Day 3: Sightseeing in Bali
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We visit a few of the main attractions
and have lunch with the group. Later, an unexpected
detour to a different hotel for a nap and dinner.
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After arriving in the
dark last night, this was the view that greeted us from
our room in the morning. |
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Neither of us had slept
well because of the long-distance travelling and the time
difference, but we managed to get up in time to put our
luggage outside the door and were soon making our way to
the breakfast venue. |
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What a lovely place to
sit and have breakfast! |
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We arrived in the main
foyer just before the appointed time. It was soon very busy
as our fellow travellers joined us. We were all asked to
identify our luggage before it got loaded into a special
van to be taken directly to the ship. |
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Before long, we were
called to board one of three coaches and were soon on our
way. Some of the hotel staff lined up to wave goodbye to
us. |
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The grounds of the hotel
are lovely and once again, we wished that we could have
stayed just a bit longer to appreciate them fully. |
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Last night, we had received
this letter, but didn't take too much notice of it until
this morning. |
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The reference to the
vessel’s tanks related to its water tanks, with the
implication that the water supply would be shut off during
the maintenance work. Having clarified this point, we understood
why boarding could not take place until the supply had been
restored, and appreciated the alternative arrangements which
had been made, presumably at quite short notice, to accommodate
us during the five-hour delay.
It would have been rather nice, though, to return to the
hotel we had just left and to spend those extra hours there.
Better still, perhaps, we could have been given the option
of relaxing at the hotel for the day instead of joining
the excursion, particularly for those who were feeling the
effects of the long flights. We assumed that finding an
alternative hotel at such short notice must have been quite
a challenge, given the need to provide rooms for ninety
people for a few hours. |
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This map of Bali shows
the location of the airport in the south, our overnight
hotel at Nusa Dua(1), the area where we did our sightseeing
in the island's capital, Denpasar(2), the location of the
hotel where we spent the afternoon/early evening at Legian(3)
and the location of Benoa Harbour, where we embarked our
ship late in the evening. |
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Getting back to our morning excurion,
our first stop was at Puri Agung Jro Kuta, Denpasar.
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A short drive later and
we arrived at Denpasar's main market, Pasar Badung. |
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Back on the coach, our
local guide gave us some interesting facts about what we
were seeing and about Balinese life and culture in general. |
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We stopped for lunch
at Mahapuri, across the road from the Inna Bali Heritage
Hotel. The ship’s expedition team joined us there
after saying goodbye to the passengers who had disembarked
earlier, having completed their voyage around the island
of Borneo. It was a pleasure to see so many familiar faces
again, including expedition leader Fran and her team including
Emma, Grant, Colin, Damon and Tom, all of whom we had met
on previous trips. We had already caught up with a few fellow
travellers from earlier voyages, including Barbara and Tony,
whom we were particularly pleased to see again. |
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After lunch we were treated
to some traditional Balinese dancing. |
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The final stop on our tour was only a
short distance from the lunch venue and we opted to join
the group who chose to walk there. On the way there we
paused at the "Monumen Perjuangan Puputan Badung",
which commemorates the Puputan Badung battle on 20th September
1906 where King I Gusti Ngurah Made Agung and his people
fought to the death against Dutch colonial forces.
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A few steps further on we arrived at Agung
Jagatnatha Temple ("The Great Temple of the Lord
of the Universe"), a beautiful Hindu temple situated
in the centre of Denpasar City. It is a public shrine
dedicated to Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa (the supreme God
in Balinese Hinduism).
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Sightseeing over, our
next destination was the hotel which had been hastily arranged
for us to wait for the maintenance work on the ship to be
completed. It didn't look too far on the map, but the traffic
was heavy and so it took about an hour to get there. It
did, however, give us an opportunity to see some interesting
street views along the way. |
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Finally, we made it
to the Pullman Bali Legian Beach Hotel. The last fifteen
minutes of the journey had been particularly edifying...
and not in a good way. The area seemed to be at the cheaper
end of the tourist market and the streets were jammed with
noisy looking bars, restaurants and tattoo parlours sandwiched
between other venues that we would also not have any interest
in visiting! It was quite a relief to arrive at the relative
sanctuary of the hotel. We were given keys to a room, which
was quite acceptable and had three hours free before dinner,
which was to be served in the grounds of the hotel. There
was only one way that we wanted to pass those three hours....we
both had a long afternoon nap! |
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Our balcony overlooked
a noisy road, with the beach beyond it. As we weren't going
to be spending much time here, it didn't bother us. |
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From our balcony, we
watched as the sun set. |
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At 7:00pm, dinner was
served in the grounds of the hotel. We were impressed to
see how much effort had gone into arranging it for us. |
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After dinner, we were
treated to a Balinese Kecak dance performance. This is a
traditional musical drama and fire dance from the island,
that relies entirely on human vocal rhythms, rather than
musical instruments |
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After finishing our
meal and watching the show, we reboarded our coach for the
drive to our ship. The traffic had subsided considerably
and within half an hour we arrived at Benoa harbour. |
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