Wazzzaaaaa my dearests,
Today was the day for Uluwatu, venturing even further south. Uluwatu
is famous for rich couples and rich families staying at cool resorts,
with nothing much else around. But many places also claimed it had
the the nicest, most peaceful beaches around. And scenery in general.
For some
reason, even though I felt so unwilling to go and hang out with
monkeys in the Monkey Forest of Ubud, it didn't seem such a bad idea to visit the Monkey Temple of Uluwatu,
mentioned somewhere online as 'notorious' for its evil monkeys
('evil' in both the sense that they had the distinct possibility of
carrying rabies, as well as an even greater possibility of being a
thief whose talents exceed even the most skillful Vietnamese human
pickpocketers).
We left Kuta southwards, past the airport and past Jimbaran, into more hilly scenery. After
about half an hours drive google maps froze so we had no
directions... “We're in the middle of nowhere,” Nikki commented
hintingly after quite a long time of 'aimless' driving, or well,
following that one road. “A few more kilometres,” I promised her,
not completely believing in myself. But, I turned out to be right!
Our road ended at some templey looking place which turned out to be
The Templey Place!
In the
end, South Bali is no Saigon – there was one 'main' road (and let
me show you a pic of the mainness of it...), there was hardly any way
you'd go the wrong way unless you literally drove into a rice field.
 |
| The main road |
So,
Monkey Temple. Firstly, lucky it was not that time of the month for either of
us, otherwise we wouldn't have been allowed in. (True story.) (Not
that they would have had any way of checking....... I hope)
 |
| See #4 |
We got
stunning purple sarongs (sarongs?) which seemed pretty pointless
because, with some people, they covered less than their own capri
trousers. I asked the ticket dude if it was safe to take my bag in or
if the monkeys would take it, and he was quick to offer his services
as a monkey guide for 100,000. Erm, maybe not, though, ta.
 |
| Not a monkey in sight! |
To
reassure you, mumsie, the monkeys were not bad at all. And there
weren't even many of them.
 |
| Monkey statue |
 |
| Monkey guide |
And we only witnessed one stolen item,
here we have Boss, Tofu Boss, posing shamelessly with his newly
acquired sunglasses...
They
promised you that if a monkey did steal something off you, you'd get
it back. But it's not encouraged to distribute your stuff willy nilly
to them (I exaggerate) because they have to be bribed with fruit or
other goodies, providing them with an unintentional 'prize' for
stealing that object.
 |
| They also had funky large lizards |
More
risqué was this cool area where we took pics (along with other
tourists, and guides even!), and only after we'd left we noticed a
sign very, very strictly forbidding going onto that area due to cliff
fallings and whatnot...
 |
| Here |
And the
temple itself? Well, I can't honestly say much about the temple
itself – you weren't allowed in, and to be completely honest, for
me, it wasn't that much about the temple. It was about the views.
Now let
me tell you something. Especially rereading my previous entry about Jimbaran, I
didn't sound massively enthusiastic about any of the scenery. The
thing is, everything we saw in Bali was beautiful. Of course it was
beautiful, it was Bali! My expectations were very high, much higher
than I think anywhere else I've visited. So, it's hard to completely appreciate
the sheer beauty of it without thinking “well, is this worthy of
the word paradise?” (which it often, actually, wasn't) So,
like Jimbaran beach yesterday, had it been on our Malaysian holiday,
I would've praised it no end. But, it's Bali. You'd hardly expect a
dump.
BUT
ANYWAYS. Uluwatu Temple was probably the best scenery I saw on the
whole trip. It was BREATH-TAKING. The ocean, so vast, so BLUE, and
the waves that I've so often described so poetically as WIDE and
POWERFUL (note sarcasm with the word choice of 'poetically'... but
it's true!! They were wide and powerful!!). And this temple
hanging on a cliff. A stunner.
 |
| Nikki was tired |
 |
| Practising the normal Asian pose |
 |
| Patiently yet hintingly waiting for about ten minutes for the French tourist next to me to finish taking selfies |
 |
| Result! |
After
sweating enough at the Monkey Temple, we awoke google maps from the
dead and decided we'd venture onwards to the closest 'beautiful
beach' (according to various travel sites as well as one of my
favourite bloggers who visited Bali back in 2012), Padang-Padang.
 |
| We had to take the long route coz the road was closed |
So,
paradise beaches. When you see them in photos they are not packed
with tourists. I guess it was stupid of us to imagine otherwise. But at least the water wasn't packed...
 |
| Pretty paradisey, right? |
It was beautiful. Like, absolutely stunning. Just take away
the tourists.
We were
superhungry so went to sit at this dodgy-looking eating hole where
the table was seriously leaning so much that we were hesitant to put
bottles on it. However, the food was surprisingly scrumptious and the restaurant ladies sincerely friendly and nice! I expanded
my Ozzie culinary knowledge (yes, Bali is very Ozzie, if you haven't gathered by now) and had a jaffle, a toasted
sandwich which was very nice! And Nikki's chips were home-made - they were still potatoes when we ordered.
So,
Padang-Padang was beautiful, but once again, as we'd been pre-warned
to be fair, it was not a beach to swim at.
 |
| The beach |
When we went too far –
the water reached probably the top of our thighs – we got whistled
at (with a whistle :P) and told to come back to shore. (Or at least,
that's what I think happened, I was never able to place the
lifeguard in the flocks of people on the beach, but...)
The
best bit of Padang-Padang was venturing over the jagged rocks onto the
more uninhabited areas of the beach. Such a long beachline,
absolutely beautiful. Now this was Bali.
 |
| Many funky live sea creatures... |
 |
| One of my fave ever pics :) |
We even
saw more monkeys – wild, unadvertised ones!
 |
| Another fave pic: monkey, surfer, beach. Parasta. |
Some were even carrying
babies!! But then they became more and more numerous, and started
hissing at each other, so we left the scene.
 |
| But not before taking a sneaky pic |
A few
pics of the sunset and the mafia monkey...
Then, it was time to go 'home'.
 |
| Stopping once in a while for pics... LOOK AT THAT |
We spent the evening back at our Joker's bar (the one with the apple cider and the brilliant music). Coincidentally, one of the musicians who came to talk to us afterwards turned out to have a Finnish girlfriend! We found many curious links to Finland and the Finns here at Bali...
Possibly the best day. I LOVE driving (riding... but it still sounds weird to
say riding. It's a bike, not a horse) Bali streets, especially in the
more rural south. Uluwatu Temple was a definite positive surprise,
and Padang-Padang beach fulfilled them paradisey Bali beach
expectations. A stunning day.
 |
| The map, now also including our Jimbaran route (blue) and rough (well, they're all rough) Uluwatu route (mauve) |
But
tomorrow: SURFAGEEEEE
Auf
wiedersehn,
Emzy
xxx
 |
| What does it say? |
