Bali, Day 6: Sick Jacki day

I don't really have too much to write about today, because I was sick today. In the morning Aaron explored the area and went to the local grocery stores and bought some snacks and some fruit. In the afternoon, I felt so ill that we headed to the local clinic, which they took samples from me and we paid a lot for some medicine and some antibiotics. Long story short, I was sick today, went to the doctor, and that is about it. Not much else to say about today. I was just glad that I did have a day that I could rest. Click here to read more

Bali, Day 5: More Temples and Monkeys

It was another daytrip day today, but it was much shorter than yesterday. At this current hotel, they actually bring our breakfast up to our balcony, which is very nice. We got a sort of omlette and fruit salad for breakfast, pretty yummy. We actually got confused about the time because I thought we set the alarm for 8 but it was actually 7, and we were rushing and was like why is our driver so late when it wasn't even the time yet. That was pretty humorous.



Anyway, when he finally did come, on time of course, we drove to a few places. First we went to the temples at Taman Ayun. They had lots of pagoda-shaped temples, but instead of being round like East Asian, they were square shapㄷd and seemed to be made of straw.






After these temples, we went to the Alas Kedaton Monkey Forest, which apparently has some of the least aggressive monkeys (but I haven't been to the other two, so I can't compare). We were there relatively early so there wasn't a lot of people there. There were some very fat monkeys and some very young monkeys. Unfortunately it was the fat ones that love to come up and jump on top of you (and yes, some of them can be quite heavy) and eat peanuts, but the young baby monkeys are the shy ones. There was a ton of monkeys everywhere, just sitting on the floor, on the fences, on the temples, everywhere. It was almost surreal to be surrounded by so many monkeys in close proximity.













After monkeying around, we went to Tanah Lot. Now, this temple is best during sunset, but we had time now, so why not. From the parking lot to the temple area was a journey, because it was windy roads around lots and lots of vendors and restaurants and people. Finally, we got the water's edge, where we saw the little temple perched on its little island (you could walk in the water to get to the other side, but we passed). The temple itself wasn't too big I could see the location can be pretty nice.





We had our lunch a local restaurant on the way back to the parking lot, of which I had some kind of chicken soup and Aaron got Indonesian fried rice with some satay (meat on sticks).





The rest of the day was uneventful because we were pretty tired and just headed back to the hotel. I was feeling a little sick so I just lay in bed and rested for awhile. For dinner, we tried out a Japanese restaurant nearby. I ordered some cold noodles on a bamboo plate, which I could just top with soy sauce, it was pretty good and refreshing. Aaron ordered some rice with anchovy and seaweed on top, and we shared an eggplant and a something that looked like a crab cake for appetizers. Click here to read more

Bali, Day 4: dance, crafts, temples, poo coffee, and elephants

It was a long day today. We awoke at around 7 and had breakfast at our lodging - 2 jaffels, 1 poached egg, and some juices. Then we had to check out and catch our boat back to Bali at 8:30. This time it was low tide so it wasn't as bumpy, although there were a few bumps in the middle. When we got to Sanur, we waited for our driver, who turned out to be the brother of the driver we hired, because maybe he's busy or something?

The first thing we did was the Barong and Kris Dance, which was another traditional Balinese dance. The story is pretty much about the good spirit (Barong) and the evil spirit (Rangda?), and how they are fighting through many different characters. There was a monkey and bird in this story as well. No fire dancing here though.

After this, we went to two "touristy-trap" type showrooms, one for batik textiles, and one for woodcraving. The batik place did have some very nice cloth paintings, some were very vibrant, but we didn't buy anything. At the wood carving place, I was surprised by the amount of erotic woodcarvings. We ended up buying a wooden statue of a girl lying on the ground.

After the two showrooms, we drove to the temples. First stop was the elephant cave temple, which was a temple in some rock mountains, there was also some hot springs are there too. The next temple was Gunung Kawi, which required a very long walk down lots and lots of stairs. This temple area were some stone statues in a mountain, and they were pretty big. I wasn't sure if the long staircase was worth it though. There was a little cafe there, where we bought a muffin and some watermelon juice. The third temple was at Tirta Empul, which also had some hot springs, which the place was known of. There was a restaurant there, and it was 2 by then, so we ordered some food - I got some noodle soup and Aaron got some rice and chicken, and of course, more juice and tea.

After our late lunch, we headed to "Agrotourism" which was a farm that grew some spices and fruits and coffee. We got to try a bunch of different teas and coffees, and I especially enjoyed the chocolate coffee. We even got to try the Kopi Luwak coffee, aka "poo coffee," which was the one that passes through the digestive tract of the Luwak animal. It was actually pretty good, tastes like coffee but not as bitter.

After this adventure, we drove up a very long and windy and skinny road to the Elephant Park at Taro. It was a bit pricy, but it was pretty fun. We took a half an hour trip on the elephant, which was both fun and somewhat scary, because the chairs on top of the elephant had no safety bar, and no seatbelt, and it can be pretty bumpy. The ride was pretty nice, in some nice cool forests. Then we walked around a bit and saw some more elephants eating, as well as two baby elephants, which were pretty cute.

After this, we headed back down the windy road and went to our newest hotel. This one was next to some rice fields, and the room was nice enough. It was time for dinner, and we went to a local restaurant near the hotel. We ordered spring rolls, more juices, and steamed fish. Aaron had ordered some other food but somehow they forgot about it, so we just ended up buying some snacks later on.

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Bali, Day 3: Nusa Lembongan day

Today was a nice relaxing day at Nusa Lembongan. First we had breakfast of a fried egg, a jaffle (which is kinda like a stuffed toast with cheese and tomato and egg), and a fruit pancake (covered with honey and some fruits). It was a pretty good breakfast, and all that was about 6 bucks!

We decided to have a beachy day, so we walked along the island until we could see a nice beach, since the beach outside our lodging had lots of boats and seaweed everywhere. We walked for a bit and explored around, sometimes up and sometimes down, and we found a little beach in this little cove area. There was some people there and some boats, but it wasn't very crowded. We found a little area on the side which was pretty quiet and nice, and just sat on the beach, played in the sand, and played in the nice blue water. Soon the high tide came though, and our little area was washed away, but we still had fun there.

After that, we walked back to our place, stopping at a restaurant for lunch, which had a nice view of the water. We had a creamy pasta and seafood kebabs, as well as a very delicious papaya juice, all for 12. At that restaurant, there was a skinny cat with a curly tail. The table next to us started feeding it fruits and bacon, which the cat seemed to enjoy. After lunch we headed back to our room, tried to wash most of the sand away, and just relaxed in our dark cool room, away from the blaring Balinese sun.

Soon after, we just took a little walk around the back roads of the island. We saw many little stores and some residences, and we actually saw a eagle, which was pretty interesting and odd, because it was just perched on a fence. There were also lots of roosters in cages and lots of wild dogs around, but they didn't seem aggressive, most of the animals here seem very relaxed. Soon it was time for the sunset, but this time the sunset wasn't as good because there were clouds in the way.

We then had dinner, which we got a vegetable burger, ginger pork, and a crepe stuffed with rice. Aaron got a papaya milkshake, which he enjoyed a lot. I got banana juice, which was good. After that we went back to our room and showered off our sweat and sand, and I discovered that I had sunburned my belly and Aaron sunburned his lower back.

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