Candi Dasa, Bali

We spent the next couple of days in Candi Dasa, a village 20 minutes north east of Padang Bai....actually I wouldn't call it a village....it is more like a a bunch of expensive resorts and restaurants along a main road...it was definitely not Leslie and my favorite place...but let me start from the beginning...

We took the local public minibus to get there, a much better deal than the many taxis trying to rip us off with their outrageous prices. The only thing I liked about Candi Dasa was this German Cafe, called Candi Bakery serving authentic and delicious bratwurst and pretzels for a pretty reasonable price (35 cents for a large soft warm pretzel). Over the course of the next 48 hours I went to Candi Bakery 3 times.


Unfortunately, dinner that first night was not quite as enjoyable...actually Leslie and I decided that it was the worst dinner we had in SEA to date (hopefully there won't be worse). The food was too greasy, and too salty. The portions were small and the orange juice looked and tasted like water with some lemon squeezed into it. The ambiance was equally terrible. The restaurant was right by the main road, so it was really loud, the kitchen was filthy (we saw this as we were paying for our food), and there were these creepy cats constantly meowing - begging for our food. The highlight of the meal was when Leslie looked down and saw two cats mating just inches from his right ankle! After that, we had trouble getting anymore food down. We were originally lured in by the cheap prices, but in the end we realized that we got what we had paid for....

Well, the story keeps going. The next morning when we woke up...Leslie realized that the place had given him food poisoning! So now we have spent the past couple days taking it slow hoping that the anti-biotics that Leslie took will work.

On a brighter note...before Leslie got food poisoning we were able to visit a little village 2 miles north of Candi Dasa called Tenganan. The village is over 800 years old and many of its residents still make a living off of rice farming and traditional handicrafts. One of the native villagers gave us a short tour. He also showed us the art of Balinese calendar making, that was unique to that village. They make calenders out of palm leaves. They engrave the leaves with months and specific gods and demons for each month. They fill the carvings with charcoal, which makes the illustrations pop out. Because the religion of Tenganan is Hindu, they also had engravings of the Ramayana, and the village has 3 temples...one dedicated to Shiva, one to Vishnu, and one to Brahma. What Leslie and I really liked about the village was the fact that nobody tried to sell us anything and the guide didn't expect any compensation for the tour. This gave the whole village a peaceful , sleepy atmosphere, which was nice change from the constant solicitation of more touristed areas.