Bali day 3 and 4: full day at Uluwatu and moving to Seminyak

We had a fun and packed day on day 3 as we got a car with a guide to take us around highlights of Uluwatu. He picked us at 9am and our first stop was Jimbaran seafood market by the harbor. It was really local market, with fresh caught fish and all kinds of shells, very fishy smell that girls didn’t like. But husband loved exploring. We said that next time we should come back and stay in Airbnb so we can taste them.

Our second stop per our request is to try the Kahlua coffee, a speciality of Indonesia. It sounds disgusting but it’s also creative. We saw the animal that produces the coffee bean, the natural roasting process, and got a sample of coffees and tea to try. I didn’t find the coffee particularly special and it’s super expensive. So we got a lemongrass tea instead.

Next was finding a place to have lunch. Our guide recommended a place and it had a large selection of international and local dishes. This area near Uluwatu temple is full of westerners, people who stay here for surfing purpose.

Next we went to suluban beach to spot surfers but we saw none. So we went to another one called badang badang beach. To get there, we had to descend to get to the water. Once we got there we could feel the strong waves, no wonder many surfers come here.

Then we had to go up again to pass the rock. Finally we got to the beach which was small but clean and cozy. Girls enjoyed the small waves by the beach.

Next stop was the Uluwatu temple. We got the sarons to show respect.

It was packed with tourists and monkeys. Our guide warned us about the aggressive monkeys that not only take food from you but also cellphones, hats, glasses, and would negotiate with you (exchange the item with food). We thought he was exaggerating but actually during our short stay we saw two monkeys attacking tourists taking their glasses. What a scene. The monkey would wait to get some food until throwing back the glasses. the girls were amazed by the little scene.

Then we got our tickets for the Kecak fire dance. Due to raining season, before the show started it was dizzling a bit and the organizers handled ponchos to us. It was so fun to see everyone wearing colorful ponchos.

The dance lasted 30 min and quite entertaining, an introduction to the culture heritage of the country.

We got back to the hotel almost 8pm exhausted.

Day 4 was our hotel changing day. We had feee morning so I went to the gym again and enjoyed the sweat. It put me in such good mood to start the day with movement. the bonus was the view from my Treadmill.

Girls spent the morning in kids club. We checked, traveled an hour to get to our next hotel in seminyak area. It’s a much more touristy area.

After exploring our rooms we head out for a late lunch before going to the beach. Unfortunately the beach at seminyak is not nice, dirty, messy, brown sand, not somewhere we would feel relaxed. I think we are spoiled to have visited so many pristine beaches in the Philippines so our standard for beaches are higher than normal. Still the beach was packed with tourists. We stopped for a drink and left.

The highlight of seminyak seems to be all the little stores and spas on narrow roads. We didn’t stop as the family was already tired after walking for quite sometime. But I made plans to come back the next day to do some shopping 🙂

The funny thing was when we walked on those roads, we realized that we stayed in that neighborhood 5 years ago. I didn’t plan it that way, it just happened to be. We even recognize some stores that we visited last time. While I didn’t remember much about our lady trip here, when I walked around, suddenly those memories came back and I could recognize those places. It felt familiar suddenly.

We were too tired to go our for dinner so I ordered in and girls had fruits and snacks. Unfortunately Sofia had upset stomach before bed with some GI issues. Poor girl. Maybe the smoothie was not fresh or she had too much melons. Hopefully she feels better tomorrow.