Bali, Indonesia...Day 4...

Previous day, in Wawa Wewe restaurant, we had discussed about a fishing trip early morning, in a local fisherman boat to watch the sunrise and to fish. We were picked by the local guy, he arranged us for a trip with the fisherman, and we started it by 5:30 am.

Even though we could not observe sun as a ball of fire, we could see the changing colors of the sky. We went quite far inside the sea, we could see Mount Agung, the volcano which created havoc in 1963, and destroyed almost the entire East bali. This volcanic eruption was the reason that East Bali beaches had black sand. The fisherman spotted a dolphin during the trip and he was making a good catch in the middle. It was a nice experience overall, to watch the beautiful sunrise, Mount Agung and our fisherman with the nylon. We started to feel a little sea sick after 2hrs or so, and we asked him to take back. On our way back, near the shore, we could see the corals from the boat. The water was very clear, and even if we could not observe the distinguishing colors of the coral, we could see quite a few and that helped Kirti overcome the slight disappointment she had the previous day, when she did not snorkel.

Tried a silhoutte of the fisherman, during the early morning boating trip.

With the might Agung in the backdrop.

That was the view from our Amed Bungalow, to which we were saying goodbye. :(

We reached back the hotel, and checked out by around 8:30 or so, and proceeded towards our next destination, Pasir Putih beach or white sand beach.

Captured on the drive between Amed and Candidasa...

It was a small drive away, and Kirti luckily spotted the direction, and we reached there without losing our way. An emerald green beach, all for us, sums up the experience. We could spot a family quite far; otherwise, it was almost a private beach. We played with the waves; it was a good experience, till the end, when we had to change before proceeding. We found it difficult to clean ourselves and change, but managed it.

On the way, Lotus pond in Candidasa... :)

We drove to Tenganan village, a Bali Aga village. Though it was a tourist object, people were very religious over there. They had to marry people from within the same village and it is not open to public after dark. It was a fully traditional set up with small huts, poultry, and cattle. Kids were so happy, playing with each other, the old sand and stone games. Luckily, the touch screens have not imprisoned that part of the world yet. Many houses sold single and double ikat, the traditional dress for women in Bali, and then there were artisans of all kind. There was pottery, bamboo works and the most impressive ones were the artists working on dried palm leaves. They had a sharp knife, with which they make intricate designs, and they color the designs with crushed volcanic stone. They make Ganapathi, Saraswathy, Bali map and many more such beautiful delicate designs on the leaves.

Tenganan, kids enjoying themselves,
felt a bit bad, when we were disrupting their day to day life...









Traditional double ikat, the best of them are done in Tenganan...

From Tenganan, since we had some time left with us, we decided to go to Padang Bai beach before proceeding to Ubud palace. After a short drive, we reached Bias Tugul beach, and we had to trek down the cliff, for around 20 minutes to reach the beach. It was a small little beach with few people, again with green waters. We spent some quality time there, trekked back and reached the place where car was parked. As there was no space to reverse the car, I decided to drive down some way and then reverse it. However, the car was stuck in sand, and we tried all sorts of “circus” to take the car, but with little success. Later, luckily a local guy who was coming to the beach helped us, he pushed the car while I accelerated and luckily, we got away. Needless to mention, Kirti survived a major heart attack. ;)

On the way down to Bias Tugul beach...it gets much worse than the path in the pic... ;)

Bias tugul beach...

This was followed by a long drive to Ubud, again, in which we lost our way. We reached Ubud by around 5:30 or so and the place was jam packed, crowded with tourists. And we realized, we were in the “touristy” Bali now. I had to park my car, around 1km away from Ubud palace, and we walked to the palace. We brought tickets for the cultural program and we walked in the courtyard of the palace.

In front of the Ubud Palace..only a small part of it is opened to outsiders...the royal family stays here...

We had food from a river view restaurant, hoping that they do not make the food with the water from the muddy river nearby.Then we walked to the Water palace, a palace with a lotus pond in front.

The water palace, just a minute walk from the Ubud Palace...

After clicking some snaps, we went to catch the front row seats for the dance. We waited for around an hour, before the dance started. I have covered the dances in another blog. Overall, it was a great experience, a colorful yet traditional dance show, and the first dance show which I remained awake for the entire time.

A snap from Legend of Mahabharata dance. Her role was to seduce the villians. Should say, she ended up seducing me ;)

After the dance show, we drove to Jimbaran, the third hotel of our trip. We could have actually stayed in Ubud that night, but a small mistake in a big itinerary is entertained. ;) The accommodation was nice, with a big room and a balcony.