Sunday, November 1, 2009

Bali Day 7

Can't believe we are still blogging about Bali trip, haha. Hopefully we have time to finish our Bali trip before we jet off to another destination in 2 weeks. We started Day 7 of our trip with a hearty breakfast, me with a morning swim first, while Lazy Blamer, only know how to wake up, eat, sleep. Wake up, disturb me, eat, sleep. Ha ha ha ha. Glad that we saved the best of our accommodations to the last.

A very cute way to present the banana pancake, but I don't really like the brown sugar syrup that was supposed to go with the pancake.

Same old Blamer ordered the same of Mee goreng... .... But I'm fine with it, hope the carbo will make Blamer fat fat wa ha ha ha.

First destination, Monkey Forest! As mentioned before, Bali is predominantly Hindu, hence monkeys are treated as sacred animals here. This is because one of the hindu gods, Hanuman, is a monkey. Hanuman is believed to be an avatar of Lord Shiva, and worshiped as a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion. Hanuman's tale in the epic Ramayana which Blamer and I will be watching the play at Uluwatu later.

Here's one of them. They were not exactly shy when it comes to human interaction. All they ever cared about was the food in your hand.



Since we came all the way here, I could never go back without taking a pic with the monkeys on me.

Too bad Blamer didn't capture the whole episode on video, she switched to photo-taking halfway through. I'm surprised by how light the monkey felt on my arm despite its size, a dog of the same size must weighed at least 5 times more. No wonder they can swing around in the trees so effortlessly.

See, this guy's attention was not on me at all. He was looking at the last banana that I dropped on the floor.



Blamer had her share of the fun too. Wa ha ha, although she was quite scared of them.

Despite their cute appearance, the guide told to never engage in a struggle with them if they ever grabbed onto our possession. This will anger them and they will turn violent. They actually have pretty sharp teeth which can rip apart coconut husk as though they were made of paper ... tissue paper (you know wat I'm trying say... ha ha)

Next we decided to do some more flea market shopping at Ubud market. Blamer was trying to buy another of those weaved bags she got her hands on earlier at Sugawati.

Being the bargain hunter that she is, we actually circled the whole market thrice or don't know how many times till she found the store which sold her the biggest size bag, at the cheapest price possible! Gasp! Never underestimate the resolve of a bargain hunting woman.

We grabbed lunch at another highly recommended joint on tripadvisor. Cafe Lotus.

Other than the ones on the menu, this was the only lotus I saw in the whole lotus pond. Hmm...

But at least the ducks were entertaining, "Blamer, do you know it is rude to show your butt to our readers??"

They had a temple at the back of the restaurant, we didn't really have time to explore it, but met a fellow Singaporean couple who gladly helped us with this shot.

A big mug of Bintang to quench our thirst before we dig into the main course.

I forgot what this dish is called but it is a combination platter for two. The quickest way to have a taste of everything in smaller portions. I like the duck the most, which was very tender, the meat just disintegrates in your mouth with the flick of your tongue.

Next is to Uluwatu temple for the fire dance performance. We had to wear the sarong to cover our knees for the Hindus believed that the body is divided into two parts. The part above the waist is considered pure, thus it can be presented in front of god. On the other hand, the part below the waist is considered impure, hence must be covered up. I was hoping for a purple sarong though, would have appear better in the photos.

Some more monkeys here, however, our guide told us that these were much more aggressive than the ones at the monkey forest. They like to snatch your belongings and dangle them dangerously over the cliff. If you weren't fast enough to exchange for them with a bag of peanuts or banana, they will just drop it. I wonder whether these monkeys were trained for this purpose, such that the villagers can sell us the peanuts and bananas.

Dun be mistaken, the object of interest for this photo is not the sea, but the monkey on my left. Which was the same monkey in the earlier pic.

See the little structure jutting out of the cliff? This is the much hailed Uluwatu temple. Much better to see it in real life though.

With the sun setting, it's time for the fire dance performance.

Look at the turnout.

The main characters of the dance. I think among the performers, the guys that were seated had the toughest job. The whole dance had no musical instruments, the characters were dancing to the rhythm of the chants these guys were churning out.



Now for the most exciting part of the dance, or in my opinion, why it is called the fire dance.


Blamer managed to take a pic with the performers after the show. But we really wanted to take a pic with the one playing the monkey god Hanuman, guess he was just way too popular.

Last stop, a romantic candlelight dinner at Jimbaran beach.

Wasn't much, we took a package tour and the food was sort of pre-ordered. Bbq fish and prawns with a bit of clams. We were also running low on funds by the way, couldn't get Blamer's approval to order anything else... .. : (

In the end, we spend our very last rupiah on bbq corn by the beach!

Comes in two flavours, sweet or spicy. I recommend the spicy one, really tasty especially eating it with the cool sea breeze blowing at you. It is also recommended that you order only one to share, so that it will be more romantic walking along the beach this way.... (sniggers)

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