Day 307 After staying and partying another night in Kuta it was time for a change. That change came with the rental of a scooter. This turned out to be so awesome we should of got one a week ago. A guy met us at the hotel in the morning to give us the keys to our new Honda Vario and after a quick lesson it was ours for the next two days. We had breakfast and we were off for the day. It took some time to get used to. We got about 100 meters of practice before we hit the craziness of Bali traffic. Holy snap! Taking it easy for the first little bit we made it out to the highway. Here within half a kilometer we had to cross two lanes so we can do a u-turn. Nerve racking! The rules are "there are no rules" it seems. Anyway me made the u-turn and were on our way to our first stop Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK). Just a minute or two after our turn we got a huge surprise as a commercial plane flew over the highway at what appeared to be a couple hundred feet. After we got off the main road we made our way to GWK through a maze of tiny town roads filled with city traffic. Just as we got there and parked the bike it started to rain. It came down pretty heavy for a bit, while we bought our tickets and then it calmed down to a light rain. GWK is the story of the mythical bird Garuda. When he first burst forth from his egg, he appeared as a raging inferno equal to the cosmic conflagration that consumes the world at the end of every age. Frightened, the gods begged him for mercy. Garuda, hearing their plea, reduced himself in size and energy.. The story is a little lengthy but in a nutshell, Garuda's mother was her own sisters slave due to a bet gone wrong. Garuda wanted to free his mother. In order to do so he had to steal the elixir from the Gods. A few battles and promises exchanged with Vishnu and Indra in the process Garuda fulfilled his task and freed his mother. The whole story is here: http://gwk-culturalpark.com/about/gwk-story/. The cultural park has two massive monuments of Garuda and Vishnu currently separated due to construction. Together they would be 150 meters tall, have a wingspan of 64 meters and a total weight of over 4000 tons of copper and brass. All this surrounded by 240 hectares of an old abandoned limestone quarry.
By the time we were done touring GWK the rain had stopped, the sun came out and the humidity skyrocketed. We hopped back on the bike and were off to Uluwatu. This is where we had probably our scariest moment. On a narrow windy road a bus decides to pass us, and as he is doing it a car is coming our way. So the bus starts coming back into our lane while we are still beside it! We moved over as close to the non-existent shoulder (more like 1 foot of gravel then a ditch and trees) and made it out in one piece. The craziest part is that this is NORMAL!! Bikes squeeze between cars and along the curbs while the cars are standing in gridlock or putting along. Soon we were at one of Bali's more popular tourist stops Uluwatu Temple, on the south east coast. We parked the bike and headed over to the entry gate, paid the small fee, Jenn put on a sarong (as her knees where showing) and we went in.
Right away we got a hairy surprise in the form of more monkeys!!!! Yay! There were little ones this time...so cute!! We walked around the temple compound which included a nice cliff edge walk on either side. There was also an amphitheater where later on we got to watch another traditional Balinese dance called Kecak or Fire Dance. Before the dance however we had some time to go back to the parking area which also included a few snack shacks.
We went back into the park an hour early for the dance. It was a good thing as it was packed long before its scheduled start. They were seating people everywhere including the floor. The dance had some of the same colourful characters as the Barong dance, and a few interesting new ones. There was no instruments used for this show. Fifty men that were part of the show kept the beat, sang and hummed the whole time as the sounds of the show.
It was dark by the time the show was over and it was time to head back. Just down the street we bought some gas for the bike Rp7000 for a liter. And that included a Rp 2500 mark up as we bought this from a grocery shack. Fuel is only $.50 for regular unleaded! The drive back was hectic to say the least. Hundreds of taxis and loads of buses crowded the tiny one lane streets leading back towards the heart of Bali. Having 2 hours of driving time under our belts we got a bit more daring and joined the locals in cutting and squeezing along the sides of "parked" cars. We were not daring enough to drive in the oncoming lane as some of the locals, even though that side was mostly empty. We made it back without a scratch on us or the bike. As tense as we found the ride (one of us closing our eyes on occasion), I loved it and couldn't wait to go out again!!!!!