Once again, we jumped into a Subaru van-like vehicle and took a 2 hour journey to Kitamani, overlooking the Batur Volcano and lake and had light breakfast again at a restaurant while our cycling guide waited for us. We caught another ride up to the start point, the weather was really nice and cold. Long story short, after a very sandy and difficult track, it was all downhill from then onward. Super easy ride. About 25 kilometers later we reached the end point. In between were many things like Rice fields, temple stone carving production villages, wood carving villages, 1000 different temples and many kids.

The driver dropped us off at restaurant for lunch.. then we adjourned to eat babi guling (fried pig) at ibu oka and THEN eat fried duck at bebek bengil. HA. Now we were really stuffed. Walked about a market, bought stuff for nephews and neices then hopped in the van back to the Villa. Awesome food day. Packeted the pork back to eat with the cup noodles we brought over, really nice way to end the day.

Anyhow, we got there safely in one piece and got seated beside the beach which was full of activity. Banana boats, this kite thing where you lie down on a giant float and get pulled by the boat like a kite, jet skiing and boat rides. No para-sailing though, the wind was so strong it could blow glass bottles from the table to the floor.

After some brief introductions, we proceeded to get a (glass) bottle of water, read about the hand signals, change into our wetsuits which were a big exercise and finally get into the instruction pool. After some orientation like how to grab your regulator back, clearing water from the mask and playing around with the buoyancy thing we took off our gear and got seated while waiting for our stuff to be loaded onto the (not so) speed boat.

Diving was mostly mixed feelings. It’s amazing to be breathing below the surface of the water but it’s dry, cold air (from the decompression) and I felt nausea after a short while because its like 360 degree movement, being in contorted positions to hold a position due to the strong currents. We were mostly 7-10m below the surface and our guide took photos and some (pretty bad) photos and videos but the point was just to document our dive which he managed to do to some degree. YX felt a little sick after 26 minutes which was a pretty long time already so we came up with plenty of air left and took a slow boat ride back. I felt plenty sick too but the experience was novel enough for me not to regret going.

We signed out, washed up and headed out to the streets with our guides who gave us incredulous looks when we said we wanted to just get down in the middle of their local stores and streets to walk around because there was simply nothing touristy. 1 hour of walking around, snapping pictures and heading into the local surf shop to buy a t-shirt or two and our guides we desperately looking for us saying the hotel called to find out why we hadn’t arrived back yet, we were pretty impressed. So we called the hotel and continued to seafood dinner at the Dewata Cafe, Jimbaran. The food was great! and not ridiculously tourist priced too. Picked out the seafood, then choose how to cook and sat down. Food came really fast. We ate as the sun set and had a round 2 of mussels because the sauces were so yummy.

Got a long ride back to the villa and reached after dark which was about 7pm. Looks more like 9pm though, considering the sun rises at 545am its kinda expected. The big public pool was deserted and the hotel restaurants were closed already. Headed back and swam then called it a night.

Before you read this, you must be wondering: “Wah siao, honeymoon still can blog and take so many pictures plus process and upload!” The truth is yes, I do have a lot of time and incidentally I am doing what I enjoy doing with my wife of 3 and a half days sitting beside me looking on lovingly (yeah right). It was an uneventful flight! Took a little long because there was a very long queue of planes flying out of Singapore and instead of 2 it became 3 hours.

Taking a taxi ride down to Banyan Tree Ungasan was uneventful other than the fact we got cheated a bit. Probably didn’t do enough homework and agreed to a price with the taxi driver when there is actually a counter where you can pay a fixed price which is pretty cheap. Roads are terribly potholed, traffic is quite heavy and slow but after 40 minutes we are here at the Villa, ate cup noodles for lunch and not really sure what we’re going to have for dinner just yet.

It’s a really really magnificent place. I actually have a lot more to say but I’ll just upload the photos and go for a walk with YX (the wife) now. See you tomorrow maybe! I realize I didn’t bring my camera remote/timer thing so I cannot do a time-lapse or take ridiculous star-trail pictures tonight. Sigh.

Right now I’ve to clear out abit more stuff and move the chesterfield sofa over to the other side of the room. I’m liking it very much now! My mom finished sewing the curtains and they are all hanging from the rails now looking like they need abit of treatment from the steam iron.

No pictures just yet wait till my entire room is really done.

This christmas is even faster than the last now that I’ve been working a full year before. Its been quite a tiring year for me because I didn’t take many breaks and preparation for my wedding is in basically full gear. I have just a few more things to do and I’m all set to go! I’ve to go for christmas dinner at home! Have a Blessed Christmas this year