Today we had a guide, Agus, to take us around Bali. Our first stop was Seminyak, a touristy shopping and dining area. Tourism is Bali's biggest industry, so it's not surprising that most of the places we've visited so far have seemed 'touristy.' According to Agus, tourism is the reason why most Balinese people are very friendly.
Many Balinese get around on Honda motorbikes. Traffic is chaotic, and we found it very hard to cross the streets because crosswalks and traffic lights were rare. Even at crosswalks, drivers and cyclists didn't stop for pedestrians unless they were already in the middle of the street.
We saw many shops selling racks of petrol for motorbikes on the sidewalks. Agus told us that a litre of this petrol comes to 4500 Indonesian rupiah, or 50 cents Canadian.
A man glazing a cabinet in front of one of the many furniture stores in the area.
On the sidewalk in front of almost every store were these little offering trays, called canang sari. Balinese Hindus make one of these delicate baskets every day. It was definitely an effort to avoid trampling on them as we walked down the streets.
One of the stores only sold items woven out of a type of tall grass. I bought one of these over-the-body purses after the storekeeper demonstrated how strong the grass was by trying to rip the lid off of one of them and failing to.
After finishing browsing through Seminyak, we drove to the Uluwatu Temple for sunset. It's a Hindu temple with a stunning view over a cliff on the Indian Ocean. You can see it on the right in this photo.
Agus warned us in advance of the 'naughty monkeys' who hang around the temple and like to steal tourists' bags, cameras and sunglasses. My purse and camera were securely attached to my body, and my glasses were on my face, so I didn't think too much of it. Little did I know. I stooped down a bit to take a photo of this little guy and right after I snapped this photo, he (or she) turned to look at me, so I started to back away. As soon as I lowered my camera, he jumped straight at me and snatched my glasses right off of my face. It was a very skillful snatch too, he didn't touch my face at all and it happened so fast that I couldn't even register what had happened. I was so disoriented that I was just standing there half blind and laughing helplessly while the monkey ran off into the forest and my mother flapped around yelling for help. A local ended up chasing the monkey to get my glasses back in exchange for a tip- I think his sole job is to sit around all day waiting for monkeys to harass tourists.
Much less troublesome baby monkey.
View facing away from the temple.
We drove to the nearby fishing village Jimbaran for dinner after the sun had set. All of the restaurants on Jimbaran Beach are seafood restaurants located side by side in a strip, and they all have essentially identical menus with similar prices, all with similar views from similar locations. The restaurant we went to was literally on the beach- all of the tables were in the sand. The ocean was only a few metres away from where we were sitting, and we could hear the waves at the same time as traditional Balinese music.
All of the seafood we ordered was grilled, and our platter came with red snapper, lobster, crab, prawns, squid, and clams.
Traditional Balinese dancers took the stage for a live performance during our dinner.
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