Today was the in-between day: day after the wedding, and the day before we moved camps to the Gili Islands. What to do? Michael and I vacillated; he wanted to do a seawalk in Sanur, but I cautionned him: maybe they only go certain times, or you need a certain number of people.. maybe they’ll ask for a crazy price if we just show up. So instead, we took the time to look it up online, and then the Villa Santai (Endre’s Villa) manager called for us and haggled down the price to $52 dollars.
Ah but what is a seawalk? you walk on the sea? precisely! Well.. seabed to be even more precise. They throw these large helmets on you that kind of remind me of 1000 Leagues Under the Sea, and under you go about 20 feet, and literally walk on the seabed, with fish swimming around you. They even give you a little squirt bottle that has fish food pellets that squirt out, and then the fish really are in your face. You can even try to feed them directly to the slippery creatures by holding the pellet with thumb and forefinger, and they just snip it out of your hand. It was absolutely amazing, just wish the glass on the helmets were more smooth, it really restricted my peripheral vision.
After being underwater for half an hour, we bounced back up, and walked along the shore, found a yoga studio with a “hammock” garden and then a bit farther, an outdoor chess plaza, where we played a game of chess. (I won!) Sitting down for a late lunch, I really took in the beach scene – this was really my first day on the beach since coming to the island, and I decided that I liked the place so much that I would come back here for the day before my flight after spending 3 days on the Gili Islands.
Lunch was a nice soup and a fresh squeezed pineapple drink. I also found the bowl of rice in the middle of the table quite adorable.. that is- a bowl of rice plant, with ever so green stalks; it was a tiny sample of the actual rice fields that are so abundant on this little island of Bali.
Around 4pm, we headed back to the villa in Ubud about 1/5 hrs away, but not before we hit the Friday afternoon traffic on the roads. This was also quite eye opening: the traffic consisted of 75% motorbikes, and 25% cars/trucks/etc. Looking ahead on a straight road, I could see the sea of helmets bobbing around as people migrated between nonexistent lanes, occasionally stopping at a “gas station” i.e. a dude on the side of the road selling petrol in glass bottles that usually resided on a rack visible to drivers on the road. But the most amazing part was that, unlike in the USA where during an average rush hour – regardless of what city – you probably get sweared at by at least a handful of people (or people just get angry at no one in particular, maybe the state for that never ending construction project), no one seemed particularly stressed out or pissed off at anyone else around them, even if they were cut off, nearly rear-ended, or had to wait because the traffic flow through an intersection stopped maybe 5 or more seconds after the light actually turned red. It’s just a way of life – no stress for no good reason; everyone will get home eventually.