Another Beach Day (Tembeling Beach)

4 am. That‘s when we (3 friends from here and I) got up and were driven to Diamond Beach - which we already saw yesterday) to see the sunrise. If you‘re now waiting for pictures of said sunrise… So am I… It just got less dark. No sun in sight. Well, we were there, so we just hiked down to the beach to enjoy the view. On the way there, we saw that two guys down there were writing something in the sand. They might have forgotten the little word “need“, but we all had a chuckle. Having hiked down to the beach was when my inner hobby-geologist was triggered. I found so many cool rocks! What I will do with them? Yes. It just matters that I have them.
When we got back to the hostel, the day was still young and we decided to go to yet another beach, Tembeling Beach, which has got two natural pools to relax in. Well, one of them had apparently burst on one side the previous day and was being fixed while we were there.
You can either get a scooter to the beach or walk. Everyone I‘ve met said that the scooter is way easier, 3 km takes too long to walk, it‘s rather a difficult hike. What a load of waffle. It was challenging because there are parts that are incredibly steep, so walking up/down with added slipperiness has its challenges. Honestly, the biggest challenge was just declining all those aggressive offers for a scooter ride again and again - on the way down and up. Also, the scooter ride actually seemed way more dangerous than just walking…

The beach itself was stunning. The waves were so big and strong that they easily carried big, heavy rocks to the shore. It‘s therefore too dangerous to just walk in the water and let the waves wash over your feet. Guess, how I found out… A few decorative cuts on my feet later, I went for the natural pools there, but the water was just too murky because of the work that was being done on it. I didn‘t stay long, as we needed to get back up in time for our next destination: lunch. Mie Goreng to gain some strength for the last stop of the day, another trip to Kelingking Beach (just like yesterday). We encountered monkeys there, just like last time. These monkeys are a lot more aggressive than at the Monkey Forest in Ubud. They got too close to a kid there, who got scared by them, started crying, which aggravated the monkeys. The kid‘s mum took her son‘s ice-cream out of his hands and threw it at the monkeys. One of them caught it and went off, followed by a bunch of other jealous monkey mates. While fun to watch, I had to take precautions with my own ice-cream, which I decided to eat closer to the shops, further away from the monkeys. I also got a coconut water. While I was eating my ice-cream, I was rearranging the napkin on my cone and placed the coconut water next to me. Next time I checked, a monkey had grabbed it and run off. When I tried to return to the others with an inedible part of my cone, there was a hoard of monkeys blocking my way. I had to “pay for passage“ by throwing my cone towards them and watching them catch it diligently in midair. We were even bullied out of our little hut in which we sat while we were waiting for the sunset (took too long, we left before that happened). The monkeys just got too close and aggressive for comfort. They probably got that way because of tourists who are/were constantly feeding them against instructions. Now the monkeys insist on their right for food.
Upon returning to the hostel, we joined a yoga-session in progress and soon after, a “family dinner“ with everyone there.

P.S.: I took the liberty of adding a few photos of a few of the residents in my hostel here. ^^Read more