Day 4
Another breakfast on the Verandah overlooking the valley with the river sounds in the background. Shower etc........ packing only takes 10mins say our goodbyes and thankyous, see you again Kadek and off to Padang Bai.
We had blown our budget of $60 per day each (about 1 million rph all up), includes food, accomm, massages and bike hire, well everything really. So we will see how we go and if we peg it back or go over budget????
The roads are fairly quiet and the bike is great for over taking with the extra grunt of the 200cc engine, much better and safer for that type of thing than automatic scooter IMHO.
Get a bit lost on the way, but we just headed down hill and/or kept the low side of the terrain of the rhs. We eventually got to the By Pass road, chucked a left and got to the Padang Bai turn off at the traffic lights. Turned right and toddled along the road, hardly any trucks and this road is so peaceful and in places very serene without truck and bus traffic to the port.
Down to the road with a lot of the Accommodation and Dive centres and restaurants. The water was clear as a bell. Headed to the far end of the beach and we ate at Topi Inn, great food, middle of the range prices but very tasty and a diverse selection of food and drinks (both healthy and alcoholic.
We were going to stay here, but they were full on the first night but had a vacancy on the 2nd. 90,000rph per night for the room. We had a look at a few places along the waterfront and ended up staying at Padang Bai Homestay. 125,000 per night including breakfast, with fan and cold water, outside bathroom. The linen was very tired but clean.
Had a large drama once we booked in as there was a large frog on the inside window sill, Sue is Sh*t scared of frogs. Caught it in my cap and put it outside, even resisted the temptation of pretending to let it escape onto her huddled in the chair out the front of the digs. She found another smaller one in the bathroom that night, which I liberated at 2am. After that I became the ‘Frog Whisperer'
Organised a local boat to take us snorkeling the next day. This was done from Topi Inn at 125,000, picked up on the beach in front of the restaurant. Just to let you know, there is the Restaurant, a small road and then the beach, with crystal clear water and sheltered by a reef further out.
Hired a cushioned seat from TI for 10,000rph and sat on the beach and read, got TI to bring over a few things during the day. We sat under the shade of a tree, had a massage on the beach (well actually a grassy patch) under a tree, 40,000 each with ‘Doreen and her sister' Doreen also sells sarongs and looks very fit at about 40 yo. This happened to be the best massage for our whole trip. Never had a bad one, but this was the best for both of us. Doreen also has a light pink woven hat with Bali on the front.
Snorkelling - took some rice from TI and off we went out of the bay around to the left and past Bloo Lagoon, heaps of people there. Fed the fish, lots of them but the coral was mostly dead, the boat guy said we could go back to Bloo Lagoon but there was even more boats ther, about 10, tooooo busy for us.
So he took us over to the rhs of Padang Bai, the coral was all alive there although the water was about 3 times deeper and a few less fish. We only stayed out for a couple of hours and was great just to be out in the boat.
Eating - we just took pot luck when we ate at other places than Topi Inn, the least memorable was up some very steep steps to a place overlooking the Bay. It was just very average local food.
Found a very cold beer up along the road towards the Terminal past the temple called Marco Inn, they advertise the coldest and cheapest beer in town. They also have cheap accomm. Out the back 110,000rph I think, had a look and very clean, will probably stay there next trip. It is run by Mal and Lorraine, they were very helpful and informative.
After 2 nights in PB we were off to Lovina via Kintimani. We were going to get back to Semarapura and chuck a right and head up the hill and see where we get to.
Although PB is a main port and terminal, we found it very relaxing and the water and pace of life was beautiful, just right for us.
The ferries leave every couple hours and sound there horns, woke us up a few times, but we didn't care. We are on holidays, no worries............
We are nearly back on budget without missing out on anything, the cheap accomm helped and only having one massage instead of 4 treatments in Ubud, certainly made it easy.
Cheers,
Ray