The day started bright and clear as we headed to the beach to spend the morning doing water sports. There were lots of things available. A couple of our group members jet skied. Some went on a glass bottom boat to an island and got to see and hold animals such as a bat and a toucan. A couple others went snorkeling again. I went on a fly fish with a few other people. Now, a fly fish is not the same thing as fly fishing (much to the disappointment of Professor Van Der Heide). It is basically a combination of tubing and para-sailing. Needless to say, it was awesome. After our activities we relaxed on the beach and ate some ice cream until it was time to go.
For lunch we went to a restaurant in the area where some Hindu people are working on building the world's largest statue. The food was a pretty standard Indonesian meal. The statue, though, was anything but typical. Here are pictures of a basic outline of what the statue is going to look like and some of the pieces. As you can undoubtedly see once the statue is finished, it will be HUGE.
Outline of Statue-to-be
One part of the statue
Another part of the statue
While we were walking around the statue area we stumbled upon a man giving temporary tattoos. Needless to say, we were soon all adorned with pictures of bats, dolphins, flowers, suns, and more. The most memorable was when Ruwan requested a flower, but the artist informed him that he would not be getting a flower, but a scorpion. We all had a good laugh about that.
Gecko Tattoos
A little while later we headed to another area with some Hindu temples and a great view of the sea. There were also several monkeys running around. These were very mischievous monkeys, attempting to steal cameras, sunglasses, and sandals. Sometimes they were successful. They soon inspired fear in many of our members and made the rest of this particular journey quite interesting as the monkeys popped in and out of the brush. Classic to form, Nate allowed a monkey to climb on his back. It started cleaning his hair and was actually kind of cute.
Awwwww
After the monkeys we headed back to the Hindu statue area for another dance show. Before the main show there was a single dancer on stage. Periodically she would enter the audience and choose someone to join her on stage for a little while. After a bit of support from our group we convinced her to pick one of our resident dancers (Chantel) to dance with her. As if there were any doubt, Chantel quickly stole the show.
Chantel jammin' hard
After the rest of the dance show we left for a seafood dinner at the famous Jimbaran Bay. As per usual, we enjoyed the food and each others' company very much. During dinner we were serenaded by a band who knew American songs. They were very good and funny to boot. I received a marriage proposal from one of the musicians during one of the songs. However, he didn't have a ring to give me so I declined. We walked out to hang out on the beach for a little while after dinner. It felt wonderful out there. From dinner we headed back the hotel for the night, another successful day of exploring Indonesia accomplished.
-Ben
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