TRAVELOGUE – BALI DAY 3 | Live Life Lah.......

Day 3 was a little bit disappointing for me.. because I actually had plans to do more sightseeing of Bali, especially of places I have not been such as the Jatiluwih Rice Terrace, Batukaru Temple and/ or the Alas Kedaton Temple or even see the beautiful Pura Ulun Danu Bratan in Bedugul again…but when you are traveling with a companion/ friend you have to compromise and give in and well, because of the fact we had to check out at 12 noon as the hotel was full and did not allow half day extension, after deliberation, we only squeezed in a trip to Tanah Lot… Besides, it was drizzling steadily since early in the morning…

Pak Ali, our driver was at the hotel at 9.30am and we headed to Tanah Lot, which about an hour’s journey, since we had to pass narrow winding streets and pretty and less pretty paddy fields to get there..

The tide was high when we arrive there and waves crashed at the shores.. but blissfully the rain has also stopped..

Pak Ali manage to get us into Tanah Lot on local rates which was like 1/2 the price for tourists…he set us down and we made our way through a small row of shops before we got to the temple area…

However, our first sight was of the equally beautiful and exquisite Batu Bolong, located North of Tanah Lot which is a unique rock formation with a ‘hollow’. It is definitely picturesque and almost equally as much photographed as the Pura Tanah Lot itself, I bet..

Anyway from there we made our way to the Tanah Lot but we could not get across since the tide was high and the sea rather choppy..we took plenty of photos there..but if you want more taken by photographers there who can print your pics immediately, you can get one of the Indonesians or Balinese photographers to take your pic for about IDR20,000

After that, we headed back to our car and back to town.. Kak Fas then decided that she’d like a tour of Denpasar and we headed there… and stopped for some photos at the pretty interesting Bajra Sandhi Monument there… which looked like some majestic temple as well.. think Prambanan or Thai/ Myanmar temples with stupas…

This monument is said to immortalize the soul and spirit of the struggles and sacrifices of Balinese people… the monument is build in the middle of a park and is pretty impressive indeed…

After that, we headed back to the hotel to check out and pick up Kak Fas’s son…it was in the car Pak Ali suddenly mention ‘Gempar’ and I looked at him disbelievingly.. and then I checked google and sure enough there was a report of a slight earthquake not too fat away there…

We then headed for a quick Nasi Padang meal before going to Kuta for the afternoon… and a nice relaxing whole body massage at a spa at one of the side alleys for just IDR65,000

It was fun seeing the crowd at the Kuta Beach but well, the sunset was a slight disappointment because of the gathering clouds…

Then I had my moment of ‘terror’, which might come across as nothing much to the experienced snake handlers… but well… I was kinda excited as well as wanting to show off that I am brave enough to hold a python while in Kuta, Bali, when I saw a snake handler asking people if they wanted to hold the snake in return for some donations for the slithery beasts care….. so I agreed to it, thinking I can just hold one snake for a couple of minutes and get a picture taken..

But the snake handler had other ideas and made me hold two snakes instead…

My ‘bravery’ almost turn to fear when the lovely albino python refused to stay put like how the other snakes would normally be…. he was moving… and at first I was scared I might drop him…

Then… he turned and faced me , giving me that look, maybe it’s just my imagination but it scared me for sure.. hahaha… then he started slithering up me.. and I was practically begging the snake handler to get him off me… hahaha

But again, she had other ideas, I was practically screaming internally when he slithered and coiled around me… but the snake handler was happily taking pictures for me.. hahaha
Then she finally took him off me and had the audacity to ask me if I want to kiss the python on the mouth…. hell NO!!!!

I was controlling my own hysterics by then… hahahaha …But phew…..I survived it…lol, from there Pak Ali picked us up and sent us to the airport…

Only when I arrived at the departure hall did I actually see the magnificence and how big the Ngurah Rai Airport has grown since I was last in Bali back in 2010….and yeah, they even have a Hard Rock Cafe and Rock Shop here at the Ngurah Rai Airport…