The Unforgettable Sunset

We had the morning off before our tour, so we woke up late to go for breakfast. Much to our surprise, the restaurant was full. This was surprising since we had only seen maybe 5 other groups at the resort since se have been here. We walked out to the beach which had been cleaned from the garbagevand there were people out swimming, fishing and enjoying the beautiful hot weather. We changed into our swimsuits and went for a swim in the pool. This was also the first day that we had a chance to go to the sunken bar at the pool.
At 1pm we were picked up for our first half day tour. We were only with one other couple. The two from Hungary. It was good as they were close to our age and the man spoke very good english. Our tour guide, Yadana spoke a lot about the tourism in Bali and about the romantasicsm the province holds. We went to our first stop, another temple, Taman Ayun in Mengwi. It means flower garden.
We then continued to Alas Kedaton to one of the money forests. Our tour guide carried a stick incase the monkeys became aggresive. She called the monkeys, instructed them to sit on our shoulders and we fed them peanuts. Although it was a lot of fun, they were a bit frightening. When we were done seeing the monkeys, the tour guide would wave the stick at the monkeys and they would run away. We continued through the forrest until we reached a tourist attraction. We could dress up ad hold a giant bat. Chris obviously didnt want to pass up the option to do this.
On our way out our tour guide led us to a small shop which she owned. The couple from Hungary picked out some items and we observed them bargain. They first picked out a little packet of bali trinkets. She wanted 150.000 IDR which is about $15.00 (way too much!!) He then bargained for 100.000 (still too high), they ended up getting the trinkets and an ashtray for 200.000 (still way too much) and left. We didnt buy anything. It's true when they say the economy thrives on tourism. The average income is 3mil IDR/month. This is about $300 CAD. WOW!
Our next stop was Tanah Lot. This was a bit north of Kuta, where we stayed. We watched the sunset here and had drinks and food on a patio. This was our first taste of more Balinese style food. The fear is 'Bali Belly' and I think I got a mild case of it because my stomach was quite gurgly that night. Tanah Lot was filled with hundreds of people! It was hard to get anywhere to take a nice picture. The sunset was amazing over the Tanah Lot temple. It is known as the floating temple as it is surrounded by water. It's hard not to be in awe of how spectacular it looks over the ocean. The traffic was heavy on the way back through Kuta. As we waited for our shuttle we chatted with our tour guide. This was a really amazing day!Baca lagi