For our last sightseeing day we headed towards the southern tip of the island. Our first destination was a beautifully developed parkway and resort area, Nusa Dua, that accessed beaches and overlooks. We walked out onto Peninsula Island that had some nice paths and featured a reef with a Water Blow which gave some dramatic wave crashes.
Afterwards, we headed over and visited the Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) statue and culture park. This hosts the tallest statue in Indonesia, which can be seen from many parts of the island. The statue features the divine bird Garuda that is the mount of Lord Vishnu. This is located in a large cultural park that is still under development. After riding up the hill and visiting the statue, we had lunch in one of the restaurants with a nice view of the surrounding countryside. Afterwards, we sat in on a traditional performance featuring some musicians and an actor performing a story. Some of our models got called up onto stage to participate in the performance.
After this, we went to the Pura Luhur Uluwatu Temple. We again had to put on sarongs or sashes before entering. This is a fairly large complex sitting high on a cliff overlooking the ocean. This is another location that is inhabited by monkeys and we were again warned that they are notorious for snatching things. This time it turned out to be warranted. They were kind of sneaky and sat around looking uninterested, then they would go for things. Humberto had his phone snatched, but the eventually managed to get it back after bribing the monkey with food. After walking around the temple grounds, we attended a Kecak Dance performance, where characters acted out a mythic story accompanied by a group of male chanters/dancers that was like a vocal orchestra. Very interesting. The play/dance ran through sunset, and we had a beautiful view from the stands of the sun setting over the ocean. After the performance, we headed home. Although my maps app showed it was only 7 miles away, again experiencing the crazy traffic in Bali, it took us more than 1 1/2 hours to get there.
All in all this was a very fun and interesting trip although after 10 days many of us were a bit exhausted. The following day, the penultimate of our trip, we pretty much spent the day relaxing and then near sunset we headed down to our nearby La Plancha beach for some final shots. After arriving back at home, we had a farewell dinner for our group that included a roast pig. The following day we all began our dispersal towards the airport for our long trips home.
