Bali Day Four: A Long Drive...and Snorkeling!

Our last day in Bali was just as beautiful as the previous three had been.  We ate another delicious round of pancakes out by the ocean, and took a last cruise around the reef, knowing that it might be awhile before we get to break out the snorkel gear again.  Singapore isn't known for it's world-class dive sites.  We mostly saw the same things we'd been spotting for the past few days, with the addition of some large grouper.  The currents were stronger that time, and fighting them was pretty tiring.

After snorkeling, we walked down the road to Warung Mekar, where we had a delicious lunch cooked by the ultra friendly owner.  As at Warung Bobo, we were given fresh popcorn as an appetizer and we found that it was delicious with chili sauce on it.  After lunch, Bryan took another round with the camera while I got our stuff prepared to go.  He got some beautiful flowers, and a good shot of this delicate little olive-backed sunbird.

Bryan also took a photo of the unique boats that we saw everywhere.  They had outriggers on both sides.

Of course, Alice was along for the ride.  She loved the black sand beach.

I hung around and read while we waited for a driver to come and pick us up.

Late in the afternoon, our driver picked us up and we left beautiful, peaceful Amed behind.  It was nice to do the drive in the daylight since we'd missed the scenery on our way up.  There were different views around every twist and turn- people working the fields, green mountains (see the corn in the foreground?  It made Bryan and me feel very at home), terraced rice paddies, and beautifully landscaped homes.

 At one point, we saw some guys sitting in a circle along the road.  Two of them were holding chickens, and our driver told us they were having a cock fight.  He pointed out the row of basket/cages lined up next to the men, and said that the cocks are kept under the baskets so that their bodies will be clean and undamaged before the fight.  As some of you might have guessed, my stomach was turning at the thought of the poor animals being raised just to fight.

Here we are in the car- you can see the windy roads in the mirror.

As we got closer to Denpasar, there were lots of traffic circles with sculptures in the middle of them.  This one was one of my favorites.

As we went along, we were able to catch glimpses of the ocean along the road, and at some places (like the one below), there were ponds near the road, with the ocean further back.

My favorite site of the ride was this pig on a leash.  So random.

And I barely snatched a photo of this person, riding along on a motorbike with a glass bakery display case mounted on the back.

By the time we made it through a crush of road construction and to the airport, we had about two hours before our flight left.  Normally that's more than enough time, but this was an Indonesian airport, so we got right down to the business of waiting in lines, lines, and more lines.  By the time we made it through the multiple phases, we were hungry and all we could find was this unusual McDonald's. There was a sign advising you not to eat there unless you had 15 minutes to wait for your food.  You ordered your food and then someone in a McDonald's in front of the airport cooked it and then brought it inside. The food was fine, but the system was bizarre.

The KLM flight back was fun, as Bryan and I linked up our in-flight entertainment systems and dueled each other at Tetris.  We had a wonderful trip, and I think I can easily add Bali to the list of places that we wouldn't mind returning to someday!