Week 2 cont.: through the mountains

After leaving Pemuteran we headed up the western end of the central mountain range, driving along a string of dormant volcanoes, several of them now filled with breathtaking lakes.

We passed Lake Tamblingan, Lake Buyan and Lake Bratan, before stopping around lunch time at Bedugul. Bedugul is famous as Bali's garden capital, and is the source of many of the flowers, fresh fruit and vegetables that you find in the tourist resorts. We went to a little restaurant called the Strawberry Stop and had an absolutely wonderful vegetable dish called Chap Chay. We then walked up to the Botanical Gardens, which were a lot further away than the map suggested and almost all of it up the side of a steep mountain. It is a lot less formal than some of the gardens I've been to, with enclaves of a particular type of plant scattered in amongst the natural forest of the area. The flowers were very nice, but it was actually some of the Balinese statues that really stick in my mind even now.

Bali - Week 2

After a week in Kuta I was more than ready to get out and see the rest of Bali. We hired a local driver named Katut to take us up the West Coast to a fishing village and dive spot called Pemuteran.

On the way we stopped at one of Bali's best known water temples, Tanah Lot. The area around the temple has become a bit of a tourist trap, but the temple itself is still a very beautiful spot.

From there we continued to Pemuteran. Pemuteran itself is a small fishing village in a shallow bay with a collection of 4 or 5 resorts at the western end. It's only real signifigance lies in the fact that it is the closest place to nearby Menjaggan Island, a terrific diving location with some amazing coral formations. We arrived on Christmas Eve, and I spent my Christmas Day out on a dive boat with a great bunch of people enjoying some gorgeous weather and some terrific diving. I've got to say that as much as I missed spending Christmas with my family, there are definitely worse ways to a spend a Christmas.