Uncovering Uluwatu
/I’m not sure that our first day in Bali could have been any more quintessential of island life. We landed around 1 am and flew through customs. At each airport leading up to Denpasar, we got hassled for our tourist visa but, of course, got stamped right through in Indonesia- no cost. Our bag and driver arrived without incident, and we made it to Uluwatu in about 20 minutes with no traffic at that time of night.
Our villa is exceptional. It’s exactly what we need (minimalist, but clean) and beautiful outside with a pool and neat Bali landscaping. In true OCD fashion, I unpacked at 2 am so we woke up as official residents of D’Padang.
D'Padang: We live here
We managed to sleep until about 9, at which point I felt Jay flinch and squeeze me. “Don’t move,” he said. My mind raced to a million possibilities, but my gaze quickly fell on a large spider in the upper corner of our room. About the size of a chocolate chip cookie (4 inch diameter, if you prefer the scientific reference), this friend was no joke. Our ceilings are tall and I quickly backed away to the door and told Jay to grab a shoe. He eyed it curiously, and swears to me it was not a spider, but a special mutant bug with only 6 legs. I opened the door to our villa and flagged down one of the workers. He came flying in with two spray cans and handled the beast. Good morning from Bali!
When we were last in Bali we only had 10 days, and we made a list of all the things we wanted to do when we returned- so we hit the ground running and decided to walk to the Uluwatu Sea Temple. On our way we, of course, needed breakfast and ended up with amazing fresh juice, free coconuts (why wouldn’t you get free coconuts with your meal?), and amazing organic breakfast burritos and avocado toast. It was enough to keep us full all day (literally, all day, since we slept through dinner).
Outside Corner, uluwatu
On our 2 mile walk to the temple we also stumbled upon Single Fin Beach, and found some surf that Jay will definitely be taking advantage of. To get down there, it’s almost like the jumbled market in Aladdin, with restaurants and tiny shops cascading down a cliff, nearly on top of each other. As you reach the bottom you find a tiny slit of beach between two massive cliffs and paddle out from there. In the other direction, we found a tiny private beach with a massive shipwreck on the shore. People lay among the ruins, and a baby played naked- completely unphased. It reminded me that the most devastating times of our lives, that feel like they’re in ruins forever, can one day heal over and become places of beauty and peace.
Single fin, secret beach
We finally made it to the Uluwatu Sea Temple, where they had us don silk scarves and sashes out of respect. The silk was not the most comfortable in the 80 degree heat, but the views were beautiful. Of course there was a cost, and the tiny sea temple on the distant cliff made Jay and I laugh at falling for the tourist trap. But the monkeys eating potato chips and stalking unassuming, Chanel wearing tourists made us laugh.
monkey brunch at uluwatu sea temple
We concluded the day with our $6 hour massages, assuming we’d make it out to dinner after a shower. We woke up 12 hours later, this morning.