We loved our stay at the villa. We felt like rock stars, pampered and constantly excited with the different possibilities the space offered. However, the one issue we did immediately have with the place was that it was staffed 24/7 so there was very little privacy, and the kitchen was basically off limits to us. It's nice to have the help, but we would have rather had the place all to ourselves. Next time we know what to ask for.
The following day, we enjoyed the sunny, drier (than Singapore) weather by the pool and then took a drive to the Tirta Gangga water palace of Amed. We were actually looking for a suppsedly white sand beach, but ended up at Tirta Gangga. Connie and Lizzy dozed in the car so I took my parents to visit the grounds. The place is fairly well-preserved and climbing the many steps up the hill to its back afforded one a great view of the coast. We didn't find the beach on this day, but we arranged for Lizzy and my parents to be taken there by boat the following day, while Connie and I went scuba diving. We had a nice lunch at a small resort next door to the villa, where we went online for the first time since we arrived in Bali - and shared a unique celebratory moment after reading that Bin Laden had been killed in a US-led operation in Pakistan. For dinner we had an anniversary dinner for my parents with a whole suckling pig carved table-side, the skin getting a further fry treatment that turned it into crispy, fatty pork rinds. I shared the snout with Lizzy...In the morning, Connie and I bid Lizzy and the grandparents adieu and went on a half-day diving trip at Tulamben. This dive site boasts a 120m-long shipwreck (USS Liberty) just a few meters offshore (super-easy access) with different depth profiles and all sorts of marine life. We did two dives - one around the perimeter of the wreck and one in through portions of the hull - with sightings of stingrays, bee shrimp, a clownfish inside an anemone, a moorish idol, a big school of swirling jackfish, and loads beautiful coral. This was Connie's first dive after certification and the best dive site I've visited. We drove back home towards late afternoon and shared stories with my parents who had a day on the water in a small pontoon boat, with a short stay on the "white-sand" beach nearby.
The following day we drove up Mt. Agung to Besakih Mothe Temple, Bali's largest. Bali has a majority Hindu population (in a country that is largely muslim) and they practice a version of Hindu that is very ritualistic. People spend a lot of their daytime in preparation of offerings (woven coconut leaf baskets with flowers and fruit), giving offering, and cleaning up after old, used offerings... There is at least one shrine in every home that provides protection and good fortune to the household, and this shrine is partially covered in a black and white cloth symbolizing good/bad or dark/light. The Mother Temple at Besakih is built on the mountain side and consists of many leveled terraces, statues, shrines and indoor temples for specific castes and functions. The place is quite touristy but the temple grounds themselves are marvelous. Lizzy was bit tired and gave us an excuse to cut the visit a bit short, avoiding the climb to the final levels of the temple. We were told we had to wear sarongs to enter the complex, so we were all walking around with these skirts tied at our waist. On the way down Lizzy started nagging us about ice cream, and we luckily found a vendor selling vanilla in cones from the back of his motorbike.
We stopped for lunch on the way down the mountain next to a rice terrace. The restaurant was quaint, the food mediocre, but the service was excellent. Further down the mountain we stopped to buy and eat a durian in one of the many stalls that lined the road. We picked a small one, enough for just two people to gobble up the meaty interior hiding in several pockets. It was delicious. On the way back we bought a large fish from a lady sitting by the side of the road. It was a huge fish and my mom instructed the culinary team back home to prepare from it ceviche, fish head soup, and grilled fillets. It was a great dinner.
Towards evening Connie snorkeled and hunted some sea urchins in the waters just off the back of the villa. But we were too scared to handle and open the urchins for the fresh delicacy inside, so we threw them back into the water. On our last evening at the villa we managed to successfully launch a Kongming sky lantern off into the sky over the ocean. Spectators spending a quiet evening on the wave breakers nearby cheered and clapped. We sat and ate fresh tropical fruit in the bale, splashed in the pool - by this point of our stay Lizzy took to pretty much running around naked all over the house from pool to jacuzzi to bale to grass to rocks to rooms to beach chairs to pool and back again, having the wildest time of her young life.We also visited the Goa Lawah temple, with its cave filled with fruit bats. It was interesting but you could only stand outside and see the bats at the mouth of the cave. We had some other minor adventures, and some crazy driving experiences, but the gist of the trip was to relax around and enjoy the exotic island, and that is mostly what we did. This was an amazing, adventurous, and luxurious holiday. We'd love to go back to Bali to explore more of the North and West of the island, and I think we will create an opportunity next year sometime if not sooner.
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