more from North Bali
Comments(0) The snorkeling was pretty great off Palau Mejangan. My only regret was the dive master/boat captian not taking us to other spots around the island. I was out there with two French couples who were diving while I was left on my own to snorkel about. No turtles, or anything I hadn’t seen before, but there seemed to be more coral diversity. We were at a classic wall, though I obviously stayed on the upper half. The rain started earlier that day and soaked us, but when already in the water it didn’t matter much. All eyes were cast down anyway.
Later in the day I had conversations with both the French guys at various times. Jerome and his girlfirned worked for NGO and did relief work all over Africa and more recently Haiti, though he claimed it was more triage than cultural exploration. Apparently one sacks out exhauusted at the end of each day and there is lttle time for anything else. But he’d also lived briefly in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and we talked a bit over beers poolside about the difference between life in France and the USA. The other guy, whose name I never got, had a company in Mongolia for three years, and since that is a country I think about teaching in at times, I picked his brain after dinner.
Some other teachers who might have come over to do the hike with me couldn’t make it, and the weather was forbidding. Plus the cost, as you have to hire a guide to hike in the National Park, so I took a pass. But a waitress told me about a small temple in the hills behind Pemuteran, so the next morning I went up there before riding back down to Denpasar. I haven’t edited in the jump tower footage I mention yet…maybe later.
Trying to decide if I should return the way I’d come, or along the southwestern road which I knew would be clogged with trucks from Java, I comprimised and came back partly what I’d done, but a new route through the mountains, passing lots of great rice fields, and hooked up with part of the SW road, which the trucks do indeed make suck. But back in my room, I realized I’d left my mp3 player and headphones at the hotel. I called and they have them for me, but I’ll need to return, most likely next week after classes are done but before I leave for AU. Damn it, I thought about them briefly pulling out of town but was distracted by some other thought before I checked while still in the area. It’s be about a 5 hour return trip, or maybe I’ll make another overnight of it. Oh well, I love motorbiking around in the mountains anyway.
