Heading south

From the top of the island to the bottom in the space of a week. Not that it's a big island, but the traffic can make it seem so. Yesterday, another spontaneous trip south onto the Bukit Peninsula led to visits to Uluwatu and Jimbaran.

Eddie has mastered driving conditions well. Start-stop, and there is a lot of that, is fine but things become a bit hairier on the bypass road that leads to just about everywhere - Sanur, shopping malls, Denpasar, the airport and down to the peninsula. Traffic is faster, but hazards include overloaded trucks, cars suddenly doing a u-turn, thousands of bikes and contempt for lane markings. It can get nerve wracking. For this passenger anyway, but so far so good.

To the right of the narrow neck lies Jimbaran Bay, surprisingly pretty and with views of aircraft landing and leaving what seems like every minute. Maybe the wind conditions were right, as there was no noise.

But the object was to reach the southern tip and Pura Luhur Ulu Watu one of Bali's sea temples established in the 11th century.

To reach the temple you need to drive though the abomination that Ungasan village has become

and we seriously doubted if we had made a good decision. But much to our pleasant surprise there seems to be a green belt for about 5km leading down to the temple, with no development in view at all*. There is some serious money in this area, and with it has come discretion with resorts tucked well away from public gaze. Thank goodness.

Although only Hindu worshippers are permitted to enter the actual temple, the clifftop location and the pathways provide stunning views for visitors.

Monkeys play in the garden and around the grounds and appear to be far less spoiled and greedy than those in Ubud's Sacred Monkey Forest.  I know that my language skills are improving when I can make a joke with a vendor and we both have a good laugh together. (I only do pathetic at the moment: she wanted to sell me food for the monkeys and I told her no thanks, I wasn't hungry. But hey, it's a confidence boost).

The Uluwatu area is also famous for surfing and there was something about the light, the roads to the lovely beaches and the drier vegetation that was strangely reminiscent of how Margaret River and Yallingup used to be, before money found those places too.

So back to Jimbaran and a late lunch on the beach. Famous for its seafood, Jimbaran has three distinct beachside warung areas and we visited the southernmost.

A delicious seafood platter, that included grilled lobster, didn't last long, eaten at Teba Mega as we watched the planes, the few swimmers and the beach dogs, who seem in much better condition than their Ubud street counterparts. The salt water is obviously good for their skin.

We realised that it was this part of the beach** at Jimbaran that suffered from the 2005 bombings when we saw this sign as we were leaving. No bad thing to be reminded.

*By government decree we have since been told. Long may it last.
**Later confirmed