I decided to get a henna tattoo of turtle here for fun (also cause the guy was pressuring us).
After surfing we headed to chenggu for lunch on the beach. We had delicious lunch of mie goreng (fried noodle). We had ocean front view and go to watch the more experienced surfers catch some waves.
We continued our journey to tanah lot, which is essentially a temple built in the water. The views at sunset are typically amazing, but once again we encountered rain and therefore had no sunset. Please excuse the ugly and dark photos.
On Monday we took a trip to Ubud, which in the more cultural city and the city that the book/movie, eat pray love, is based in. We first stopped for an hour or so at a performance/dance/play thing. Basically it was a story of good/evil and some famous Indonesian story where good wins out and a bunch of animal creatures are involved. Still not really sur what happened in the story.
After the performance, we headed to the monkey forest where there were hundreds of monkeys hanging out. They were pretty aggressive and would climb on people/bite people. In fact, Eva, one of Diana's friends got bit when she went earlier. After escaping bite free from the monkeys, we walked around town. There were cute little shops and I bought a piece of original art. We also steps for our mandatory daily juice - pineapple for me! So delicious and refreshing. We basically went on a juice cleanse in Bali, but instead of replacing meals we just added it to every meal.
After walking around the more touristy part of Ubud, we decided to go to the elephant cave which was home to two temples. The oldest temple was from the 8th century and although mostly destroyed, still has a cave which houses a Buddha (kinda just looks likes stone with yellow material). They had tow top using this because of the bats and snakes in the cave. This temple also had carvings into the rock which are covered in moss. The other temple is still used today and the cave is used for yoga and meditation classes today. These temples were hidden under rice paddies for many years.
Our guide was a wise man. His main takeaway was that paradise is not in Bali, paradise is in your heart. He also said how you should always balance good and evil. Not pray all the time but also not go to night clubs all the time. You need both in your life.
8th century temple:
13th century temple:
We stopped at a silver store on the way home as Indonesia is known for their silver, but we quickly realized it was a major tourist trap and not cheap.
On Tuesday we headed to Kuta, the party beach. The weather was iffy and he beach was filled with trash and crowds of people. We walked by the shops for a bit and then decided we wanted to do something memorable so we all picked a color to dye our hair. I went with blue, taryn went purple and Diana went red. We only did a small piece but that coupled with a foot massage was a great way to get out of the rain. Afterward the sky cleared for a bit so we walked along the beach and grabbed a drink.
On Wednesday, we had another beach day in Sanur complete with sunshine (and subsequent sunburn), fresh squeezed juice and happiness. We hung out by the pool and drank some beers after.
Thursday we went white waterrafting. Once we arrived at the meeting point and were decked out in life vests we walked downhill about a mile to the river. There was a mix of rapids and. All water where we could get out and float/swim. The scenery was picturesque and we had a wonderful time on the river! We made a friend form America who was on our boat. Overall, excellent day and well worth the trip to he countryside in the van.
Friday was our last day in Bali. We went back to the surfing beach, but decided to walk around while some of the people surfed. I tried to document the funny signs I saw at the beach (see below). I ended up getting braids - 56 in total...just trying to keep things exciting. Taryn only got a few. We then headed to the airport to catch out flight to Bangkok. Thailand here we come!
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