INDONESIA: LABUAN BAJO HOTEL AND BACK TO BALI (DRIVING, TEGENUNGAN WATERFALL, AND BABI GULING FOR LUNCH)

 July 12, 2023

We arrived back in Labuan Bajo too late to catch a flight back to Bali, so we had booked a room at the Sudamala Resort, a four-star accommodation that felt very five-starish. The room itself was spacious, spotlessly clean, and well-appointed.

The toilet and shower had their own room behind the room above, and it was open to the sky. Very unique.

We had a private front porch that looked out on well-manicured grounds.

The fried food on the Ayla was not the best and by the end of the trip it had started to all taste the same, so when we checked the in-room menu and saw mango sticky rice, ice cream, and a strawberry milkshake as options, we splurged. The mango sticky rise was below average, but the rest was at least average and filled our need for cold, non-fried, familiar food.

Here are a few shots of the lavish grounds:

The lobby was also pretty nice.

I love this piece of local art:

We were picked up early in the morning and transported to the airport for our flight to Denpasar, Bali. Here is BOB'S favorite piece of local art:

Ayu and Kawid, the same guide and driver who had been with us on the day we spent in Bali before going to Komodo National Park, picked us up at the airport. While they chatted in the front seat, Bob and I sat in the back wishing for some narration to go along with some of the strange things we were seeing--statues of elephants in skirts, for example.

Or this bizarre half-bird, half-man sculpture in the middle of the street.

Or these carved statues that look so much like totem poles.

Or the dozens of elaborate gates that we passed along the way. What was behind them? Homes? Temples?

A woodcarving shop or factory? This would have been interesting to see.

Bali is predominantly Hindu, and that's obvious in the statuary. More info would have been nice.

While these sites and items were all familiar to the guide, they were new to us, and she should have been explaining things as we drove rather than talking to the driver. The video below is a good representation of the drive--so many interesting things that we passed by so quickly.

Well, after a little more than an hour, we made our first stop at the Tegenungan Waterfall. Apparently this is one of only a few waterfalls in Bali that is accessible by regular roads.

Judging by this sign, we were visiting during a time somewhere between the "Normally Waterfall" and the "Waterfall During Raining Season"--probably closer to the latter.

We could see people swimming in the pool below the falls, and as far as we could tell, they were obeying the counsel to "be sexy but not naked."

The local village has capitalized on the tourist appeal of the view, and there are several places where photos can be taken with the waterfall in the background.

Our daughter had been to Bali about ten years before, and we remembered her talking about a fantastic meal of suckling pig.  We had seen signs along the way for this delicacy, called babi guling in the native language. (A warung is a roadside stand.)

Our guide had not factored food into our day, but we had flown out early in the morning and it was time for lunch. We were hungry. We told her the name of the place our daughter had been--Ibu Oka--and she said it was on the way, so that's where we stopped. I loved the outside décor. 

The inside was roomy and clean, and that looks like a medal/prize of some kind hanging on the wall in the upper left corner of the photo below:

We each had a plate with the spiced, roasted meat, the fried fat (like chicharrones),and the crackly skin, all with rice, of course. I thought it was delicious, but Bob wasn't as impressed as I was.

Just one more afternoon to go. What would we see?