Day 3 in Bali...

Friday January 24. What else but very warm!

Once again, up at 5:45 and off the ship by 8:00 to do the second day of touring with 'Our Man in Bali', Gustavo was his name but we ended up calling him Rusty. Go figure. His English was good enough and better than most.

Today was a shorter day for sure. Bali has a morning traffic problem just like all places it seems. Bali is no longer the sleepy little tropical paradise it was 20, 30, 40 years ago but it is still a tropical paradise, but guess what, its 2020 here too!

The infrastructure in Bali is very good, roads are well maintained and super clean, bridges are mega bridges, the traffic is really not too bad but the feeder roads to major areas are still one lane so it gets congested. There is a mix of cars and scooters, maybe 3 to 1 for scooters??? The scooters just seem to weave with impunity amongst the slower moving cars. Nobody is in a snit and they just get along sort of like cats and dogs, but without issue. There are no road rage issues, maybe because the population is by the vast majority Hindu, generally a gentle lot. The people are all very gentle and polite to us regardless of passing on the street or serving us.

Basically today we drove out to the country side and visited two Temples and had lunch. All temples are not equal. The first one today was by the ocean, its property was in  a most gorgeous setting and stretched for hundreds of yards along the shore in several buildings and settings, some spectacular. The only thing was that there were busloads of Muslims on tour visiting this gorgeous setting that housed a Hindu Temple. Try and figure that one out. It was satisfying to see Hindu, Muslim and other White Folk attired in some rather flesh-revealing attire all getting along just fine!

The second temple was built around 1435 and was in a very tranquil and peaceful 5 or 10 acres with natural beauty being supplemented by the surrounding open-sided high-ceilings buildings that just seemed to act a natural breezeways. In some cases we four walked around with our arms out-stretched and hanging down at the elbows to get the air moving under our armpits! Like Cormorants drying their wings.

I will not attempt to give the names of our temples today, I have long ago given up trying to spell and pronounce names that are unpronounceable, to me. All I can say that these are not like the endless temples that we were paraded through in Viet Nam and Cambodia. Today they were pretty impressive that is all I can say.

Also please let me say that I do my writing on the blog, not as a documentary full of facts and figures, but writing down my thoughts and impressions as a person who just enjoys seeing how other people live. What I see is what you get, good or bad.

We have two sea days before we come into Singapore for the day on Monday. We are very  much looking forward to a couple of 'quiet days at sea'.

** . ** . **

I am so sorry that I cannot show more pictures that I took today. Beauty is all around us here if you just take the time to pull out a camera. I took over 100 photos today but have shown a small percentage to try and portray what we saw and felt today. Even then it is impossible to convey the sense of what we have seen and experienced in the last few days here. It has been lovely.

There is a 'Temple' out there and has been for hundreds of years.

Well maintained and very calming gardens abound.

Overlooking the breakers rolling in by the temple shores.

Elegant dining close by as well. It would be nice after the heat of the day has gone.

It sounds like Maui to me with the pounding surf.

The second Temple grounds. Much less crowded.

I think this is the best picture I took today.

Lunch time in a quiet garden down and alley from a busy street about an hour from the ship.

Lots of pretty Balinese girls abound.

Our driver and two ladies taking a break. They do not do heat well, none of us do in reality. Today an Indonesian young lady stopped Gail and asked if she could have her picture taken with Gail. 'Of course' Gail responded, click!

Conducive to relaxation and tranquility I would say.

My shorts were too short so they wrapped a shawl around three of us.

Just nice to see a flower.

Carved out of a large fallen bamboo found in the forest.

Day 2 in Bali...

Thursday January 23. Warm of course.

We four were up early and down on the pier around 8:00 to see if the folks that . we [Jim] arranged on the internet were there!

So, our day started at 8:00 AM and ended around 5:00 PM. That is a LONG day for us oldies!

Jim arranged this on the Internet. We were away for nine hours in an air conditioned new van. English speaking driver, full lunch and great tour. Total price for four of us was about $135.00 U$. Well done Jim! 

Ship's Tour price would have been around $600.00 in a large bus with 35 other passengers.

I will just show you the day in pictures...

The Monkey Forest.

A typical Bali Entrance gate to ???

At a silversmith shop en route to the volcano.

In the same area.

A new acquisition for my much younger wife.

Lots of easy-on- the-eyes ladies in Bali!

Jim by a wall of plants. Interesting concept.

Off we trek to see the rice fields along the way.

Our driver guide also takes photos.

Glad somebody else is looking after those fields below.

Fruit stand along the way up. I bought Mandarins.

At the furthermost point on our trip today.

Balinese scary dragons at the food counter.

Jim at our destination and lunch spot.

Monkey God?

.

Mom and baby.

Sweet potatoes keep them happy.

Monkeys also like to eat together it seems.

Day 1 in Bali...

Wednesday January 22. Warm but some cooling breezes.

We moored at Bali around 1:00 PM, just after our lunch. We walked off the ship and were immediately surrounded by men trying to take us everywhere. We were somewhat short with them as we were not quite sure what we wanted to do other than get oriented. This we did and then decided to take a cab ride to the beach area where there was some interesting streets to wander with a zillion vendors, each watching our eyes and then producing in their hand what they thought we wanted to buy. We did not really want to buy anything! We are just curious what there is and how much it may cost. It was bloody annoying but, they have to live.

We wandered to the beach and Jim and I waded out over the hot sand and dipped our feet in. The water was the same temperature as the air so it was not a refreshing dip. We did enjoy very much taking in the ambience of Bali Beach life with Aussie and British tourists, it really is a bit of paradise if you like that life. Interesting but not for us for more than a day. We did make a few purchases along the way today.

We nipped into a Burger King for a soda, ice cream or cold drink just to get into an air-conditioned building

After another stroll we scoped out an Italian Restaurant and enjoyed a beer or two, cool drinks and what I thought was a delicious Pizza. We stepped out of the restaurant right into a cab, negotiated a price and were back on board just as the Tiger for the ship's show were boarding.

We took in the early performance of the dancers after I did the blog and then to bed.

Great Day.

Bustling Bali!

Greeters at the pier.

Females except the one on the left, I think.

Just could not resist the shot.

Just so you know, 30 cents to pee. [C$]

Old Bali remains near the shore.

Jim at one of the many shrines or whatever.

A beach pedlar where we were resting.

A kite, in the air: not a bad shot Doug.

In the Italian Restaurant.

Who is that old guy she hangs around with?

The Tiger was coming aboard just as we came back on the ship.

The group performed a very elaborate Barong Dance for the audience.

Here is the Tiger during the show.

The female Balinese dancers were particularly good, and easier on the eyes as well. This dance is obviously soaked in thousands of years of tradition. 

Dragoon Day...

Tuesday January 21. Warm but not Killer Warm.

Dragoons are what our Finish Captain calls dragons. Either intentionally or otherwise, he has a weird sense of humour.

We dropped anchor around 9:00 AM and we were soon in the tenders to take us the 15 minute ride to shore, There we were split into small groups of about 20. We had two guides and one Ranger, armed with a big forked stick. 

We wandered the trail leading us to a spot where several very large Komodo dragons we lolly-gagging about, all alert, but resting. We were allowed to get within about 20 feet of the terrible looking creatures, that was just about my comfort zone with them.

They were fairly active, moving around a bit, eventually one approached another and apparently they were about to fight, according to the guide. If that was a fight, it was a very docile fight and they just settled into a different configuration of resting as far as I was concerned.

They are not 'poisonous' per se, but their mouth is so full of bacteria that if bitten an animal will shortly die from infection. They are carnivores, [meat eaters] and also will eat small Komodos, even their own young. The babies, as soon as they hatch, run up a tree and use that as home base for three years before becoming permanent earth dwellers and able to escape large dragons looking for a meal.

The National park is shut at 5:00 PM and then the place turns into your worst nightmare if stuck there. There are about five surrounding islands that also have Komodos on them as they can swim modest distances. The population is heavily monitored, [by the San Diego Zoo that comes every year] and the current total population is about 2400. 

They are interesting animals, rather like looking back to the days of dinosaurs. There is periodically some human killed by them so it it is a serious situation they have to deal with. The forked stick they use is a bit like a snake stick, but apparently their nose is their weak spot that can be used to sort of neutralise them.

We were back on the ship early, soaked in sweat again, showered, had a late lunch, rested then had a very light early dinner.

Tomorrow we arrive in Bali just after lunch. We are three days there, we have some tours arranged independently on days two and three, tomorrow we are in search of a Pizza or Hamburger!

Young boys lingering near the ship in hope of somebody throwing something off that they will dive for. Frowned upon but people do it.

Gail sharply stepping off the tender on Komodo Island.

 

Entering Komodo National Park.

That one is cast in bronze!

That is a real one!

Twins!

That tongue is used to detect the direction of the smell. Apparently they can detect a dead or decaying animal from 2 1/2 miles away by smell, the tongue tells them the direction to go.

We thought that they were going to fight, but they didn't.

This critter was lying just off the foot path. Spooky.

The Ranger took this picture for us.

It just felt like Miller Time! Jim sprung.

These are cute little girls, daughters of the vendors selling souvenirs. Cute little buttons, their brothers are walking around with hand fulls of carved dragons to sell!

Two very hot ladies!

Nearly back on board

An interesting ship anchored nearby as we pulled away this evening.

Fellette on deck as we left Komodo around 5:00 PM.

Some large porpoises escorted us out into the open ocean.