Bali: An Island in the Middle of the Sky

We were supposed to have been on holiday for a week already, beyond the Atlantic, "on the road" between the United States and Canada, but it wasn't possible, so instead of shortening the itinerary, we completely overhauled our summer holiday and for the first time in our lives we're heading east, and not only that, to the other hemisphere entirely, to Indonesia. The vast Indonesian archipelago stretches for several thousand kilometres from east to west, north of Australia and south of Indochina, and includes numerous large islands such as Java (where the capital Jakarta is located), Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi and part of New Guinea, but we're going to Bali, a much smaller island (a little more than 5600 square kilometres) but, we hope, no less interesting for that.

The flight will obviously be very long, and this time the road to reach the airport will be quite long too, because we'll be departing from Rome-Fiumicino. The alarm goes off very early, at 3:30... just enough time to grasp the situation and, with the suitcases closed, at 4:20 we leave home, officially kicking off this new adventure. Due to (endless!) roadworks on the E45 and given the day is marked red for traffic, we take a somewhat unusual road for the start of a journey, the Strada Statale 67, which ventures into the Apennines. In the dark we thus face an endless series of bends, then, as dawn begins to break, at 5:15, we cross the Muraglione Pass and an hour later we join the far easier A1 at Incisa Val d'Arno, shortly after Florence.

We head swiftly south, without hitches, and at 7:40 we pass near Orte, then, having reached the Grande Raccordo Anulare of Rome, a quarter of an hour before 9:00 we're at the long-stay car park of Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Fiumicino. With the free shuttle we reach Terminal C where we check in and, having also passed the customs checks, shortly after 10:00, we're waiting for flight SQ365 at gate C21. We don't have to wait long and soon we're boarded onto the Singapore Airlines Boeing 777, which right on time... doesn't take off, because apparently there's a problem with some passengers and we have to wait for their luggage to be unloaded. So, at 13:36, well over an hour and a half after the scheduled time, we taxi down the Roman runway and take off, while on the screens the distance to the destination appears: 10061 kilometres to Singapore...

twelve hours of flight await us, then the connection to Bali. We cross over Italy, pass over Greece first and then Turkey, then fly over Iran when suddenly they let us know that we'll be making a stop in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates... and immediately our thoughts turn to the risk of missing the connection to Bali. We circle for almost an hour, inexplicably, over the Strait of Hormuz, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, then finally at 21:50 local time we gently touch down on the runway of the Arab emirate... but the environment around us is strange, poorly lit and too, too quiet to be a major international airport like Dubai's... Indeed we learn that we're at a military airport and that we landed for security reasons, probably because of the untraced luggage of the same passengers who had delayed our departure (but is that true?)...

and shortly before, that long circling was to dump fuel in flight!... Not a bad start to the trip! What a lovely situation!... Outside, despite the hour, it's 45 degrees and we're disembarked via an emergency ladder at an airport not equipped to receive passengers and without knowing when we'll leave again!... We're "crammed" into two meeting rooms (with air conditioning, thank goodness) and there we see in midnight, surrounded by Arabs in rather unsettling uniforms, though kind.

Tired and furious, we await our fate... After more than four hours from landing, around 2:00, we're all loaded onto coaches and, under military escort, taken to the (real) Dubai airport. We pass through the metal detector and at 3:00 we're all arguing with the airline's officials, who let us know the plane will leave again, after the necessary checks, at 7:20. Resigned, we have a premature breakfast offered by Singapore Airlines and then we sit in the armchairs of the big Arab airport to wait for dawn, which in reality we thought we'd see from the plane windows by now close to our destination. At 6:30 boarding operations begin and at that stage we learn, with relief, that we already have a new flight to Bali guaranteed for this very evening, at 19:00... Thank goodness!...

As an apology for the considerable mishap, they give us all a box of Ferrero Rocher (a bitter little sweet!) and then a shuttle takes us onto the same plane abandoned a few hours earlier... we return to our seats... and at 7:48 flight SQ365 resumes its way towards Singapore! This time everything goes smoothly: we pass over the Indian Ocean, cross India and then the Bay of Bengal, arriving within sight of the coast of Malaysia. We then begin our descent towards Singapore, where we land at 18:56 local time (six hours ahead of Italy, as will also be the case in Indonesia). We exit through gate 53 and with great efficiency, making Singapore Airlines partly forgiven for last night's mishap, we're immediately boarded at gate number 50 for Bali... Flight SQ948, another Boeing 777, thus takes off at 19:57 bound for Dempasar, the Balinese capital.

Outside the window, night has now fallen again and as we cross the equator we fly over the Java Sea, with the island of Sumatra first and then Java itself on the right and Borneo on the left. Finally we descend towards our destination, Bali, and the airport of its capital, where we happily land at 22:13... Now let's hope we have no trouble with the luggage! We send a message home to let them know our odyssey is over, pass through Indonesian customs and go to the conveyor belt, where we immediately spot our suitcases...

thank goodness! We exit triumphantly from Ngurah Rai Airport in Dempasar and find waiting for us the assistant from Viaggi del Mappamondo, our tour operator for this trip, who accompanies us to the Sanur Beach Hotel, in the town of the same name located in the south-eastern part of the island, where we'll spend only this first night in Bali, because tomorrow morning we'll set off on a five-day tour... then we'll return to the Sanur Beach until the end of the holiday. They hand us the keys and, deliberately skipping dinner, we go straight up to our room (number 735) and there at last we can devote ourselves to a well-deserved rest, after almost two days of exhausting travel.

This morning, in practice, our real Balinese journey begins. Shortly after 7:00 we're having breakfast and at 8:30 at the reception, with all our luggage, waiting to be picked up for the start of the tour... Meanwhile we get to know two Italian guys: Gianfranco and Barbara, from Rome, who apparently will keep us company over the next few days as we travel around the island. Our guide arrives right on time and introduces himself: Oka... and together with him, a driver and our two new friends, we set off aboard a flashy completely yellow minibus, with "Viaggi del Mappamondo" written on the sides. We immediately plunge into the chaotic local traffic, with hundreds of motorbikes popping out from all sides, with no limit on the number of passengers carried...

up to four, no problem! So we arrive at the first planned stop, namely the making and then selling of batik, designs on fabric obtained with the traditional process, which involves applying a layer of waterproof wax on the areas not to be dyed, followed by a colour bath, rinsing and drying, finishing with the removal of the wax using heat... To obtain polychrome batik, the process is then repeated for every shade you decide to use... An ancient system that allows you to obtain valuable designs, but despite our interest we leave the shop empty-handed. Back on our vehicle we finally leave the most densely populated area to pass through rural zones characterised by typical, deep-green rice paddies... So we arrive, by the ocean, within sight of the first temple on the programme, that of Tanah Lot.

The Balinese population is 90% Hindu, steeped in ancient animist beliefs, expressed in an endless number of temples scattered all over the territory, which have earned the island the name "Island of the Gods," in contrast to the rest of Indonesia, overwhelmingly Muslim. Pura Tanah Lot is one of the most famous tourist spots in Bali, scenically located on a small islet a hundred metres from the coast and reachable on foot at low tide, but not open to the public. As the name indicates, it stands at the meeting point between land (tanah) and sea (lot), and it's said to have been built there to protect the island from the scourges and destructive forces believed to come precisely from the sea... It's also said to be particularly evocative at sunset, but it's only 10:30 in the morning and I don't think we'll wait for that moment.

Strolling along the stretch of coast in front of it we take photos from several vantage points and reach the nearby Pura Batu Bolong, another temple erected on a small promontory connected to the mainland by a natural rock bridge. Having positively concluded the first visit to a sacred place, we then take the road heading inland and up into the mountains, where unfortunately, in the meantime, quite a few clouds have gathered. So we arrive, without the sun, in the village of Bedugul, nestled on the shores of Lake Bratan, of volcanic origin like all the lakes of Bali, and there we stop to see the characteristic, colourful spice and fruit market. It's now past 13:00, strolling among stalls of exotic goods, we go to lunch, still in Bedugul, in a restaurant that offers us good Indonesian cuisine based on rice and various fried dishes.

In the early afternoon we then descend to the shores of the lake, where the temple of Pura Ulun Danu Bratan is located, dating back to the 17th century and dedicated to the goddess of the lake, Dewi Danu... On a small islet a few metres from the shore there is a typical meru, a sanctuary with overlapping roofs (always an odd number) increasing according to the importance of the deity to whom it is consecrated: this one, for example, has eleven, the maximum provided for... right next to it there's another one, with three levels, and together they offer a fine sight, only of course the sun is missing to bring out the colours and light up the scene... a shame! Just after setting off again we encounter a large group of people in traditional dress taking part in a cremation rite... very colourful and interesting.

Our guide explains that this is the time of year when such ceremonies are held and that practically the entire community takes part, because the deceased are exhumed and cremated in a cumulative rite only when the families can afford it financially. As we begin to descend towards the northern coast of Bali we pass by another lake basin, Lake Buyan, and along the road we stop to observe it in the distance, at a spot populated by numerous macaques, a type of primate, we're told, particularly widespread on the island... So we have fun immortalising the cute animals in the most varied positions, before resuming our itinerary.

Descending further towards the sea we find the sun again and make another detour for a walk deep in the tropical forest, surrounded by flowers unknown to us and clove trees, as far as the attractive Gitgit waterfalls, then we arrive within sight of the coast and the town of Singaraja, the administrative capital during the colonial period, when the island was dominated by the Dutch. Passing by deep-green rice paddies and tobacco fields we reach, with the long shadows of evening, the resort of Lovina, where we stay for this night at the Sunari Villas & Spa Resort, immersed in a lush tropical garden. We take our luggage to room number 617, and after a fiery sunset, for dinner, on Oka's advice, we eat good fish in a little restaurant by the sea, in the company of Gianfranco and Barbara, then we rush off to rest, because tomorrow morning an excursion awaits us with an early start.

The alarm goes off at 5:30, when outside the window it's still completely dark. A bit sleepy, we get ready and leave the room to head towards the beach, where a boat excursion awaits us to go in search of dolphins, which abound in the waters off the area. Having precautionarily put on life jackets, we leave the shore aboard the yukung, the traditional local outrigger boats, and venture into the Bali Sea, as dawn begins to break and the colours of the sky are stunning. From all along the coast other yukung arrive and in the end several dozen gather for the exact same reason. Practically as a group we thus go in search of the sea's most likeable inhabitants, and amid cries of amazement we're rewarded several times, in fact first we spot the typical dorsal fins in the distance, then the dolphins leap just a few metres from our boat...

they're fantastic and extremely curious because they seem to want to play hide-and-seek with the boats and their passengers. We stay in the water for more than an hour and then, pleased, we return to the hotel beach, go for breakfast and at 9:30 we present ourselves, luggage in hand, at the reception, where Oka is waiting for us to resume the tour. We travel along a stretch of coast heading east, pass once more through the chaotic streets of Singaraja and, having reached the settlement of Kubutambaham, we turn inland, even though nearby there would be the interesting temple

Finally a proper good night's sleep!... In fact we were a bit sleep-deprived and to catch up we took advantage of today's soft start, scheduled for 10:00. After breakfast, at the planned time, we show up at the reception with all the luggage and, reunited with our guides, we resume the adventure on the streets of Bali. We head southwest, along the coast, and after a handful of kilometers we arrive at Goa Lawah, a cave considered sacred and more than a thousand years old, linked to ritual ceremonies belonging to the sphere of the afterlife and inhabited by tens of thousands of bats. Legends say that it goes thirty kilometers into the mountain, up to Besakih, and that inside lives a giant called Basuki, with the appearance of a dragon, that feeds on bats... Apparently no one has ever ventured inside to verify, but outside a temple has been built, which we are about to visit.

We all put on the sarong (the traditional wrap) and a strip of cloth tied at the waist, to cover the part of the body considered most impure and negative, and we enter the first courtyard of the temple, then the second, but not the third because a religious service is taking place and it is completely full of people... So we spend some time observing the faithful, their devotion and their behavior, so unusual for us Christians... In the end we also manage to reach the heart of the temple, entering through a side door, and in this way we have the chance to observe the entrance of the cave, which indeed swarms with large (and perhaps also a bit repulsive) bats! We leave that strange place, enriched by new experiences, just as a funny motorcycle passes by on the road, pulling a little cart with a pig on top... and with a smile on our lips we resume our sightseeing tour of the area.

Shortly we arrive in the town of Klungkung, capital of a district and an important historical and commercial center, where we stop to visit the Taman Gili. Built at the beginning of the 18th century, the Taman Gili (literally the "garden with moat"), is what remains of the royal palace of the Klungkung, which was destroyed in 1908 during the Dutch conquest. Inside it remain two pavilions, beautiful though in need of considerable restoration... First we see the Kerta Gosa, located in the corner of the garden, and then the Bale Kabang (floating pavilion), placed right in the center of the moat, both with their ceilings entirely covered with panels of paintings in the wayang style, inspired by Balinese myths and tales, with vivid colors, but two-dimensional, like shadow puppets.

We also dedicate some time to the nearby museum, containing some photographs and documents from the early 1900s, but it's nothing special and I don't think it will stay with us, then we leave Klungkung to climb the first hills and have lunch in a restaurant with a wonderful view over the surrounding terraces, dotted with palms and very green rice fields. In the early afternoon we resume the tour and go a little further north, to the town of Bangli (not included in the original program), to see its interesting Pura Kehen temple. Perched on the side of a hill and a place of worship since the 12th century, Pura Kehen develops over several levels and its entrance stands out for its steep staircase adorned with fanciful sculptures...

After climbing the slope we cross the main gate and, once we set foot inside the first courtyard, we cannot help but notice the enormous banyan or ficus benjamin that characterizes it... We then wander for some time among the ancient stones and the typical shrines up to the last courtyard, before retracing our steps and getting back into the minibus to continue the journey. After Bangli we go even further inland on the island, near the town of Manukaya, to visit the Pura Tirta Empul. The sacred spring temple, thought to date back to the 10th century, located near the source of the Pakrisan river, is very popular with devotees, who immerse themselves in special pools where water considered sacred flows, accompanied by traditional offerings. Nearby is also the village of Tampaksiring, known for hosting the so-called Royal Monuments or Tombs of Gunung Kawi...

So we go down along a path to the bottom of the valley, where the Pakrisan river flows, crossing wonderful terraced rice fields that seem at the same time works of art and hydraulic engineering, to finally reach this place considered sacred as well... Carved into the rock are two series of monuments, commonly also called tombs, but in reality they are only commemorative shrines dedicated to the legendary king Anak Wungsu and his wives, who lived in the 11th century. Still very interested, we mentally and physically capture Gunung Kawi as well and then, placing complete trust in our driver's experience, we travel along narrow country roads, with more rice fields and Balinese people tending them, to arrive by evening at the Champlung Sari Hotel in Ubud, where we are supposed to stay for the next two nights...

but despite the reservation it seems there is no room and our guide flies into a rage! After a long discussion they move us ten minutes away to the Cahaya Dewata Resort and, to apologize for the inconvenience, they offer us dinner included in the price... Nothing wrong with that, because on top of it we also enjoy the wonderful view from our room (number 403) over the rice fields below... As the hours pass, however, we can't help but notice the gloomy and rather dilapidated look of the place, especially since at dinner, besides us, we notice only two other guests (will they be "refugees" too?), but despite everything we eat well and after a long chat we retire to our rooms, aware of having experienced, up to today, a beautiful travel experience.

On this last day of the organized tour we will stay the whole time in the surroundings of the town of Ubud, the undisputed cultural capital of Bali... Nevertheless there will be quite a lot to do and already at 8:30 we are at the reception to officially kick off the itinerary of visits. The first stop is located a few kilometers south, in the village of Batubulan, where first of all we go to see the curious traditional Balinese house and then the far more interesting Barong dance performance, which is held near the Pura Puseh, the appealing village temple. The Barong dance is of very ancient origin and although today it may seem only a tourist attraction, for the Balinese it instead has a deep religious meaning, because it represents the eternal clash between good, identified in the mask of the Barong, and evil, symbolized by the opposing figure of the Rangda.

The performance, with its exasperatingly repetitive rhythms, but with intense colors and high folkloric content, lasts almost an hour and tells a sort of mythological episode... All in all, in our opinion, an essential part of this journey to the Island of the Gods. At the end of the show we move just a few kilometers, to the village of Celuk, to visit a workshop known for silver workmanship (the classic tourist trap), but also the nearby Bird Park, created in 1995, which houses in a splendid setting about 1500 species of birds, some of them large, but also rare or endangered. Many are native to the Indonesian archipelago, but quite a few others come from the most varied regions of the world. We take a nice walk among ponds and large aviaries, even though in principle we don't like seeing animals in cages, then around midday, having completed the visit, we leave the park.

Before lunch we also go to Mas, a town known for its artists devoted to wood carvings and colorful traditional masks, then nearby to a cooperative of Balinese painters, who try in vain to sell us some of their works. We have lunch in another nice restaurant with a view over the rice fields around Ubud and in the early afternoon we arrive at the outskirts of the village of Bedulu, where the Goa Gajah or Elephant Cave is located. A stepped path descends into a small valley where there are some shrines, large pools and the cave, precisely, whose entrance carved into the rock vaguely resembles the big face of an elephant and is all fancifully decorated. The interior, however, T-shaped, is dark and suffocating, with some niches containing statues considered sacred... Goa Gajah thus turns out to be another strange place to which this incredible civilization is devoted.

We find our yellow minibus again, while the clouds that have passed more or less sparsely throughout the day are becoming particularly thick, and with it we go to the outskirts of Ubud to the "monkey forest", an area of dense woodland, on the edge of a temple, where these animals abound, in complete freedom. We have fun for a while feeding them some bananas bought on site, which they come to take, quite voraciously, directly from our hands. The sun goes completely behind the clouds when later, in the center of Ubud, we also go to see the Puri Saren, a royal palace dating back to the late 19th century and belonging to the warlord, Cokorda Gede Sukawati, very well kept and restored in several details to its ancient splendor.

We conclude the visit of Ubud by shopping in its very lively market and then we go to our hotel, putting an end to a beautiful day, but perhaps the least interesting of the entire tour. Later we go to dinner as the only guests of the restaurant of the Cahaya Dewata Resort, while it starts raining hard, but not only that, a thick fog also descends... we hope the weather will vent during the night and tomorrow the sun will shine again!... Meanwhile we say goodbye to our friends, Gianfranco and Barbara, departing at dawn for the nearby island of Lombok... but it's only a goodbye, because we will meet them again, on their return, next week in Sanur.

We get up slowly, after Oka and the driver accompanied Gianfranco and Barbara to the port of Padang Bai to sail for Lombok... We get up with the sun that has returned to shine and floods with light the splendid view enjoyed from our room over the valley below and its rice fields. After breakfast, shortly after 10:00, we leave the hotel and about an hour later our Bali tour concludes in front of the Sanur Beach Resort, which already hosted us on our first night on the island and now will for another seven, until the end of the trip. We cordially say goodbye to our guide and, once the check-in procedures at the reception are completed, we go to the edge of the pool to wait for them to give us room number 524... They do so around 13:30 and, once we have taken possession of it, we go to lunch in the Italian restaurant of the resort, enjoying a plate of pasta that we had been missing.

In the afternoon we stay at the hotel with the intention of devoting ourselves to the most complete relaxation, but the passage of several mischievous clouds and a rather cold wind blowing from the sea irreparably ruin the second part of the day, so, around 17:00, we decide to go for a walk along the main street of Sanur, dotted with souvenir shops and restaurants, waiting for dinner time. When we go out in the evening there is a magnificent starry sky (what annoying weather!) and with the hope that it will hold later we retire to our room, confident for the rest of the vacation.

After the organized tour and after the Saturday of almost complete rest, we think of spending this morning in the classic guise of "do-it-yourself tourists"... so we rent a taxi for half a day and set off in search of the places of greatest interest, included in the north-eastern area of the capital and left out of the Viaggi del Mappamondo itinerary. We leave behind the chaotic outskirts of Dempasar and, pushing through the countryside, toward the center of the island, we arrive around 10:00 in the small village of Sangeh, known above all for its monkey forest. It is a dense forest of enormous nutmeg trees, some as tall as 30-40 meters, within which there is a small temple, the Pura Bukit Sari, where these animals (the usual macaques) are considered sacred and roam freely.

We spend some time there, intrigued by the strange environment and the uninhibited behavior of the monkeys, constantly searching for food handed out by the rare tourists who visit the place, and then we return to our taxi, which had patiently waited in the nearby parking lot. The next stop is the town of Mengwi, where the Pura Taman Ayun is located, the most interesting temple among those not touched by the tour. Founded in 1740, the Taman Ayun (literally "vast garden") is surrounded by a moat that symbolizes the Hindu world situated in the cosmic sea and its meru towers represent the mountains, residence of the gods. Placed on an axis connecting the inland heights to the sea, the temple is thought to ensure the harmonious circulation of water, the lifeblood, from the mountains of Bali to the rice fields, then to the sea and back again to the mountains.

As soon as we enter the sacred place we are struck by the monumental Kori Agung (the main gate), which however we cannot cross because tourists are not allowed to enter the innermost enclosure... you can, however, walk around it, with exceptional views of the rows of tower shrines and the moat, dotted with lotus flowers. Truly very beautiful, the Pura Taman Ayun, perhaps second only to the Besakih temple complex and for this reason we can't help but wonder, as we leave it behind, why it was not included in the main visits of the organized tour. At this point in the morning we have ourselves taken to the nearby town of Marga, where we go to see the Margarana Monument, not a temple but the place where a famous battle (rana) was held between the Balinese resistance and the Dutch forces in 1946.

Besides the tombs of the 96 fallen on that occasion, there are also, arranged in orderly rows, the funeral monuments of another 1372 heroes of the liberation war of the 40s, some characteristic buildings and the monument dedicated to the independence of the island, immersed in the peace and greenery of a vast and well-tended garden. Very few tourists come to visit the Margarana Monument and apparently few Balinese too, so much so that our taxi driver had never been there and he takes the opportunity to see it as well... of course, the place is not of transcendental beauty, but it certainly deserves the little time we wanted to dedicate to it. It's almost noon and we still have one temple in our plans, so we go to the town of Kapal to visit the Pura Sada.

Severely damaged by an earthquake in 1917, the first temple of the royal house of Mengwi was rebuilt by a pool of Indonesian archaeologists, who based themselves on the original 17th-century model, and it stands out for its tall eleven-tier meru, built in the style of a Javanese candi, a type of tower very rare in Bali, called Prasada, but also for a group of mini shrines and some beautiful gates, offering views of undisputed interest. Having left Pura Sada, we travel along the main road of Kapal and notice the specialization of the local craftsmen, who make decorations from banana leaves for houses and temples... small temporary works of art, which displayed all together at the edge of the street give the place a very particular flavor. Gradually we finally return to Sanur, positively concluding the small self-managed tour...

It is already 14:00 and we stop to have lunch in a place just outside the hotel, so for 150 rupees (about ten euros!) the three of us eat, then we go to the edge of the pool (the sea here is really not inviting) to get some sun... which, however, as yesterday, soon disappears behind some hateful cloud cover, offering us a rather inglorious afternoon. The evening doesn't go much better: after dinner there is really little to do at the Sanur Beach and at the end of a little game of billiards there is nothing left to do but go to bed... without taking anything away, however, from the beautiful morning spent wandering around the island.

This morning our plans include a catamaran excursion to Nusa Lebongan... Southeast of Bali there is a tiny archipelago made up of three main islands: Nusa Penida, the largest, Nusa Ceningan, the smallest, and, indeed, Nusa Lebongan (no longer than five kilometers), which should offer unspoiled beaches and intact coral reefs. The alarm is rather early... We have breakfast while the sky is a bit hazy, but we trust in a quick improvement. At 8:00 a minibus comes to pick us up to take us to the nearby port of Benoa, from where we will sail for today's adventure. We wait for the boat with the weather that instead of improving gets worse: the clouds become thicker and the patches of blue sky dwindle to almost nothing, so shortly after 9:00 we set sail, aboard the catamaran Sail Sensation, and head toward big black clouds, with our spirits in our boots.

After almost two hours of sailing we arrive at Nusa Lebongan... it's not raining, but it's cloudy and without much enthusiasm we are disembarked with local boats on the beach of the Nusa Lebongan Resort. We are welcomed with a welcome cocktail and subsequently briefed on the day's programs, so, now in the late morning, having abandoned the idea of beach life, we set off to visit the local village, because about five thousand people live on the island... while, lo and behold, a few timid rays of sun come out. The small settlement is quite characteristic, with the houses clustered toward the narrow strip of sea that separates the island from its sisters, and the inhabitants are mostly devoted, besides tourism, to cultivating a type of seaweed widely used in medicine and cosmetics...

So one can observe the various stages of processing the product, starting from harvesting using typical boats, ending with drying in special areas by the sea. In the center of the village we also see a sort of troglodytic house, which was dug by a Balinese monk in the last century, who was ordered in a dream, according to popular belief, to live in the bowels of mother earth... a place certainly not spectacular, but sparking a certain amount of curiosity. Back at the "base camp" we have lunch at the buffet of the Nusa Lebongan Resort and later, while a few rays of sun continue to filter through, we go snorkeling in the stretch of sea in front of the resort... the best thing that happened to us on this dull day: clear waters, lots of tropical fish and large colorful coral banks...

certainly much more than I expected! Returning to the beach shortly after, we leave Nusa Lembongan, which we had hoped to enjoy differently, and two hours later we are back at the port of Benoa and therefore in Bali. Back at the hotel too, I look at the weather forecast at the reception out of curiosity: today sun was expected and tomorrow clouds!... Luckily!... Let's just hope they got the dates mixed up! In the evening we have dinner at the Sanur Beach, concluding a day that was in some ways interesting, but not exactly lucky from the meteorological point of view.

The not exactly merciful weather of recent days has claimed its victim, in fact Sabrina has caught a fair cold... Luckily, though, this morning, despite all forecasts, a beautiful sun is shining! We wake up slowly and after breakfast we go to spend some time in the pool area, in search of a good dose of healthy warmth... In complete relaxation it thus becomes noon and we go to lunch at the buffet of the Sanur Beach. As soon as we get up from the table we return to the room to get ready for an excursion awaiting us in the afternoon, in fact, at 14:30, Oka shows up to pick us up at the reception, with the legendary yellow minibus of the first days. We stop to pick up another small group of tourists (three Italian girls) from a hotel near Kuta (the Balinese Rimini) and together with them we head toward the southernmost part of the island.

First of all we stop in the town of Jimbaran to explore its lively fish market, but above all to see, on the beach, the very colorful fishermen's boats lined up side by side and ready to set off for the evening fishing trip. Jimbaran is perhaps the most important center of its kind on the island of Bali and on its shoreline extraordinary scenes of daily life unfold, tied to the sea and its fruits, so hard to gather. Having left Jimbaran we turn the bow toward the Bukit Peninsula, the southernmost tip of Bali, with a more arid appearance compared to the rest of the island, but no less interesting for that. To begin with, we dedicate ourselves to visiting the GWK Cultural Center (Garuda Wisnu Kencana or "Golden Vishnu Garuda"), a place where "soon" a statue of the Hindu god Vishnu riding the mythological bird Garuda will rise, taller than the Statue of Liberty...

Work has been in full swing for quite a while and for now there are only the pieces of the work to be assembled scattered somewhat everywhere in the area (not only in Bali, apparently) and we, jokingly, tell our guide that we will return to Bali only when the statue is finally completed, in the year two thousand... and who knows! After visiting the GWK Cultural Center we continue along the west-facing coast of the Bukit Peninsula and stop to see from above the beach of Padang Padang, one of the most famous and scenic in Bali, to finally arrive at the extreme southwestern tip, where the Pura Luhur Uluwatu temple is located, the main point of interest of this afternoon excursion.

The religious site is located on a vertiginous cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean and is populated by numerous and very mischievous macaques that steal hats, glasses, scarves, hair clips and anything not firmly anchored to the body... but you just need to know it and nothing happens. Following a long staircase we arrive in view of the temple, which founded in the 11th century by Mpu Kuturan (legendary religious figure of the island) turns out to be one of the most revered places in Bali and until the beginning of the 20th century was accessible only to the princes of Dempasar. Today, instead, all the faithful can frequent it, but not tourists, so we console ourselves by looking at it from the outside, outlined against the blue of the sky and perched on the immensity of the sea.

Walking among beautiful panoramic views we arrive, nearby, at a theater on the cliff, where we take our seats to watch a Kecak dance performance, a very ancient rite that takes place in the magical atmosphere of sunset, with the silhouette of Uluwatu always present and preponderant. The dance ends when darkness now dominates unchallenged... We then return to the hotel, enriched by a new experience, and say goodbye, this time (perhaps) definitively, to Oka and the now legendary yellow minibus. For dinner we go to a place just outside the Sanur Beach. We eat for a laughable amount and then we drag ourselves to the room to rest, hoping that Sabrina, increasingly invaded by the consequences of her cold, will improve during the night, so that she can take part in tomorrow morning's excursion.

The sky is completely covered with clouds... damn!... If there was a chance that Sabrina would be with us now the hopes are completely dashed! We have breakfast without much enthusiasm and then say goodbye to Sabrina, who takes refuge in the room, while we, backpack on our shoulders, go to the reception and around 9:00, together with five Japanese, set off to take part in a rafting descent along the course of the Ayung river. It takes us over an hour to reach the starting point, on the first hills around Ubud, while luck really doesn't seem to be with us and it even starts to rain. Equipped with the necessary gear (life jacket, protective helmet and paddle) we descend along a steep staircase, heedless of the weather conditions, which are not prohibitive anyway, down to the riverbed, where the rafts await us to accompany us on the adventure...

and shortly after, a bit excited, we begin the descent of the rapids, which don't go beyond the second degree of difficulty. It is truly a beautiful experience and for almost two hours we proceed in an extraordinary environment, in the lush tropical forest, with little waterfalls and streams of water coming down from all sides. Only, perhaps, there is a bit too much traffic, in fact we are not the only ones rafting on this stretch of river, quite the contrary... The fun, however, is great and, having reached the final landing, Federico openly declares that he would gladly do it all over again. With another steep staircase, this time going up, we arrive instead at a center where we find our dry clothes and where they offer us a simple lunch before taking us back, in the early afternoon, to the Sanur Beach.

Having regained the hotel we find Sabrina waiting for us at the edge of the pool, kissed by the sun that even today (better late than never) has made its appearance... So we spend a decent afternoon, and in the evening we also meet again the friends of the first days (Gianfranco and Barbara) returning from their short stay in nearby Lombok. With them we go out to dinner and after a long chat we go to sleep, arranging to meet anyway for the following morning.

Our plans included a whole day to spend at the sea, in the company of friends, but of course it's cloudy and to avoid getting bored staying gloomily at the hotel we set off "plan B"... namely visiting the missing temples. We rent a taxi for the whole morning and with it we set off north and toward the Ubud area, already partly seen during the tour, but not entirely. First of all we stop in the town of Batuan, where the interesting Pura Puseh temple is located, completely renovated in 1992, with shrines and valuable carvings of excellent workmanship, which do honor to Balinese art. So we put on the traditional sarong and take a short walk inside the sacred enclosure surrounded by beautiful buildings and typical views... a shame only about the lack of sun.

Having said goodbye to Batuan we move further north to the village of Bedulu where we go to visit the vast Pura Pengastulan temple, characterized by large and scenic gates, inside which preparations for an imminent religious rite are in full swing... and it is a very interesting situation because we have the chance, in this case, to see the Balinese (mostly women) busy making offerings and decorations used later in the course of the function. In the immediate surroundings of Bedulu there is another site that deserves due attention: that of Yeh Pulu... Descending along a path that crosses enchanting rice fields, one arrives in view of a black rock wall, carved with monumental bas-reliefs thought to date back to the mid-14th century.

About twenty-five meters long and two high, the sequence of figures, probably carved by the same artist, showing human beings struggling with demonic beasts, is obviously considered sacred and is looked after by a friendly lady, almost as old as the sculptures, with her deep wrinkles, and under five feet tall... The cunning and devout Balinese woman, with great savoir-faire, thus involves us in a Hindu prayer, complete with flowers on our heads, and at the end demands a monetary offering that we certainly cannot refuse. Having left Yeh Pulu and regained the taxi, we travel a handful of kilometers and, with a sun still rather missing, we arrive in the town of Pejeng, in an area particularly rich in temples, some of which, perhaps, interesting.

First of all we see the Pura Kebo Edan, the temple of the "crazy giant", depicted in a statue revered by the faithful, but the place is rather neglected and would need a radical restoration. In the immediate vicinity we then reach, walking among the rice fields, the Pura Arjuna Metapa, which is nothing more than a simple pavilion, containing some stone sculptures, immersed in the bucolic and very green surrounding landscape. Going back up by car for a few hundred meters we also enter the Pura Pusering Jagat, where the so-called "Pejeng Vase" is kept, a stone urn carved with mythological figures, and where several faithful are busy organizing an imminent religious function, among shrines decorated for the occasion with brightly colored drapes.

Finally we visit the Pura Penataran Sasih, which among the pavilions of the various enclosures houses a bronze drum of unknown age considered sacred... but by now we are completely drunk on temples and while noon has long since passed we turn to our taxi driver and, practically in chorus, with our mediocre English, we say to him: "Finish!... Go to the hotel...". Almost an hour after leaving Pejeng we are at the Sanur Beach, with the sky completely cleared of clouds. So we have lunch outside the hotel and then go to spend some time in the pool, worthily bringing this day to a close as well. In the evening we definitively say goodbye to the friends from Rome, departing tomorrow morning for Italy, and then we retire to our room, with the vacation now nearing its end for us too.

Ferragosto in Bali... Ferragosto, apparently, just for a change, with a few too many clouds in the sky... but it's the last full day we will spend on the island and we don't give up, so after breakfast we decide nonetheless to kick off today's program, which includes a day almost entirely dedicated to the sea, on the Bukit Peninsula, south of Sanur. We rent the same taxi as yesterday (and Sunday) and first of all we have ourselves taken, with a small detour, to the island of Pulau Serangan, connected by a bridge to its bigger sister, to see the last temple of the series, the Pura Sakenan, according to the guide one of the most revered temples of ancient origin in Bali, but it doesn't thrill us, perhaps also because it is the umpteenth in a very long sequence.

The island is also known as a nesting place for sea turtles, so our taxi driver takes us to see some, which the local inhabitants sadly keep segregated within the walls of a narrow, and covered, inner basin. After the certainly not exceptional visit of Pulau Serangan we head toward the sea, in the southernmost part of Bali. Initially we stop to see the beach of Dreamland, where the water has beautiful colors, but the cove is being irreparably disfigured with the construction of a reinforced concrete monster and it doesn't satisfy us... So we go to Padang Padang, which we had already seen from above during Tuesday's excursion to Uluwatu, and there we stop. It is almost noon when the taxi driver settles in the shade, in a parking lot in the immediate vicinity, and says he will wait there for our return, while we go down to the beach and rent an umbrella for the rest of the day.

The bay of Padang Padang, washed by a beautiful sea, is a narrow strip of sand surrounded by scenic cliffs, passable at their base for several kilometers during low tide... a walk we gladly take, enticed by eloquent panoramic views. We spend the whole afternoon there, pleasantly, comforted by a sky finally free of those hateful clouds... and at last we can thus also enjoy a nice swim in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Given the favorable situation time flies and soon it is 17:00, the planned time for the return... So we find again, where we had left him, our taxi driver (fresh and rested!), who in about an hour takes us back to the Sanur Beach and to the end of this beautiful day at the sea.

As soon as we return to the room we start packing the bags for tomorrow's departure, then we go to dinner at the Italian restaurant, just to slowly return to the flavors of home, and then all to bed... also because, as usual, there is nothing to do inside the resort.

Here we are at the day of departure for Italy, a departure that will however take place only in the late afternoon. Luckily this morning a beautiful sun is shining, so we will be able to spend all the remaining time at the edge of the pool... First of all, however, after breakfast, we take a walk along the beach of Sanur, where, besides numerous other hotels, there are also the colorful boats of the local fishermen. Having taken the last photos of the place we take our place in the sun, so as to spend these last hours before the long journey in complete relaxation. So we move from our sunbeds only to clear the luggage from the room by noon, as required by the rules, settle the bill and have lunch in a small restaurant along the beach, summarizing with the sweet view of the sea the most beautiful moments of this vacation in the east.

Shortly before 17:00 we pack our swimsuits and, having put on our travel clothes, at 17:30 the minibus arrives to take us to the airport. Once all the customs formalities are completed without problems we pass through the metal detector and sit down in front of gate number three, waiting for the departure of Singapore Airlines flight SQ947... thus, slightly late, at 20:28 local time, our Boeing 777 lifts off from the runway at Dempasar and, while night has now taken over, we ideally say goodbye to the Island of Bali. We climb above the clouds and fly over almost entirely the Java Sea to touch down, after a little more than two hours, at 22:38, at Changi International Airport in Singapore... There then it doesn't take us long to find the gate from which we will board for the next flight, because we exit from B3 and wait at B1, while midnight strikes and it is...

We board the Singapore Airlines Boeing 777, identified as flight SQ366, almost perfectly on time, at 1:28, it lifts off with destination Rome. Flying westward the night is very long and the hours seem never to pass, although in the central part of the route we manage to catch some good naps. We pass over Dubai again and our thoughts go back to the outbound journey, a bit troubled, then we fly over Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to enter with the first light of dawn over the Mediterranean basin. We skirt the coasts of Greece and, passing over southern Calabria, we also enter the Tyrrhenian Sea, then, a little later, we begin the descent toward the capital city. We land at Leonardo da Vinci Airport at 7:18 and, after passing through customs, we wait for the luggage at the conveyor belt... We have to be patient for over an hour (a disgrace!), but in the end we recover all our things.

Having taken the shuttle to the long-stay parking lot we find our car again and at 9:20 we leave behind Fiumicino airport... We follow the Grande Raccordo Anulare and then travel on the A1 motorway heading north and an hour after setting off we are at Orte, where we take the E45 expressway. At 11:15 we are at Perugina and at noon at the Passo del Verghereto, where, due to roadworks, a three-kilometer queue awaits us... So we lose a good half hour and, having arrived at Cesena, around 13:00, we cover a short stretch of the A14, up to Forlì, and then at 13:33 we are in front of the gate of our home, at the terminus of this journey. It was a positive first experience in the east and in Bali in particular. Being the island a quintessentially exotic place one might expect to find crystal-clear lagoons and dream beaches...

But that's not the case and we knew it, because the Island of the Gods offers more than anything wonderful bucolic landscapes with lots of greenery, a nature at times unspoiled, but above all contact with a gentle and extremely devout population, tied to its traditions but mainly to its religion, so inherent in behaviors and daily life as to be above everything... As evidence of this there are the magnificent temples, scattered everywhere in the territory, which make Bali a place outside the ordinary, a spiritually elevated place, so elevated that one could almost define it not as an island in the middle of the sea... but an island in the middle of the sky!