suter side of the mountain. The climb up and back from the trailhead takes about four or five hours, depending on the season.

BATUR

A mountain village, Batur is north of Penelokan on the western rim of the crater, with no distinguishable border separating it from Kintamani. The newcomer on the ridge, Batur until 1926 was a prosperous village located at the foot of Gunung Batur. In 1917, the volcano erupted and buried most of the village in lava. This cataclysm took the lives of 1,000 people, destroying 65,000 homes and 2,500 temples. Miraculously, the molten lava stopped short at the gateway of Batur's village temple. The survivors looked upon this good fortune as an auspicious sign from the gods, and thus rebuilt their village in the same location.
     Nine years later the volcano erupted again. This time the village as well as the temple were completely buried under 30 meters of lava, but only one life was lost—an old woman who died of fright. Only a high shrine to the goddess of the sea was spared destruction. Finally getting the message, the community relocated high on the crater rim. With help from Dutch engineers, the villagers dismantled the surviving shrine and transported it piece by piece up the flank of the crater on the backs of horses and laborers. Once reassembled, the ancient dark stone shrine was incorporated in a new brick-and-stone temple, Pura Ulun Danu Batur ("Head of the Lake") with obvious Indian influences.
     This is one of the most significant religious complexes on Bali. Lake Batur is the source of dozens of underground springs which help regulate the flow of water for the farmlands and sacred pools throughout the whole south-central region. Farmers from all over the island pay homage here to Ida Batari Dewi Ulun Danu, the life-sustaining and highly venerated goddess of the lake, who supplies the 37 rivers, tributaries, dams, and irrigation canals between here and the sea with water. The temple's high priest is an important advisor on agricultural and water-use issues. In times of drought or crop failure, elaborate rituals are performed to secure help and blessing from the goddess of the lake. In the temple is housed a grand old gong gede, which accompanies the sacred dances of baris gede and the ceremonial rejang dance for women in a major 11 day odalan that usually takes place in March.
     The nine-temple complex, with its impressive tall gateway, contains a maze of 285 shrines and pavilions dedicated to the deities of water, agriculture, holy springs, and arts and crafts. The largest temple, Pura Penataran Agung Batur, consists of five spacious well-swept black-gravel courtyards filled with rows of thatched-roof meru towers. The 11-roofed meru in the inner courtyard is dedicated to Dewi Danu, the goddes of the lake. In the northwest corner, the Chinese-style shrine honors the patron saint of commerce and the storekeeper of the gods, Ida Ayu Subandar. This practice dates back to Javano-Hindu times when each king employed a harbormaster who was most often Chinese. See the solid gold bell in the bale gedung, the storage place for valuable temple artifacts.

KINTAMANI

A windblown market town strung out along the highway north, 68 km (1.5 hours) from Denpasar's Batubulan Station (Rp2500 by bemo) and 52 km from Singaraja (Rp2500 by bemo), and Rp500 by bemo (10 minutes, eight km) north of Penelokan. Bemo from Bangli or Gianyar leave for Kintamani more often than from anywhere else. Kintamani is a cool, fresh retreat, bring warm clothes, as it's cold at night (1,500 meters above sea level). The fog comes rolling into Kintamani early, transforming it into a ghost town of howling anjing, so you'd best settle in before nightfall. The coldest months are July and August; lots of rain from October to March. Get up early to watch a superb sunrise.
     Though the views are not as good, most travelers prefer to stay here instead of Penelokan. With its weather-beaten wooden and concrete buildings, and rusty corrugated iron roofs, the place has the feel of a frontier town. There are fewer annoying locals and you're treated with slightly more respect. Still, Kintamani has more barking dogs per square meter than any other place on Bali. The town boasts the world's finest specimens of the famous Bali Dog, now registered with the AKC. The Bali Dog is commonly white and the puppies roll up into furry puffballs. A particularly endearing characteristic of this breed is its habit of following you for upwards of a kilometer, barking in fits and starts the whole way, triggering mass barking frenzies in dozens of other dogs which linger on long after you're gone.
     There's a busy market every third morning along the highway in the north part of town, right in front of Losmen Miranda. Because it's located along the main pass between north and south Bali, mountain people come into Kintamani from the surrounding villages to trade. Traditional and turbaned, these rustics are seldom without their parang. This damp climate encourages a variety of fruits and vegetables unknown elsewhere on the island: peanuts, cabbages, passion fruit, citrus, flowers, coffee beans, and Bali's best kritik (cassava chips). This spectacle of local color and produce is over by 1100.
     The temples of the area look out over the crater. People come from all over the island to pray here, especially during odalan. A grand old gong gde, one of only three on Bali, plays for the ceremony. Its heavy somber tolling harkens back to a Bali now forever part of the past. Hear it on a moonlit night. Additionally, sanghyang trance dances, seldom seen in other parts of Bali, are practiced here but are often closed to tourists.

Accommodations
Most losmen are located on the main street, Jl. Pasar Kintamani, each offering cold, cubicle-like, damp-smelling rooms. This environment is somewhat alleviated by a crackling log fire at night—order the wood earlier in the day. Though in July and August there are many visitors, Kintamani's accommodations are generally not full. Bargain if business is slow.
     Kintamani's best budget hotel is small, friendly, family-run Losmen Miranda in the upper end of town. Six rooms: Rp6000 s and Rp10,000 d with mandi, Rp8000 d without mandi. Services include free baggage storage, hot water at no charge, and a log fire. This clean, well-kept hotel and its good food are excellent value. Nothing glamorous but no bugs in the bed, and bars on the windows. The owner, Made Senter, works as a guide. Warung and stores nearby sell most anything you need.
     Between Puri Astina and the market, Losmen Sasaka has four rooms with hot water, bath, and showers for Rp25,000 d, including breakfast. Meals available at reasonable prices. The market is just south of this losmen. In the south end of town, about 4.5 km north of Penelokan, Superman Inn offers small unpretentious rooms with breakfast and mandi for Rp10,000 s, Rp20,000 d. Bargain. Run by Kintamani's hippest, youngest hotelier, I Made Rubin, this losmen is the best place in Kintamani to eat cheap.
     The most northerly accommodation, about 800 meters in from the road past a little village, is Puri Astina, tel. (0362) 975254, the classiest and quietest place in town at Rp30,000 d (no bargaining) for six front rooms with views; four bargain rooms go for Rp15,000 d. A clean, friendly place with a big sitting room, private baths with hot water, showers, Western toilets, and an expensive and rather cheerless restaurant with tourist menu (Rp2500 for soup, Rp8000 for Johnny Walker). Beautiful floor-to-ceiling views of three volcanoes and the lake—worth rising at 0500 for. Postal service. Ask the owner Agus Sartono to arrange horseback riding and experienced guides for trekking or climbs up Gunung Batur (the path starts here). To get to Puri Astina, watch for the big sign just north of Kintamani's market before the radio tower. Don't confuse Puri Astina with Astina Inn, which has minimalist bath, no view, and costs Rp12,000-20,000.

Food
There are warung makanan up from Puri Astina in the market. Losmen Miranda has a pretty good fully Westernized 28-item breakfast and dinner menu, including fried noodles (Rp2000), veggie omelettes (Rp1750), black rice pudding (Rp2000), and vegetables, eggs, and sauce (Rp3000). Miranda claims to have the best pancakes (Rp2500) on Bali—banana inside, coconut on top.
A number of eateries are located on the left-hand side of the road if heading toward Penelokan. Some big fancy tourist restaurants on the right overlook lovely gardens to Lake Batur. Tour buses dump hundreds of Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean passengers at the 400-seat Batur Garden, which serves only lunch—Chinese and Indonesian dishes plus Western bar drinks.
Buy export quality Robusta powdered coffee at P.T. Perkebunan in north Kintamani for Rp1600 (250 grams). This plantation office, at the six-km Penelokan marker, is a branch of the head office in Jember, East Java.

Getting Away
From Kintamani to Penelokan by bemo is Rp500, to Singaraja by bus is Rp2500 (1.5 hours), to Denpasar by bus is Rp2500 (1.5 hours). The Denpasar-Singaraja bus passes in front of Losmen Miranda. Ask Made Senter, the helpful owner, about his coffee and coconut plantation tours.
For Gunung Batur, it's possible to start your climb from Kintamani at 0600 and return by 1200. Expert local guides, available through the hotels, will lead you down the old bridle path that drops steeply from the lip of the outer crater, then climbs up and over the rim of the inner crater before descending into the innermost crater. It's only about a 45 minute hike to the rim of the inner crater, then another 1.5 hours to the top of Gunung Batur. All the guidebooks recommend Gede's Trekking, on Kintamani's main street near the market, for tours in almost any direction. Made Senter also offers guide services up Batur. Guides will ask Rp20,000 for one or two people, Rp40,000 for groups of more than two, but may accept as little as Rp25,000 for as many as six people. Depends on the demand. Or ask for detailed directions (Losmen Miranda has a map). Be prepared for hard going on Gunung Batur's ascent and the descent to Toya Bungkah. Catch a bemo back from Toya Bungkah, but leave by 1300 or you may have to charter (Rp6000 and up to Penelokan).
There are lots of other good walks in the area—to Gunung Abang, Gunung Agung, and the sea. The more people, the cheaper the guide rate. The track down to Ubud begins just south of Kintamani in Kubupenelokan, next to the Batur Garden. It can be negotiated by motorcycle or bicycle. Travel past walled-in villages and wild mountain scenery, bouncing into Ubud about three hours later.

PENULISAN

Penulisan means "Place of Writing." You'll find this site eight km north of Kintamani at a left bend on one of Bali's prettiest roads. Take the soaring, 333 high-stepped stairs covered in slippery green mold up to lonely Pura Tegeh Koripan, almost invariably covered in mist. Entrance is Rp1000.
     Spectacularly situated on the outer edge of the Batur crater, this remote temple is the highest (1,745 meters) and perhaps oldest on the island. On Bali, high places are considered sacred—where the gods dwell. Archaeological evidence indicates the existence of a sanctuary here as early as 1500 B.C., 2,000 years before the arrival of Hinduism. This royal pura was the highest structure on Bali until the Perumtel station was built on the opposite knoll. Now it shares that distinction with an ugly TV tower.
     Dedicated to the god of the mountains, Sanghyang Grinatha, a manifestation of Shiva, it's lowland counterpart is Pejeng's Pura Pusering Jagat, a temple for the gods of the plains. Penulisan is believed to have been the mountain sanctuary of the kings of the Pejeng dynasty. Today, people in the surrounding villages worship here; it's also visited by pilgrims from all over Bali. In the highest courtyard under a number of austere open bale are a whole row of linga and yoni, fragments of sculptures, finely wrought headless stone statues, and pagan phallic symbols and prehistoric divinities dating from the 9th century and before. The highest point of the temple, the tall Panerajon shrine, is a representation of the Hindu mythic mountain Mahameru. The pyramidal form of the complex, the site's 11 rising terraces, and its large megalithic stones are all typical of the arrangement of archaic Indonesian mountain sanctuaries.
     Scholars conjecture the standing portrait statues of a king and queen with the inscription Batari Mandul and Anak Wungsu dated Saka year 999 (A.D. 1077), may represent King Udayana (d. 1011) and his consort Gunapriya—the source of the legend of Calonarong. Another theory is that the royal personage is the Chinese Buddhist princess Subandar. Since mandul means "childless," it's been surmised the princess became infertile as a result of a curse hurled by a Shivaite priest. This might explain why the shrine is visited and faithfully maintained by Bali's Chinese.
     Not visited by a European until 1885, for years outsiders were forcibly prevented from entering this temple by armed natives. The famous archaeologist Nieuwenkamp tried to visit Pura Tegeh Koripan in 1904 but was warned against it by Dutch authorities. It wasn't until 1948 that the ruler of Bangli allowed the Netherlands Indies Archaeological Service to carry out some technical renovations. Since then, the site has been in an almost continual state of restoration. Because of the high, mist-laden elevation, the statuary and reliefs are in a pretty decrepit state.
     Very early in the morning is the quietest and most pleasant time to visit. Surrounded by mountains, caressed with a cooling breeze, on the rare clear day you can see half the island from the highest terrace—all the way to the Indian Ocean in the south and Singaraja and the gleaming Java Sea to the north. Sometimes you can even see the deep purple volcanoes of East Java. Just below the temple is the village of Sukawana, the highest on Bali.

Vicinity of Penulisan
From the village of Sukawana, to the east of the stairway up to Pura Penulisan, take the high road that follows the northern rim of the outer crater from where you can take in the wild and rugged beauty of the crater. The road plunges to Pinggan on the crater's north side, then curves southeast to Songan. Through pine forests and coffee, clove, and citrus plantations the road north of Penulisan winds down to the ocean at Kubutambahan, 47 km away. From there you can either head west to Singaraja and Lovina or east to Tirtagangga and Amlapura. Down the road from Penulisan, toward Kubutambahan, is Desa Adat Loteng, where local banjar keep a traditional trinity temple.
Between Penulisan and Bantang, turn on the rough mountain road west through isolated Old Bali villages on the slopes of Gunung Catur. Belantih consists of two long, broad, east-west avenues that serve as communal living rooms. These flat avenues, sectioned off by gradual shifts in levels, reflect ancient class groupings. Lined with family dwellings, the aboriginal-style houses contain just a kitchen, sleeping rooms, and a sanggah house temple. Houses are constructed of wood with bamboo tile roofs, effective at keeping the occupants warm through the cold nights. A pemakssan ancestor temple lies just north of the village and another temple in south Bali style sits at the western end of the main avenue. Belantih's rustic, rough-hewn dwellings and its unusual layout make it a must for anthropologists. The road, which runs along the watershed between the north and the south of the island, takes you through Lampu and Catur, eventually leading to Pelaga in Badung Regency.