After breakfast we decided to borrow a couple of bikes from the hotel and to ride up to the Legion Beach area. Same direction as we always walked in, but further.
We rode for around 30 minutes but we ended up on the main roads and in traffic. It was getting hairy scary, plus we were on a slow roast. We have been traveling for 2 1/2 months now and believe me, we still have NOT adapted to the heat and humidity.
We got as far as here, which translate to Kuta Beach, so obviously did not make it up to Legion Beach.
The beach up here was much nicer than the beach that was further south, near where we were staying. If we ever get to go back, we will have to check this area out for sure.
The surfers seemed to be loving the waves today. Wonder if it is always like this here?
After touring around for a bit, we decided to head back to the hotel. Plus our butts were hurting and we still had the ride back. Back through the traffic. YIKES!
It was a very relaxing afternoon in the pool. I spent a good hour just floating around on an air mattress, while Doug guided me around the pool. We had really needed time to relax and we were getting it. Perfect weather and great bar staff. What more could a person want? We must have been really relaxed, as I don’t even have pictures of our lunch or my Chocolate Martini.
Should we ask what Doug is doing?
Pretty sure he was looking at his phone, while waiting for me, but we will never know.
Back in the room we did, yes, more laundry. This was the ideal place to get it done as it dried quickly in the heat and sun. After doing the laundry we headed back to the loungers to read, but soon discovered it was just too hot. Back to the room we went. Doug to watch Netflix and myself to work on our blog. We had pretty good internet here. Plus a nice view from our air conditioned room.
Dinner tonight was back at the pool bar as I couldn’t deal with seeing the poor cats again. It was heart breaking to me.
It had been a while since I had had any bites, but Indonesia did not disappoint me, and was sending me off with a doozie.
Later we packed up all our clean laundry, as we are off to Australia tomorrow!
Today, we decided we really needed to buy a few gifts/souvenirs for people back home. We had been gone 2 1/2 months and bought nothing other than a few t-shirts for ouselves. So we headed back to the Discovery Mall in downtown Kuta. We spied this beautiful butterfly/moth on the ground. Not sure if it was dead or resting, but guessing dead, since it seems to be belly up.
The ocean was a little rough today, with waves coming way up and over the rocks and path. Tide was definitely in.
We purchased a few items from the market inside the mall and from the outdoor market that we found. Of course had to stop and have our ‘usual’ from Starbucks. Vanilla Ice Lattés. Saw a march or parade of some sort going on.
Took a gander at Bubba Gump again, but once again we weren’t hungry and it was still morning. Not even sure if it was open yet. Really, really need to come back here.
School was just being let out and kids were flowing out. All the schools seem to have school uniforms. At least the ones we saw did. Lots being picked up by their parents on scooters. Lots of hydro lines here also.
Strolled back to our hotel and saw lots of surfers out today. Guess it must have been a good surf day. All the rough waters we saw earlier today seemed to have calmed down some.
Tide was out now. What a difference.
After all our exercise, we noticed it was Happy Hour time. Guess where we headed? Yup to the pool bar. Had to snap a few more flower pictures today. Seems like I am always finding new ones. The ones on the right are Bouganvillea and they are everywhere here. Back home they are so expensive to buy.
Laundry day AGAIN! Always seems to be laundry day, but we had a great spot to hang it to dry.
We headed back to the restaurant tonight and had a table by the edge again. Tonight’s menu looked like it had been retrieved from the garbage as it was so crinkled up.
Eating in the restaurant gives a great view, but the poor little cat came back and makes me so sad. Tonight there were 2 cats. The little guy once again got most of my meat from the cheese steak sandwich. Doug had green curry and therefore could not share with the cat.
The mean man sitting at the table next to us, just kept kicking the cats away. It broke my heart sitting here. This is partially why we had so many of our meals at the pool bar.
Today was another travel day and we were heading back to Kuta for a few more nights. We enjoyed our last breakfast here with our new buddy, the cat. I don’t think he was supposed to be on the table, but what the heck!
We gave him a little bit of our scrambled eggs, which he just looked at. What was he expecting, caviar?
We packed up and checked out of the hotel. We weren’t supposed to check out until tomorrow, but we had changed our plans. We did not ask for a refund, so they still got their money for the extra night. After all, it wasn’t their fault we left early.
We headed downtown to the Blue Water office.
Lots of horse and buggies here this morning awaiting the arrival of new tourists.
We had just been saying the other day, that these places should have a day when everyone, including the tourists, go out and clean up the beaches and road sides. To our surprise, we saw this sign this morning.
Our boat arrived at 1150 hrs and we loaded on, headed for Kuta. The price we paid also included our transportation from the port on Bali to our hotel in Kuta.
At the other end, we had to walk a short distance to get to their office where all the shuttle vans were waiting to take us to our hotels.
We arrived at 1545 hrs and got all checked in. We knew the routine, as we booked the Holiday Inn again. We knew it and we liked it. This room was not a large as the last one, but was still really nice. We had a little outdoor patio this time as we were on the ground floor.
If we hurried we would make it to the pool bar happy hour. Off we went. Mojitos for Doug and Cham 69s for me. Delicious!
Headed back to the room shortly after 1700 hrs and Doug did some hand laundry. Had the perfect place outside to hang it to dry.
The plants sure grow big here. Another one, a Croton, that I use to have as an indoor plant. Mine was only tiny compared to these though.
Dinner tonight was take out from the pool bar and dessert, which we brought back to the room. Enjoyed our dinner in the room while we watched some TV.
Guess what woke us up AGAIN! Yup, the call to prayer. It seemed to happen a lot through out the day today. Not just the once that I remember from yesterday. But, who knows, maybe we just noticed it more today.
Today we thought we would head back to the little café that we had discovered yesterday for our breakfast. YUM….fruit smoothies and fresh croissants. We got the last 2 croissants. They sure do a booming business in this place. And, YES! we got a table inside, in the air conditioning this morning. Have I mentioned today, just how HOT it is here? After a great breakfast we headed back to the hotel, as we decided we would borrow a couple of bikes from them and ride around the island. Island can’t be that big, if you can walk around it. We haven’t been on bikes for years, but you never forget how to ride one, right?
We remember how, but OMG, did we forget about how sore your butt gets! Two hours on a bike…ouch
There were some nice looking bars, beaches and resorts on the other side of the island, but I guess you would have to take the horse and buggies to get to them, especially at night. Just to note, this island has no cars and supposedly no motorcycles, but we did see one motorcycle/scooter on the island.
Some places were nicer than others. It could be quite far in between places, not like the other side of the island, where the main street is.
Most of the over the water swings were occupied, but we finally found one that wasn’t. Had to take our shoes off to go into the water and oh my, that was not fun. Lots of rocks and most likely broken coral covering the ocean floor. Not a good experience at all, but I finally made it out to the swing.
The ‘road’ was getting narrower and narrower, and rougher, as we continued around the island. At one point it ended up being just a narrow sand path, almost impossible to ride on, and we had to get off our bikes, and walk them for a short distance.
We came upon a herd of cows. Looks like they may be tied to the trees. At least they have lots of trees for shade.
It took us around 2 hours to ride around the island and our butts were angry. It was time for a cold Bintang while we sat on the edge of the pool with our feet dangling in the water. It was so relaxing after our long bike ride.
Later we headed back to the downtown area for dinner. Picked out a nice beach side restaurant, IKAM and was given a table on the sand near the water. Moved from our first table as there were a lot of ants near that one. Didn’t want any ant bites. Everything else seems to bite me.
Mai Thai & Frozen Mojito
Dinner was pretty good and with beverages came to IDR Rp 559,00 = Cdn $48.39 Again, not cheap for SE Asia, but about on par for what we have found in Indonesia.
We stopped off at an ATM and successfully got money! Grabbed a couple of ice cream bars from the local convenience store and headed back to the hotel around 5:30 pm. We had to pack up for our speedboat trip back to Kuta tomorrow. Our port was Sanur and then they would take us in a van to our hotel in Kuta.
This is a good picture to show how nice this place was once you got over the entrance way. That is our room. The place was really quiet as I don’t think they were too busy. Only saw a couple of other people.
While we were packing up Doug had a run in with the bed frame. Thank goodness for our first aid kit, yet once again.
Today was Friday the 13th and we were awoken with the Call to Prayer at 0500 hrs!!!!!
We had been warned about this by Paden. It sure wakes a person up quickly. Broadcast across the whole island and turned out our hotel was not far from where it was broadcast from. Extra loud for us.
Breakfast was included and so we ordered breakfast. Not a lot of choice, but it was okay.
The resident cat made her appearance. What a softie. She quickly became our breakfast buddy.
We headed back to the beach area, once again in search of the Blue Water Express office. We had decided we didn’t want to stay on this island for the full 4 nights that we had booked. We just weren’t feeling this island. Thought we would head back to Kuta a day early and spend that extra day there.
One of the streets we had to walk down. Once off the main road, most seemed to be like this.
We passed the school on our way back onto the main road.
Back on the main road, we found a little café and ordered smoothies and banana bread. This place was busy and all the tables inside were full, so outside in the heat is where we sat.
Found the medical center. Sure hope we don’t need them, but good to know that there is at least one on the island.
The beaches that we had seen so far, that looked nice to sunbath on and go into the water, were full of boats. Really ruined it.
There were a few nice areas of beach, but not sure how you scored a lounger on them.
This place, restaurant/bar, whatever it was, was definitely NOT for us.
Back at our hotel we sat around the pool in a couple of the loungers and enjoyed a cold Bintang. This had now become our favourite beer. Pool had been cleaned up and looked so much better now. We managed an hour out there and just had to go inside. Couldn’t take the heat anymore.
EDIT: OMG Just had a good laugh. Looked at the picture and realized that I was drinking a Smirnoff Ice and not Bintang. Doug had the Bintang I guess.
Later on we headed out to get pizza. This place had been recommended to us by Paden. At least we think this was the place. We had checked it out this morning, but I have to say that it looked much better later on in the dim light.
Pizza was decent. Photographer, a little blurry!
Our walk back to our hotel. I did not enjoy this in the dark.
Today is our last day in Ubud which is a shame as it has been a nice relaxing couple of days and we really like this hotel with it’s quiet pool. We didn’t rush as we were going to go to the Monkey Forest today which was just up the road from our hotel a mile or so. Once again we had a nice breakfast at the resort. I went with the English breakfast and Doug opted for pancakes this morning. Smallest pancakes I have ever seen but Doug said they were good and that is what counts. Since we still got fruit and a bread basket there was definitely enough food.
After breakfast I thought I would just confirm our travel arrangements for tomorrow for the Fast Ferry to Gili Trawangan. It is a good thing that I did as it turned out we no longer had our reservation with the company that we thought we were booked with. There are many companies that run ferries and lots do not have good reviews and have sketchy safety records. Turned out we were now booked with one of these companies that had really poor reviews. Some reviewers commented that they would have given the company a minus number if they could as the service was that bad. After a lot of back and forth discussing it with Doug (he was still in the hotel room) and the lady at the desk calling companies we managed to get a reservation with Blue Water Express. She was hesitant to suggest Blue Water Express as it is really expensive. I told her we weren’t concerned about the price, we were concerned about safety and our lives. I think it is the most expensive company there, IDR Rp 3,160,000 = Cdn $280.00 for the two of us return, but has a fabulous safety record and reviews. They only had space available on the early morning ferry which meant pickup would be approximately 6:00 a.m. We were fine with that. Booked our return trip at the same time as they seem to book up quickly. I have to say this was a very stressful 45 minutes. While she was on the phone trying to book our ferry another man came down to the desk who also wanted to book a ferry. Bet he was happy when I was done. Hope his booking went faster. It was now time to head out to go to the Mandala Suci Wenara Wana (Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary). The road was not the best we have seen, but we definitely saw lots of beautiful flowers on the way. Lots of construction going on here, with what appears to be many more accommodations being built.
We knew we must be getting close when we saw this big guy in the road. Have to say he made me a little nervous as he started to follow us down the road.We arrived at the entrance with no more big guys following us. Thank goodness! As soon as you entered there were signs with guidelines on to follow. It always amazes me as to how many people can NOT follow rules. Saw so many people touching the monkeys. Even saw a few teasing them with water and food. If you get a serious bite it could mean a series of rabie shots for you.
Just after we entered this little guy came over to us and the battle was on. The monkey won and stole Doug’s bottle of water. It only took a few seconds and he had it. We got one of the Monkey Rangers to get it back for us, as it had not been opened yet, and we were going to need water on this yet another hot and humid day. Doug ended up with a small bite from the monkey but we had our first aid kit with us so cleaned it up and put some Polysporin on it. Just as we finished we saw another guy with quite a scratch on his arm so we gave him an antiseptic wipe for him to clean up with. There were so many monkeys that I could have spent a lot more time there just watching them and their antics. They can be so funny and they are so smart.This guy really wanted a drink of water but couldn’t quite get a grip on the tap. He certainly tried though. We do have video of some monkeys playing with water spouts spraying water up. It was hilarious to watch them blocking the water.
I have a feeling that whoever left this bag of cement out was going to be in trouble. Mr Monkey was having a great time trying to empty it.
As we got closer to the exit we came across the Monkey Cemetery.
Our time at the Monkey Forest had come to an end. Before we left we came across this guy. I could have gone around again but……
Nope Doug didn’t want to, so we headed back to hotel where we spent a couple of hours in and around pool relaxing and soaking up this beautiful tranquil place. After resting a bit we headed out for dinner thinking we would choose one of the restaurants that we had seen during the past two days that looked good. But nope, we didn’t and found UNO Ristorante Italiano. Menu looked good and prices were reasonable for Indonesia. We ordered a Calabrese pizza as it was the closest that they had to a pepperoni pizza. Calabrese: tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, spicy salami, onion, roasted red paprika, black olives, fresh chilli and basil. It sounded delicious but didn’t quite live up to my expectations. For some reason I thought it would be spicy but it definitely needed more heat to fall into the spicy category.
I ordered a Cosmopolitan and boy was it strong. Doug had one of his favorite drinks…..Bintang! You would think that it was Doug who had the strong drink, or just too much monkeying around today! LOL
Back to the hotel we headed to pack up for tomorrow as we were on the move again. Tomorrow was going to be a VERY early morning for us. As the sun went down we headed outside to take some pictures of our hotel at night. The pictures do not do the place justice and it is all lit up and just beautiful at night. I think I was too impatient as many of my pictures turned out blurry. Guess I will just have to come back some day to take more night time pictures. We would definitely recommend this place, Bucu View Bungalows, to stay.
We had a working bank card again!!! Paden and our bank branch had pulled through for us. What a relief. I am sure it was the guy at the Flower Dome in Singapore that swiped my card instead of tapping it, that caused the issue and triggered fraud!
We had a great breakfast this morning at the resort, overlooking the pool. The breads and pastries came in a woven basket. Really nice.
It was just so relaxing sitting here enjoying a leisurely breakfast.
Paden had told us about a path they had taken through some rice fields and how beautiful it was. We decided this is what we would do today and headed out.
We came across a temple and decided we would tour that first.
Doug posing with his new girlfriend/girlfriends.
Temple done, we headed off in search of this path Paden told us about. Part of the movie Eat, Love, Pray was filmed in Ubud, Indonesia. It is absolutely breathtaking almost everywhere you look.
Tried my hand at another ‘trick’ photo as they had these mirrors on the sharp corners of the narrow road. It may or may not have taken me a few shots to get us.
We found a path, but had no idea if this was the correct one or not, since this Private Property No Tresspassing sign was there. We went ahead anyways.
If it wasn’t the correct path, it sure was an amazing substitute for our day.
There were little cafes and shops scattered around. Seems like yoga is very popular here.
Even though we did see some rice fields, I am pretty sure now that we didn’t go far enough to see the terraces of rice fields that people talk about. We thought we had gone so far and decided to turn back. The return trip seemed so short and we were wishing we had gone a lot further.
As we were headed back we heard some quacking going on in the rice field. We thought Ted and Susan had followed us over here. Ted and Susan are a pair of ducks that have been coming to our pool for the last 8 – 10 summers. They don’t have their nest in our backyard, but come for their spa days and hang out. Swim, sleep and eat the bird seed and cracked corn. They even get their own food and water bowls placed in the shade for them. LARGE ones. We use large plant saucers for them.
At first we saw one duck, then two ducks.
Then three ducks and four ducks.
Then five, six and seven ducks. Stopped counting and moved along at seven. We found it hilarious.
We explored the town a little a grabbed a couple of smoothies. That walk took a lot out of us. Did I mention it was HOT & HUMID?
We turned up a side street and came across a little Mexican restaurant. That was it. I wasn’t going any further. Margarita time! After all it was 2:30 pm by now. It was hard to get a good picture of the place as the sun was coming right at me. The place was small and getting busy.
Food and drinks were good and really hit the spot!
So my tostados were really good, but I am still not sure how you are supposed to eat them, since they are on a crunchy shell and can’t be folded. I managed somehow though.
Total was IDR Rp 395,000 = Cdn $34.00 Not cheap by SE Asia standards, but not expensive by Canadian standards. Indonesia is definitely more expensive than Thailand and Cambodia are.
Time to head back to our room. Those margaritas were GOOD! Saw some new construction on our way back. They use bamboo for supports. Actually they use bamboo for everything. It is really strong. Saw a lot of bamboo being used in Vietnam also, when we were there in 2016/17.
Not sure if you can tell from the picture or not, but these leaves were humungous.
We were back at the resort and in our pjs by 6:30 pm. We are just worn out. Often when we get back to our rooms early, the evening would be spent researching and booking our next leg or two of our trip. It was unbelievable how stressful this could be. Finding someplace that met our requirements, as in NO BAMBOO walls, yet was in a good location and affordable, since we did have a sort of budget for our 3 month vacation.
We had already cut out a few places that we had planned to visit and were now cutting out more. We we were just too tired of moving around every few days. This time around we cut out Nusa Lembongan, Lombok and unfortunately Komodo Island. Komodo Island was just going to be too expensive last minute. Most places were booked up and it would have ended up costing us between $1500.00 – $2000.00 for one or two nights for airfare and hotel. Next time!
We were moving on today. We had booked a private van to take us from Kuta to Ubud and he was to arrive around noon. It was a great deal for IDR Rp 150,000 = Cdn $13.25
We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then wandered around the grounds taking pictures for a while. This was our balcony where we hung laundry and actually did relax a couple of times.
Our view
If you look really hard you can see the ocean.
We checked out, paid our bill and waited for our ride. Still owed quite a bit, even though we had purchased their upsell offer. Pay IDR Rp 1,000,000 (Cdn $88.50) and get IDR Rp 1,250,000 (Cdn $110.50) credit. We should have bought a few of those upsell offers! Mind you, we had been here for 5 nights and had eaten all our dinners here.
Couldn’t leave without checking out the public washrooms, now could we?
It was a nice drive and I tried to take a few pictures along the way. The closer we got to Ubud, the hillier and curvier the roads got. Some of the sculptures that we saw in stores along with road looked to be amazing. Can only imagine what they would cost to ship home.
We turned off the main road and proceeded along a very hilly, rough ‘road’. We came to where we thought the road to our hotel was, but the driver was not going to risk driving up it. It was narrow, steep and curvy. We couldn’t tell for sure if our accommodations were even on it. We unloaded and proceeded to walk up the ‘road’. For every down hill there seemed to be an up hill also. 100 M sure can be far at times. We had made good time and had arrived in Ubud by 1:30. We have to laugh now as it is approximately 26 km (16 miles), but seemed much further when driving over here. Can you imagine taking 1 1/2 hours to go 26 km back home? And thinking you had made good time!!
We were welcomed with drinks and got all checked in. They sure make the room keys large enough. Don’t want you loosing them. The room was quite large and really nice. There was a welcome letter and flowers laying around that instantly kicked my allergies into high gear. Thankfully the flowers were gone the next day.
We decided to explore a little and found the restaurant. What they serve Bintang? We figured we deserved a rest and an adult beverage. After all it was really HOT here.
Couldn’t go wrong with the price of a large Bintang here. With tax and tip it was IDR Rp 35,200 = Cdn $3.10
We were rested and hydrated now, so decided it was time to head into town. Yup, that meant we had to walk down and up the hills again. At least this time, we knew our hotel was actually here. We walked by rice fields that lined our little road.
We got to town and stumbled upon a barber shop. Doug had been wanting to get a haircut for a while now. He was going to chance it. Really, how can you mess up a man’s haircut? There was an Aussie guy in the seat next to Doug that had the most beautiful long blond curly locks. I really wanted to take a picture of him, but that probably would have been a little weird, even for me. He wanted ALL the curls cut off. He wanted his hair short. His poor barber was terrified of cutting his hair. The client kept telling him to cut more and more off. Doug’s barber just took the shears to Doug’s hair and sheared away! The sign on the window was amusing. GOOD Haircuts ARE NOT Cheap, cheap HaiRcuts ARE NOT GOOD
They are everywhere! We didn’t stop in, but I am sure we probably will at some time.
We were now in search of food. We found this place and decided to give it a try. When I saw Ginger Ale on the menu, I had to have one. We don’t drink pop often, but a good Ginger Ale now and then is great. We ordered shrimp of some sort and I also ordered the Tian Avocado Shrimp Cocktail. Wasn’t fond of all that stuff on the top. Meal wasn’t bad, but I won’t hurry back. A bit too fancy for my tastes.
Here are a few pictures of our walk to and from town. There are a LOT of hills here.
Another part of the road we had to walk everyday.
We stopped at the local Mini Mart to pick up a few snacks and headed back to our accommodations. Saw a good sized gecko in the gardens, but didn’t get a picture of it.
Nothing planned for today. We were going to walk back to the downtown area of Kuta and see if we could get some money. Walked along the water and saw these people flying a kite. Perfect weather for kite flying.
Tried the bank machines from the other day and Doug was able to get Cdn $50 from one machine. After that it appeared that his card had stopped working also. With our whopping $50 in hand we stopped in Starbucks for a couple of cold ones. Had to laugh at how they labeled the coffees. Mr Joan and Mrs Joan.
We browsed around the mall for a bit enjoying the air conditioning.
Headed outside to check out the area and found a strip of bank machines on the street, but none of them would work for either of us.
One of my favorite restaurants, but we did not go in. We need to come back here one day.
Saw these cool stools at an outdoor bar.
We each bought a t-shirt and then decided it we would head back to our hotel and enjoy the afternoon there.
Once we got back to our end of town, we tried the bank machines near us. Doug was able to get Cdn $50, but of course mine still did not work. We asked Paden if he could stop by the bank, speak with them and try to get my card working. Thank goodness everyone at our branch knew we were traveling and knew me quite well. He said he would go tomorrow after work. Please let them be able to help us.
We needed to relax and it was time that we put our feet in the ocean here on Bali.
That was enough ocean time and we headed back to the pool.
After all it was Happy Hour at the pool bar.
We had a few drinks or more, and a delicious Crispy Chicken Wrap. The same meal we had had the other day at the pool bar. It really was good. Good thing we could charge it all to our room and pay by VISA when we were going to check out.
We stayed in the pool until the sun went down and really relaxed.
After our long pool time we headed over to Flavaz to get some dessert. The apple crumble pie and ice cream were yummy and hit the spot.
The hotel had set up for a private party, with all kinds of food and entertainment. We headed back to our room around 7:30 pm. Late night for us!
Today was going to be fun filled touring day. We had so many places to see on the agenda. Thankfully we had booked a private tour with Balik Tour in a comfy SUV for just the two of us and we would have no waiting around for bus loads of tourists. You know how those tourists can be! This was the busload leaving from our hotel.
We were picked up from the hotel at 9:00 am in a nice Toyota SUV and headed off to the first destination, a temple. We hadn’t been to a temple in over a week and were starting to feel temple withdrawal. Not really! Before we got to the temple, we had to battle the rush hour traffic. The scooters reminded us of Vietnam, where no one was safe from them, as they droved everywhere, including the sidewalks. Same here.
But not only did we have to battle scooters, cars and trucks, we had to deal with the wildlife on the road. Coming right at us.
We got to our first stop, a Hindu Temple, Pura Taman Auyn in Mangwi-Bandung. Had to drive under an arch.
Driver dropped us off and would wait for us. In we went to tour the place. It was a big area.
Out we went to find our driver. We are always happy when we are able to find our driver. Some are easier to find than others.
Next stop was a small family-style coffee plantation, Tegal Sari Kopi Luwak. They grew and made their own coffee, plus other herbs and spices. It really was just a drop and shop stop. What was amazing to us though, was how the place looked like nothing from the road side, but once you got behind the wall, the place was amazing.
You get a short tour and then you taste their products, but can’t get out of there without going through their shop.
Beautiful lush gardens. Our guide was pointing out all these different plants that they used to make the coffees, teas and spices. Of course, neither of us remember what was what now.
I do remember that they make a very expensive coffee out of this guys poop! This is a Civet Cat
Coffee Beans + Civet Cat Digestion = Poop Coffee
Here are the poop beans. Poop coffee beans are collected from the poop, washed, roasted, brewed and transformed into aromatic cat poop coffee. That is a definite PASS from me!!!
After a little education, we had to sample the products. Can’t say I was overly fond of any of them. Then we were shuffled into the shop. Of course we ended up buying something that we will most likely never use. I always feel obligated to make some kind of purchase.
UPDATE: Three years later we still have the unopened product. I just happened to see it the other day. Guess it is time to throw it out. And to think that we carried this around the world, taking up precious space in our backpacks. LOL IDR Rp 60,000 = Cdn $5.31
We headed off to the next stop. The clouds were starting to roll in. Really hope we don’t get caught in rain today. Our one big day of sight seeing here on Bali.
Our next stop was Daya Tarik Wisata Ulun Danu Beratan, a Shaivite water temple (Hindu Buddhist) in Beratan which is up in the mountains. That probably explains why it looked like rain.
Tickets in hand we proceeded through the entrance way. This place had pretty big grounds to cover from the look of it, including a lot of water front property.
It always amazes me when I see ‘house’ plants that I have growing, out in the wild here. This is a plant that I called a ‘shrimp plant’. I have no idea if that is the proper name or not, but I had one for a couple of years before it died on me.
I have 2 of these Brugmansias and even though mine are in pots they still grow big and I have to trim 2 -3 feet off them every fall to bring back in the house. I store them in our unused bathtub for the winter months.
Everyone was taking pictures of this and standing on it taking selfies, so I figured it must be something important and needed to take pictures of it also.
The clouds are quickly moving in. Hope they move right on by us.
There was this small group of men fishing. Sure looked relaxing. I wonder if it was some of the workers, during their lunch break. There were many workers around building and sprucing up everywhere.
Doug was getting tired of taking selfies. For every selfie that I post, I have probably taken 100 or more. You would think by now, that I would be better at it, but I am not. Either part of us cut off, background too blurry or we are too blurry. Don’t they say “Practice makes perfect?” Well I am still practicing and a long way from perfect!
We had been here an hour by now and we always feel like we shouldn’t leave our drivers too long. Mind you they probably enjoy the break and are many times found chatting with other drivers. I would imagine they all know each other in this business. I am sure that there were many other buildings that we could have explored but we decided to head out. Of course there was a shopping area on the way out. A pretty random sign for their EXIT. We didn’t get rained on!
We were now headed off to get some lunch. Our driver took us to a beautiful restaurant here in the mountains somewhere. We were seated at a great table near the side, with a spectacular view overlooking the valley and hills.
Unfortunately the skies opened up, the winds picked up and the rain poured down. We were in for a big thunderstorm. Everyone had to move from the open sides of the restaurant as there were no window coverings at all. We moved more into the center of the restaurant, but had to move again right up to the wall, as the winds were so strong and we were still getting wet in the center. The water was even seeping down the interior stone walls, but at least we were out of the wind now.
They offered an all you could eat buffet, but we ordered off the menu as we would never eat enough off the buffet. We of course bought our driver lunch also. Lunch was inexpensive here, but they did add on 20% tax and service fee. IDR Rp 201,000 = Cdn $17.50 Can’t go wrong with those prices to feed three people lunch.
Since it was still pouring down, the driver went out and backed the vehicle up to the entrance, so we wouldn’t get soaked.
We were headed of to the Monkey Forest, Pemerintah Kabupaten Tabanan. The rain had let up some, but we were still getting wet.
Quite the monkey to greet us. The guide took a few pictures of us. She obviously had a difficult time with focusing as most turned out blurry.
We didn’t stay here long, as the rain had not stopped completely and I am not even sure if there was much to do here, or if it was really a stop to bring business into the shops here. They had a whole area of bats and there were so many baby monkeys around. Just adorable. Monkeys were adorable, not so much the bats.
Of course we ended up in the shop owned by the guide. It gets tiring after a while. And yes, we did purchase something. This time it was can ‘cozies’ that we can at least use by our pool.
Next stop was the whole reason for us booking this tour. We wanted to go to Pura Tanah Lot for the sunset. Pura Tana Lot means temple in the sea. Tanah Lot was the Leg 6 stop in Season 29 of the Amazing Race. Air date was 4 April 2016. We are great fans of Amazing Race.
Once we got in, we could go left or right. We went right, of course the wrong way to get to the Tanah Lot, but we still saw plenty.
There was a small beach here and we saw a surfer or two.
Pura Batu Bolong
There were A LOT of people here. I bet they were all tourists!
I will pass on the snake and that is what we did, passed right on by.
When the tide is low, which it was, you can go into the temple. However, the line was at least an hour long to get over there. We didn’t have the time, nor the energy to bother with that. We wanted to see the sun set and would have missed it. So we toured around the grounds.
This is the entrance to the Tanah Lot, photo taken from the back side, since we didn’t walk back up to the actual entrance side.
My failed attempt at trying to get a picture of Doug holding the sun. Oh yes, we tried numerous shots! Plus a few other ‘trick’ shots. Epic fail! LOL
The attempt of getting a selfie with the sun setting behind us.
However, I think I got a few great shots of the actual sunset.
Out on the hillock is the Batu Balong Temple. You can not go in this temple, only photographs, which I took when we went right instead of left. It sure makes for spectacular photos during sunset.
It was now 6:15 pm and time to head off back to our driver and back to our hotel. It had been a long day, as we had been on the road since 9:00 am. The traffic was absolutely insane and it took us 1 1/2 hours to get back to our hotel. Tanah Lot is approximately 20 km north-west of Kuta, where we are staying.
We arrived at the entrance with no more big guys following us. Thank goodness! As soon as you entered there were signs with guidelines on to follow. It always amazes me as to how many people can NOT follow rules. Saw so many people touching the monkeys. Even saw a few teasing them with water and food. If you get a serious bite it could mean a series of rabie shots for you. 
This guy really wanted a drink of water but couldn’t quite get a grip on the tap. He certainly tried though. We do have video of some monkeys playing with water spouts spraying water up. It was hilarious to watch them blocking the water. 
As we got closer to the exit we came across the Monkey Cemetery.
Nope Doug didn’t want to, so we headed back to hotel where we spent a couple of hours in and around pool relaxing and soaking up this beautiful tranquil place.
Back to the hotel we headed to pack up for tomorrow as we were on the move again. Tomorrow was going to be a VERY early morning for us. As the sun went down we headed outside to take some pictures of our hotel at night. The pictures do not do the place justice and it is all lit up and just beautiful at night. I think I was too impatient as many of my pictures turned out blurry. Guess I will just have to come back some day to take more night time pictures. We would definitely recommend this place, Bucu View Bungalows, to stay.
Old & Lost 