Aug 5 2010
The morning was another early one. We said sad goodbyes to Ubud and began the car ride to Lovina. Along the way there we made our first stop at another large rice terrace. This one was not as grand as the first that we saw but still very expansive. We drove a little further to Pura Ulu Danu, the lake temple. On the shore of the lake are several sanctuaries and then out on a tiny little island just off the shore is the temple, very small but very beautiful. The air here is much cooler. Jacket weather even. Heading off again we passed many food stalls and small markets. Driving through the lesser seen neighborhoods we passed people with bottles of petro for sale, dirty looking produce markets and stalls a mist what looked like rubble, broken building material, and dirt piles, people selling banana to feed the monkeys all clambering for a snack where jungle meets concrete, and many bunny vendors. Bedugle, (like the salad,) has a large population of bunnies. Some people keep them as pets, others let them grow really big and then eat them. Our last stop before Lovina was at the Git Git waterfalls. Absolutely stunning. A very tall cascading waterfall ending in a pool at the bottom with hindu shrines and a small temple area. We would have liked to have gone swimming but werent exactly prepared so we headed up the long journey of stairs back to the car. It's a lot like Disney Land here, you have to pass many gift shops to get to the main event, and go through many more on your way out. It was sad for me to watch some of these poverished woman begging for you to buy something from them, anything, and they would sell things for as little as one U.S. Dollar. Things that people where selling for as much as fifty back in Ubud. If they saw you looking at something as you passed by they would grab your arm and beg for you to at least look some more, a different size, a different color, as if there must be something they could sell to you. In another village we had stopped in, a woman threw a sarong over my shoulder and ran back to her stall knowing that I would have to go there to bring it back. I suppose I could have just kept walking but she probably would have had the whole tribe after me. Instead I caught up to her and threw it over her shoulder which had all the women laughing. One thing I will say about Bali is that despite being such a poor island country, there is no stealing or theft here. Though I'm sure it does occur, there is no worrying about pick pocketers, or people taking your things when your not looking. The homes here with walls are not lined with barb wire or glass shards. The door is typically opened to their court yard. Where, really, anyone could just walk in. There’s seems to be a lot of trust between your fellow man here. It is also customary to take your shoes off before entering some ones room or home. Even some stores and restaurants will have a pile of people’s shoes out front. This is especially true for the beach towns where so much sand gets tracked in. At least you don't have to worry here about some one running off with your flip flops, it just doesn't happen. I had mentioned before that you have to be careful where you walk or you may fall in a hole, etc. This is also true when inside. Well, not the hole part but businesses, hotels, homes, restaurants, pretty much you name it, uses a very slippery non porous tile as their flooring. Dangerous for any one wearing shoes with little to no traction, and fatal when wet.
Well here we are in Lovina. We rented a scooter and cruised around for a little while. We aren't thrilled with our hotel. By any means in fact. Their credit card machine is not working so we had to pay cash and they charge for wifi. Blah. Oh and here’s the best part. The ceiling of our room is made of bamboo and there is a little bird building its nest on top making lots of noise and the best part, it even pooped on our bed. So we switched rooms.... Our new room is not too bad. We'll settle for now. We did a night dive with a company called Spice Dive. It started just after sunset. The short boat ride out was beautiful. It was my first time doing a night dive. We each had flashlights and there was four of us. The dive was fantastic. I thought at first I might get a little nervous with it being dark but I actually really enjoyed it. You can only see where the lights are shining and the fish are all in a sleepy state. We saw some lion fish, a scorpion fish, some crabs and such. It was great. The only down fall to the dive was that I struggled really badly with my buoyancy. So badly that at 70 bar I couldn't stay down and I buoyed right up. I was up on the surface alone for several minutes but it was absolutely stunning and so peaceful. In the middle of the quiet ocean with no one around and the sky absolutely soaked in stars. The bioluminescent phytoplankton twinkled with every curl of water. And the darkened hill side was dotted with white lights from small homes. Every element was glittering. Not long being alone and the other three surfaced as well and we headed back in. Our guide Emanuel was very nice and soft spoken. The 4th in our group was a Frenchman named Sebastian. We got back to dive head quarters which is also a restaurant. We cleaned up the gear and I headed to the ladies room to change out of my wet swimsuit. I walk around the corner into the open restroom and there is Sebastian, in the ladies room, butt naked, full frontal exposure. Startled he hid him self, I blurt out “Oops Sorry!” looking away really fast and then hurried to change in the gentlemens room. Ash and I sat down to dinner and I recounted what I had so recently witnessed and a little unsure of how he would respond. To this he made a joke I can't repeat and my response back was only, ".... I saw another mans penis on my honeymoon..." and Ash says, "Thats okay I saw those old Balinese womans tatas earlier today." Dinner was great, I ordered an Indian curry which was not Indian at all and Ashton had some sort of soup. We also ordered vanilla milkshakes which came as banana milk shakes. Blah. Before we left I asked our waiter, "So, a lot of people here have piercings?" Pointing to my chin where he had his
pierced. He said, "Yeah. But mainly just the bitch boys." .... "Who?" "The bitch boys." "What?" "The bitch. The bitch boys." "Ohhhh BEAch boys, I see." We called it a night after dinner, hopped on the scooter and headed home.
Diem Design ©
0 comments:
Post a Comment