Thursday, 9th September 2010
06.00hrs S&A got up and ready for our one day tour today. All the others remained in their bunks, catching up with lack off sleep.
08.00hrs We were collected at the Yacht Club. Thats ourselves and the 4 guys from Ariane. The first stop was at a theater for a dancing show, well actually, these super performances are all about telling mythical stories and this show is about Evil vs Good. This had a local orchestra with local instruments, and the whole thing was terrific and entertained us for 1.5 hours. No sooner was the show over, but it started raining, and we drove for about another hour to the main temple on the Island called "Besakih Temple" also known as the "Mother Temple". This was a spectacular monument/temple, the center tower being 13 stories or tiers high and even in the rain, was very impressive. The tatched roofs are made from a fibre extracted from the leaves of a local tree, and lasts about 30 years. We wondered around here for an hour or so, much of the time was spent bargaining for Sarongs, which you have to wear going into the Temple grounds if you have shorts above the knee. The whole complex has 30 Temples on 7 terraces, all on different levels built into the side of the mountain.
Later, we had lunch in a neat little restaurant overlooking lots of Paddi fields, the food was the same as yesterday, a buffet of asian food, yum, yum. Hector, Christine's dad, would really enjoy this place.
We stopped at some other Temples on our return journey, but at this stage, we were Templed out, worn out, and washed out. The rain was still coming down in bucket loads. Gosh, lets hope we wont have this next week on our next leg......
We eventually finished up at a Temple next to the black sandy beach. Aileen and myself skipped the Temple and wondered off down the beautiful black sands, BUT, But it was spoilt with heaps of rubbish everywhere. We found this very sad, but obviously the locals don't seem to mind... gosh it has to be unhygienic.
Finally, we all piled into the mini bus again and had a long rough ride back to the marina. Rough, because they are rebuilding the main road into a dual carriageway. Oh! one interesting thing we observed on the way back, was 2 farmers driving a flock of ducks (about 200 ducks) along the main highway, like farmers driving cattle. That's a first for us.
On our return, we met lots of the other sailors in the yacht club, so we had to sit down and mingle with everyone, tell our exploits for the day and listen to theirs, and the rain was still falling like Niagara falls.
The two N's went off with the younger crowd, while Stephen and Terry toddled off to Sanur for a light dinner. Skipper had pizza and Terry had a chicken curry, the total bill was $12.00. The blooming taxi in and out was more expensive.
We returned to the yacht club for more chat, before eventually retiring to the scratchers. That's Terry, Skipper, and Aileen, the other two N's were gone for the night and in Bali, it should be good.
That's all for now.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)