8/26 -- Fishing Boats, Temple.Monkeys, Shopping

We had an optional hike along the beach this morning to visit the fishing village about a mile away. We headed out at 6:30am to watch the boats come in and distribute their catch. It was quite a picturesque and chaotic scene.

Sunrise over the beach

A mass of boats -- these are tourist focused.

Closer look at tourist boats.

Carrying the purchase away. Interestingly, men carry burdens
on the shoulders, women on their heads. 

Bucket of fish. Not sure what these are. I see them often in.
Chinatown

Boats are still coming in, while others are unloading and some
are done for the day.

After our walk, we had breakfast, cleaned up, and headed to a cliffside temple renown for its fantastic views and rowdy monkeys. Uluwatu is perched on a cliff 300 feet above the ocean. Its monkeys typically harrass visitors and we were advised to remove anything dangly or sparkly that could be mistaken for food. One monkey tried to steal Jim's water bottle, and another stole Homer's sunglasses and ate the nose pads. Fortunately, he got his glasses back and was able to get them repaired for about $1.25. I didn't have any trouble with them and saw an employee actively feeding them so maybe the agressive behavior has become enough of an issue that they are  trying to combat it.

One cliff view. The temple is behind us.

The first monkey we saw. Most were hiding in
the woods.

This appears to be a  youngster

View back toward the temple

Waves crashing on rocks below.

A monkey turning around to pose for me.

This bouganvilla appears to  have 2 different colored bracts
on the same bloom.

The main temple

Entrance to the temple area is off-limits to visitors

Tree that looked like an oversized bonsai in the courtyard.

  

Statue of monkey and child in the courtyard.

We headed back to town and stopped for lunch and shoppung in Kuta, an area we will be in later. There are a couple malls, which were a pleasant contrast to the aggressive vendors we saw elsewhere. The mall we had lunch in (Burger King!) had two enormous shops that focused on Indonesian goods. They also had Polo and other major vendors, priced about the same as at home. It also looked like you could buy knockoffs -- one theoretical Hermes wallet I looked at felt like plastic and cost about $50. We mostly only looked at stuff because we will have free time here later .

As we walked along the street, we saw a parade coming toward us -- turned out to be a funeral procession.

First of three views of the funeral

 

The bamboo tepee reminded me of the bigger ones we saw
in the Java cemetery. These are also seen inside and outside
of the cemetery near our hotel.

The deceased is covered with a white cloth and rides at the
top of the tall float.

This delight was on display at a fancy restaurant.

Back at the hotel we planned our packing for the next stage of the trip. Our initial information said we could bring 33 lb bags and 23 lb carryons, but we learned today that the limits are 22 and 15 lbs respectively. Fortunately, we can leave some bags at the OAT office since we will be back here to fly home. Then it was time for our "Farewell" dinner (although none of us are leaving yet). It was on the beach at sunset (except the clouds hid the sun).

Our table on the beach. Unfortunately, I was
the only one paying attention to Jim and his
camera.

While we were at dinner, a rider came along the beach.