Tours in Tirta Gangga

Tirta Gangga is a water palace in east Bali, built in 1946 by the last raja of Karangasem. He designed it himself and kept building until 1963, when the eruption of Mount Agung buried most of it in ash. What stands now is largely a reconstruction.

The garden is formal: pools, fountains and statues around a spring the Balinese consider holy. The name means water from the Ganges. An eleven-tiered fountain rises in the middle, and the terraces climb the slope behind it.

The centrepiece is a set of stepping stones crossing a pond thick with koi. That is where everybody takes the photograph. Beyond the terraces are rice fields, and on a clear morning the cone of Agung stands over them.

The visit is short, forty minutes to an hour, so it is almost always combined with something else in the east.

• Taman Ujung. The neighbouring water palace.
• Lempuyang. The temple with its so-called gates of heaven.
• Sidemen. The valley.
• Amed. The black-sand coast.

Day tours from Ubud or the southern resorts put two or three of these together. You can also swim in the upper pools for a small extra fee. Almost nobody does. On a hot afternoon it is the best thing about the place.

Practical

• Timing. The stepping stones are the single most photographed spot in east Bali, and there is a queue on them by nine in high season. The light is better before that anyway.
• Fees. A small one at the gate, a little more for the pools, and a few coins for fish food.
• The stones. Wet, uneven and easy to slip on.
• Dress. Sarongs are not required here, since this is a garden rather than a temple, but modest dress is still expected.
• Getting there. About ninety minutes from Ubud on a winding road, two hours from Kuta.
• Money. Cash only at the gate.