Monday, January 2, 2017

What is Even Happening?

Today was quite a day. We met up with Ketut at 10:00 Neither of us really knew what was happening other than that we were supposed to be going to the Bali Safari and Marine Park. We had a vague idea as to what it was, but we didn't know much.

After a long drive to Gianyar, Ketut led us up to a check-in stand and got us tickets. He then showed us to an entrance, but he could not go in, since he did not have a ticket. He pointed us to go 'that way' and, very confusedly, we headed that way. We followed where most of the people were going...a bus stop. We thought the bus might be the safari we were supposed to go on. Two minutes later we were dropped off.

LuRue, being even more confused than Montana, followed Montana to the information desk. Montana asked about the Jungle Hopper tour, which was the one we were supposed to be signed up for. The clerk pointed in a direction, but seeing that both Montana and LuRue's expressions were still very confused, she pulled out a map and started writing down showtimes and places that we could go to.

LuRue and Montana took a moment to look at the map. The first showing was at 12pm and by this time it was a little past 11:45, so LuRue suggested that we try to find that place. The park was full of arrows and logos that we could match up to places on the map, so it was not too complicated to get around. There were several other people in front of us, asking about the elephant show, so we also followed them.

Finally, we arrived at the stage. On a big amplifier, a voice came on saying (in Russian, Chinese, English, and Indonesian) that it was 10 minutes until the show would start. There weren't many people in the audience, so we found a seat.

Ten minutes later, we looked around and all the seats were full. There were many other people standing on the bridge behind the stage ready to watch the show.


Suddenly, loud overly dramatic music came on as a jeep pulled in with a woman, who got out and started talking to us about the history of elephants in Bali. We were then given a performance of the history of elephants from before humans, first encounter with humans and learning to work together. Several elephants were star actors in the show. One even fell over and played dead at one part. Both LuRue and Montana couldn't help but wonder how long it took and how they trained the elephants to do the motions and get the timing right.


After the show, we had two hours before our next show started. Not knowing whether or not it would cross times with the next show, we decided to take our safari that the woman at the desk had mentioned.


We spent a few minutes trying to follow signs and find the start of the safari. There was a sign showing that there was a 15-minute waiting line. We got in the line that our Jungle Hopper tour matched with. Thirty seconds later, we were on the bus ready to go. We were confused as to how we got in so quickly, but it turns out the 15-minute waiting line was for a specific tour, which ours did not match. We were off on a safari with about 15 other people. We went through animals of Indonesia, India and Africa. The tour guide would speak a little about each animal we stopped by, but it was a very quick stop. Each animal was given about 30 seconds, enough time to quickly snap a couple pictures before heading off to the next animal. Sometimes our guide would narrate what we were doing, like when we went over a bridge she would say, "And now we're going over the bumpy bridge." It was pretty cheesy.



Turns out it was no trouble getting to our next show in time. The safari only took about half an hour, so we even had time to go get a drink, since Montana had to leave her water bottle at the car. LuRue was lucky in that they didn't find hers when doing the security check. This was very understandable though after it took LuRue a couple of minutes of searching through her own bag to find it. We looked at the map to see where we'd gone and where we were going next.

At 2:30 we had a tiger show, so we decided to head that way. We got there half an hour before the show, so we headed down the road that had Komodo Dragons and porcupines. We took a look at them before heading back to get our seat before all seats were taken.



The show was similar to the elephant show, but instead of telling a story, they just told a little bit about tigers. The keepers would throw food up for the tigers to catch or put it high in a tree, so they'd have to climb the tree and so on. One thing that impressed LuRue and Montana in both shows was how much they stressed conservation and preservation, warning that many species might go extinct.







After that show, we headed to the Bali Theater. Neither of us knew what we had in store for us here. The signs led us down a tunnel with vines growing all around. We entered a place where some workers took our cameras. No cameras were allowed in this show apparently. We still had no idea where we were headed but we followed a worker who took us to a dark auditorium and set us down. It looked like the play had already been going on for a bit.

The play was wonderful and we wished we had gotten there earlier to see the whole thing. There were shadow puppets, wonderful lights, extraordinary costumes, dancing, animals and a story line, which we had a hard time following, especially since we came in on the second half.

The show ended and we had just enough time to get to the last show the woman had written down for us. This one was more of a broad range in animals, showing animals from cats and dogs to orangutans. The person on stage discussed a little bit about each animal as the animal keepers had their animals do different things, like catch food, swing from a rope. LuRue was especially impressed with the cats, since cats are pretty much impossible to train.







By that time both of us needed some time to stop, take in what had happened and look at what we had left, so we went to our free afternoon tea, which was provided to us as part of our tour. The only things we had left to do were to walk around the aquarium and go see what the waterpark was like. LuRue didn't care either way. Montana said if the waterpark was worthwhile, she'd rather go there, so we were off again.

The waterpark ended up being built for kids and as fun as the rides looked, neither of us wanted to be the one adult in a field of kids. Especially Montana, since she pretty much has a fear of dealing with little kids. We did find one ride and as we were trying to figure out what it did, the operator drew us in and next thing we knew we were in a very slow boat going down some fake river. It was so slow, either of us could walk faster than it. At some points it stopped and we speculated as to whether it was supposed to stop or not, but eventually it kept moving along. It was probably the least amusing amusement park ride we had ever been on, but eventually we were back on land.


We walked through the aquarium, but didn't stay for long, since none of the fish really drew our attention and seeing them in real life, snorkeling is so, so much more fun. We were also both worn out at this point and decided it was time to find the exit. Ketut was already waiting for us, like he usually is and we got in the car to head back to Candidasa.

We took a few minutes' rest after getting back before heading out to dinner. We went to Le-Zat (our cooking class restaurant) one more time. We got there just in time to watch the sunset and finally relax after such a long day.

3 comments:

  1. So with all of the confusion and everything, was it worth going to the park? Did the animals seem to have good care? It sounds like a busy but interesting day except the slow boat ride to nowhere!

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  2. I imagine you guys were pretty tired after all that. I've been using Google Maps to follow where you've been going. You guys are getting around a bit of Bali!

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  3. Yes, Monday was quite a day. I feel like i have just visited another country just reading about your adventures. The trained animal shows must have been interesting--I have never seen trained tigers and elephants before. Yes how impressive that Bali stressed conservation and preservation.

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