Falling in love with Bali..

There were several places that I visited on my last trip to Bali that made me fell head over heels in love with the island. The first place was the Batur Lake and Mountain. Before coming here, my travelmate, Sam, said that we shouldn’t go there. He didn’t want to go there. Period. Well then, technically…we didn’t, we just saw the view from afar. It’s such a shame to let a view as magnificent as that go to waste, isn’t it? :p Fortunately, Sam wasn’t grumpy when we’re there and instead, he really loved the view. Yeay!!

We got the gorgeous view from a restaurant in Jalan Penelokan. There were many restaurants along that road that overlooked the lake and the mountain, but we chose this one because we wanted to have lunch as well. We didn’t regret stopping for the view. The food? Meh. Nothing special about it, but the view and the somewhat pleasant service kind of make up for it.

The second place that I fell in love with was Uluwatu. I had never been there before and we went there to see the Kecak dance performance. But when we got there, the view turned out to be unbelievably jaw-dropping, eye-popping, and all around breathtaking!!! *enough drama, here? :p*

We enjoyed the Kecak dance performance well into the evening on the temple, accompanied by the warm glow of the setting sun that shyly saying goodnight to the world. We got the best seat to enjoy both because the staff seated us on the top corner seats. NICE!

Other than those two that made me go ga-ga for Bali, I luurvee diving in Nusa Dua. Sam was afraid to go diving before. It was because when he snorkeled in the same spot last August he did not feel at ease and when he lifted his head from the water, he was all by himself in the middle of the sea with nobody else in sight! Of course it made him feel even uneasy about going diving. Hahaha.

But I really wanted him to try it. If he didn’t want to try diving (I want him to try first, if he decided he didn’t like it at least he tried. Hihihi.), then if I want to go diving in the future when traveling with him, what will he do? So the point was he HAD to try diving. FOR ME! Yes!! FOR ME! Any objections?! Is that a problem for you?! HAH?! HAH?! *raising my chin*

With the help, cajoling, and coaxing by Bli Glory (It’s funny that we call him ‘Bli’ – which is used to call Balinese guys – but he has a girl’s name.) and my full support in the form of literally shoving him into the changing room, Sam finally joined me for the dive. Was it a lot of work? It WAS!! Sam has a huge ego. I bet when there’s something wrong he wouldn’t want to communicate out of pride… :p When you dive, that’s a no-no. You’d be panicked and everything can go from bad to worse in seconds. I told him repeatedly: communicate if anything’s wrong. If there’s a problem, communicate. If his ears felt funny, communicate. If there’s something wrong with his mask, communicate. Everything should be communicated. He just nodded several times. I couldn’t tell if he really understood or just wanted to shut me up and scratch my yapping face. Hihihi. After the yapping, I asked Bli Glory, “Bli, how deep will we go?” and he replied, “Just five meters…” And then I was the one who stared wide-eyed in shock. Turned out, not too deep.

Hihihi.

When we started descending, I had already tried many weird cutesy poses and Sam had found his groove. However, there were several moments when Sam, who was twice my size, panicked because he was not used to breathe through his mouth (but didn’t want to admit it). He flapped around unconsciously  and he nearly got my regulator off. Afterwards, he just went the other way and thought nothing of it. Damn it!! If he kept it up, I’ll ask him to pay for courses to get my diving license!! *seize this opportunity! :p*

There were spots in Nusa Dua that were prepared for this kind of fun dive. The same spots were also used for seawalkers, just like Sandy in Spongebob Squarepants. Hihihi. There were many kinds of fish there (my dear friends, when you dive, don’t pet the fish no matter how cute they were. Just enjoy the experience, don’t pet them and don’t hug them. Hug me instead. Okay okay. :p) and there were colorful reefs as well! It was awesome. We also had a videographer to record our dive. I felt like I was former Miss Indonesia, Nadine Chandrawinata, who hosted a diving show on television.

So this is the side of Bali that made people fell in love? The side that showed the magnificence of the universe. The side that offered a glimpse into the belief in culture and faith, as well as the side that frees each of us to be ourselves.

So this is it?? Yes, I’m in love. *such a late bloomer*

And I haven’t even gone diving to Tulamben and Amed. Hihihi.

Let’s get back to Bali then…

Hihihi..

Smile.. 🙂

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Written by: Bulan

Translated by: Silka from the post in Jatuh Cinta sama Bali..

Final edit by: Bulan