Last days in Bali- 3 to 5 Dec

On December the 3rd, we woke up at 5:30 am, got a knock on the door as a kind reminder at 5:50 and were rushed to a small fishing boat for what seemed a very important event where every second counted...Yeah, right! In fact an entire armada of boats (15 or so), full of expectant tourists, set out at dawn in a pathetic 2.5 hours chase after a few dolpins (3 or so) carefully avoiding us and our cameras. No competition to Kaikoura, but a good lesson for tourists like us and tour operators; who I am sure sponsored the construction of the Dolphin statue (pictured below) in superstitious belief it would prevent the dolphins from taking the business elsewhere !

But the boat ride was pleasant enough and we even had a little adventure on the way back as our boat towed another similar embarcation which had broken its propeler; a first for all of us!

The remainder of the day was spent resting in the magnificient tropical garden and swimming pool of our stylish balinese style hotel (Nirwana Seaside Cottages). Our connecting rooms had a splendid view of the pool but roaming the premises to check out the sculptures, fountains adorned with flowers, the carved furniture, etc was my main occupation of the day; what an inspiration.

Benoit drove us back to Ubud in no time at all; there, Made-Uni had arranged for a driver to take us to Kuta-Seminyak for our last night and bring the rental car back to Ubud. What a business woman and kind heart! In Kuta, our hotel was pretty good and the girls enjoyed the pool... but the beach was plain ugly, filthy actually and dangerous to swim. The shopping wasn't any different to Ubud unless one was after branded clothes (or cheap counterfeits) but we still managed to spend a bit of time and money there. A last lunch on the beach in a welcomed breeze and bye, bye Bali.

The 16:15 plane for Kuala Lumpur (KL) imposed a tiring wait from 19:15 to 22:00. Luckily the girls slept on the flight from KL to KK (Kota Kinabalu) where we arrived at 00:45 on the 6 Dec, already exhausted by too much holidaying (lol).