5/18/10 (legian)

Legian – Tanah Lot – Luhur Uluwatu – Jimbaran

Our driver, Dewa Nyoman Parwita, picked us promptly at 9am at our hotel. We told him that we wanted to see some rice fields, a temple called Uluwatu and have dinner on the beach at Jimbaran. Oh, and we also needed to run some errands. He suggested a few things for us to do in the morning and we were off. During our drive we learned a lot from Dewa about the Balinese culture. For example, they don’t have family names but name their children according to the number they were born. Traditionally most people have four children so they have a name for one through four and if there are five kids then the fifth child’s name goes back to number one with a prefix. Dewa was the third child so his name is Nyoman. 

We first headed to Kuta to buy our bus tickets for our journey to Ubud. It was from a company called Perama, which is the biggest and one of the more reliable bus companies. As we headed to the Perama office we realized how little we had seen of Kuta or Legian. It was very commercialized with lots of shops, bars, and restaurants. It was a lot more crowded than the area of Legian where we were staying at. We were eager to get out of the city. Dewa suggested we visit Pura Tanah Lot, which is a temple on an island all by itself just off the coast. On the way to Tanah Lot we passed through some rice paddies so we had to stop to snap some photos. Some farmers were just in the process of planting new seeds. We learned that a harvest takes about four months, which means in a year there may be only two harvests. It is very strenuous work since the farmers are bending down all day in the rice paddies. When we arrived at the temple, Dewa showed us the walkway to the temple and he waited by the car while we toured the temple. During low tide you can walk to the island but only certain people can enter the temple. We went in the mid morning when it was high tide so we could only admire temple from a distance. We met a French photographer named Christophe who was in Bali to photograph a wedding and in a few days to Malaysia for another wedding. Jon and him chatted for a bit about their cameras and Christophe was interested in the slider that Jon was using. 

After the temple we were ready for lunch so Dewa drove us back down south to Seminyak where he recommended a restaurant for us to try. What was unique about having a driver is that he drives you to each location and directs you into the place and then waits by the car. They even have little resting huts for the drivers to nap while the tourists do their thing. The restaurant was very nice and the food was good too. It was a little more upscale than the places we had eaten at.

Then it was time to run some important errands. We had run out of shampoo and we hadn’t found a drugstore or supermarket nearby our hotel so Dewa drove us to a Target like store. We felt a little weird having him drive us to buy shampoo but it was important since we had been washing our hair with soap the last few days. Jon asked Dewa about getting a SIM card for our internet modem so Dewa took us to a phone store. We met a Balinese man who was a real character and we could tell he had seen a lot of Western movies. He talked to us about Al Capone and Tom Hanks and all sorts of movie stars. 

Now that we were all done with our errands we headed down to Uluwatu. On our way down we drove along the coast and through Padang Padang, which is a big surfing community. It looked really nice and had some nice waves so we might consider coming back to this area before we leave Bali.

When we arrived at the temple, Dewa warned us of the monkeys. The monkeys are very cheeky and will snatch anything they see. As we walked the footpath to get to the temple there were several monkeys around. Some were hanging out by themselves, others were cleaning themselves or others. We saw several chewing on hair ties, sunglasses, and water bottles. They are definitely very clever and some even posed for Jon while he shot some video of them. On another occasion we saw a monkey snatch a camera cord out of someone’s bag. There was an elderly lady trying to coax that monkey with some bananas. We are not sure if that guy ever got his cord back since the monkey ran away.

The temple is located on a cliff top overlooking the Indian Ocean. The sun was just setting so we had a beautiful view. Each night the temple hosts a dance called Kecak Ramayana and Fire Dance. There was about fifty men chanting while men and women in elaborate costume and headgear performed a story about man trying to rescue his wife who has been captured by another man. We couldn’t understand the chanting or singing but still able to get the jest of the story. It was a beautiful performance.

By the time we left the performance it was late so we headed to Jimbaran for dinner. Our friend, Kylie, had told us about this area which is known for their seafood and beachside dinners. There are fisherman out in the ocean everyday and bring in fresh catch. When we arrived at the restaurant we picked out the seafood we wanted and how we wanted it prepared. We ordered a grilled red snapper and some prawns. We sat right on the beach and there was about twenty other restaurants lined up right next to each other. Our waiter was very charismatic and told us all sorts of stories, of which we only believed about ten percent but at least he was entertaining. 

We got done with dinner around nine o’clock so we were ready to call it a night. We could only imagine how tired Dewa was but he was as friendly as ever. He even shared with us how his family had been affected by the black magic, which may seem hoaxy to some but to the Balinese people it is taken very seriously.

He drove us safely back to our hotel and we parted ways. What I appreciated about Dewa was his friendliness, English speaking skills, sense of humor, clean a/c car, careful driving, and desire to share with us as much of his culture as possible. We had a great day exploring a small part of Bali.

We certainly recommend him to anyone visiting Bali. www.baliexploretours.com