Soap, Sand and Nasi Campur

The beach outside of the soap-maker's shop.

For our last day in Bali, and arguably our last real day of vacation, we decided that we needed to take it easy. The beautiful grounds and sea views from our villa were alluring enough that we really wanted to make that the focus of our day.

Nonetheless, there were a couple of last things that we needed to tend to, not the least of which was going to an ATM. We knew that the ATM pickings in East Bali were few, but we hoped this would not end up being an all morning endeavor. Indeed, it should not have been, but for whatever reason Mastercard and Cirrus were not working so we took a somewhat scenic (yes, really) tour fr Amlapura searching for an ATM that would work.

Freshly made soap waiting to set.

The "shop" was really just a shelf with a lot of soap on it.

Eventually, success. From there we set off to Jasri where we visited a natural soap maker. Both of us couples needed to buy some soap as gifts and, situated on a pristine black sand beach, there were certainly less desirable soap makers to visit. This particular soap maker produces the soap for a number of luxury resorts on the island. Next, we went to White Sand Beach, just south of Jasri, where we were promised virgin white sand and beautiful waters. The water was beautiful and I am not going to say that the sand turned tricks, but it was not quite what we were looking for. Pretty yes, spectacular no; moreover, with even just a few touts present, our villa presented a much more attractive option.

White Sand Beach - looks deserted, right?

Not so much.

One more stop: on the coastal road again, we headed down to Kusamba, where just past the Bat Cave temple, they are famed for their grilled fish and nasi campur, a dish consisting of two types of fish satay, a fish cake steamed in banana leaves, rice, fiery sambal, a spicy fish broth soup, nuts and snake beans. We ended up at Mertha Sari, a local favorite, and got set for our meal. We received no shortage of stares as the weird farangs visiting the local haunt – pilgrims had come straight from the Bat Cave for lunch and they were certainly looking a whole lot more presentable than we were.

Grilling fish satay.

All the pieces of lunch...

What they look like dished up together - delicious!

Despite that fact, people were very nice. There is no menu there – just one dish – and it was served to us on our mat almost immediately. The dish had spice that literally lit your mouth on fire, but washed down with a Bintang, it seemed that nothing could be more delicious. I finished, tears in my eyes, wanting more.

The ocean view at the villa.

After lunch, it was time to enjoy our last afternoon in our villa. Mr. Ibu Oka and I played “coconut”, our self-devised game of lawn bowling that involves, you guessed it, using a coconut, while Ms. Cupcake and Ms. Kumquat read and looked out at the water and Nusa Penida island in the distance.

It was a great last day in Bali.