Indonesia - Bali!

3:00 am is too early to be awake. Despite the drowsiness and late night packing, we made it to the airport with time to spare time catch our flight to Denpasar via Makassar. I was disappointed to have to use a squat toilet for the first time. I thought it would be simple, but honestly going in the woods is a lot easier and more comfortable. Everyone seemed to love Bali as soon as we got out of the airport. It is very popular for Australians and American tourists, so it has more of a Western feel than Sulawesi. Our vans are nice and new and have air-conditioning. They are bigger too, which means no more being cramped into the back seat in a steamy van that sounds like it is going to fall apart.

The first place we went in Denpasar was a really fancy restaurant. There were some American dishes and lots of folks ordered those. I'm tired of local food, but I know I won't have the chance to eat it much longer so I got a Indonesian dish. It was tofu and tempeh skewered on bamboo dowels and covered in a peanut sauce.

Next we went to a store that sold lots of cheap souvenirs. After that we saw the Hindu Culture Park where we saw huge statues of Garuda and Wisnu. We had to wear skirt thingies... And they were put on us by a guy working there. It was kind of weird.

Our next place was the Uluwatu temple. The view from the rocks out to sea was amazing, and the monkeys hanging around made it super cool. At the temple we gathered in an amphitheater as the sun set and watched a Fire Dance. I was hoping for lots of flame, but there was only one firey scene. It was mostly some weird people making weird movements around a bunch of chanting, shirtless, tattooed, men. For an entire hour. 

We drove a long way to our new bungalows. It was worth the drive though. All our rooms have A/C and face the pool. After checking in and having worship we were given money to go find food. 

At too-late-o'clock we hit the streets, hungry. A few of us blew in at an open air restaurant with a guitar man and some decently priced food. As we waited for our dishes we cleaned our faces with cold, moist, scented towels and grooved to American folk music strummed by Indonesia's version of John Denver., 🎶 West Virginia, Mountain momma, take home.. The high class service cost less than 5 dollars. I spent fifty thousand rupiah. 

I rewrote this post the morning after. Google lost the first one, which I happened to be quite proud of. A long day fried with sweat and sightseeing, seasoned with late night adventure and savored over excellent chopped sui lended more flavor to my writing than my early morning brain.

Google is still not cooperating, so pictures will be uploaded later.