This morning, I woke up to the noise of roosters early in the morning. Sounds normal, until it happened again and again. The roosters cockadoodledooed for hours...not only did they manage to start before the sun even came up, there was no snooze button for such an alarm clock. Welcome to Bali!
In any case, after I got up at 8:30 AM, I went to have breakfast with my roommate Andre, who had already gone out surfing and come back by the time I even woke up. The view from our hotel restaurant is pretty nuts. You can see the golf course nearby (one of the last holes is on the green cliff you see to the left).
After breakfast,, we headed over to the villa to meet up with the rest of the crew. We all squeezed into a van and a couple others in scooters followed behind. We headed to a sculpture park that was quite astounding and very much reminded me of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.
The sculpture park was full of works by an artist who made his work in the same city where Jess had gone to school. It's quite impressive.
The idea here is that the artist is putting together pieces of a massive statue that could become one of the new great wonders of the world. Every five years or so, a new piece will be finished and released, and eventually, the whole thing will be put together. There were plenty of spots for us to take great pictures, too.
The final sculpture is supposed to look something like this, except it will be massive.
After the sculpture park, we headed to Padang Padang Beach. This was another of Jess and Fredrik's favorite beaches, because of its secluded nature. However, after Julia Roberts filmed a bit of Eat, Pray, Love here, it's blown up as a tourist spot. You can tell why pretty quickly, though.
How cool is this beach though? You can drink straight from a fresh coconut.
Regardless of what you drink though, you should stay hydrated on the beach.
Today was absolutely gorgeous, and we all got at least a shade more tan.
I was pretty hungry, since I hadn't had lunch. So, I got some amazing mi goreng from a lady who had a stove next to the beach. Delicious! Might've been the best I've had yet.
Some guy had a flying contraption with his camera on it. Pretty awesome, but also kind of creepy.
Andre got to surf at another beach today, so he got to put in a lot of good work. For a surfer, this has been pretty much heaven.
The local beer of choice has been Bintang, which we have had in the boatloads. Not too bad. Plus, you can get hats and t-shirts with Bintang propaganda on it.
Sadly, Anjali left Bali today, so some of our friends are starting to head home. After our driver took her to the airport, he came to pick us up and take us to a temple where we were able to see monkeys (a tad bit scary).
Our main event for the evening was actually a traditional kecak and fire dance though. It was pretty neat. Plus, it was slotted to start right before sunset, so you could watch the sun go down while watching and listening to the show.
The stage was pretty neat. It reminded me of Epidauros in Greece a bit.
Since we were some of the last folks to arrive, we had seats just at the front. But that meant we could see the actors coming up from behind us just before they went on. Pretty neat.
The show itself started somewhat slow for me, but soon I was pretty engrossed in the story. It's essentially a story of kidnapping, battle, and rescue. That's as simple as I'll put it as I don't feel like writing out each part. I took a picture of nearly every major scene, but these are probably enough (including one of the sun setting).
The fire scene at the end was pretty intense. The monkey chieftain had been captured, and the people tried to burn him. But he didn't burn and instead kicked away all the fire. It was all pretty dramatic and impressive.
There were a number of folks who got up and left during the show. I thought it extremely rude of them to do so. In any case, after the show, we headed to dinner with Jess and Fredrik (they've seen the show before, so they did not join us). We were a bit delayed by traffic, but eventually we made it to the Italian restaurant, where we had the entire place to ourselves. The price was absurdly cheap. I had a spinach papperdelle with mushrooms and a creamy parmesan sauce plus a Bintang and Ginger Ale (which tasted way more herbal-like than I had expected).
When we finished dinner, we headed back to the villa to have a nice little party. The evening was spent catching up with many friends and tasting some fine single malt whiskeys and scotch, while watching shooting stars. Pretty heavenly. We also ate some leftover cake and cupcakes from the wedding. Look at the LEGO Jess and Fredrik!
The plan tomorrow is to have some breakfast and then head back to the villa. Those of us who will still be around are likely going to a beach club or something. Jenna is leaving tomorrow, so yet another Seattle friend is heading home. It's too bad we can't all just stay here forever, because I'm pretty sure most of us would if we could.
Bali is pretty incredible, and I still have another two whole days to enjoy it .
In any case, after I got up at 8:30 AM, I went to have breakfast with my roommate Andre, who had already gone out surfing and come back by the time I even woke up. The view from our hotel restaurant is pretty nuts. You can see the golf course nearby (one of the last holes is on the green cliff you see to the left).
After breakfast,, we headed over to the villa to meet up with the rest of the crew. We all squeezed into a van and a couple others in scooters followed behind. We headed to a sculpture park that was quite astounding and very much reminded me of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome.
The sculpture park was full of works by an artist who made his work in the same city where Jess had gone to school. It's quite impressive.
The idea here is that the artist is putting together pieces of a massive statue that could become one of the new great wonders of the world. Every five years or so, a new piece will be finished and released, and eventually, the whole thing will be put together. There were plenty of spots for us to take great pictures, too.
The final sculpture is supposed to look something like this, except it will be massive.
After the sculpture park, we headed to Padang Padang Beach. This was another of Jess and Fredrik's favorite beaches, because of its secluded nature. However, after Julia Roberts filmed a bit of Eat, Pray, Love here, it's blown up as a tourist spot. You can tell why pretty quickly, though.
The beach and water looked absolutely wonderful, but because I just had surgery five weeks ago and the wound has not completely healed like I want it to, I did not go swimming today. It's pretty much all healed up, but it could stand not getting wet for a while longer. Bummer, though.
How cool is this beach though? You can drink straight from a fresh coconut.
Regardless of what you drink though, you should stay hydrated on the beach.
Today was absolutely gorgeous, and we all got at least a shade more tan.
I was pretty hungry, since I hadn't had lunch. So, I got some amazing mi goreng from a lady who had a stove next to the beach. Delicious! Might've been the best I've had yet.
Some guy had a flying contraption with his camera on it. Pretty awesome, but also kind of creepy.
Andre got to surf at another beach today, so he got to put in a lot of good work. For a surfer, this has been pretty much heaven.
The local beer of choice has been Bintang, which we have had in the boatloads. Not too bad. Plus, you can get hats and t-shirts with Bintang propaganda on it.
Sadly, Anjali left Bali today, so some of our friends are starting to head home. After our driver took her to the airport, he came to pick us up and take us to a temple where we were able to see monkeys (a tad bit scary).
Our main event for the evening was actually a traditional kecak and fire dance though. It was pretty neat. Plus, it was slotted to start right before sunset, so you could watch the sun go down while watching and listening to the show.
The stage was pretty neat. It reminded me of Epidauros in Greece a bit.
Since we were some of the last folks to arrive, we had seats just at the front. But that meant we could see the actors coming up from behind us just before they went on. Pretty neat.
The show itself started somewhat slow for me, but soon I was pretty engrossed in the story. It's essentially a story of kidnapping, battle, and rescue. That's as simple as I'll put it as I don't feel like writing out each part. I took a picture of nearly every major scene, but these are probably enough (including one of the sun setting).
The fire scene at the end was pretty intense. The monkey chieftain had been captured, and the people tried to burn him. But he didn't burn and instead kicked away all the fire. It was all pretty dramatic and impressive.
There were a number of folks who got up and left during the show. I thought it extremely rude of them to do so. In any case, after the show, we headed to dinner with Jess and Fredrik (they've seen the show before, so they did not join us). We were a bit delayed by traffic, but eventually we made it to the Italian restaurant, where we had the entire place to ourselves. The price was absurdly cheap. I had a spinach papperdelle with mushrooms and a creamy parmesan sauce plus a Bintang and Ginger Ale (which tasted way more herbal-like than I had expected).
When we finished dinner, we headed back to the villa to have a nice little party. The evening was spent catching up with many friends and tasting some fine single malt whiskeys and scotch, while watching shooting stars. Pretty heavenly. We also ate some leftover cake and cupcakes from the wedding. Look at the LEGO Jess and Fredrik!
The plan tomorrow is to have some breakfast and then head back to the villa. Those of us who will still be around are likely going to a beach club or something. Jenna is leaving tomorrow, so yet another Seattle friend is heading home. It's too bad we can't all just stay here forever, because I'm pretty sure most of us would if we could.
Bali is pretty incredible, and I still have another two whole days to enjoy it .
No comments:
Post a Comment