Weekend in the Peninsula

Austin -

Our last weekend in Bali was spent in the Bukit Peninsula, which is an area with many beaches and interesting places. Friday and Saturday morning were spent searching for sports bars in the Kuta area that were showing the right football games. Surprisingly, we were able to find them and eat some excellent American food while watching them. It was a really nice slice of home. The rest of Kuta was certainly interesting and different from everything else we'd seen in Bali, but it seemed a little overrun by tourists and people (naturally) catering to the tourists. After spending the day there, we were keen to get out and see other parts of the area. Our first night, we went to Jimbaran Bay, where we ate fresh fish on the beach and watched the sunset. It was, to sum it up in one word, peaceful. The next night, we were able to make it to Uluwatu to see the temple. This was, for me, the most amazing part of the trip. The temple is a haven for monkeys, most of which were very comfortable with people coming up to them to take pictures or feed them. We found some neat dirt paths that led to very secluded cliffs that overlooked the most vividly blue water I have ever seen. After the temple, we went to a nice spot and ate dinner on the cliff before going to bed. The next morning, we woke up early enough to catch high tide at Belangan beach, and made an attempt (if you can call it that) at surfing. In our defense, the waves were absolutely monstrous.

Some pictures:

 Dinner at Jimbaran Bay

 Cliff at Uluwatu

 Flesh eating fish foot treatment in Kuta. A very...interesting feeling

Zen monkeys at Uluwatu Temple

More Pictures

Here are some pics from Amed and the New Year's party:

 The view from our porch in Amed

 Ibu Ayu and Mr. Agung at the New Year's Party

 Tomi!

Seamus, Daniel, Travis, Austin all dressed in batik and sarongs

One of the traditional dances

New Year's

Travis writing -

The past week or so has been pretty busy, but we've done some really fun things.  As Daniel mentioned, we had a chance to go snorkeling in Amed which was beautiful.  We were told by a local there that Amed is one of the places that is "true Bali".  It really had that paradise look, with very small roads and not too much development.  On Sunday we took our time making it back to Keramas and rested off our weekend.  We should have practiced for our performance on the Angklung, a traditional Balinese instrument, but Tomi (a Slukat graduate who hangs out with us and helps us with pretty much anything) was sick.  We did get a few minutes to practice before the Slukat New Years party started the next day, but it turns out a few minutes was probably not enough.  The performance was awful by our judgement, but the kids were all very nice and told us they enjoyed it.  The various dances, songs, poems, and plays by the students were excellent though.  It was sort of similar to the Christmas party, but with more people and more preparation.  For both events, I was amazed by the students' initiative in organizing the whole thing: they cooked the food, prepared performances, decorated, and cleaned up!  After the party wrapped up, we headed to the beach club for fireworks and swimming.  Altogether, it was a very memorable New Year's.  Today, the students finished their celebrations with yoga on the beach and actually did a beach clean-up as well!  Us volunteers took a trip to Ubud for food and laundry, then returned to Keramas to rest up and prepare to get back into teaching tomorrow.  We'll post some pictures when we get a chance to return to the beach club for the fast internet there.