We arrived on the 10th March and met up with Des, Mary and Pauline.
Helen arrived a little later and we had a nice dinner and catch up.
The next day Terri, Sarah and Bubbles arrived and Maurice and I went off to the airport (the day before Nyepi – the Balinese day of silence) to pick up Robert and Gay from Sydney.
The Balinese create large effigys of evil spirits out of paper mache and some of styrofoam. After prayers these are paraded around the individual villages and then burnt or destroyed to be rid of the evil spirits. We all went down to the closest village Senkidu to watch the procedings before going back to Joglo restaurant for dinner.
Nyepi the following day was a very quiet one with no one including tourists allowed on the streets. The Balinese have guards patrolling the streets to make sure no one breaks the rule. After
6pm all the lights are turned off and it was quite eerie but nice
to be sitting by the sea in the dark. We all sat around and had a few drinks and then were back in our rooms about 8.30pm.
We all had a lovely week shopping,visiting the various restaurants in Candi Dasa, going to the “white” beach by boat 20minutes away or visiting a few of the water palaces and Amed to have lunch overlooking the bay below.
Pondok Bambu where we stayed is a very relaxing place right on the ocean and there is usually a lovely sea breeze and lovely sunsets to enjoy.
We are sad to be leaving this lovely spot tomorrow. We will fly to Kuala Lumpur for the night and then on to Chennai and Pondicherry for a week before going back to Udayagiri in Kerala for two weeks.