After 13 hours of sleep, it was time to rally. We got up and headed to the warung next door, attached to the Bingin Inn. It's helpful as a landmark, but also as a money changing spot and eating spot. As we were eating, one of the women we chatted with yesterday, Marie, struck up conversation again today. She asked our plans for the day and we told her, only to have the conversation turn our plans upside down. Turns out Balinese traffic makes even 25 km trips take hours, especially by car rather than scooter. So while we had planned to head north of Denpasar to see a Temple on the west coast, we reversed course and decided to stay totally in the south. All this dithering took a lot of time and we were faced with it being nearly noon by the time our conversation wrapped up. We decided to exchange some money, call a car, and just wing it. While waiting for the money exchange we reversed course. Again. And decided to just rent the darn motorbike, learn to ride it, and do our own thing. It was a CLUTCH plan.
Marie, amazing, new friend Marie, spent an hour with us, teaching Steve to drive a motorbike. The woman had the patience of a saint. Not only did she teach him, she also taught us about Balinese haggling (after we got totally ripped off on the bike rental fee), etiquette we didn't know, suggested places to visit, and generally made a lovely chat out of nothing. Delightful comes close to describing Marie. Anyway, she made sure we weren't going to die and then sent us on our way!
We decided to head east towards Nusa Dua, the neighborhood that houses the fancist hotels in Bali. Goal was to check out a Hindu temple called Puja Jagatnatha. We made it in one piece, got some fresh juice to celebrate our safe arrival (and cool down, bc we are NOT "heat treated" for this weather, as our friend Parker would say), and sat down in some shade before heading inside. That was the plan, anyway, before we met a bunch of University students who were there on a school trip from their school in Surabaya and we're FASCINATED by us. We talked to then for at last 20 minutes, about our trip, about our home, about their school, about the school system in Indonesia vs the US... We were totally their guinea pigs for practicing English. And they could not have been sweeter. They filmed us as we spoke, required photos with us when we finally begged off, and we just had the best time. After begging off we explored a bit... Meaning we walked around the parking lot and realized we couldn't go inside! The place was really intriguing: a line up of houses of worship all on a single property. Islam, Catholicism, Buddhism, Protestantism, and Hinduism all lined up like ducklings. But each had a sign outside saying knees had to be covered to enter and we hadn't gotten sarongs yet. So we hopped back on the bike and decided to check out a beach nearby!
The beach, Pantai Geger (Pantai just means beach), was located right next to the St. Regis Hotel, so it was, to say the least, swank. Lounge chairs for rent for more than a motorbike daily rental fee. Massage tables, cafes, and crystal clear water. We grabbed some more juice and a bottle of water at a cafe, and Steve held down the fort while I went for a swim (because we sure as hell weren't paying for lounge chairs!). The water was like a a most refreshing bath. Amazing.
After a quick swim, I headed back to change and we continued on our journey. I downloaded some maps from Google Maps before we left so that I would have offline access to them. A cool feature is that you can plan directions using those offline maps, it just doesn't include traffic info. So we were using those to get around having to pay for data use on my.phone. So using Google maps, we headed towards Ulluwatu Temple, which is just about 15 mins from our Airbnb near Bingin Beach. Maps said it would be a 45 min trip, but maps did NOT mention that portions of it would be on unpaved, heavily potholed, dirt and stone road. It was like driving on a flash floor path; the hard edges were mostly smoothed, but there was debris everywhere and you wouldn't want to be on it in the rain. Thank goodness it was a crystal clear day, or we might not have made it. It was definitely a trial by fire for our new motorbike driver! But we survived and got to Ulluwatu a few minutes before 5.
An important note about Ulluwatu: it is renowned for it's gorgeous sunsets. It's situated at the south west tip of Bali, and the beaches along that coast are all at the bottom of steep cliffs (as we discovered yesterday when we had to climb down the million steps to Binging Beach). Ulluwatu is at the top of REALLY dramatic cliffs - we both expressed the similarity to the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland - and its situation on the top is gorgeous to behold. So anyway, our arrival at 5pm put us there immediately as every other tourist in the region also descended. It was packed, and made me really appreciate our visiting during the rainy season! It was like visiting the Sistine Chapel in November - way less crowded than it might have been, despite going during the peak hours. We snagged a gorgeous spot to watch the sun go down and we're glad for it because other folks slowly crowded in as sunset approached. We watched it dip below the horizon and boogied. The plan could not have been more perfect because we were able to get out of the parking lot before the tourist busses, and able to get on the road back to the Airbnb before all the light was gone. Limited time driving in the dark on our first day motorbiking seemed like a good plan.
Back to the Airbnb and Steve headed off to shower. I hung out with some other folks staying here, including a couple from North Jersey - Christina and Hayden- who've been here for a month and two guys from Germany who are here doing a ton of surfing - Jence and Surin. I begged off when they started playing card games, and thank goodness I looked up as I walked to our room... The stars are absolutely incredible. I put on my glasses in the shower so I could watch them through the open roof! Now to bed, before trekking to Gili Trawangan tomorrow.
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