Here, There, Everywhere

Well, over the last couple of days, I have been busy touring and the computer has been too slow for my liking - thus no post yesteray.

Yesterday, I went to many places on the tour track. I had my own personal tour guide, of course at a little bit extra $$. After a while, I was glad that I was on my own, cause then I got to do what I wanted.

We headed of to Mengwi, which is a temple that they still use and perform rituals everything 230-something days. It was so HOT by the time we got there, we kind of raced through. There were some cool sculptural works, one was made out of food and the other was made out of beans and corn and such. (A link via the title, will be added as soon as I get home).

After this we headed to Tanan Lot, which is a temple that is closely associated with the Majapahit p riest, Nirartha. All I know is, I was apart of the tourist trap that it is known to be. There were a bunch of school trips at the temple when I arrived. I kept getting stared at and thought they just were laughing at my hair (which is braided) and my sticking out like a sore thumb. Finally someone got up the courage to speak with my drive, Gede, and I found out that they wanted to take my picture. I have never had my picture taken so many times - even in Korea. I have a few pictures of my own of the students who were from various surrounding island. It was nice to be the center of attention.

After that, we headed to Nusa Dua, where I could partake is certain water sports. I decided after much deliberation and negotiation to try scuba diving. I have only ever done snorkeling, so I knew that this was going to be a bit of a stretch. I figured that if my father can do it, so can I.
Once out onto the boat though, I started to have second thoughts, but it was too late for that. I got suited up and then had to jump into the water. I am such a suck!!! I was nervous just doing that. Then my guide who was VERY patient got me all set to dive under. At which point, I started to panic/hyperventalate and had to go back to the surface and calm myself down. Back down we went and I was able to stay under this time. It was the coolest hour ever!!! Everything under the water is so vivid in colour - mainly lots of purples. I even saw to small sting rays and an orange star fish - which I think I have pics of, but they are being developed at the moment and I have to pick them up tomorrow. I can't wait!! I even got a shell from my dive and true to form, I left it on the table at the dive site. Oh well, at least I have the pictures.

After that, we were off to Ulu Watu, which is another temple. This temple is "one of the only nine directional temples, as well as a sea temple honouring the many gods in the waters right around the island" (Lonely Planet, p20). Gede told me to take of my sunglasses and earrings because the monkeys there are NOT afraid of you or of jumping on you. I saw a couple people experience that. I took lots of pictures from the cliff side - it was very beautiful. As we waited for the sun to set, we watched out for flying monkeys. Finally, the sun started to set, which I video taped in hopes to see the green flash. For those of you who don't know what that is. It's when the top of the sun hits the ocean and causes, literally, a green flash. I have only seen one in my life and that was in Barbados. It was still a gorgeous sunset. Nice to see one after being in Korea for so long - almost forgot what they look like. Will also mention that I can see stars again, they're still there - the billions of them.

After sunset, we made our way to a place for dinner. They had a buffet and dance/song package. The buffet was nice and the entertainment was good, espeically because they had a 6-year-old performer. He really stole the show!!! It was very cute. I also got to listen and play a tradition Balinese instrument that takes about 40 people to play, but this group did it with only 8. It was very impressive.

After a long day, I finally headed back to my hotel. I need some sleep, but first I had to change rooms. I am so happy I did. My room has a more interior location, which is much better for sleeping. I got up bright and early around 7am to get ready to go rafting.

It took about 2 hours to get to the rafting sight and to get going. Once we finally did, it was a blast!! It made me really miss camp and canoeing, which I always did solo. Made me think of home and the cottage. Anyways, I had to help some of my boat mates because they didn't remember what the "teacher" told them. So off we were and it was fairly relaxed rapids. We stopped halfway and took pics at a waterfall or rather in the waterfall. At least I tried to crawl in or onto the rocks and kept getting shoved off because the water was so strong. Back to the boats after many pictures. We had to watch out for LOW bridges, I swear I was going to take a knock in the head, but I was lucky. Then we went over a dam, which was like a good 4 or 5 foot drop. After we reached our end point, someone forgot to mention the ridiculous stairs we had to climb. We had lunch there and then headed home.

I met a girl, Ayla from Brazil. She is studying English in Australia. She has a friend here, but he just wants to sit around watching movies and such. So her and I are going to Ubud and surrounding area, plus the volcano tomorrow. Should be interesting, keep you all posted.