bali day 2: tanjong benoa

today’s plan is to go on the Bukit Badung tour, which is basically the south of Bali coasts. we woke up early and had breakfast at the Nasi Bali restaurant…

the bubur ayam was excellent.

not long after breakfast, Pak Made picked us up at the hotel and off we went. the first stop was Tanjung Benoa. it is actually an area for water sports like jetski, parasailing, banana boat and snorkling. but since aina is only 3.5 years old and unable to participate in most of those activities, we went for the boat ride to Pulau Penyu (Tortoise Island).

the boat has glass bottom, so we can see starfish and stripy fish swimming around.

aina was a bit scared of the boat, because it keeps swaying. at one point, the boat driver gave aina some bread to feed the fish, which cheers her up a bit.

along the way, we spotted some interesting boats floating around… there is this old-skool sailboat:

and a wooden boat complete with balinese carvings for decoration. pretty!

we then arrived at the Pulau Penyu… the water is clear, the beach was long and flat. and we’re greeted by one of the guides of Deluang Sari, the tortoise conservation center.

aina got to play with turtles. the younger ones, like the one held up by ari, is about 5 years old. aina was so happy that she can touch and pat them.

there are baby tortoises in containers, and there are huge green tortoises… most are in their 20’s, and the gigantic one in the middle is about 60-ish years old. aina tried really hard to feed them seaweed. the tortoises are rather gentle and tame, too.

other than turtles, there are many other animals in the compound that we can interact with. there is a lazy monitor lizard laying on the sand. a flying fox that we can hold. a big huge snake that scared aina away. a big tame hornbill…

and aina’s favorite: a beautiful sea eagle that’s gentle enough that we can take family picture next to it 🙂

after having some coconut drinks and some chit-chat with the locals (aina was busy chasing the chicken, both hens and roosters), we left the island by the glass-bottom boat again. back to Tanjung Benoa…

the sky and sea traffic in that area was pretty crazy. there were speedboats pulling parasailing peeps and rubber flying-fish, there were jetskis zooming around, and people were floating in the water with their snorkles… it was just nuts and i felt like i was about to be hit by something fast. i kept wondering how do they manage to get those parasailing ropes not tangling with each other.

suffice to say, i was glad to reach the land. next stop: Geger Beach.

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the complete photos are in Tanjung Benoa, Bali ’11 photo album.