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Published: September 18th 2023
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This is getting a bit monotonous - more sleeping in and missed breakfast followed by another arduous session on sunlounges by the pool. Ah, but today’s different - we both manage to summon up enough energy to go for a dip.…. Oops, I think we might have over exerted ourselves a little there. The solution, well that of course would be to fall asleep again. We were planning to take a late afternoon ride to Tanah Lot temple to watch the sunset, but by the time we stir from our slumbers it seems we’ve left our run a bit late; we’re told the sun will be long gone by the time we get there. We’ve only got one full day left here and we still haven’t ventured more than a few hundred metres from the hotel. I hope nobody‘s reading this looking for tips on what to do here.
We head out for a late afternoon stroll along the beach. The crashing surf of the last few days has calmed down slightly; swimming’s allowed for the first time since we got here, and a few surfers are out there trying their luck with the waves. We pass what looks like
some sort of religious festival on the beach - lots of locals dressed in traditional costumes, and a small delegation then bringing an offering down to the shoreline to release into the waves. The locals are out in force to watch the sunset, and they’ve got dogs, lots of dogs. One of them seems to want to follow us. Issy thinks it’s got rabies, but it doesn’t seem to be frothing at the mouth, well not obviously anyway. I’m a bit more worried about a couple of other dogs who seem intent on wanting to kill each other - I hope neither of them want to follow us. Anyway, potentially rabid dogs aside, it’s an excellent wide, clean, sandy beach, and the sunset is stunning.
Consistent with our apparent determination not to venture too far from the hotel, we’ve eaten in every night so far. We’ve been to one of the restaurants twice. It prides itself on serving up small bite sized Asian dishes which are intended to be shared. And ”bite sized” sums it up very well, like one bite each and it’s gone. I’ve come away hungry both times, which of course begs the question as to
why we went there a second time. And this is indeed an excellent question.
Tonight we decide to eat out, at an outdoor restaurant down on the sand. The traditional Indonesian food is excellent, and more importantly the portions are adequately large. And the ambience is excellent with one notable exception. There’s live music playing, which would be fine if only there wasn’t live music also playing at equivalent volume at the outdoor restaurant right next door. We can’t hear either act properly; they just seem intent on drowning each other out. We suspect this isn’t a once off; it probably happens every night. Eventually one group decides to take a break, so what does the other one do, well it takes a break too. So there’s blissful silence for a few minutes, until, well, they both start up again … at the same time. They’ve got to be doing this deliberately - a live music war, and we’re caught in the crossfire. And this isn’t the island’s only battle site. The blackout blinds in our room might be good for keeping out daylight, but they’re no match for the live music blaring in from the hotel bar every
night. And this would be fine except for two things - the singer sucks, and it seems he’s also at war, in this case with the equally loud act from the beach club next door. So it’s drum kits and bass guitars at forty paces, while the tourists go in search of ear muffs. And we always thought of Bali as being such a peaceful place…
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