Going Green

I must say I like the pattern we've established in our early days here - lounge around the joglo and the beach for two or three days, and then when the build-up of guilt for 'not doing anything' reaches a critical point, we plan a daytrip.

We booked our driver, Nyoman, for another day and asked him to take us up toward the centre of the island, to Bedugul and Lake Bratan. First stop is a ziplining / canopy walk adventure park in the middle of the Bali Botanical Gardens.

What fun this turned out to be. We paid our admission, went through the instructions and safety drill, and then we had the run of the place for three hours. Now I suspect that if it weren't for the existence of this great adventure operation, there may not be many visitors to the botanical gardens. This seems to be the main attraction here.

Even Shirley (who I must reiterate will go a little squirrely at simply the prospect of crossing the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge), participated in today's fun.

The park had seven circuits of varying length and technical difficulty, and included rope swings, ziplines, nets, elevated obstacles, and all sorts of challenges. 

I think the highlight for Owen was this zipline / skateboard - now that's pretty cool for a young kid, I have to admit.

The one 'poo the pants' moment (for both Annie and myself), was leaping off this ledge and using the rope swing to cross to the other side, where you must jump and land on a rope net. Kind of like a big spider web.

Thank goodness there was nobody behind us in the queue, because we both took our time to gather enough courage to make the jump. I've never bungy jumped before, but I suspect it's the same feeling.

We were up pretty high on the Black Circuit, so some of the obstacles are not for the faint of heart.

Maybe more people would come to the Botanical Gardens if they took out some of the weird stuff. This is the fern section. These gardens are supposed to be peaceful.

But there's no mistaking the beauty in this part of the island. While the beaches are sandy, and the south of Bali is a bit of an urban chaos, the landscape becomes strikingly green as you begin to ascend the hills to the center of the island, where volcanic mountains seem to be dripping with plants.

This is the park accommodation - although there would be virtually no restaurants or nightlife anywhere in the vicinity, this has to be one of the nicest guesthouse we've come across. 

Seems like many of the foreign tourists to Bali (80% are Australian) don't bother coming up here, so it's refreshing to just see local Balinese enjoying a picnic while taking in the view of Lake Bratan.

Time for lunch. We've heard that some drivers are known to take their customers to particular restaurants, which are often pricey, from which they will receive a commission for their efforts. Nyoman doesn't seem to care where we eat, and is happy to drop us at local eateries when our tummies begin to rumble.

This little bakso stand was perfect. Bakso basically means meatball, and there are plenty of little stalls all over the island selling steaming noodle soup piled high with tasty beef or chicken meatballs.

The next stop wasn't too far from the quiet and rarely visited botanical gardens, but this temple is clearly on the tourist route. Pulu Ulun Danu Bratan is a Hindu-Buddhist temple founded about 400 years and dedicated to the goddess of the water.

It is truly beautiful, with classical Hindu thatched roofed meru (multiroofed shrines) reflected in the water and silhouetted against the often cloudy mountain backdrop. - it's one of the most common photographic images of Bali.

And trust the kids to find a playground here!

The local chapter of the young Hell's Angels - camouflaged in local Balinese dress.

We asked our driver to take us to a small town / region called Jatiluwih, as we heard that there were nice rice terraces. He wasn't that familiar with the area, evidenced by the fact that he had to stop about six times to ask if we were going the right way, but eventually we got there.

In some ways it must be a little strange to Balinese that tourists will flock to their workplace to "ooooh" and "aaaaah" over their simple farm plots. It's just rice, after all. I would think it weird if visitors to Canada stood and stared, gobsmacked, at the endless fields of golden wheat in the never ending expanse of Saskatchewan. But I've heard they do just that. 

Anyway, weird or not, I just can't get enough of these views. Rice terraces just rock.

And I'm equally pleased that our little point-and-shoot camera is shouldering the heavy burden and pressure of capturing the moments. My Canon S95 is a little out of date by now, but for those who are looking for a great camera to take with you anywhere, you should look at this series (the current version is the Canon S120).

Well with this fantastic day trip out of the way, we can now settle back into our old routine, visit the beach, and laze around the joglo doing nothing. I think we're getting into the Bali groove.