Bali, Indonesia

I woke up early and began to work.

Bob sat out on the balcony and watched the sail in to Benoa Bay. It is promising to be a very warm day!

We had lunch onboard.

We went back to the stateroom and got our daypacks ready.

Our tour was entitled: "Uluwatu Temple & Dinner". We made our way off the ship and were treated to Balinese music and dancing.

At the exit to the cruise terminal building, I asked the Excursion Manager where we could find an ATM. She said that there was a truck with an ATM directly outside the terminal. Bob approached the truck and climbed up two stairs to reach the ATM. He took out 300,000 IDR. When we got on the bus, we calculated the amount and it was only about $19 US.

We boarded our bus. We were excited to see Henry, Krystal, Jim, and Lynn all onboard. We will be having a great time with this group.

Our excursion is: Uluwatu Temple & Dinner. The description of this excursion (with my editorial comments in parentheses) says that we will travel to the southernmost part of Bali, to the famous Pura Luhur Uluwatu. Uluwatu is renowned for its location (a forest full of naughty monkeys), perched atop a steep cliff above the Indian Ocean's crashing waves. A small forest lies at the front of the temple with hundreds of (VERY NAUGHTY) monkeys dwelling here. They are believed to guard the temple from bad influences. (They have become the bad influences!!!!). Dating back to the 11th Century, this beautiful example of Balinese architecture is adorned with traditional gateways and ancient sculptures. Marvel at the temple and its spectacular views from the outside (while hanging on for dear life to any and all belongings that may be snatched by the NAUGHTY monkeys and for held ransom). Next there will be a stop at Garuda Wisnu Kencana, a park with the largest artistic statues built in the Southeast Asia. Then continue to tranquil Jimbaran Bay. Here we will be treated to a delicious dinner of fresh seafood and watch as the sun sets on the horizon.

This is our first time to Indonesia. We are anticipating interactions with a culture very different to our.

Upon exiting the port area, the evidence of a very different culture was evident. There were huge statues of very malevolent creatures, traffic that knows no rules, tangles of electrical wires that would meet zero building codes, non-refrigerated, raw poultry that FDA officials would faint at the sight of, and trash everywhere. At this point, we are trying our best to be travelers not tourists.

Prior to our arrival at Uluwatu Temple, our guide notified us that there were naughty monkeys in the forest around the temple. He warned us not to wear hats or glasses or anything that the monkeys may steal and hold for ransom. Their preferred ransom payment is in the form of food. The guide continued to warn that they will destroy and eat glasses. Bob and I took note and made sure that we did not have anything easily accessible to the naughty monkeys (similar precautions are taken for potential pickpockets). Other guests did not heed the warning. Next thing we see is a monkey grabbing a woman's glasses and running unto a roof. This woman decided it was best to start screaming at the monkey because, you know, it is always wise to scream at wild animals. One of the temple guides threw some food to the monkey and our guide nimbly leapt onto the roof of the building and grabbed the glasses as the monkey was momentarily distracted by the ransom payment. Glasses were safely returned to guest. Said guest then went on to complain about the uncontrolled monkeys. I thought the more uncontrolled entity in this scenario was the woman screaming hysterically and getting mad at the monkey. Afterall, the monkey was calmly going about his "business" of acquiring food. We were warned people!!!

Prior to that excitement we briefly looked at a temple through the temple gates and had a beautiful view of the coastline. I think this stop was more about having interactions with the naughty monkeys than observing the temple.

This was also our first experience in the Indonesian heat. The heat and humidity is, literally, breath taking.

We were happy to get back on the bus into some minimal climate control but Bob and I are finding that we are not built for the Indonesian bus seats. Both of us could not sit in seats side by side without major overlap. For example, my shoulders overlapped to the mid-point of Bob's seat not to mention the rest of us. Now imagine that we have just been on a hike in close to 90 degree weather with 95 % humidity. We were nice and sweaty as we tried to climb into the seats built for people one fourth of our size. We looked at one another and thought how do we both sit down without touching one another because right then I did not want another warm blooded body anywhere close to me! I ended up hugging the wall of the van while angling my shoulders diagonally across the "very" large space between the seat in front of us and our seat. I said to Bob that this would be the time that a smaller wife would have really paid off.

We traveled in our 'spacious' seats until we arrived at the Garuda Wisnu Kencana. This is a cultural park dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and home to the largest statues in Southeast Asia.

We began our tour of this cultural park by visiting a theatre where there was a Balinese dance and music. We were in Bali during one of their large festivals. As a result, there were a lot of children touring this park. The Balinese dancer went into the audience and pulled some young boys onto the stage. It was adorable to see these boys being embarrassed but doing their best to wiggle their bodies to mimic the female dancer.

Next we got in line to enter the area where the large statues could be viewed. While we were in line, several of the young girls were looking at me and giggling. Next thing I knew they were all asking to have their photo taken with me. I think that they did not see a lot of tall women. It was fun to interact with them but, if the bus seats hadn't convinced me that I was built very differently from the Balinese women, the interaction with these young ladies convince me that I am near giant size in Bali.

We viewed duplicate portions of the large statue before we walked to a view point to observe the 21 story tall monument to Garuda.

We then moved on to the all important gift shop. The most important aspect of this gift shop was that it was airconditioned. After waiting for several guest to purchase keepsakes, we drove to a restaurant.

We arrived late to the restaurant so we did not have the opportunity to view the sunset. Yet, we had a lovely dinner with music, dancing and great interactions with ladies selling jewelry.

I will add that during dinner, we experienced a tremendous thunderstorm. We are visiting during the rainy season which explains the humidity and the thunderstorm.

After dinner, we made our way back to the ship to a cool shower.Read more