Bali

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Another day another quick post.

Bali is something Shabana has been looking forward too for so long, it was the carrot that i used to get her round all the sightseeing i wanted to do, her chance to lay on the beach and do nothing.

Unfortunately it wasn´t to be. We landed with the gently falling rain and grabbed a taxi out to Sanur beach which was to be our home for a few days.

By the time we had checked in and had a shower at that the sun had come out a little and we wandered out to look at our beach paradise. First impressions were not so good. The lovely beach seemed to consist of tiny strip of rather dirty sand and then murky looking shallow water out into the sea.

Still mustn´t grumble!

We did an island tour where we went to see volcano and had lunch in a pretty awful buffet place where all the tourists go, i tried to convince the guy to take us somewhere else but he said this was the best place there, after trying to buy a bottle of water from the local place across the road and being assaulted by about 1000 flies that were buzzing around the stinky fish they were serving, i am inclined to agree.

We went to one of the main temples there and were lucky enough to first here the villagers descending the hillside with the crash bang of drums and cymbals and then see them all troup into temple. There were about 30 musicians, then a whole bevy of ladies carry the tribute of donuts and fruit on their heads, then a bunch of guys carrying flags and spears and the like and then a bunch more musicians bringing up the rear.

Once they entered the temple grounds they all sat down and started chatting and smoking waiting for the priests to do their thing before they could get on to the next bit what ever that was going to be. It was about 30 degrees so we decided against waiting to see what that would be and headed off. Lucky for us and not for them because a little while after that the heavens opened and it poured down. Maybe whover the local rain god is didn´t like the donuts they bought with them!

In search of another beach we had the choice of Lombok which was a bit far away or Lembongan Island which was only about 30 minutes away by super speedboat. We ended up in a plush resort for not so much money which had some nice beach huts, which unfortunately didn´t include bathrooms. They were about 30 meters away which doesn´t sound far, but it is at 2 o´clock in the morning which is when we needed to use them the first night. They were really nice open air rooms with a shower, 2 sinks and a toilet, the open airness however bought its own problems during the night as they were swarmed with bugs. What really would freak you out is the giant beetles the size of match boxes which seem incapable of flying by themselves and would crash land next to you and just stay still, until you tried to move them at which point they would grab on to what ever you picked them up with and not let go no matter how much you shook it.

The beach looked ok but the sea was still a little cold for Shabana and the boats kept on coming in and out dropping off day trippers from the mainland. so we spent most of our time in the swimming pool.

I did manage to get my first couple of dives in, the first where i saw turtles and morays and loads of other stuff and the second to so called Manta Point, unfortuately we didn´t see any at all.

So that was Bali, im sure there are nicer beaches that the ones we ended up in but i guess when on a backpackers budget there are things you just can´t afford and a great hotel on a gorgeous beach is one of them.

On to Australia next.

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Photos

Lembongan Beach Hut
This is our yard.

The cleansing waters
All must be purified before the temple!

Vilagers bring the tributes
An army of ladied carry fruit and cake on their heads.

Tribute up close
Those donuts look especially yummy

Rice terraces
This is how they grow rice