Monday, Day 58 - Mar 5 - Benoa Harbor, Bali Island, Indonesia

We are up early since Putu is picking Carolyn up at 8AM. Carolyn gets her stuff together and has a light, room service breakfast while Dick sorts out the money both to pay Putu and for some shopping. The Indonesian rupiah has huge denominations......a 1000 rupiah bill is equal to $.07US! Prices of items easily run into the hundreds of thousands. It is mind boggling to keep it straight!

Dick walks Carolyn out to the parking lot and sees Carolyn off with Putu about 8:15AM. The plan for today is one ancient site, some rice terraces and some shopping.

Putu says the best time to see the rice terraces is morning so that is our first stop. We head up to the terraces in the western hills. We visited the terraces in the western hills last time. It takes about two hours to get there on increasingly small, less well maintained roads. We drive through many small villages and see many village temples including a cremation. Putu suggests we stop at a little coffee house overlooking the terraces so Carolyn can get some good pictures. It is perfect. We sit and enjoy the view and have some hot tea. There is a couple working one of the rice plots by hand. They are transplanting the rice seedlings one clump at a time to their permanent spot. Talk about labor intensive! Putu says two families maintain these terraces which are absolutely beautiful!!

Soon it is time to move on if we are to complete the day’s plan. Next stop is Ubud for Threads of Life, a women’s co-operative of Indonesian women. They handle some truly beautiful textiles and other handcrafts. It is a joy to see the beautiful work. Plus there are some nice shops on the same street. Putu drops Carolyn in front of the store and tells her he will pick her up in 45 minutes. He is right on time and Carolyn has had a productive time finding four pieces of Batik from which to make tops.

The last planned stop is a visit to the Court of Justice or Kerta Gosa and the Textile Market in Semarapura. The two places are just across the street from each other. There is no one in the market so we go there first. If one likes textiles it is a delight. Most of the fabric is hand woven and in beautiful colors and designs. After drooling for about 30 minutes Carolyn picks out two pieces of hand woven single ikat silk pieces for tops. She could have bought more, but....

We then head across the street to the Kerta Gosa. We are barely inside the gate when the heavens open up. We try to see some points of interest, but it is just raining too much. Putu goes and gets the car while Carolyn huddles behind a wall trying to stay out of the worst of the rain. It is almost time to head to the ship anyway.

On the way back the traffic isn’t as bad as it could be so we make two fast stops to check out a black sand beach outside of Semarapura and a white sand beach in the resort area of Sanur. The parking lot for the Sanur beach is also the parking lot for the cremation temple.

Once again Carolyn is exhausted, but has had a really good day. After paying Putu and saying goodbye, she takes a fast walk though the Port Market area then heads to the suite to get clean and cool! Much to her surprise two ships are tendering beside the Navigator, a huge NCL ship and a Silver Seas ship. The lines for the tenders are huge! Glad the Navigator was able to dock as the other ships are anchored about a mile off shore beyond the entrance to the harbor.

Dick has had a quiet day and is feeling much better. Carolyn gets cleaned up and we have a drink and watch the poor souls stand in the heat waiting for a tender. We were to sail at 6PM, but the Port Authority told the Captain he had to wait until 9PM because of the tide so we go to dinner at the usual time since there isn’t a nice sunset sail away. We both have the Dover Sole.

Back in the room we sit on the balcony to watch the lights as we maneuver to enter the narrow channel out of the harbor.  The lights are pretty and there are many small fishing boats around; most with riding lights.  We pass one that is no more than 50 yards off our starboard side and we comment as to how close he is to the channel.  Just about then the ship noticeably heels as it makes a starboard turn and then we begin to feel the shudder through the ship as she buries her bow in a mud bank!  Immediately, the thrusters engage in an attempt to get her off but to no avail.

OOPS!!!! After a few minutes it is announced that in an attempt to avoid running down two small fishing boats that did not have any lights, we have run aground and that tugs have been requested.  Later we are told that the tugs are attached to the stern and we will have to wait for high tide at approximately midnight.  To lighten the ship, the swimming pool is drained and Jack suggests throwing the cannon overboard!

We are also told that protocol requires us to return to the dock for a hull inspection by divers and the approval of a Lloyds’ Representative that we are safe and seaworthy before we can leave Bali.

At some point during the night we are pulled out of the mud and return to the dock and there we are when we awake.  Wonder how this is going to work out??