Bali island tour

Yesterday we took a bus tour around the island stopping at various places en route. Bali is 120 kilometres long by around 40 kilometres wide so not very big! Our day started at 8.30am and we were picked up by a coach which fortunately had good AC as it is very hot and humid here with daytime temperatures reaching 32 degrees C. We had to negotiate the rush hour traffic to get out of Denpaser the capital of Bali which is very busy with a lot of scooters and also cars. Bali has a population of c4 million people with most living in the city. They drive on the left hand side of the road but there seems to be no rules as in two lane highways cars and scooters pass either side and seem to drive in 3 lanes most of the time! The Police were out in force trying to keep the traffic moving. Our first stop was at a silversmiths in Celuk where we saw a man pumping the gas by foot to melt the silver. There was a big shop and we were invited to look around. Some people bought jewellery but not us. Next was a woodcarving place in Mas where they spent hours hand crafting pieces of wood into very elaborate shapes to make beautiful ornaments and other more practical items. The next stop was a temple known as the Elephant temple. Most of the people here are Hindu but there are also Muslims and Christians but our guide explained they all get along. All down the streets you see little shrines like boxes with trays of flowers and other things which are offerings to their Gods. Sometimes there is a piece of cloth draped around which is checked black and White or yellow with White. Each colour has a significant meaning which I have forgotten already but something like White is peace. We then went onto a plantation where coffee is grown. The most famous Bali coffee is made from the droppings of a cat like creature called a Luwar they breed and feed on coffee beans which then get ingested and pass out the other end. The end result is then washed and dried and ground and is known as Luwar coffee. Very expensive apparently but supposed to be the top coffee here! Our lunch stop was at a good restaurant overlooking Mount Batur which is an extinct volcano that last erupted in 1933. Lunch was an excellent Indonesian buffet. After lunch we had another temple to visit the Holy Spring temple where they had healing waters. Finally we visited the monkeys inside a rainforest where several small grey cute monkeys played around and took food from some hands in the form of sweetcorn on the cob or sweet potatoes or bananas. Managed to get lots of pictures for the record. The Marina here is quite small but the staff are extremely obliging. I went shopping today at Carrefour and returned in a taxi with several heavy bags which were taken to the boat by the smiling staff who seemed eager to assist. Peter had stayed on the boat to try and fix a small problem with our battery charger not working. However by the time I returned after lunch he had fixed the problem and now all is well again. We are now nearly ready to go on Monday. Customs clearances are actually being done on Sunday for us. So then we leave on Monday!! Tonight is the prize giving event.