Finishing up in Bali
Trip Start
Nov 09, 2006
1
10
11
Trip End
Dec 02, 2006
Pemuteran, Indonesia
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
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Now we are at the highlight and finale of our trip--the remote island of Bali, Indonesia. Sunday, after a 2.5 hour flight from Singapore, we arrived in Kuta. This is a chill beach town that has been infamous for terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005, killing hundreds. We stayed about a 2 minute walk from the main bombing site, which now has a nice memorial.
The next day, we rented a Suzuki jeep to travel to the northwest coast of the island. We didn't realize how long the drive was, and how treacherous the driving would be over the mountains. Allen had to quickly master shifting with his left hand and driving on the left side of the road, while dodging countless crazy Balinese drivers on motos and other jeeps. Both of us were praying that we would make it to our destination alive, especially as day turned into night, and we still hadn't arrived. The roads through the mountains had countless switchbacks and with an extremely narrow lane; one wrong move would cause you to drive off a cliff!
At least the scenery on the drive was incredible. We had never seen so many terraced rice fields, and the rainforested mountains were impressive. We stopped to check out some waterfalls to give Allen a break from driving.
Yesterday we went to Pulau Menjangan (Deer Island) for scuba diving and snorkeling on our private wooden boat that leaked. Allen achieved his advanced PADI scuba certification with a deep water dive of 120 feet, and a navigational dive.
We spent the last two nights in Pemuteran at the Jubawa Home Stay, where we were the only ones there! We really liked the place except for the noise when we tried to sleep. At midnight, a deafening chorus of dogs and turkeys and rooster chickens kept us awake. Then at 5 a.m., the Indonesian military started war games in the mountains, and kept us awake with their constant machinegun fire. Allen thought it was fireworks in celebration of Galungan holiday and went outside to check. Turns out some of the noise was actually pigs being slaughtered for the upcoming Galungan feasts.
We came at a good time as Galungan is essentially the Balinese version of Christmas, and decorations (penjors), and other festivities are everywhere. We sampled some of the local Galungan favorites including a desert (dodul?) made of rice/palm sugar wrapped in coconut leaves, and a drink mixed with Fanta, beer, and sweet Balinese red wine.
Comments
What's up bros?
Wow, sounds like Balie was a blast! take lots of pics
-Jovan
What's up bros?
Wow, sounds like Bali was a blast! take lots of pics
-Jovan