We felt like today should be the day we head into Denpasar, the main city in Bali. Despite being only 5 miles from our place, it took us about 40 minutes. Traffic in Bali is chaotic in a similar way to other South East Asian countries. Lots of mopeds carrying multiple passengers and goods, taxis and the occasional dog wandering along the road. Having said that drivers seem to be good to each other. Traffic just sort of flows through and into each other without much incident or aggravation. The only beeping you hear is drivers warning other drivers they are getting too close, or if they are going round a blind corner at night. It's quite a spectacle sat in the back of a cab watching the drivers do their thing - this is not the place for nervous passengers or back seat drivers!
We arrived in Denpasar and into the Bali museum. There were a number of people hovering hoping we would use them to guide us through the museum, but we declined - it wasn't really necessary. The Museum is not exactly one building with all of its exhibits in cabinets, it is a complex of statues, buildings (with cabinets) and various things out and on display. It was fairly quiet except for a group of school kids dressed up, rehearsing for some sort of performance. Most of them looked like they'd rather not be there, but some of them were smiling and waving at us.
We saw various exhibits about Balinese clothing, weapons, household tools and all sorts. What was most impressive I think were the buildings and various gates in the complex. It didn't take us a long to get around the museum (and considering the heat we did spend a bit longer in one or two of the rooms that had air con!).
We popped out of the museum and into the park outside. We walked by a number of 'hawkers', which is people selling various things like drinks, gifts and food - but they were uncharacteristically quiet. In some places they can be quite pushy, but in Bali, so far, they haven't been! We arrived at the statue in Puputan Park, which depicts the mass suicide that took place there by Balinese soldiers to avoid humiliation by the Dutch invaders in 1906.
We wandered along the street and looked in on a temple (but didn't go in). We continued on the main road for some time - Denpasar was busier than Sanur in a much more city like way. We headed toward the Royal Palace to have a look but ended up in the Satria bird market - which was, well, an experience. Lots of birds in cages, but also cats, bats and Tortoises and all sorts of other animals. I wouldn't say it was lovely, but it was certainly an experience! We felt like we were in proper Indonesia as there was not another tourist to be seen!
By this point we wanted to head back to Sanur for some lunch and then back to the pool. We got to the beach and found a lovely little lunch spot which overlooked the beach. It was nice to just sit and hang out for a while. After lunch we headed back to the villa to hang out by the pool. As you do!
Bali Museum
Bell Tower at Bali museum
exhibit showing traditional cistumes
Puputan statue. Yes they’re wearing actual clothes.
From the street in Denpasar
Seaview for lunch
and the lunch. Braised pork and a cone of rice.
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