South Bali Tour - From the Sea to the Summit

Today was a jam packed day and we are exhausted!  We started with a lovely breakfast prepared by Suchi, of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.  From there our driver picked us up for our big day.  Introducing Nyoman - originally from northern Bali, he went to school for hotel management and tourism and was our guide for today for only $24 a piece.  The prices are so great once you get here!  The streets of Bali are small and bustling, and occasionally a little scary, especially when you see a tourist on a motorbike.  We were in the smallest 7 seater car I have ever been in, and driving on the opposite side of the road is always an adventure. 

Just a family of 4 on a bike

Our first stop was to the beach for some watersports.  We picked divewalking and a visit to the turtle sanctuary, both of which were pretty rad.  For the dive walking, we took a boat to a raft off shore that was set above a small coral reef with a railing around it.  They gave us wetsuits and water shoes (note to self I will never be able to find a wetsuit that actually fits me) and told us to go down the ladder off the raft with this diver-esque helmet on.  Basically the pressure of the air flow keeps water out of the helmet and you can walk around the reef and check out the fish, and other stuff.  It is a little scary at first and our ears felt a lot of pressure (and we were only 7m down) but once we got used to it, it was very cool

Fly fish adventure- absolutely not on our list 😂

Once we got back from that trip, we headed to the turtle sanctuary, called Penangkaran Penyu Bali Tanjung Benoa.  This place takes turtles and other animals that are injured in the wild or caught in fishing nets, etc, and nurses them back to health before releasing them back into the wild.  Our first stop was a turtle pool that had large turtles, up to 70 years old!  Some of them live to be 150.  We were able to pet them and feed them.  They are super graceful and chill creatures, very therapeutic to hang with them. 

Our next stop was the baby turtles, who were so cute.  Turtles are solitary creatures so they go back into the wild alone.  The turtle tot lot had a water pump in it and the turtles would get caught in the current, which was hilarious.  

And my favorite baby turtle:

Also at the sanctuary was an owl, a boa constrictor, a toucan, and a peacock (among others).  The story re: the peacock was that someone was keeping him illegally as a pet before it ended up here. It was so beautiful, I have never seen a peacock with its feathers up.  It also shakes the feathers and it makes a kind of rattling noise to scare off predators. 

Liz and I hold the constrictor!

Once we returned from our animal experience it was time to head to Uluwatu Temple.  This temple is built ona  cliff overlooking the water.  Sweeping views over the water and towards a huge statue, totally made me wish I had read the book on Hinduism that I bought before the trip.  Liz made an interesting observation, that the temples seem to be more outward facing, based in gratitude for the earth, rather than focused on what is inside the temple.  I will have to check this out.  So we got our scarves and sarongs and headed up to the temple.  There were tons of monkeys around the temple and we were warned that they will steal hats, phones, and even shoes, but we survived.  The temple was very peaceful and mostly consisted of tiered shade pavilions, and then there were more pavilions that you could walk to from the main one.  The interaction with nature was definitely the best part, with views of the water, beautiful flowers, and animals along the paths.  

Happy to be back in the air conditioning, we went to lunch from there.  It was a great little outdoor cafe, filled with tourists and ex pats but a great place to rest and recharge.  We discovered this over the counter food-poisoning prevention drug called Travelan, so hopefully that keeps us all good for the trip, no Bali Belly please!  

From the cafe we briefly stopped at "Julia Roberts Beach" aka Padang Padang Beach to see a very crowded and surfing-forward beach for a little while before heading to a coffee tasting.  We tasted all sorts of wonderful coffees and teas - for teas we tried mangosteen, green, ginger, red ginger, and others.  And for coffee we tried vanilla, coconut, avocado, and the popular Luwak coffee.  This is crazy - so it is called Luwak coffee because it is made from harvesting coffee beans that the lombok (mongoose) has eaten and pooped out.  It is supposed to be this amazing coffee with health benefits - all from mongoose poop!  

The mongoose coffee pooper himself

Once we bought our coffees and teas, we headed to our last destination before dinner - GWK.  This is a cultural park that culminates with a uge statue of Garuda Wisnu Kencana.  Again, I wish I knew more about Hindu culture to understand the meaning of these huge statues, but I know there was an amazing statue of Vishnu, who is their main protector god.  There was a cultural performance while we were there, entirely in Indonesian, which had lots of great music, dancing, theatrics, and awesome costumes.  

At this point we were so ready for our dinner and bed.  We went to this beachside dinner at Ganesha Cafe.  It was a seafood restaurant where you can have the seafood grilled or fried.  We got grilled red snapper with garlic and oil and fried grouper with sweet and sour sauce.  Both of them were really good and super flavorful, and I am definitely not a seafood aficionado.  Monica got a coconut - like they actually bring  you a coconut with the water inside and you can eat the meat inside with a spoon. Our day was also fueled by Indonesian beer - Bintang, which made a great ending to a long day.  Tomorrow is our Ubud tour so I best be getting to bed!

Words of the day:

Namaa saya Tarrah - my name is Tarrah

Baik terima khasi - I’m good, thank you

Sama sama - you’re welcome