The morning began with breakfast on our porch and then Sam had an early surf sesh with Dennis in front of our hotel. The break was better today and he spent 2 hours surfing and improved so much. It was a hot day and good to be in ocean which was also so warm probably 85 degrees.
We spent the late afternoon by the pool doing homework and blogs. We caught a ride by a couple of women at the hotel to Deus for lunch- we are addicted! Made picked us up at the restaurant and we headed to the famous temple by the cliffs where a priest from Java came and discovered these spots and named them spiritual centers and they built several temples on the rocks out on the water. Very beautiful setting and at low tide many cross the waters and bring offerings and worship at these spots. A spectacular setting but we enjoyed just a brief visit since it was so hot.
We moved down the coast and checked out one of the famous surf beaches in the Uluwatu area. You had to climb down steep steps through what almost looked like a crack in the rock. There were many people there but can imagine for an early morning surf session it would be beautiful with large limestone rocks standing as almost sculptures against the rolling surf backdrop.
At the southern tip of Bali we arrived at the Uluwatu Temple. Made our guide warned us to take off all jewelry and sun glasses since the monkeys there were very aggressive. Apparently his last visitor from Singapore had a huge monkey jump on him and snatch his glasses right off his face and cut the man’s face. The monkeys were lurking all around and did seem aggressive as they were screeching through the forest. The temple is set along the cliffs and is just a beautiful walk with views of the pagoda perched along the highest cliff. The temple is also famous for its dance performance which tells the Hindu story of their version of Romeo and Juliet. It was entertaining as there were 50 bare chested men chanting the story and rocking and it was almost hypnotic their song and chants and motion. The dancers/actors costumes were very elaborate and the characters were entertaining, namely the white monkey who was almost like the Utah Jazz bear leaping through the audience and near the end of the show kicking large fireballs around the stage and wrestling the stories evil characters. The one hour Balinese traditional show was set on the cliff overlooking the ocean and the evenings sunset- just perfect.
Made dropped us off at Jambalan Bay at one of the many seafood restaurants on the beach. The whole huge bay with it’s deep beach was lined with beach restaurants as far as the eye could see and at night it was really pretty beautiful since there were tiki torches and little lights dotting the beach with the occasional fireworks going off. We did ask what was the large pinkish orange cloud of smoke at the far end of the bay, the server said it must be a fire. It wasn’t normal and huge plumes of pink smoke were billowing above the point.
When it was time to order we went up to the front of the restaurant where there were large fish tanks and you picked your fresh fish. I chose Barrundi and picked a large black fish which the server scooped out of the tank, yes dropped it a couple of times, but then handed to a guy behind the tanks which then grilled it up. 20 mins later we enjoyed a fresh grilled Barrundi. On the beach there was young man selling from a cart roasted corn. Sam had gone over to check him out, but I decided I should try some. He slowly roasted over a little pan with hot coals and brought to our table. It tasted like I was eating fragrant carmel corn. It was SO delicious that I ordered another one!
We made it back to our hotel around 10 p.m. After I packed up we were too tired to blog but read scriptures and then in our prayer we asked that we would be kept safe. We were a bit concerned about traveling on Air Asia, since they had a fatal crash recently and I believe it was on its way to Singapore. As we were climbing into bed, the night air started to crackle and moan. The day and evening had been so hot and the night was so humid that it seemed the skies were finally breaking under the heat and although I saw no rain fall I opened the curtains in our room and could see the night ski and the show that ensued for the next couple hours. These seem like the skies and kind of storm that it could be easy to see a plane would go down in..didn’t help me sleep. I did again pray that the storm would rage tonight and then leave us with calm skies and clear flying tomorrow. Thankfully we woke to clear skies and a bit cooler temperatures.
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