By Katrina Lobley
Drive by view ... rice paddies in Bali.Credit: Getty Images
WITH just 11 hours in Bali, there's nothing for it. To spend those hours wisely, we need a driver.
Having Googled "best Bali guide", I found Ketut Mendra, who in real life is more charmingly modest than his business name suggests, telling us when we meet that he's not the best at all.
He collects us from Benoa, where we've been decanted from a cruise ship, at 9am.
For a mere 550,000 rupiah ($60), he's taking us to Ubud and over to Tanah Lot on the west coast and wherever else takes our fancy until we part ways at the airport at 8pm.
Ketut also suggests stops, which is how we drop in to see Eat, Pray Love's medicine man Ketut Liyer near Ubud. Even at 10am it's a scene. Just 24 numbers hang from a hook for the 250,000-rupiah appointments - we watch someone snaffle the last one. Western women fill the courtyard, waiting for the medicine man's pearls of wisdom, which tend to sound the same: they will marry well, their husbands will be nice, they will live to be 100.
We cruise into Ubud, pausing near the Monkey Forest. When I was last here 14 years ago, one of those macaques bit me and drew blood so I'm staying in the car. Ubud's main strip, with its Starbucks and Paul Smith outlets, comes as a shock. The laid-back village I remember has gone.
Next are Elephant Cave Temple, an ATM and lunch at Indus. I ask Ketut, who's from Ubud, if he's eating at home. He says he is.
Inside, other tourists are lunching with their drivers; our waitress asks if we have a driver waiting for something to eat and we explain that we haven't.
It's only later, after a massage at Kalangan Spa and a detour north to Tegalalang's terraced rice paddies that Ketut says we're passing through his village. Hang on, this isn't close enough to duck home for lunch. My friend remembers reading about the Balinese politeness in Eat, Pray, Love.
Yikes. Did we inadvertently let Ketut go hungry by simply asking a leading question?
The sun slides towards the horizon. Ketut says he doesn't think we'll make Tanah Lot in time - being there for sunset is the point of visiting this improbable temple perched on a rocky islet. I say it's OK, trying to keep disappointment from my voice.
Ketut senses the vibe and declares he's going for it. Traffic is a nightmare but he careens through at speed. My friend is in the front seat watching chickens and dogs skedaddle out of the way. I'm in the back with no seatbelt to wear. I can't work out who's more stressed by this mad dash.
We reach Tanah Lot without killing anything. The temple and rolling waves, backlit by golden sunshine, are something else to behold; I'm glad we made it.
As darkness falls, we feast on roasted corn as we head to the airport, feeling satisfied with our big day out in Bali.
No matter what you say, Ketut, you really were the best.
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