Since my last post we have been moving quite a bit. On November 8th we went to Pemuteran, in the north-west of Bali. We found a cheap homestay - Van Santri Homestay - with breakfast included and a shared kitchen, so we could make our own dinner after a whole day on the beach. We ended up staying there for ten nights, and Nico actually got tiered of getting pancakes for breakfast every day :D
In Pemuteran all activities get arranged in the hotels or at tourist information, so nobody will nag about taxis, bracelets, sarongs, fishing- or snorkeling trips on the beach or in the streets. It was such a delight to be able to just relax on the beach and say hallo to the locals without being afraid they will try to "force" you to do some activity or buy something you don't really want.
The beach in Pemuteran was really nice as well. They have this Biorock project to save the corals so they make constructions under water and plant corals there. There were bicycles, statues and lots of cool stuff full of corals. We did quite a bit snorkeling here and we finally got to see Nemo!
They also have a program to save the turtles in Pemuteran. With all the plastic in the oceans the turtles are paying a huge price. They often end up eating the plastic thinking that it's a jellyfish. The plastic then makes them sick and lots of turtles die because of it. In Pemuteran turtles come to lay their eggs. Often the fishermen are the first to see the turtles going back to the sea in the morning. Earlier the fishermen took the eggs as food, but because of this program they now get payed for the eggs when they find them. So the turtle program get the eggs and take care of them till they hatch and then for another two months so they are more likely to survive in the ocean. People can come visit them and get information and give their support so that they can continue to help the turtles. We also payed to release two turtles into the ocean. Nico decided to call them Oskar and Lotte :D It was so nice to be able to see these adorable little creatures swim into the big ocean. I really fell in love with them <3
One day when we were about to go back home some local musicians stopped us and asked if they could film us while holding a sign with "I love Pemuteran" for their music video. After talking for a while it turned out they were going out to this small sand island just outside Pemuteran beach. Earlier that day I had said to JT and Nico that it would be cool to go to that island, and when I told them that (with no thoughts of it getting me there) they asked if we wanted to come along. So we said "yes" and suddenly we were on an sand island dancing in a music video! :D
Click the link below to see the video.
Dek Unyil - Pemuteran
After the ten days in Pemuteran we decided to do something very different (for us) because Nico's birthday was coming up and we wanted to make the day special with experiences, not more stuff. So we decided to go to Nusa Dua and stay in a resort with a swimming pool and a TV (that was really important for Nico). So we left Pemuteran on November 18th and on November 20th Nico turned six and we celebrated the day in Bali Safari and Marine Park. Nico is really interested in dinosaurs, and everything that looks a bit like a dinosaur, and he's been talking about how much he wants to see the komodo dragon so we took him to a place where we knew he would get to see at least one :) He was really happy with the day there, and we ended the day with room service and cartoons on TV.
Since we were in the south of Bali and haven't really been interested in going to the more touristy places before, we decided to give it a chance and went to Canggu after three night at the resort. When we got there, my first reaction was: Man, I'm old! All the young women with huge lips and tits and so much makeup that they don't need sunscreen posing with their butts out and stomach in really made me feel old and sloppy. Even Nico noticed the posing on the beach so he wanted to take a picture of me, and he instructed me on how to stand and where to look. To my surprise the photo was pretty good, though I felt really stupid while posing.
And Nico's result:
In our opinion Canggu is more a place for young people who want to pose, surf and party, more than a place for more relaxed and lazy people like ourselves. We tried to go to Finns Beach Club to eat sushi one day, but that was really not our thing. The food was good, but soooo expensive, and there were so much people with a somewhat different lifestyle than ours.
After five days in Canggu we were so ready for something more authentic Bali, so we left for Candidasa on November 26th. And here we are now. We came here two days ago, and yesterday we went trekking in the rice fields with a local guide. The route started at a traditional village and took us into rice fields, pineapple plantations and over a bamboo bridge. He then drove us to White Sand Beach or Virgin Beach a little north from Candidasa. This beach was the reason we went to Candidasa, but we didn't know you had to drive to get there from Candidasa. In Candidasa there's no beaches. They are all ruined by hotels that's being built on the beaches on high brick walls to get shelter from the waves. So at low tide there's a thin strip of "beach" here and at high tide the water goes all the way up on the brick walls. (See pictures from this trip on Instagram).
Tomorrow we'll head to the mountains! We're going to Danau Batur, a lake right at the bottom of Mount Batur. Here there's supposed to be hot springs and lots of places to take walks and also rent bicycles to see the surrounding area. It will probably get a little colder there at night, but now that seems like a delight :)
Live life and love it <3
Lotte - the lazy "blogger"
