Candidasa - trekking and boat ride

Sunday 17th April 
We had an early start today, breakfast at 6.30am and on the road by 7.30am to get to the starting point of our guided 3 hour trek from the bamboo bridge below the village of Bebandem (around 5-6 klms from Candidasa) along a mountain ridge of rice terraces and down to the traditional Bali Aga village of Tenganan.

We had wonderful views of the sacred Mt Agung this morning and of the intensively farmed areas of this very traditional part of Bali, where life continues much as it has done for hundreds of years. This early in the morning there were lots of workers in the fields working the paddies, threshing rice, cutting fodder for cows and weeding and trimming. Our guide for the trek pointed out lots of plants and fruits we might have missed otherwise through ignorance.

We all really enjoyed this experience even though the track was rough in parts and very slippery once we got off the mountain ridge. We stopped for fresh coconut drinks at a very rustic family compound on the mountainside and then a stop in Tenganan to taste the local honey and some freshly picked rambutans. The real Bali!!

Back at Ashyana we were delighted to find that Jennie and Wayne had arrived, fresh from their 5 night stay at the Novotel at Nusa Dua. We enjoyed a long lunch together sharing stories of our adventures (as well as Wayne's hospital experience) over the past week as well as the sea breezes in the hotel's ocean front restaurant.

We made arrangements with the boatman on the beach in front of the hotel to go for a sail later in the afternoon. We ended up setting off around 4.00 for a two hour sail around the little gilis about a kilometre off shore and then northwards as far as Pantai Putih (the "white sands beach") before returning to the hotel. It was a perfect time of the day to enjoy this scenic ride. We saw a lot of life along the coastline, some amazing coastal geology and the cleanest of blue water all around us. Mt Agung in the distance was a lovely familiar presence as a constant backdrop to the ride.

We enjoyed dinner together at the best table in the house tonight, overlooking the inky black night night time ocean. Le Zat does wonderful lumpia (spring rolls), samosas, papaya and pomelo salad and possibly the second best Babur Injan (black rice pudding) in the whole of Bali (with 3 Monkeys at number 1).

The hotel sets up special dinners on the beach for people requesting it.....we think this set up tonight was for a marriage proposal - a bit cheesy perhaps??

To Candidasa

Saturday 16th April
We checked out of Sri Bungalows around 10.30am and were on our way to Candidasa with the L family (loaded into Eddy's two cars) before 11.00am this morning. 

The traffic was heavy as usual out of Ubud, until we were through Gianyar, but for the rest of the way there was plenty of space for us to get clear views of the sea to the East and rice paddies and small settlements along the road to the West. It didn't seem to take all that long (just over an hour today) before we'd arrived at the Ashyana Hotel in Candidasa and settled into our Seaview room (120).

Lunch was beachside, at our old favourite Puri Pandan Cafe, where Rob assured me the black rice pudding was as good as he had remembered it from our last visit a decade ago.

It is a super hot, airless day today in Candidasa so we were happy to chill out in the a/c for a while - especially after a few Bintangs with lunch.  We emerged in time for a swim and a spectacular sunset looking East across the sea to Nusa Penida and South to Padang Bai. We hosted drinks tonight outside Room 120 and then enjoyed a great meal at the hotel's Le Zat Restaurant.