Dolphins on Holiday

When you go to bed at nine, it’s easy to get up before six, which is what we did with the plan to see dolphins at play. Apparently, early morning is the best time to do this. Boats in Bali are basically high-sided motorized canoes with wood poles mounted as outriggers on each side. Though small, they are surprisingly stable in the undulating waters. We spent an hour and a half trolling as far out from the shore as a mile and moving parallel to the beach, but we failed to sight even a single dolphin. Still, we enjoyed the boat ride, so all was not lost. When we returned to dry land, we packed up and continued driving eastward along the north shore. We stopped to tour a Hindu temple at Pura Meduwe Karang. We were wearing shorts and as a sign of respect, we were asked to wrap a sarong to cover our legs. (I guess the sight of all that alabaster skin was an eyesore!) We had to do this as well at the Saturday night temple dance ritual at Uluwatu. We continued our journey east in the shadow of the great volcano Agung, which had exploded as recently as the early 1960s. Several thousand people were killed in that blast. We stopped at a famous dive and snorkeling center located near the site of a WWII U.S. transport ship that had been torpedoed by the Japanese in shallow waters. We passed on the opportunity to snorkel and see the sunken ship up close in its watery grave. We ended up stopping near Ahmed at a beautiful cliff top resort called Wawa Wewe, where we were the only guests. The swimming pool was so inviting perched high on the side of the cliff looking out to the sea. We decided this would be the night to don tiaras and raise our glasses to toast with delicious Bali rice wine. Our host served a scrumptious dinner to us on what was a nearly perfect evening.