Our second day in Bali was scheduled to start a bit earlier at 8:30am. One couple decided to do shopping, so our group dropped to 8 in total. We started the day with a short drive to a Barong dance pavilion where we watched a very traditional Barong dance play with 5 acts. In summary, it was a portrayal of the conflict between good and evil. While it was predominantly done in the local language, there were occasional words spoken in English plus the the printed English program helped keep aware of where we were in the play. Also, two of the characters seemed to play characters like in American slapstick comedy routines and they were quite funny even though we didn't understand a word.
From there we made our way to the boat rental area where for $20US per person we hired a boat and driver to take us out to see fish from a glass bottom boat. The few fish we saw were pretty, especially the yellow and black striped ones. From there we sailed to Turtle Island which is a turtle sanctuary. We got to see turtles in the various stages of growth and even hold a 6 year old green sea turtle (a very soft underbelly), a large brown bat (really soft), pet an iguana (really hard and scaley), and hold a boa snake (really warm to the touch).
After our visit to the turtle sanctuary, we drove a short distance to a resort and had a great lunch meal at a Chinese restaurant location right on the seashore. Following lunch we headed to visit another temple, but the terrible traffic caused us to reconsider and we made our way directly to the port. Even that traffic was bad including about a 20 minute wait at the toll booth to cross the causeway to the port.
During the day due to tidal conditions, the ship had left the dock for an anchorage position in the open waters. So access to the ship was not permitted between 1:30pm and 3:30pm. For some reason HAL contracted with a local company to do the tendering with a tender holding 140 guests and the larger one holding 180 guests. When we got to the port, the small tender was loaded and it was about a 1/2 hour wait for the larger tended and the line looked impressively long, but we were able to get on that tender. As the tender approached the ship's tender platform, the tender crew had a difficult time keeping the tender parallel with the tender platform. Finally a senior HAL seaman came down and took charge and shortly the tender was properly tied up and we were able to re-board the Volendam.
After dinner in the LIDO, we attend the production show, DANCE, in the Main Stage. We've seen it many times before, and it was once again quite good. Afterwards we enjoyed some good conversation with Don and Gwen who led the interdenominational service that we missed because we were on a shore excursion.
The evening movie was "Wonderstruck", and I walked out after 20 minutes as I just didn't feel the vibe. Angela stayed behind and saw it through. And so ended Day 2 in Bali. Tomorrow we're back on tour with Carol in Probolinggo. I wonder if there is an adventure there? Stay tuned.
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