Tropical Punch Tour: Bali Part 9
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Danau Bratan, Bali, Indonesia
Today, I took a two-hour bus ride up North to a little village called Candikuning that sits right on the shore of Danau Bratan, one of several large lakes up in the Central Mountains area of Bali. The air up here is nice and cool. It’s such a relief to escape the sweltering heat of the lowlands! I actually feel like a regular human again instead of a hideous, sweat-producing pod.
Bali’s main North-South road snakes through this rustic village, where there’s a central market full of folks selling food and all of the usual myriad trinkets. For a night snack to eat later, I bought corn on the cob from a woman who balanced a jug of it on her head, and some locally-grown strawberries. I also bought two kinds of chips: the first were coated with a bit of carmel to give them a slightly sweet taste, and the others consisted of some kind of leaves with yellow stuff smeared on them, which tasted kind of like potato chips. All of this stuff was yummy.
I rented a funky-looking little room at the Ashram Guest House, which overlooks the lake. There’s a place a little ways South called Taman Rekreasi Bedugal that rents boats, jet skis, etc. I saw a speed boat towing a guy who was flying in a parachute, which looked pretty funny. I ate dinner at a place called Bedugul Lakeview run by some Muslim girls in traditional attire.
A bit later, I sat down by the lake for a spell when some strange yet beautiful, haunting singing appeared out of nowhere in the distance and echoed throughout the hills of this wonderful, fog-filled wonderland. I couldn’t even tell where it was coming from. Since this village pretty much closes at sundown, I just hung out in my room for the rest of the evening and hit the hay early.
Roll over photos for captions.
All words and photos ©2010 Arcane Candy.
Garry: Great blog. Keep the updates coming!
I’m glad you’re having so much interesting fun! I’m studying in Germany now, sooo many papers to write, that I don’t journal like I should. Took a few breaks to read of your travels, then went to stadtfest with some friends and actually did some journalling on the way home. Thanks for the good influence! Now, back to writing academics…