Day One in Bali - Uluwatu Temple

I admit it, my sleep hasn't been so great recently so I took an Ambien before going to bed last night. It may have helped but it probably didn't make much of a difference as it still too me a while to doze off and I was already exhausted.

Anywho, I awoke at about 6am and because I knew I wouldn't be getting back to sleep I decided to take a walk. On the way out I passed a pool on the grounds filled with fish and frog and more of the excellent statuary we saw last night.



Despite being armed with a map I still managed to get disoriented (in part because there are so many little streets that are either unmarked themselves or don't exist on the map). So I wandered for a bit and finally backtracked to the hotel. When I set out it was warm and humid but nice and when I returned to the hotel it was feeling a bit on the hot side of the spectrum.






When I walked into the room Laura was up so we decided to go down to our complimentary breakfast. Afterwards I decided to get a massage while Laura opted to take a nap. The massage was nice and afterwards I returned to the room and took a nap too. We've been burning the candles at both ends for a while now and it has been taking its toll, there's just so much we want to do and we've overdone it a bit.

Wisely, I set my alarm because we were supposed to meet our driver, and overall good guy, Ariawan at 4pm in the lobby of our hotel and we both slept until the alarm went off. We groggily leapt into action and got ourselves ready just in the nick of time.

Ari took us first to Uluwatu, an amazing temple perched on the precipice of the southernmost point of Bali's coastline. The whole area was swarming with monkeys and Ari said they are more aggressive than most so he picked up a stick to chase them off if they got too bold. Kuta, where we've been staying, and the surrounding area has been experiencing high winds and they were even more pronounced at Uluwatu as there was little to dissipate the gales.









Our tour of the temple and surrounding area complete, we then went to Kecak dance. The dance illustrates one of the most famous Hindu stories and is accompanied by a human orchestra. Although it obviously caters to tourists it was a lot of fun and even Ari, who has seen it countless times, laughed at the right spots and generally seemed to enjoy himself.







































For dinner we were spirited away to a beachfront restaurant where we were allowed to select our fish which was then covered in chilies and grilled. To accompany it there was an enormous portion of rice, various sauces, and a really nice vegetable dish that was reminiscent of spinach but more tender and sauteed in garlic.

From there we were taken back to our hotel to get cleaned up and get ready for bed. Tomorrow we leave Kuta and head to Ubud, Bali's artistic community so we're preparing for a good night's sleep...