Bali-o-rama
(Panoramas; (top) view of Ubud’s Lotus café centerpiece, bottom (view out to sea from Tanah Lot Temple: Bali, Indonesia)
Thanks to Ying for the top panorama images, the sea set I took myself. I thought it might be fun to compare the two sides of Bali (literally) that we visited. The Lotus Café is smack in the centre of Ubud; constantly busy and generally a pleasant place to sit. It is almost rudely verdant, spraying foliage and lotus flowers from every angle. The sea was similarly calm and pleasant when we visited, though the two places have an entirely different atmosphere. Once we staggered across to this deserted beach, past the hundreds of tourists, I couldn’t help taking these pictures, after all, I seldom don’t see such a beautiful place look so empty and natural.
I completely neglected to take a photograph of Ying and I on the rented motorbike at the seaside in Bali. On our last precious morning, we used it to scoot along the single peninsula road and on towards Nusa Dua proper, the town. The driving of our fellow road users was nowhere near as shocking as I became used to in China, the drivers in Bali are quite courteous and accidents seem to be avoided, rather than caused by the majority of drivers. There are a lot of motorcyclists in Bali, normally with at least one extra passenger riding pillion like I was. On our voyage of discovery, we parked at an incredibly smart hotel with the express desire to eat there as we had come across some healthy recommendations on various travel websites*. We strode into what I must call a foyer, but it was more of a stadium sized, high roofed open ended space with two smiling musicians to one side of the door. They both nodded politely and continued to play (I’m not sure of the instrument’s name but they looked akin to a kind of zither). I have learned that with enough cheek and confidence, one can turn up virtually anywhere for a look – after all, not every security guard is paying attention and not every hotel recognises its guests.
Once we had entered, we decided to power straight through out of simple curiosity. We joked that we could eat in the restaurant, quoting a room number to get free food. Luckily, we possess at least one conscience between us and we decided against that for of lunch attack. Through the expansive hotel grounds, we passed small stand-alone villas, changing rooms and the swimming pools. It was swanky enough to have a few bridges dotted here and there, over its breadth, but also slides, waves and actual sand forming miniature beaches in little bays. Bafflingly close to the real ocean, the pools mimicked the sea in a way that was almost comic. We wandered past onto the pale sand of the true beach. It was glorious. I have never seen such a huge expanse of clean, light, peachy pink sand with such a calm sea lapping at the edge of it. Of course the beach was busy, but nowhere near as much as we had anticipated. Crunch time; although we had less than three hours before leaving for the airport, we decided within a few short minutes to ride the twenty minutes back to our hotel, change into our swimwear and speed back for beach action and lunch by the sea. We decided to favour the beach itself in place of the hotel restaurant and the cheaper seafood fare and heavily tattooed Russian tourists that went along with it.
*namely ‘tripadvisor’.
– Today Rosie is doing a bit more organising in Glasgow, Scotland –
