Bali, Part 2 (Alila Villas Uluwatu)
We left the Alila Villas Soori shortly before lunch time because we planned to have lunch at the famous Tanah Lot temple in the Tabanan region. On the way from the airport to the hotel, our driver said that Tanah Lot was the most visited temple in the region, so we decided to take a look at what was so special about it.
Once we got to the temple grounds, we immediately saw the beauty of it. There were two temples, a smaller one that sat on a rocky ledge in the ocean, and the main temple that was also on a cliff ledge.
The sight and sound of the water just added to the splendor of Tanah Lot. We didn't go up the main temple--it cost a fee and we didn't think it was worth it for the view. At the base of the temple was a spring where visitors could be blessed by the sacred water. After seeing both temples, we had lunch in what seemed like a traditional Balinese picnic table.
Then we continued our trip to Alila Villas Uluwatu, stopping at a local coffee shop along the way to buy some Kopi Bali (no, this isn't the poop coffee from before). When we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by hotel staff who already knew who we were. The hotel manager greeted us as well and gave a short spiel about the restaurant and the pool. Oh, the pool...we've already seen many amazingly beautiful views on our trip, but the view of the infinity pool looking out over the Indian Ocean was spectacular. We were driven in a golf cart to our room--apparently the hotel layout is such that there are four tiers of villas, and we were at the top. It wouldn't have been that much of a walk, but being driven there made it much easier to deal with our luggage. Our villa didn't have a great view (Soori had a much better one), but the indoor space seemed better, especially the huge lounge area that separated the inside from the outside.
After getting ourselves acquainted with our room, we headed down to the main pool. Technically, the pool's 50 meters long, but the infinity edge was less than half that length.
Although there were other guests at the hotel, we were the only ones in the pool. Within 10 minutes of us putting our stuff on the lounge chairs and swimming around, a pool attendant came with a basket of complimentary water, sunscreen, cold towels, and drink/food menus. Nick ordered some blended drink and I got a Thai iced tea. When our drinks arrived, I was in the pool and Nick was off getting his Kindle from the villa. I was about to get out of the pool to drink it, but the attendant offered to bring the drink to me instead. So there I am drinking my Thai iced tea in this ridiculously large pool, with an attendant to bring me my drink and put it back on the table when I'm done...seriously, I could totally get used to this. We tried to swim one lap of the pool, but I can't figure out how to breathe and stroke continuously, so I failed miserably, and Nick got tired out from swimming 1/3 of the length of the pool.
The next day, we took surfing lessons. Nick had surfed before in Hawaii, but I've never done it before. We started off with some stretching and warm up drills, and then we went over how to safely handle the board. Once the easy stuff was out of the way, we immediately went into how to get on the board, paddle, and essentially body surf back to shore. Once they felt that we got that part down, it was time to learn to stand on the board--this didn't go so well, especially for Nick.
We went through something like 15 attempts, and I mostly did fine, but Nick was having a very difficult time staying on the board. I guess being tall doesn't necessarily help you. If I did catch a wave correctly and successfully got on the board, it was a lot of fun. The hard part was walking back into the water and going against the waves. I was so exhausted just from doing that :(
Once our lesson was finished, our instructor told us what we would learn in the second part of the course, and in my mind, I'm thinking "Really? You think we did well enough to learn turns and other crazy stuff?"
We returned to the hotel to have lunch and, once again, lounge in the main pool. And on our final full day in Bali, we did a crazy spa day, which included morning yoga, massages, facials, aqua flow, and foot reflexology. It was a nice way to end our trip in Asia.
And the next day, we left Bali to head back home to reality. Personally, I want to go back again, but it's a really long flight from the US, so I don't think that'll happen anytime soon...