New Friend and Adventures (Feb. 2, 2015)

Today I visited two new areas in Bali. At about 10:00, Yulia, the girl that contacted me from Couchsurfing and wanted to explore Bali, met Reza and me at his apartment. Yulia and I went to a Temple that she had not seen before, while Reza met up with a friend that he needed to do some business with. We enjoyed the temple a lot, it was called, Bajra Sandhi, and then she showed me the church nearby, that she goes to. It was a beautiful Catholic Cathedral that was an interesting cross between traditional European Catholic style, and Balinese style. Many of the angels had wings, and Balinese head dresses. It was lovely.

This is the temple we saw

Two people taking wedding photos

View from top of temple

Flowers in front of temple

Yulia, my new friend, and me

Angel in the cathedral

Then we texted Reza and asked him if he was finished and wanted to join us for lunch and another adventure. He said he would like to, so we met him at a nearby McDonalds, where he left his motorbike, and came with us in Yulia’s van. We went to eat first, which was really cool. It was called Ayam Kremas, which is a name for the fried chicken in the flour that they served. The interesting thing was, that it cost $2 CAD, and you got bottomless iced tea, and bottomless rice. The lunch came with Tempe, which is a soy bean, fried little yummy thing, some veggies, and some chopped up tempe which was delicious. You had no utensils, and everyone eats with their hands. I wasn’t doing so well and Reza asked if this was the first time I had eaten with my hands. I admitted it was, so he gave me the strategy for not losing all the food when you go to put it into your mouth. You kind of cradle it, then push it into your mouth, using your thumb to push it in. That worked a lot better, and both Yulia and Reza laughed a lot while I was mastering the technique. She’s Indonesian, and he’s lived here for five years.

The 'eat with your hands' lunch

Yulia, me and Reza at lunch

Then we packed ourselves up and drove for about an hour through lovely rice paddies, to a place called Tanah Lot, which was a group of temples on the ocean. They were absolutely amazing and we walked through the area, enjoying the sights, and taking photos. We stopped for a drink, then made our way home. Here are some of the lovely pics I took. The ones with the animal are really cool. I mentioned that special, very expensive coffee that’s available here, made from the beans that pass through this special animal. Well, this is the animal, called the Luwak, that poops out the coffee beans. There was this shop that sold the coffee and had a number of the Luwak’s hanging around the shop. They also had two very large bats. When I was looking at the bats, the male bat decided to turn right side up, look me right in the eyes, and pee almost on my foot. If you look close, you can see him peeing. What a bad bat….lol.

View from top of hill for Tanah Lot

Another hill top view

Temple grounds with flowers

Sleepy lewak at coffee shop

Yulia holding a lewak that then bit
her on the toe....lol.

Liviah, look at this cool bat

Tomorrow Yulia wants to go to Bedugul which is a big lake with a big temple in the middle of the lake. I think Yulia is really happy to have met me, and Reza, as she is very sweet but hasn’t seen much of Bali and doesn’t seem to want to do this alone. Reza had some suggestions for her that she had not seen before, and was really excited to be going to places unknown.

More adventures tomorrow.