In Bali, originally, we planned to travel up North via the East coast. But following the eruption and continued danger from Mt Agung, we thought it to be wiser to take a more westerly route. Some pictures of traditional, lavishly decorated fishing boats made us book a place in rural Perancak. To be honest with you, when we arrived in the quiet fishing village, I didn’t expect to dedicate a whole blog post to our four nights in this area. But we had such a wonderful time here that we all agreed: Our time in Perancak deserves a blog entry on its own. Et voilà.

Some of our highlights:

• Being Kadek’s and Craig’s guests at Villa Tunjung Sari. Staying here didn’t really feel like staying in a guesthouse, it felt much more like visiting old friends. Kadek, Craig and their triplets were brilliant hosts and made us feel welcome and comfortable in their little oasis. A big plus was their on-site restaurant: We absolutely loved Kadek’s Balinese food. Every night, we were looking forward to our dinner. Awww, those flavours!
• Living right on a clean and quiet beach, enjoying all the fun that comes with it: Wandering in the sand, swimming in the sea, watching the local fishermen catching dinner or digging deep holes until reaching water.
• Watching the practice for bull racing, which was fascinating and deeply disturbing (too brutal for our liking) at the same time.
• Feeding and holding baby turtles at the Kurma Asih Sea turtle Conservation center where they protect the turtle eggs to increase the hatching rates and then release the juveniles to the sea.
• Cycling the area around Villa Tunjung Sari on a tandem, getting smiled (or laughed) at by locals, coincidentally coming past a wedding ceremony, listening to a gamelan ensemble (the traditional music ensemble of Java and Bali) and taking in the rural environment.
• Stopping in Negara, the capital city of the Balinese Jembrana Regency, strolling over the local market and visiting a lovely temple (one of the nicest ones we have seen during our time in Bali).