Benoa, Bali, Indonesia

Monday, March 18, 2019

Bali is an island that many of the ship’s crew call home. Some of the crew (bye bye, Ayu!) will be getting off the ship for a long and well deserved vacation. Others will be allowed to have their families come aboard for a visit. I’ve given my stateroom staff the day off so that they might enjoy more time with their families. Many other have done the same.

Where am I?

I know that the map looks like we simply teleported most of the way to Bali, but our satellite communications has been on the fritz and it has affected the ship’s communication with the outside world just as much as it has mine.

So, what’s been happening?

Today, I booked a tour through EXC (the ship’s travel agency) to go see some of the richly cultural sights of Bali. I have been told to expect to see an island of great beauty and this morning I’m already anxious to get started.

Stop #1 – Pura Tanah Lot

My tour starts in the morning at 9:30am. We load into our bus to go see the first of three sites that are included in our tour. As I may have already stated, when you stop in any place for only one day, you cannot see all of the attractions that are offered. It seems to me that it doesn’t really matter too much which ones you choose, you’ll always miss out on something. So I wasn’t too selective about the three stops on today’s tour as there is bound to be something memorable.

Our first stop was at an ancient Hindu temple. Most of the people on Bali practice Hinduism, and this is one of the temples built around that faith.

Now, there were a lot of other tourists here this day, so walking around was a crowded affair. Still, the views of and around this temple were very nice. Here’s a small gallery of some of the photos I took that I found to be most interesting. I have so many more, but if you want to see them you’ll have to wait until you see me.

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The area around the temple also had some other scenic attractions like this natural arch just a short walk away and yet still within the cultural reserve.

We stayed at Pura Tanah Lot for about an hour then it was time to move on to our next attraction.

Stop #2 – MONKEY FOREST

The next place we visited would not be a place that I would call a cultural highlight. Nonetheless, it was interesting and kinda fun. After about a 25 minute ride in the bus we came to the Alas Kedaton Bali Monkey Forest.

These little critters look so cute. People were just falling in love with them. But, we had already been warned to watch out for our cameras, phones, hats, glasses, or anything loosely attached to ourselves since these cute little guys are notorious and aggressive thieves!

Although the following is not one my photos, it does show these charming critters in action.

I don’t know, but it’s probably because of stuff like that baby attack that possessed the people of this area to create the evil monkey god, portrayed here. I mean, look at the size of that monkey evil!

While we were there, the monkeys didn’t seem so intent with stealing our stuff. Actually they didn’t really seem to care whether we were there or not.

So, monkeys were not the only living attractions in the monkey forest. Do you remember the photos of the fruit bats hanging from the downtown trees in Darwin, Australia? Well, they have them here as well.

The fruit bat attraction here at the monkey forest is slightly different from the scene in Darwin. Here, you’re allowed to hold them up by the wings. I chose not to. What would you do?

So, it was time to leave the monkeys and the bats and get back to human culture.

STOP #3 – THE ROYAL TEMPLE

The main attraction of this shore excursion was to be the Royal Temple, and I was not disappointed.

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There are three levels to this temple. Pictured above are the steps to the first level. Each of the other levels are continued one within another. Guests are welcome to enter the first two levels, but entry to the third level is permitted only to those who wish to pray.

Here are a couple more photos from the temple. These photos are looking into (but not taken from) the innermost level reserved for prayer.

Something interesting here was that people who were wearing shorts were given a sarong to wear to cover up their legs. This rule applied to men and women alike. I was wearing my Levi’s today so this didn’t apply to me. However, a woman wearing shorts and a well-fitting halter top was given a sarong to cover her legs. Apparently, boobs are OK here, but legs are far too sexy to have exposed in public!

After about 45 minutes at this temple it was time to return to the ship. Coincidentally it was just starting to rain so the timing was perfect. Time for just one last photo of the intricate and ornate stone carvings guarding the temple.

SO, anything else?

Much of our tour today was spent in a bus getting from one place to another. As a result, I got to see a lot of Bali as it really is (as well as getting to see plenty of cultural history.) I don’t have a lot of photos of the “real Bali” because, for me, the real Bali is not attractive. There is much poverty on this island, and most of the homes and businesses we drove by were in poor repair and of doubtful sanitation.

Bali is an island paradise, but not for everybody who lives here. The traffic is awful, the streets are narrow, and the primary transportation seems to be motorbikes. (Not motorcycles, but little two-wheeled sewing machines with saddles on them.)

Given the opportunity, I do not think I would return to Bali. I was actually quite happy to return to the ship and take a shower. So far in Indonesia, I’ve seen a forest full of lizards, a forest full of monkeys and bats, and some temples that were probably very impressive in the 1600’s. All in all, the fulfillment of my expectations is coming up just a bit short.

Let’s see what the next stop holds.

So, what’s coming up?

We have a day at sea, and then a visit to Java!