Our time in Bali is drawing to an end but we have one last day of full day activities to conquer. We had booked Dicky again to take is to Bali Safari and Marine park and to finish the day off with going to Tannah Lot, another famous temple.
We started the day early with Dicky picking us up at 8am. It was a shortish drive to Bali Marine and Safari park, arriving at 9:30am. When we arrived Dicky booked us in and then left us to our own devices for the day. The lobby was amazing with figurines and wondrous Indonesian architecture. Then girls were so excited once they saw the map and the animals we were going to see. We first headed down the pathway to the white tiger enclosure. These huge felines are beautiful to look
at, have always loved these animals. We sat and watched them lazing in the sun, probably sleeping off their morning feeds. We walked down this tunneled staircase which ended up in the middle of the enclosure and being able to look out a Perspex peep hole, literally one meter away from the lions. We lifted the girls up to have a look, they were for once speechless!! After this we purchased a ticket each which cost $30 AUS for the four of us to come up close and personal with a lion cub. Never before have l been this close to a lion, l think l recall it being around twelve months old. When we got the tickets l was so excited, then l saw the cub and my mood switched to sadness. The lion had so much sadness in its eyes and l recon it must have been druged to some degree. He had a chain around his neck and the trainers weren't too friendly, nothing like the Elephant Safari trainers, who seemed to love their aninimals they cared for. We all had our pat and photo then continued on, l kicked myself for supporting the sadness of the cub.
We moseyed on thru the park past the elephants, which l always love to watch, and came to the parana feeding show. The area was crammed with tourists and the show was ok. They certainly know how to demolish a full chook quickly!! Girls spun out a bit and were shocked to see the remains of chicken skeleton....lol. After the fish expedition which was pretty ordinary with some bright colorful fish, l took Boo to the Blainese dance area where she had her own free private traditional Balinese dance lesson. At first she was a little timid being out in the opening with people looking, but once she concentrated on the girl, she was loving it. The Blainese are so intricate in their hand and finger movements while dancing, all movements are slow and graceful. So glad Boo got to experience it. Luckily our time frame for each activity was going well because we the. Made our way to the seating area for the Animal Eduaction Show. It was so well presented and they covered a lot of animals from the park including the wondrous orangatangs, toucans, pythans and even guinea pigs. Meg and Charlotte were totally memorized with the show, they both loved the cheeky orangatangs mucking around.
Another show was next, the Elephant Conservation Show, which was at the other end of the park. So we quickly rushed off to get a good seat. The show was absolutely fantastic, best animal show I've seen so far. It told a great story of how elephants used to live in the forest then man came along and destroyed their land and how man hunted them. With all mans bad doings when man needed a hand, the elephants were still there to help them leaving man realising the travesty they had created. Very educational and kept the girls intrigued he hole show. The arena was pretty cool also with the dirt stage being surrounded with water and glass so that we could see the elephants moving thru the water swimming. I even got chosen to get up on stage and have my own personal encounter with these enormous wonders. They elephant places a flower necklace over my head and then have me a kiss on my cheek with their trunk. Totally awesome!!!!
By this stage, we had had a busy morning and were getting very peckish, so we went to the Lion Restaurant to have lunch. This was also a really cool experience to be eating our meal while looking out to the meerkat and lion enclosures. Was hard to get the girls to sit and eat their lunch, hey were wanting to go up to the glass all the time and watch the meerkats play. Marty and the girls chose a western dish, and l had a delicious nasi goreng!!
After lunch we were needing a bit of a spell and escape from the heat, so we went to catch the Safari bus (which had air conditioning!!). It took us through man made countries such as Africa and Indonesia. We drove through creeks and up little hills, passing by and thru the animal enclosures. Marty's highlight was witnessing the love making betweens two lions, were l truly enjoyed the hippos. This was truly another hoghlight of our Blai holiday getting up close and personal with all these amazing animals.
We had only an hour and a half left beige Dicky was coming to collect us so we quickly went to the Otangatans where for another $30 AUS we got to cuddle an orangatang and get a phot with him. While we were waiting in line we were watching the family before us get there photo taken when all of a sudden there was a gasp and laughter. The orangatang had just peed all over the mother on her white skirt. Total pissa, pardon the punt. After they cleansed the orangatang and seating area up where were next. Now l am totally in love with all the monkey species, so this was a dream come true. It was a better experience than the lion previously during the day. For one the trainers showed obvious affection towards the orangatang and he seemed like he had life in his eyes. When we had a cuddle, it felt like a human to human experience, not like we were holding an animal. We had asked a pommy bloke to take a photo with our camera for extra shots, pity he had no clue what he was doing. When we finished our experience l went to check the camera and no photos were taken. Oh well, we have one and our memories l suppose.
Last thing on our list for the Safari Park was the Bali Theatre Show. We were enjoying our icy poles when we were stopped at the entry to be told we couldn't take drinks or food or cameras in. We were all gutted, we were so hot. We stood out front the longest we could scoffing down our icy poles before the show started. Marty took the video camera in to try take some footage secretly. About two minutes into the show a laser light was pointing at Marty to turn the camera off. Sprung! The show was amazing!! Great story, colorful costumes and amazing dance and culture performed. Boo was dazed, absolutely loves anytshing to do with dancing and singing. The show went for an hour and it was a great way to end this magnificant day! We had close encounters with amazing aninimals, saw some fantastic performances and learnt a lot about Indonesian culture and animals.
On time, Dicky was there to meet us out in the lobby. We were all totally exhausted but we had one last thing to do before heading back to the hotel. We drove for an hour to the other side of Kuta to Tannah Lot Temple. Just in time for the famous sunset. Dicky organized us to eat at a seafood restaurant overlooking the ocean and the temple but it was a tad pricey and martys not into seafood anyhow. So we skilled our bintang and vodka drinks down and made our way along the walk way to view the sunset. It was breathtaking. The colors in the sky, the temples magnificence on the cliff was all amazing. The girls ran around the grassed area while Marty and l sat and took in the beauty. I got some amazing photos, a great way to end the day. There were so many people here too, they all obviously heard how spectacular this place was too. Even though there were hundreds of people here, it was so peaceful watching the sunset with the waves crashing on the cliff faces and under the natural rocky bridge. The girls weren't too into the natural wonder and they were found to be playing around with some Indonesian people who were trying to take photos with them. Can't believe the fascination they have with Boo and Meg with their blonde hair and blue eyes???? I quickly got them away from the group which were probably harmless, but all the same.
That was the last of our big tourist days and we only have two more days to go before heading back to Oz :(

Bell Xxx