Wednesday 30 January 2013

Adventures in Bali: Part III

A fish house in the distance
We spent some time in the water while we were in Amed. The picture above pretty accurately depicts the weather every day we were there: sunny, clear, and hot! We went snorkeling and fishing with the a guy named Dena. It was the first time I'd been snorkeling, and it was the perfect day for it. We got a nice tip from Dena about how to keep your mask from fogging up: pepsodent toothpaste. Sure enough it, it worked really well. We saw hundreds of fish, and the most colorful I'd ever seen. A couple clown fish tried to nibble on John's hand, but they decided that he wasn't too tasty. A jellyfish was eating Nemo right where we got in- jellyfish are fascinating to watch! Glad it was preoccupied though. We snorkeled in two different spots, and were out about two hours.. Definitely the highlight of the week for me, and we will have to get an underwater camera for our next trip.

Fishing with a handmade line!
 One of our last evenings in Bali, we went out fishing and for a late afternoon boat ride along the coast. Dena fashioned an extremely long and intricate fishing line, that came to look like a quarter of a spider's web for lack of a picture. He started pulling out his line at one point, and literally took out 15 fish in one go. John and I had no luck with this method, however, so I suppose we will stick with reel and rod.  He gave us four fish to take back for dinner, and they were delicious.
John taking a turn
The coastline was quite busy at sunset as all the boats were coming in. Once it gets dark, there is no way to find the shore til morning, so we headed back in during the pink and purple twilight.

Holy Mackerel! 
There are little altars to the gods all over Bali. Depending on where the altar is, you can find lots of different offerings. For example, in the Denpasar airport, there are altars outside all the different restaurants and shops so Starbucks had a cup of coffee in their altar while the gift shop had some candied mago. Around Amed, the altars are very well stocked with flowers, fruit, and usually incense is always burning. A man came around daily to maintain the altars at the hotel. They often have umbrellas to keep the gods and offerings from getting wet.

Shrine with umbrella
Shrine outside our room
The morning before we left, we had one final "Islander's breakfast", which is a really thick crepe with pineapple or banana chunks fried into it with some golden syrup on top, a plate of papaya, watermelon, and banana, and tea.  It was a great week in the East of Bali, and we would certainly recommend it.

Last breakfast


Sunday 27 January 2013

Adventures in Bali: Part II

nuts and citrus fruits
We took a day tour of the East coast, driving through the mountains, and weaving between coast and inland roads. As I mentioned before, rice and peanuts are a big product of the East, but fishing is huge as well.  We continued on to a bigger market in Amlapura, where they were selling all sorts of produce, baskets, and relics. Most of the market was under cover to keep it cool. From what we purchased,  John liked the snake fruit (fruit peel looks like snake skin) in particular, which he described as tasting like apple. I think they taste more like jack fruit, but you'll have to try for yourselves one day.

Bananas and durian in the back

Taman Ujung in Karangasem is a palace that the former king of Karangasem built as a "relaxation spot" for himself and his 24 children. It is a collection of buildings and gardens, and even has its very own meditation and yoga room! The shade rule we aquired in Texas proved true here as well- it  always feels at least 10 degrees cooler in the shade! In 1979, an earthquake damaged the palace and surrounding area, and only parts have been restored.
Yoga and Meditation Room

Tamaran Ujung









Next stop was Tirta Gangga, the water palace. Coincidentally, this palace was built by the same king as above, yet the architecture is completely devoted to the gardens and pools here. The size of the coy fish in the pools was incredible They had a main entrance, then another entrance to a swimming area up above. We walked around the gardens and along the different stone paths over the water. Check out the lion statue in the picture below. It is portraying a lion costume, and the person's feet are the back leg support.

Lions
Coy pool at Tirta Gangga










The third and final installment of our Bali adventure will be up shortly. As they say in Balinese,
Suk se ma (thank you)