Our First Busy Day!

By: Lauren G. Maestas-Chavez

With an early start to our day, which we will soon be accustomed to, everyone had their own opportunity to take a walk through the early morning streets/nature of Bali. After our morning walk, we gathered in the commons room to have breakfast. An early morning walk followed by a fulfilling breakfast is beginning to become a pleasant routine.

With breakfast out of the way, we are delighted to be informed of a kindergarten graduation in which we are invited. A brief walk across the street and up the stairs and we find ourselves surrounded by children formally dressed in their traditional regalia, ready to commence the ceremony. We are welcomed in and were able to witness the performance of the “Welcome Dance” by the young girls, and the “Warrior Dance” by the young boys. With a busy schedule ahead of us, we politely remove ourselves from the area and go to meet our bus down the street. We are to head off to the market in hopes of finding a sarong and sash belt that we will wear tomorrow at a birthday party.

The market is the place where the true test of our Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian Language) skills would come. We browsed, bargained, and settled on each of our own sarongs and belts that matched our preferences, a task that proved to be a challenge. With shopping done, we gather into the bus once more to travel to a hotel that we would later be staying at. There, we sat and enjoyed a meal with a beautiful view of a valley of greenery. And again, after our meal was over, we boarded the bus to visit another location that we would be staying at near the beach.

As we arrived at our destination, our driver finessed his way through the incredibly small roadways to deliver us to a pleasant surprise. We all looked at the small, but beautiful beach in awe. Happily, we walked onto the beach and into the water where we did not quite swim, but instead enjoyed the wonderful water. As time dwindled, we cleaned our feet of the sand and boarded the van for our bus driver to again, finesse his way out of the tight roadways and back onto the main road. We would return to our home stay while also enjoying the views along the way.

Upon arrival, we settled in and relaxed briefly and gathered in the commons room where we would then walk to dinner. With our third meal of the day complete, we returned back to our home stay. Ending the day, we arranged our orders for breakfast, said our goodnights, and parted for bed. Goodnight from Bali!

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