South Bali Tour

Winten picked us up in the morning for a tour of south Bali. First we went to Nusa Dua beach – which is where all the tourists go to do water sport activities. Everything was pretty expensive, so we decided to do the cheapest thing as a group – a glass bottom boat to “turtle island.” We were under the impression that this was an island where hundreds of turtles roamed free in a protective environment. Wrong. First off, the glass-bottom boat was a boat with a narrow glass window on the bottom where you could sort of see fish swimming by. When we finally arrived at the island, we realized it was a type of petting zoo. They had dozens of turtles that they said were being protected from poaching, but some had been there for many years. A worker said a bunch were being released into the wild in June, but I was very unclear on why some had been there for over 10 years. They were keeping them in relatively shallow, ugly holding pens and it was really sad. Linda started crying and had to go sit by the exit. Sadly, it only got worse as we walked through the “petting zoo” which had many cages of animals that you could hold like fruit bats, toucans, a boa constrictor (with its mouth taped shut), and even a flea-ridden puppy in a tiny cage. That one made me tear up. It was all so inhumane, but none of the countless Asian tourists or Balinese workers seemed bothered.

This was before I realized what a terrible place this was

Turtle statue

glass bottom boat tour

After that, four of us had also paid to do parasailing. First, we were taken out on a speedboat into deeper waters, where we pulled up next to a parasailing boat and were told to climb on. Once on board the parasailing boat, we were driven around and two people at a time would get harnessed in and go. The workers/drivers of the boats had bandanas wrapped around their faces to prevent breathing in all the exhaust from hundreds of boats in the water at once, but one of the ladies, Kelly, said it looked like we were going parasailing with ISIS. They had hats and sunglasses on as well, so you literally couldn’t see any of their faces. The parasailing itself was really nice – with a great view of the whole beach and all the boats below, though it paled in comparison to parasailing in the Florida Keys. When I did that, I could see turtles and stingrays and all sorts of things in the water swimming around because it was so clear. The water at Nusa Dua beach would have been clear, except that with all the boats taking tourists out to do stuff, it was churning up the sand.

parasailing time!

view from on high

landed safely

We left the hectic Nusa Dua beach after that and went to a different part of the same stretch of shoreline where people swim and there are no boats. Lining this stretch of water are expensive hotels and restaurants. We chose a Chinese restaurant for lunch before heading into the water. While the food was pretty good, the service was terrible. We were also the only non-Chinese people in the place, and everyone kept staring at us. When we finally got out of there, we only had 30 minutes left to swim, so a few of us waded in. Unfortunately, the tide had gone out and the water was very shallow for a long ways out. We just lounged in a few inches of crystal clear water and enjoyed the beauty of our surroundings.

In the shallow waters

From there, we headed to Padang Padang beach – one of the most iconic beaches in Bali. They filmed some of Eat, Pray, Love here and the tour guides all tell you that Julia Roberts was here. To get to the beach, you have to go down some very steep steps that carve their way through a giant rock. The beach is bordered by these rock cliffs and also features many miscellaneous boulders covered in beautiful green moss.

Padang Padang beach

Padang Padang beach

We set up our towels under one of the rock ledges and then I went into the gorgeous water. However, after I’d been in for five minutes, I looked down and realized the tops of my legs were bright red. I must have missed them when I was lathering on the sunscreen earlier. I ran out of the water and back into the cool shade of the rock face. I was so mad at myself for getting burnt, and quickly applied lots of sunscreen, but I wasn’t willing to go back in the water.

On our way back up to where Winten had parked the car, we saw many monkeys. Winten had warned us about the “cheeky monkeys” there and said to watch out. They didn’t seem bothered by us...until an Asian tourist came up with an ice cream cone. All of a sudden, the monkeys started running toward him. He was terrified. We told him it was because of his ice cream, so he threw the cone on the gound and the monkeys rushed over. One picked up the cone and started eating it just like a human would. Another picked up the wrapper (it was one of those cones from a cooler box) and started licking it carefully. It was pretty amusing.

From there we went to our last temple of our trip: Uluwatu temple.

Uluwatu temple

Uluwatu temple

Uluwatu temple

Uluwatu temple

This temple is another that is on a cliff in the ocean. The terrain looks a lot like the California coast. It was pretty to see, but after Tanah Lot, it wasn’t quite as impressive. The sunset was also not as nice because there were clouds on the horizon. There was a Kecak Fire Dance happening in an outdoor amphitheater there, but since we’d already seen a Balinese dance for free, it didn’t seem worth the $8 pp.

There were also a lot of “cheeky monkeys” at Uluwatu, and we saw some steal sunglasses off someone’s face, and others grab someone’s hat. They are usually bribed to give said items back by the workers who offer them bananas in exchange. We were on our guard and with Winten’s warning, had put anyway anything easily grabbable, so we were left alone.

We left before the fire dance let out (so we’d beat the rush) and headed to Jimbaran Beach, which is famous for it’s “seafood dinners in the sand.” Winten dropped us off at a restaurant where they took us to a table out on the beach and gave us menus. We were completely scandalized by the prices which were 10 times what we would’ve paid in Ubud. Plus, there were almost no options except seafood (which was not good for the vegetarians among us). Thousands of people were eating out on the beach in both directions, so I started walking down and looking at other menus – but everything was the same. Finally, we decided as a group just to have Winten take us back to our hotel and we’d eat there. It was a good call. We sat at Azul, our hotel’s gorgeous open air restaurant, at an upstairs rounded booth that looked out over the ocean. We got pizzas and salads and brownies for dessert. It was heavenly.

Sunset from Bali Mandira