I keep thinking of all these things I want to share with people but they just seem to take soooo long to type that I give up but one thing I was really interested in was Bali Cliff.
I first heard about it from Scully, who as you all may or may not know is building a villa in Jimbaren well Bukit actually. She had told me about this hotel that had facilities that people in the villa's might be able to use, so I was keen to see it as I was told there was an elevator going down to the beachfront.
Anyway off we went, finally arriving at Bali Cliff Resort only to find that it was closed, bankruut!!! or however you spell it.
The story goes that it was a Soeharto property so God knows how many people lost their land and livelihood!! I was also told that it was built by Soeharto (patriarch), for his, wait for it, concubine!! Dont you love the way they describe things over there, anyway I love all these fiction or fact based story's, so I definitely wanted to explore the place.
Alas, no locals, let alone bules are allowed into the place at present, apparently it is undergoing renovations but looked absolutely devastated when I saw it or what I could see of it anyway.
So the next thing was to go on down to the beach. Upon arrival there, there are a few sellers doing it tough, and I mean really tough. They havent had steady custom for god knows how long and worse, because there is a really good surf break out along the reef, they normally would have tonnes of surfers around but the weather had been so bad for the last three months they hadnt had any of them either. Poor buggers, I ended up not buying anything off them but just giving them some money, cause they looked so morose!!!
Anyways.....there are stairs going down to the beach, which is long way away I might. Actually there are actually 320 of the bloo@@dy things!!! hahahaha, but I was determined to see this elevator on the beach so off we went. Luckily little Jordan had fallen asleep in the taxi, so we left him and the airconditioning and our gorgeous driver and set off.
Well going down was great and the view is gorgeous but even better, there was NOONE on the beach, and its lovely. After closer inspection though (cause my eyes are so bad) there were HEAPS of fishermen in the water, so I guess their families were going to be around somewhere and yep, sure enough just around to the left they were all splashing in the water and sitting talking on the beach. It really is a gorgeous secluded little spot, but the no tourists was the bit I loved the most.
Anyway once you come down off the stairs you go to the right and if the tide is out, you actually can walk right around but just before you hit the elevator, you actually go past three caves and the one in the middle is full of BATS!!!!!! It also has a temple in it, so I guess it must be considered sacred??
Keep going over the rocks and lo and behold there is the greatest monstrosity sticking out of the cliff, a bloody great GREEN elevator, just sitting there, and around the bottom of it they had built, well it was almost like a stadium type seating and this bloo@@dy seating were MONKEYS!!!!! Unbelievable!!!!!
Why go to Monkey forest when you can see all these wild things for free!!! I loved it, in fact I wanted to go back and have a picnic there but my partner was a bit worried they might attack us, which, im sure if we had food they wouldve!!!!
Anyway we sat there for a while and admired the view and I kept checking out this blo@@@dy lift, wondering what sort of environmental impact it would have when it was in operation!!!
We managed to climb the stairs back up, but boy it was difficult, had to stop a couple of times, cause apart from smoking a carton of cigarettes the first month I was there, I was just bloody unfit!!!!
To make me feel worse, Jordy had woken up and insisted to the driver that he go find "Mummy". Dewa was stressing cause he knew how many stairs there were and really didnt want to climb them, but he had no choice. Luckily we met them 3/4's of the way up, BUT Jordy just turned around and TALKED the whole way back up, kids, they're amazing arent they!!!
Got to the top and sat, quite heavily, on the step, and the guy with his esky just quietly smiled and handed me a water, he couldve charged me 30,000 and I wouldve drunk it!!! He didnt though, only charged 3,000 (still dearer than circle k, but I dont think anyone would ever complain about the prices). He also sells soft drink and bintangs!!!
So there you go, the legs were a little bit sore the next day, but not as bad as I had anticipated, my partner could barely walk though.
Still it was another highlight in my trip over there, just the fact there were no other tourists around!!!