Pemuteran
On the way to Pemuteran in northwestern Bali, we stopped to see a famous statue of the Buddha (an Instagram favorite according to our guide) and passed through rice fields. We stayed in a resort in a national park — real jungle. Ira decided to see what would happen if he directly stared at one of the macaques hanging around our room while he sat on the porch and quickly found out —aggressive response with bared teeth. In macaque language, staring is an act of aggression. Having tested out that behavior, it ended.
Hotel staff warned us to always kept the doors to our room locked. They were double doors with a padlock. If unlocked the monkeys would come into the room for the welcome basket of fruit the hotel left for us and wreak havoc. The managers at one of the restaurants showed us a slingshot he made to scare off the monkeys. It was wood with a leather pouch to hold whatever he was shooting and looked sturdy. “Not to hurt them,” he said. “Just to scare them away.”
We could see across the water from the hotel dining area to the volcanoes of Java.
A day of snorkeling for us both followed by a day of diving for me. The first snorkeling expedition was so beautiful — healthy reefs with lots of hard corals (they are disappearing from the Caribbean) and some beautiful fish endemic to these waters. The second snorkel of the day was a bit upsetting because of all of the trash floating in the water. Rainy season has come a bit early this year (I couldn’t help but notice) so the rivers that empty into the ocean carry trash from inland. The dive master brought a trash bag along to collect what he could and told us that the problem is slowly being addressed. Apparently trash collection services are not usually provided by the government in small villages and towns. Not sure how the big cities handle it — there must be services because there are several cities in Indonesia close to the size of, and at least one larger than, NYC.
I went diving in the reefs of Menjangen, an uninhabited island and a protected maritime area. But first I needed a refresher dive course because it has been over two years since my last dive. The dive master giving me the instruction was in his mid-thirties I think, short, a bit stout with light coffee colored skin; he had a little man-bun and high chiseled cheekbones. He radiated serenity. We reviewed the underwater skills in the shallow waters near the boat. He waved his hand slowly to demonstrate how the breathing must go in and out regularly and how we are always calm. Diving with Buddha.
We saw two octopuses on the second dive — black, blobby masses scrunched into rock crevices with one eye peering out at us. The dives were both beautiful and my buoyancy control improved greatly — Ooooommmm!
PS. Sorry about all those wires and radio tower behind the Buddha statue. No time to edit them out.
