After leaving Dili, we flew to Bali and spent a couple of nights and one full day before flying back to our home in Canada. Bali (like many places around the world) is trying to address the problem of over-tourism, but there’s a reason that so many people visit this island paradise every year. Perfect weather, welcoming people, cultural sites, nature on display, and great food too. We’d be happy to pay a tourist tax to help keep Bali able to welcome us (and 4.5 million other international visitors every year!).
Maybe we’re in a rut, but we like to stay in Jimbaran when we are in Bali. Fairly close to the airport, a bit more of a local flavour to the neighbourhood, but the absolute best thing (for us) is seafood dinners on Jimbaran Beach. Freshly caught seafood grilled over coconut husks, with moonlight and candlelight reflecting on the waves; can it get much better? The seafood grills were just a short walk down the beach from our hotel, so after a quick dip in the pool, that’s where we headed for our first evening.
Due to the way that flights worked out, we had a full day free rather than just an overnight stopover (which has been more common for us). We lazed away most of the day in the pool and having lunch, but in the afternoon we booked a trip to visit Uluwatu Temple to take in the sunset performance of the Kecak Fire Dance. It had been 16 years since our first visit to Bali, and our first visit to Uluwatu, so we were overdue for a return trip.
We set off for Uluwatu with lots of time to spare, due to the ridiculous traffic that is simply a part of life around Denpasar. But we made pretty good time, meaning that we had time for a special stop, to sample “kopi luwak“ or civet cat coffee. Judging by the taste that we had, civet cat coffee is pure hype, and certainly not worth the price that it commands outside the production area. We’d have to agree with the wag who declared that “it just tastes crappy” (pun intended!). No comment on the claims that civet cats are being caged and force fed coffee beans for mass production, other than to say that the two that we saw on site looked pretty healthy and chill in their spacious enclosures. After all, who would mistreat the civet that lays the golden poop?
When we reached Uluwatu, the thieving monkeys were just as cheeky as ever as we enjoyed the cliffside walk down to the performance area as the sun set. The Kecak Fire Dance, a dance performance of the Ramayana to the chanting of an all-male chorus, was just as great as we remembered, with Hanuman entertaining us all while avoiding being consumed by the fire. Once we saw Sita safely rescued and reunited with Rama, we fought the traffic back to Jimbaran and had dinner at a rather “foodie” restaurant close to our hotel. More great seafood again, but not sure that the fancy recipes (with prices to match) can compete with the freshly grilled fare on the beach!
And, the next day, after less than 48 hours in Bali, we had to jump on a plane for the 2-hop, ~30 hour journey home.
See some images from Bali: www.flickr.com/photos/100countries/albums/72177720312332506
