Bali: Fun in the Sun!

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I landed in Bali airport at just gone midnight as a millionaire as the exchange rate was roughly 20000 Indonesian Rupiah to the Pound, my head was wrecked already and when the taxi driver asked for a couple of million to be taken to the hostel I was completely confused. I checked in to my hostel and went into the night searching for something, anything to eat. I was rewarded with some Pringles and a chocolate donought, not my usual late night snack but it curbed my hanger pangs and I was able to sleep, ready to investigate the area of Kuta the next day.



The next morning I went out walking around the town. I was looking for the beach but for some reason couldn't find it. I kept asking people what direction it was in and kept getting shown a different way. I was going round in circles, I started to think it was a conspiracy not to let the poor pasty white girl get to the beach to catch a tan. I was really frustrated and started to see mirages as I walked aimlessly around Kuta in the hot and humid weather. I nearly gave up at one point and so decided to pop into a shop to have quick 1hour foot and leg massage for the princely sum of £2.90. One pair of knock off trainers, one box of plasters, two bottles of water and an ice lolly later and I finally reached my destination...and then realised I had left my towel in the hostel. There was no way I was going back to my room to retrieve it, it took me long enough to find this beach, Narnia is an easier place to find I'm sure. I decided to walk along the beach path, admiring the surfers in the sea and taking in the sights. I walked for quite a while it would seem; quite a while seeing as I ended up at the airport! I was happy I had seen most of the area and had personally said 'hello' and 'no thanks' to every single shop keeper in the district and so headed back to the hostel.



On return to my room I found my American roommate who was sleeping in the bed above me sorting out her bag. We got chatting (seems she had the same frustrating day of walking to the airport and back as I had) and within and hour and a half we were showered, dressed and out for the night. Jess was a 24 year old Boston girl who had been teaching English in South Korea for the last year and was in Indonesia before heading to India on her way home to the States. We chatted about our travels and teaching jobs as we walked into Kuta looking for the area where there were plenty of places to eat and drink. Again we found ourselves walking around for ages, asking many people to point us in the right direction and we were even told by a nice police officer to remember to 'control your bag' which quickly became the quote of the week. Weary and thirsty, we found our way to the main area at night and had some food and drink. The next day we were fit for very little other than relaxing on the beach and now we knew where it was we wanted to exploit this and catch some rays. The weather was lush and the sea refreshing and so we had a great afternoon of eating, chilling, chatting and soaking up the sun. Just before sunset there were a 500 baby turtles being released back into the sea as part of the local conservation and so Jess and I joined the crowds to witness the spectacle. The cute little black blobs with legs either crawled their way across the sand or got washed away by the tide into the sea and to the next chapter of their life...sadly the statistics show only 1 in 1000 will survive and seeing as there was only half that number released, we contemplated the fact that we had just helped 500 poor creatures to their untimely death. It was cute to watch nevertheless.



On the Thursday I managed to drag myself out of bed and get ready for a day (ok, afternoon) of sightseeing. Jess had to go into Ubud to sort her visa for India out and had left very early and so I was on my own for the day. Problem was, I was so busy having fun that I'd forgotten to actually book myself on a tour. At this late stage in the game I decided the best plan was to nip out and find myself a car and driver I could hire to take me somewhere cultural. My lovely Harikrishna guide and his driver son drove me for an hour or so to Tanah Lot Temple in Tabanan. It is a Hindu temple which sits on a large offshore rock which has been shaped continuously over the years by the ocean tide.

Tanah Lot is claimed to be the work of the 16th-century Dang Hyang Nirartha. According to the story, during his travels along the south coast he saw the rock-island's beautiful setting and rested there. Some fishermen saw him, and bought him gifts. Nirartha then spent the night on the little island. Later he spoke to the fishermen and told them to build a shrine on the rock, for he felt it to be a holy place to worship the Balinese sea gods.

The Tanah Lot temple was then built and has been a part of Balinese mythology for centuries. The temple is one of seven sea temples around the Balinese coast. Each of the sea temples was established within eyesight of the next to form a chain along the south-western coast.

At the base of the rocky island, poisonous sea snakes are believed to guard the temple from evil spirits and intruders. The temple is purportedly protected by a giant snake, which was created from Nirartha's selendang (a type of sash) when he established the island. According to my driver it's the Holy Water and the Holy Snake. You could go and see the said snake (for a small donation of course) which was curled up in a hole in a rock opposite the temple just in the cave under the cliff. I had a look and a stroke of the snake which is as more likely to have been bought from the Balinese version of Jock's Pet Shop a few weeks before, but I liked the idea of the story nonetheless.



On the way back to Kuta we drove past a multitude of rice fields, all lush (in the proper sense, not the Welsh sense) and green and I even saw a building that had the novel idea of installing the back end of a jumbo jet complete with wings on its roof. I did think I was one of the first witnesses to an incredibly quiet plane crash but at a second glance I realised what I was seeing. A last, farewell dinner with Jess that night and a pedicure and massage to relax us and we said our goodbyes as I was to leave early in the morning to catch my flight back to Perth. I really enjoyed Bali, I went with little knowledge and expectations of the place. I met some cool people, had some fantastically priced massages, enjoyed the pineapple and other fruit, had fun, relaxed on the beach, did a little shopping (although that becomes tiring very quickly and I'm not a good shopper) saw a temple, some mini sea turtles swim to their probable death and watched the Australians surf...I had a good week. 😊

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