Bali, part III

After the burial grounds we stopped by a "bird sanctuary" which consisted of just a few trees that housed at least 200-300 herons. There were so many it was amazing. We returned to the hotel and we went out to dinner afterwards. The restaurant had a traditional Balinese dance performance with many men in strange pirate shorts chanting "chika chik" at different intervals. The effects of these intermixing sounds was unlike anything I've heard before. I tried to record a video on my camera so we'll see if it works. The quality isn't good because it's dark, but listen.. Here it is:

Tuesday morning Jenny and Lars (the couple from Germany) headed out so I walked down to the main street to go shopping. Unfortunately I bought almost nothing. The beautiful island fabrics and dresses looked great on the mannequins but when I tried clothing on it just wasn't flattering at all.

After eating lunch, I wandered down one of the main streets to the monkey forest, an area that is a sanctuary/temple for monkeys. After paying 10,000ruipah (about $1.10) to enter, I was amazed by how much green luscious forest there was. And there were seriously monkeys of all ages, shapes and sizes everywhere. You aren't supposed to touch them but it's okay if they touch you. As a way to prepare before going, I put away my sunglasses and made sure I had no loose things on me or any food. And those monkeys were relentless! One just climbed up my leg and put his hand in my pocket to try to find food. I took some amazing pictures that I will also post soon. At the monkey sanctuary I met a couple, maybe in their forties, and the woman was freaking out when the monkey approached her. I started chatting with them, Mike and Cathy, who happened to be from Australia. They were staying in an area about 40 minutes south of Ubud, near Kuta, in a town called Legion (Leg-e-on). I had asked what they were doing in the next part of their trip, and they told me they wanted to see the temple at Tanah Lot. I had briefly read about this place and had also wanted to go. These people were so friendly that they offered for their driver to pick me up at my hotel, then drive down to Legion, and we'd all go to Tanah Lot together Wednesday afternoon! What luck!

I finally went back to the hotel, but I spent most of the morning getting pricing on hiking a mountain the next day, as well as snorkeling and scuba diving, but they all were pretty expensive. I also felt like the hotel I was staying at was really pricey. Even though $33/night doesn't seem like a lot, there were other places in the area for 75,000-100,000 ($8-$10.50) a night. But after much consideration and thought, I just stayed at the same hotel. It was beautiful, convenient, and the staff there were incredibly friendly. That same night, while I was painstakingly deciding what to do on Wednesday, Putu suggested I go white water rafting. So I decided to, even if by myself. Putu has a friend who runs a white water rafting place so I got a discounted price. As I moved back into the hotel (I originally had checked out), I met a family of people. Of course I introduced myself. It was a family from Holland. Carla and Ricardo had two sons, Gilbert and John, and Gilbert is dating a woman named Negina (?). Ricardo was from Indonesia, and Negina was from Lithuania but had moved to Holland. I asked them if they wanted to go rafting with me on Wednesday morning and they said yes! So we all went out to dinner where I tried a dish with fish wrapped in banana leaves- delicious!

Wednesday morning we got up around 7:30 and left for Ayung River at 8:15. We arrived at the rafting place around 9, paid, signed insurance policies, put on our helmets, life jacket and took a paddle down to the river. We walked down at least 400 steps to get to the river, and we were surrounded by beautiful tropical trees. Putu came with us, and we also had a guide for the river as well. We put our items in a waterproof bag and went rafting down this random river.

Rafting was awesome. We would chant "one, two, one two" in a variety of languages: from English, Russian, Dutch, and German, to Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. Mid-way we took a break. There was a huge rock that we could jump off of, and also two random waterfalls you could swim towards and stand under. Consequentially, you'd get drenched too, but I was wearing a bathing suit so it was okay! There were also random parts of the river where the rockface on certain sides would have Hindu carvings which were gorgeous. I've never seen anything like it. After rafting we had a nice buffet lunch. We then got back to the hotel and we went swimming. At around 3 I got ready to be picked up to meet up with Mike and Cathy.

Later I'll explain my Wednesday afternoon and the rest of my trip. Tomorrow Jade and I are going to Suzhou, which is supposed to be the Venice of China (gardens, canals, and silk factories included!)