Dear friends,
That is a late posting from my Bali pictures !!
Yes...as I told you, blogspot was blocked in China so could not update anything but now solved...so here they are: BEAUTIFUL BALI :-)
I first “landed” in a superb Eco-Hotel, with a lovely outside bathroom (you sit on the toilet under the coconut trees !!) and 2 min away from a huge black sandy
beach for surf (with lots of cute surfers…haha ;-).
From Eco beach, I did 1 day trip to visit the main 2 temples located south of the island, and especially see sunset on the cliffs above the ocean…wonderful ! Sarong for everybody is mandatory !! And no sunglasses because here (like in many places of Bali) there is a huge population of monkeys (more monkeys than tourists !!) who are experts in stealing sunglasses...: they stole the Chanel sunglasses of the woman in front of me haha (well this woman was crying !!).
At night we went, with people I met at the hotel, to eat delicious fresh seafood on the beach…literally with the feet in the sand and sitting in front of a plate with lobster, shrimps, crab, scallops, fishes…etc…wouahhhh!
On the 3rd day I was finally ready to go to the famous small city of Ubud, inside the island, where Bali culture is best highlighted…but full of tourists !!! ;-(( (and so many french tourist…I can recognise them from miles away !!).
But Ubud is a must anyway, to enjoy countryside landscapes with nice traditional villages, rice fields, temples, and Balinese dances.
Each house and family has their own little temple at the entrance and every day they make offerings. So beautiful everywhere that you don’t know where to look at ! Local people walk in the streets with their traditional clothes (with the hairscarf and sarong, even for men!) and they even ride their bikes with the sarongs (I once saw a guy preparing an offering with his traditional sarong and a Metallica tee-shirt !!!).
I also attended the dance class of little Balinese boys and girls…great dancers (when you watch the pictures have a look at the way they open their eyes and curve their fingers…it is really special !).
From Ubud I decided to explore the center of the island, and I did some night trekking J yes yes…a trek at night to climb the volcano Batur, starting at 3 am with frontal lamps and getting to the top for sunrise… The climbing was funny (it looked like the “Blair Witch Project” haha !) but unfortunately quite foggy at the top, but still wonderful and magnificent views !
I also took a one day tour together with Sarah, a French girl I met, to visit the wonderful centenary terrace rice fields (soon to be Unesco World Heritage !!) and the mountain villages. We also did a bicycle afternoon ride with Liz, my other “volcano-climbing-mate” from Singapore, really cool !
But the highlight of this Ubud visit was, I must say, my appointment with Wayan, the Traditional Balinese Healer from the book “Eat, Pray, Love”….yes yes !!!! I met her (too complicated to tell you why and how) but the result was the following: I found myself on a massage table in her own house being scrubbed and massaged with traditional plants by her and 3 other Balinese boys (her staff !) completely naked under a sarong and obliged to drink some strange plant potions and liquids to cure all my possible diseases and to get healthier in question of days !!!!!!!....Well that was something…a unique local experience hahaha ;-))
After Ubud, I decided to head towards Lombok and the famous small Gili islands (2 hours boat drive)… The PARADISE !! White sandy beaches, turquoise waters, and not 1 single motor engine on the islands !!! Yes…thes 3 small islands are free from motors (bikes, cars etc..) and the only way to go from one place to the other is: foot, bicycle or horse cart !!!
So nice that I decided to spend my whole week on Gili Air, and decided to take my Advanced Open Water licence for diving…a great idea !! Diving spots there are wonderful, and among other things, I saw reef sharks (!), huge turtles, stingrays, murrays, and infinity of colourful fishes and corals J
At the diving course, I met Amandine, a great French girl travelling with her also great friend Maite, and we actually spent most of the week together, we had a really nice time the 3 of us and some other local guys we met !!! Amandine was my super buddy for the diving course (the night dive which was a thrilling experience !), and Maite was most of the time my drinking buddy at night…hahaha! We had lot of fun I must say…. (I can’t say too much neither ;-)
After a great week on Gili (swimming, tanning, beaching, watching sunsets and sunrises, jogging on the sand, diving, eating, and cycling…) I returned to Bali for the last week, which was also fantastic !!
There I especially will tell you about Amed (Kubu), a small village on a black sandy coast where I slept at a lovely hotel…the typical hotel you would imagine in Bali, in the middle of nowhere, the highest volcano of the island at the back of the resort, sea at the front, coconut trees, charming bungalows with outside bathroom, fans, swimming pool in front of the sea…bref lovely ! From there I went diving on a wreck (a sinked boat, “epave” en francais), a great dive: the Liberty (US ship from 2nd world war shot by the Japanese) is like an aquarium…full of corals and colourful fishes !
After Amed, I spent the last 3 days in another island, Nusa Lembongan, well known for the diving spots…Now I am an “advanced diver” so I need to enjoy the dives ;-)))
Indeed….we saw Manta rays and guess what, the famous Mola-Mola fish !... This is a huuuuge fish (giant !) very difficult to see and in very few places of the world…and the divemaster said we were very very lucky to see it so close !!
Besides the dives these last days were spent between swimming pool, restaurant,
bike ride AND full body massage in front of the sea…poor me !!! ;-))
bike ride AND full body massage in front of the sea…poor me !!! ;-))
Bera.
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