We made it! I managed to sleep on the 4:30am flight to Denpasar, Steve didn't so much. We landed and there was no skyway, so we got off the plane and walked straight onto the tarmac... And oh, what a tarmac. We walked out into a movie-perfect day, with the smell of the ocean, gently swaying plants, and a view of the water. From the tarmac. So it was a good start. (NB: I'm having trouble uploading photos, so I'll have to work on that later)
We headed into the airport and had no hold ups... We had already done the customs thing back in Jakarta (barely noteworthy because all our security checks were so speedy), so being domestic travelers made it go by super fast. I made my way into the bathroom and decided it might be a good time to put on deodorant and brush my teeth and change my clothes. But I neglected to mention that to Steve who looked like he was about to storm the bathroom when I walked out. Turns out he was slightly concerned that I had already managed to get myself abducted. Whoops! We found some coffee/tea (Starbucks is found even on this side of the world - and the decor is identical to home) and felt slightly more human. Used the airport wifi to tell Anj the home WiFi password (oops!) And then rolled over to the taxi stand. There are tons of people hocking taxis right when you exit the terminal, but if you use the taxi stand, the rate is supposed to be more fair. That definitely seemed to work because we paid about 140,000 rupiahs for a maybe 40 minute ride to the Garuda Wishnu K-something Cultural Park (ten bucks).
GWK is dedicated to Vishnu, one of Hinduism's big three gods. Upon completion (planned for later this year) the park will hold a 120 meter high statue of Lord Vishnu riding Garuda, a giant bird. As it stands, the park already has statues of Garuda and Vishnu, and you can practically touch them. It was very, very cool. The grounds were impeccably kept and we had our first chance to wear sarongs - required to visit the plaza that held the giant Vishnu statue. Steve also learned that he's very photogenic when two complete strangers asked to take pictures with him. He's still baffled.
The driver who dropped us at the park suggested we have a taxi called for us to leave at the info center, so we followed that plan. Taxi dropped us off at our first Airbnb for the trip, which is super convenienly located right next to an inn with its own Warung. As explained to us, warungs are little eateries, often located in people's homes, where locals eat. It seems that they can cater to tourists as well, but I get the impression that depends on the location. We were about 30 mins early for checking in, so we grabbed a lunch of fried chicken (for Steve) and chicken fried rice (for me) that was fabulous. 2/2 on meals in Indonesia. Because the warung is in an inn in South Bali where surf culture seems to reign, there were two women who chatted with us and gave us beach recommendations for nearby. We're staying a ten minute walk from Bingin Beach, so that sounded like our best bet.
Checked into La Cama and quickly realized that the Airbnb reviews that said this is a great surfer bum rental were right; the place is very well constructed, very basic accommodations. Thank goodness we packed soap! There are four rooms for rent and at least two of the others were in use by some Americans and Germans we met upon arrival. Wayan, our host, is a total surfer. Laid back, super tan, and happy to welcome us to his island home. The room itself had a bed, a table, a jug of bottled water, and a bathroom. The bathroom was the part I was most excited for; its open roof design lets you watch the stars or storms or just the blue, blue sky while you shower. Fortunately, toilet paper came with the place, though we've also realized that bidets are used everywhere. Besides TP, though, we pretty much just got sheets and towels and a mosquito net over the bed (and, again, that handy jug of filtered water which is great because we aren't supposed to drink tap). I bought a great water bottle before leaving home that uses a push filtration system (it's called a Grayl if you're interested) so we've been using that primarily for drinking and brushing teeth, but it's nice to be able to just tap the jug in the room! For $14 per night, it's absolutely perfect. It also has a great front porch with comfy benches that overlook the two cows that live right outside!
We also succumbed to naps on the porch benches before managing to rally. We marched ourselves to the beach! It's absolutely gorgeous. The walk there is a little precarious due to no sidewalks but everyone assured us that walking single file would be fine. Cars and motor bikes just beep a little to let you know they're coming. Then there's about a million steps to get down the cliffside to the water, passing tons of seemingly abandoned buildings. I guess when storms damage property here, it's too expensive to haul the junk away so it just stays. The whole beach was rocky and sesame-seed sized sand grains, but smoothed by the water. The beach itself was riddled with massive volcanic boulders that made amazing caves and niches to explore. We spent the whole afternoon doing that, swimming, and befriending local strays. As sunset neared, we headed back to the stairs for our Airbnb and the warungs there. Drank some beers and watched the sun set over some seafood grilled right on the beach. It was amazing.
Downside to watching the sunset on a cliffside beach was that we then had to climb up out of the beach on those same million stairs...in the dark. So one of the little strays that adopted us was kind enough to guide us home in the dark! She was a tiny little dog, black with a white tipped tail, and would wait when we fell behind. Forced ourselves to stay up til 9 and then we passed out for nearly 13 hours. Nearly because we were awakened a few times: first by the rooster at about 3:30, then by the rolling thunderstorm that quieted the bird, then by a bat (probably) that flew through our window. Since we had the mosquito net down, we ignored it and went back to bed. Steve is now up and at 'em, encouraging me to get my ass out of bed (as if he wasn't snoring most of the time I spent writing this). Better get moving!
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