Bali: Beyond Beaches | Day 4

Day 4|17th February 2016

Day 4. Technically our last day in Bali. 

To my greatest happiness, we started the day a bit late. I could enjoy the extra hours of morning sleep to my heart's content. It was a lazy kind of morning and I was taking my time doing everything slow.

Finally it was time for us to start our touring. We wore the same T shirt on this day, which is our Interior Architecture Departments red tee. 

                     3 of us in red while waiting for the car

Turtle Conservation And Education Center

 

The first stop for the day was Turtle Sanctuary. It is called Turtle Conservation And Education Center TSEC, and is located in Jl. Tukad Punggawa, Denpasar Sel., Kota Denpasar, Bali 80229, Indonesia. Serangan island's Turtle Conservation and Education Center is leading the way in Bali's attempts to heal the ever-dwindling population of beautiful sea turtles that used to lay their eggs all around the island's shoreline. Staff at the center are extremely knowledgeable and most speak excellent English and are ready to answer any questions you might have.

                  Trying to feed the little ones

                          I befriended this little buddy. Unfortunately I forgot his name :(

Pantai Pandawa

Our second stop for the day was Pantai Pandawa. Yes an actual beach! Finally! We were given free time to enjoy the beach and go for swim. But unfortunately it was broad noon and the un was shining with its full might! Many of you are aware of my love hate relation with the sun. So, I decided to not go for a swim and burn to ashes and just sat on the shore and enjoyed the peaceful environment, while the others went in for a dip. 

The entrance to the beach

                       
    With the red Indian! She bought the head piece from Kuta market if anyone is interested.

Uluwatu Temple

For our next destination we were headed to Uluwatu Temple, which is a sea temple and located in south Kuta.

My friends wearing sarong (the skirt like thing) over shorts because it is considered disrespectful to show skin in the temple premise. 

The main attraction of the Temple was the Kecak dance and fire performance. The entrance fee for the performance is 100000 Indonesian rupiah and is available on spot.
The dance is basically about the Hindu script on Ramayan and Sita and how the devil actually steals her from Ram with complicated plot twists.
You can get the story summary here: http://www.timetravelturtle.com/2012/12/bali-uluwatu-kecak-fire-dance/

The dance was almost hypnotic, like a trance. and everyone got pretty hooked.
 

                                                                              The Arena

                                                                      The performers

                                                                               And us


The weirdest thing happened to me, after the dance ended and two man dressed as Giants, enters the arena and started interacting with the audience. After a while one of them suddenly came to our side and started pulling Enru towards him. We were all laughing at the site, and suddenly he looked to me let go of Enru and pulled me hard and took me in the middle of the arena! It was so embarrassing and I was not ready at all. Suddenly the men started chanting and the Giant urged me to dance. The whole thing was very funny. 

                     My friend took this picture and I look all stupid and blushing. :P

Finally the fire performance, which was a bit let down because we were expecting better.

During the performance we got to see the sunset, so by the time the performance finished it was quite dark. Before entering the Temple, we were actually warned about the notorious monkeys who are known for snatching visitors' belongings especially glasses and caps pr hats. We saw a lot of monkeys on the way in and out and was quite scared of their stares to be frank. So, we were almost at the exit and Enru was beside me taking off her sarong while walking to return back; when I suddenly saw she's heading straight towards a monkey. I shouted Enru! She looked at me and the monkey jumped on her shoulder and ran away. It all happened in a blink of an eye and we were the last ones. I was pulling her to go out fast but she just stood there saying 'no my spec my spec!' It was only then that I realized the monkey has actually snatched her spectacles. We were dumbfounded then our driver Shisaw tried to get it back by throwing something at it but in vein. Then came one of the workers did something and the monkey left the spec and ran away. Everything happened very fast! 

Apparantly, they can be persuaded into trading the items for fruit.

This incident was one of the highlights of the day and what a way to end the trip. 

Krisna Market

Our journey started again and we started for our next destination which was shopping again. It is a fixed priced souvenir shop and is quite cheap. I'd recommend this place if you'd like to buy bulk items for gifting family and friends. We ended up spending 200,000++ IDR each and bought a lots of stuff. They have a wide variety of items from clothing to jewelries to artifacts and even fridge magnets. It is situated in Jl. Nusa Kambangan.

After shopping, we went for dinner at a Halal Chinese restaurant and after that back to the hotel. This was officially the last night of the trip and we were supposed to leave the next day. Although our 3 lecturers already had their tickets back to Malaysia for the following day. We students decided to extend our Indonesia trio to 2 more days and were heading to Gili Terewangan Island in Lombok. That is a whole new chapter. For now this is Bali from my experience.

Bali is so much more than just beaches and thus the caption. Before going to Bali, before the prep to be more precise I had zero idea about Bali except their beaches and Balinese architecture. But their culture has so much more to offer than just that. The people are so down to earth and friendly. The whole experience was quite magical, thanks to the awesome group of people I went with. 

**All pictures hold the copyright of writer. Please Do Not use without permission.

Bali: Beyond Beaches| Day3

Day 3|16th February 2016

The following day started as early as ever and also with the same routine where we all were ready beside the car, but our two beloved guy friends CK and Jimmy are still not out yet. We were actually supposed to check out from Ubud and head towards Kuta for 2 days.
Along the way, we stopped in a few places.

Our first stop for the day was Agung Rai Art museum. The museum held a lot of art pieces. The architecture of the place was quite unique as well. The most amazing thing was that the museum also housed a resort inside.

                                                                       The Entrance

                                                       Mandatory Selfie: All 8 of us

                                                     
                                                       Diyya trying out Wood carving

                                                                        The Resort

                                                         Cutest picture with Ms Raja

 

                                                       In front of the wood Carved Door

After experiencing the spectacular art and architecture of Arma museum, we again headed out. And this time our destination was Tirta Empul Water temple. It is a spiritual place for the Hindus.
                    
The Famous Fruit vendors, be careful of them though. They'll make you eat one of the fruits and won't leave your side until you buy a whole pack. So just say no. It is very essential to say No in Bali.

                                                         The Entrance of the Temple

                                                                 The holy water Bath

                                                     Great Banyan tree and an awed me

 There is a marketplace at the exit of the temple as well. We ended up buying some of the artifacts. But be aware of the shopkeepers. They're like leeches and tend to hold your hands and drag you and kind of force you to buy stuff. Not all are open to bargaining and they sometimes get a bit aggressive. 


Next Stop was Tegalalang Paddy field. Its a luscious green rice field which attracts a lot of tourists and is a soothing site to the eyes. 

  

   

 The Paddy Hill

 Dont Judge my weirdness

Me and Diyya ended up trying to explore the field but failed miserably as we were not wearing appropriate shoes. On top of it, it started raining all on a sudden and my sandal was slipping. Also they have this security boxes like things, every few steps where they charge money if you want to go further. So, if you are willing to explore keep these in mind, proper hiking shoes and enough money in your wallet! 

                                               Posing in front of the Colorful Art store

                                             Local Artisan street shops on the way


After this we stopped at a roadside restaurant to have our lunch. We had local Indonesian food and it was a delight. 

Our next stop was Tanah Lot and we all were pretty excited as we finally got to see a part of the ocean. It is basically a rock formation of the island and home to the pilgrimage temple pura Tanah Lot. It is a must visit and a tourist spot. To our disappointment though, the day was quite humid and we ended up twice as tired as we were supposed to be.

                                            The amazing Rock formation and the temple

                                                               Marking our territory

 

    Enjoying the Beautiful Sunset

This was our last stop for the day and after sunset we finally headed for our second hotel in a new city Kuta, Bali. The hotel we stayed in was called Tanaya-Bed and Breakfast, and although it looks all fancy from outside, we faced some serious problems with the rooms and some of our friends had to change room twice for air-condition leaking. The thing I hated most about the rooms is that the toilet and the shower was separate with no door locks. That's a bummer if you are sharing.

 

The Hotel

               Miss Zura handing us over the room keys
 Finally after checking in and freshening up we headed out to check the place and have dinner. Kuta city is much more happening compared o Ubud. it's night life is more prominent with tourists and it's sitauted near the beach. 

Dinner with this 2. We could only find one Halal Restaurant around the corner and later on the lecturers joined us.

                            Joined with the others and went to Hard Rock Cafe after dinner

This is where our day 3 journey came to an end. The day was very tiring but educational. Although everyone was exhausted we stayed up late and played games in the hotel lobby. The thought was slowly sinking in that it's all gonna end soon.



**All pictures hold the copyright of writer. Please Do Not use without permission.