I've just climbed out of the pool after a wonderful relaxing swim, my Lovina routine of underwater stretches, and a 1/2 hour of basking in the sun. I guess my mind was completely uncluttered because all of a sudden I realized I had left out one of our stops from my blog post hence my return here. As well, it occurred to me that I'm sure Lynda will have a story to add when she returns from her snorkel adventure later so....I'll leave this post open until after she is back.
Yikes....how could I have forgotten to include that we stopped in at Bali's only winery on our tour west too!? It is right on the north coast and is called Hatton Wines. Well....actually....only the vineyards and a small wine shop are located on the northwest coast...the winery itself is actually in Denpasar so all the grapes are taken there for processing.
What we learned??? They grow both green and black grapes here but it is the green ones that are domestic, the others are imported from France I think he said. Also, the domestic grapes are grown in the traditional Balinese way, on a trellis, whereas the ones from France are grown like we typically see them grown in the Okanagan, in a row.
What we tasted??? We just tasted two. Both were from the Balinese collection (Hatton also bottles for another winery that imports grapes from Australia). The first was called Alexandria. It is a white and a little on the sweet side. It was served chilled and it was so fruity and refreshing we just had to buy a bottle! Next we tasted their port style fortified wine and honestly....it was beyond delicious. Of course we had to buy a bottle of that one too! Well, it's actually more like a 1/2 size bottle so it doesn't really count as a whole bottle right?! :). That wine had been fortified with brandy from France and it was a beautiful amber colour. We were going to crack it open last night but I'm not sure what happened as we both forgot that we had it and so....perhaps tonight will be the night to break the seal on that baby! Birgit, our host, didn't even know that Hatton made a fortified wine and so we've made arrangements with her to listen for us calling out "port-time" and that will be her clue that it is time to come join us on our patio for a sip or is it called a nip of that golden nectar.
Lynda just arrived back from her FULL day away at the snorkel site and she is sooo excited to tell me all about it so I will type as she talks and you'll all get the full story too. :). But....while I wait for her to come out of the shower I will tell you something else that I neglected to mention this morning. When I came out onto our patio it was not a pretty sight this morning! Well, there were the usual pretty flowers and foliage and the pool and the blue sky etc but there was also blood all over the floor (just drops of it) near our door. Wasn't sure what might have happened and so I looked up to see if there was an overhead source (based on my scientific figuring of the splatter patterns - LOL). Sure enough...there was! There were smears of blood on the wall too and from the look of it our resident squeaky toy gecko might have been the source! There were several smears on the wall where he had climbed back up to his perch so I'm thinking something must have attacked him on the wall OR he killed something and dragged it back up there with him and that is his victims blood but either way.....somebody didn't fare well out here last night! Gooday took care of it all this morning and now it is just a distant memory. Aggghhh....now we can just focus on the pretty bits and not whatever it is that goes on out here after dark!
....and now for Lynda's story.....
After setting out of here just after 8:00 she met the rest of her group at the Malibu Hotel. The group consisted of Lynda and a family of 3 from Oz. The trip to catch the boat took 1 1/2 hours and her day began with the van needing to be jump started. Could this be a sign of what was to come? Hopefully NOT! The boat to Menjangan Island was pretty small and Lynda says it is a really GOOD thing that I wasn't on board. She said the entire 1/2 hour journey across the water was such a wild ride that she had water washing in over the sides of the boat for the whole trip. I am ever so thankful that I didn't buckle and change my mind about going since it is the best place to snorkel in all of Bali.
The rest of her group was going diving and so her adventure really got underway when the boat she came in left her in the water near the island as they went out to a dive site. Lynda, being the Brownie that she is, stopped, looked, and listened for potential danger and created her plan where safety was at the core. Once she found her rhythm she was so happy and the fish were beautiful and the water was clear and all was good in the world! Also in Brownie fashion she had gone prepared with her long sleeved shirt so there was no worry of sunburn and she found an anchor and a rope she could use as a reference point. All was good in her world!
Until it wasn't! Eventually she tired a little of the snorkelling and decided that she'd do a little hike around the island in search of the temple that is supposed to be there. The problem with all of this hiking business is that she doesn't have shoes or clothes and the rocky ground is friggin' HOT! Here is Lynda wearing her long sleeve shirt over her bathing suit, looking like she is practically naked. Think about it...she is wearing her bathing suit bottoms and her shirt that is just a little longer than her suit so it looks like she is naked and her hair is all wet and in a knotty ball stuck on the side of her head. And her words...she is old....and she probably looks like a crazy woman wandering the island! All the while she is also hopping from shady rock to shady rock with burning bits in between. But in Lynda's words, "who cares"...there's no one around so she's just going to walk to a temple and maybe see a barking deer. (Yes people....there are supposedly barking deer on that island!). Yes, she made it to this temple and was turning around to come back when there came a procession with people all in white coming to this temple for a full blown ceremony. OMG....here is Lynda, practically naked in the middle of their ceremony! She is apologizing and trying to cover herself and in true Balinese fashion all they said was seng kin kin (no problem) and would she like to join them. She made her apologies and said no...she had to get back to the boat which she did. She hopped from shady rock to shady rock and eventually made it back to where the boat was just returning from the dive site. Lunch was served and while she was sitting there enjoying her nasi goreng you will never guess what showed up right behind her! A barking deer!!! Yes, there it was making it's barking noise and looking out at her group as if to say..."what are you doing here on my island?!"
Once lunch was over it was time to get back in the boat to go to the next site where the divers would explore a new location and where Lynda would truly be on her own and at one with the deep blue of the Java Sea. I have to interject here people....you have no idea just how thankful I am that I didn't go as I listen to her recant her story....it is actually leaving me breathless and I would likely not have survived to be able to type this down for you to read! But back to her story....so the driver of the boat tells Lynda to just let herself go with the current and they will see her back at the launch site in a couple of hours. So she floated with the current and ooohed and aaahhed about the amazing fish she was seeing. There were huge angel fish that looked like they wanted to come up and give her a kiss. There were starfish of every colour - even bright blue! There were tiny little fish and middle sized fish and big fish and all of them looked like they were happy in their perfect aquarium environment. All was good....until.....the bottom fell out of the ocean and she hit the edge of the coral reef she had been floating over. That is when she says that she felt her first bit of anxious....there she was just another one of the massive school of little fish that she was in the midst of just waiting for a big whale to come and scoop her up along with them cuz it is almost dinner time after all! She helped the current along a little with a dozen or so breast strokes and then there was the coral floor back for her to enjoy. This coral/no coral reality continued on for the rest of her journey and eventually she stopped feeling anxious and she knew it was just a matter of minutes until the floor was back in the ocean for her to enjoy again. She floated along with that current for a full hour and fortunately it all worked out in the end and she met back up with the boat at the planned site and here she is safe and sound back at home.
So...she didn't see the whale shark that they told her she might be able to reach out and touch....(that bit of info alone makes me want to run away screaming!) but she did see the barking deer AND...she had the best day ever and won't be able to wipe the smile off her face for the rest of the evening. However, she is really glad I've agreed to share my much coveted supply of P3 with her though as she can already tell that she is going to be one stiff and sore girl tomorrow.
So now you have the rest of this day's story so once again....till next time,
L & L
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