I managed to drive from ubud to bukit w/out getting too lost…I missed one turn toward the end of the drive, simply because it wasn’t labeled the way I thought it would be…fortunately, that was easy to fix…I’d looked at the map of bukit several times, paying special attention to the road to get to bingin, which is where my mate james was staying…james and I were in the same primary school classes in 4th and 5th grade, and I hadn’t seen him since…and w/out facebook, I wouldn’t have known he was in bali, nor would I have recognized him while walking past him…he’s a surfer at heart, so it makes sense that he feels totally at home on the bukit peninsula…there are a lot of surf spots off the southern peninsula of bali, and it’s easy to get around…
I found a place to stay, and headed down to the beach…at least, I thought it was down to the beach…as has been my habit so far, I missed a turn, and ended up taking the adventurous way to the beach…bingin is a very small village, and basically only exists because of surfers…everything is related to surfers…accommodation and food, surf shops, etc…getting down to that particular beach involves going down steep steps that wind through various accommodation options…the beach itself is pretty small, and the water crashes really close by…
After laying out for a while I started climbing back up to mama ketut’s to check email/surf the net…that’s when I realized I hadn’t eaten since breakfast…I nearly passed out a couple times on the way up, I had to take mini breaks and guzzle water…whoops…I hadn’t felt it while laying out, but the sun had apparently taken a lot out of me…after checking internet and meeting up with james I ate a full meal, I knew I’d feel better…and I did…after showering I met up with james again and we chatted the rest of the evening…it’s fun to catch up with people from my past, especially in random places like the bukit peninsula of bali…needless to say, a lot has happened since we’d seen each other…to make a long story short, james is an engineer in California; he quit his job to take a 12-18 month trip around the world…
The next morning, after a ridiculously slow wakeup, I drove to ulu watu…it’s a temple on the south side of the peninsula…there is also a surf spot and beach called ulu watu…the temple wasn’t as impressive as I expected, but it’s perched on top of some beautiful cliffs, and I enjoyed seeing those…a whole bunch of monkeys live in the temple grounds, they like to take things from the people wandering around…I didn’t have any plastic bags, or any food with me, but they still wanted to look in my purse…I was okay with that, but I wasn’t so thrilled when one of the monkeys jumped on me and moved up to my head…apparently the monkey liked the look of my hair rubber band…it’s orange…but most definitely not edible…he scratched me a bit as I shook him off…his buddy watched the whole thing happen, but he didn’t get the hair band either…on my way back out, I asked about the dance show that happens every night at the temple…the guidebook said the price was 40,000rupiah, but I had a feeling that number would be higher now…and it was…70,000rupiah…having seen a couple shows in ubud I didn’t think it would be worth it to go again…
From the temple I drove back toward bingin, stopping at padang padang beach…angie had recommended it…it’s small compared to some of the other beaches I’ve seen in bali, but it’s still nice…I think there is even a lifeguard on duty! Who knows if the lifeguard is any good, but that’s beside the point…it was crowded as beaches go, or maybe I just got spoiled when I spent time in new Zealand and anything more than 5 people on a beach makes it seem crowded to me…the water felt good, and it was fun to watch people…after laying out for an hour and a half I went back to my hotel and chilled for the rest of the evening, chatting with james a bit more…I realized I could stay on that peninsula for a week, not doing much of anything, just soaking up sun and chatting with people…the people who owned my accommodation spoke really good English, and were great fun to talk to…james had stayed their previously, and they loved him…and the mango juice was awesomeJ
The next day I drove back to seminyak, w/ only one small detour…now I know how to get to the airport, hee hee…fortunately, it was easy enough to get to seminyak, despite taking the “alternate” route…
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