Day 5 in Bali

Awoke at 515am, not really sleeping much..mosquitoes buzzing and biting away...sianzzz..but happy to leave anyway!

I was driven to Sanur and took this pic just abt 7am...ahhhh..

Gede, my local tour guide was there at 6am to pick me away from mosquito misery! I had signed up for a 1 day 1 night, eco-toursim package with JED and was looking forward to it! Basically a day and night out on an island of bali, away from the maddening crowd of Kuta/Legian/Seminyak and to a little retreat amongst the villages...

Some more views of my boat ride - its local form of transport, and we sat on the top of the boat! no rail guard!!

Gede, checking out our next door boat...any bikini babes perhaps? ahaha...

And we're off!

The yummy snacks and balinese coffee that greeted me on my arrival. Lots of flies tho!

Checked out the drying of seaweed just by the beach!

Close up of the seaweed!

Views of the seaweed farm from land....

The boat ride...and views of the seaweed just below! Water was really shallow...less than 1 m!

Saw the way they cultivated the seaweed, and it seems the season this year is less than ideal, i'm suspecting global warming here! Each season is normally 1-1/1/2 mths long..

Once the seaweed is all dried in the sun (3 days or so), they sell it to the middle man who package it etc and it lands up in faraway lands like Japan, US etc. They're right at the start of the food chain!

Lunch was next then snorkelling! Its been a while since I've swam in clear salt water..haha..and it was really enjoyable! the sun was out and the views interesting enough to "rekindle" my love for scuba diving...:)

Boat ride out to the snorkel site....

Some pics in the waters from my trusty waterproof camera!

And a video clip of course! check out the neighbouring locals....fierce!

After snorkelling for an hour or so...we headed out to explore the rest of the island on scooter! The island is totally devoid of cars/lorries/trucks simply because the roads can only fit bikes! How wonderful!

While riding up towards a vantage point to see the sun set, I decided to learn how to ride a scooter from Gede, the trusted guide. After 34s of theory class, I was on my way! hahah..

Nearly rode off the cliff I tell you! Right hand abit spastic, could accelerate, but when trying to brake, didn't release the accelerator! Gede was very fast to just sit me behind from then on..haha

Had a good chat with Gede on while waiting for the sun to set..learned alot about Bali, the culture, about how most people spend their $ on religious offerings, how Balinese believe in Ancestors, Spirits alot, how Balinese always miss home when they are overseas because their placenta was buried in the garden once they are born! How bizzare was that? I had to ask Gede to repeat that line, I'm quite sure I didn't get it wrong! Yep, not wrong at all...go google it!

We talked abit about the Japanese girls coming to Bali to "prey" on local men because of their "prowess" in bed. Gede said something quite funny: "We're small, but Strong!" Go figure that out! haha...

Some views from the cliffs...













Not really a sunset shot, but what the heck...the clouds prevented any real sunset shots..


The village kids playing with their little "banana boat"!
Great day! Got back for a well deserved bath, dinner (no flies at night! yay!) and "listening in" to the villages nightly conversations...:)

Had more chatting with Gede and learnt he is number 10 in a family of 10! wow! Really STRONG men here indeed! haha..

No mosquitoes here! that made the day just sweeet....