Day tour South Bali

Unfortunately, I'm uploading this with a one-day delay, but I didn't manage to do it yesterday.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, the driver Made picked me up on time and we went directly to the 'Bali bombing memorial' in Kuta. The terrible bomb attacks took place there in 2005.

Mareike joined us there, and we drove for about 1 hour to the Mengwi Temple. We were lucky that today was the temple festival, which only takes place every 3 months. We saw groups of children performing dances and then entering the temple together.

After another hour of driving through the hectic traffic, we arrived at the Tanah Lot Temple. A temple that is located directly in the sea on a rock. During low tide, you can even walk around it, and during high tide, the temple is on an island. It was really impressive to see everything in actuality. Simply because it's so completely different from what we're used to.

In the midday heat, we found a shady spot to rest for a bit. After a few minutes, an Asian family approached us for a photo. At first, we thought they wanted us to take a photo of them, but no, they wanted to take a photo with us. We were completely confused because we weren't used to that. We're so exotic here that people ask us if they can take a photo with us. That happened 3 or 4 more times, but it was always asked very politely and they thanked us a thousand times.

After almost 2 hours in the car, the driver took us to a coffee/tea plantation. We walked with a guide through a small jungle, and he explained the different plants to us. There were also small fluffy animals living there, a mixture of cat and raccoon, which are responsible for the expensive coffee there. These little animals only get to eat the best coffee beans every day, and what comes out of them becomes the coffee. It sounds pretty gross at first. The guide explained to us exactly how it works. He led us to a table in the middle of this small jungle and let us try the different coffee and tea varieties. One variety was more delicious than the other, except for the tea varieties with ginger, that wasn't really my thing. Then we could choose whether we wanted to try the so-called 'Luwak Coffee' (the one made by the animals) for about 3 euros. We tried it and were impressed. If you're in Bali, you have to drink 'Luwak Coffee' !!!! That's an order!

After refreshing ourselves, we continued to Padang Padang Beach. A hotspot for really cool surfers. To reach the beach, you have to go through a really narrow crevice, which is not suitable for people with claustrophobia. The beach was beautiful but unfortunately a bit overcrowded.

Lastly, we went back to Kuta to 'Skygarden', where you get a lavish buffet for about 7 euros and can eat and drink as much as you like. A great location.

Our driver Made spent almost the entire day either driving us or waiting for us. I felt a bit uncomfortable about that, but you have to get used to that thought here. He was very polite and nice. I can definitely recommend him.

Now I'm going to pack my little suitcase because we're continuing to Ubud tomorrow, and I'm really excited about the interior of the country.

Nicky