Western Bali

Now closer to the main Indonesian island of Java, we were in Islamic territory. We had to cover up even in the hotel here, though in the car on the way there I was just in a tank top, and when we stopped for petrol and stayed in the car I got some very big stares! It was in the hotel that night that I heard my first ever Islamic call to prayer. I thought it sounded rather peaceful and comforting!

The next morning we went straight to get the ferry, which was a tiny wooden motor boat, to an island for some snorkelling. Wow. It was actually even more amazing than the Great Barrier Reef! The water was crystal clear, and further out, in the deep, a beautiful turquoise. There were more types of fish here than in Australia by about a hundred times! I even saw giant clams!.....A big blue starfish, the fish in the tank with a scar from Finding Nemo, Nemo himself in his little plant that he lives in. There was a big scary fish, about a metre long, shaped like a pencil with a big pointed noise, giant teeth and glaring eyes! I swam up to it and had a look for a while, but then I got scared and swam off as quick as I could! There were smaller long pointy, silver fish, bigger, darker fish on the drop off, lots of cute coupled fish swimming around in pairs, so many luminous colours! We got called back after a couple of hours, but again I just wanted to spend forever in the water.

Back on the shore, our group leader, the local guides and I got some bin liners to pick up the rubbish on the beach. There was so much of it, it was really sad. You can see bags in the water when you are snorkelling, a ridiculous amount of flip flops, lots of polystyrene, and so much medical waste! It wasn't very nice, but I did feel like I was giving my bit back to the country. Although more rubbish will be washed up on the shore with the next tide, it acts as an education to the local people, which is the important thing. Some of them were helping, so it was obviously working to some extent!

After another delicious, banana leaf packed lunch, we went to see the island temple. On the way we saw a great deer with massive antlers that barked.....yes barked....at us. The first part of the temple was dedicated to Brahma and guarded by a statue of a crocodile, which was interesting as you don't get crocs in Bali! Then there was a Buddhist temple in the middle of the Hindu temples. And then just to confuse things even further, the new Hindu temple that was being built featured Chinese coins as part of it's decoration. Bali is an interesting mix!

I was thinking on the ferry back - it would be nice if the sea wasn't so salty...then I discovered strawberry Fanta. It is the best drink. Ever.