Back on Bali

We got off the ferry in Padangbai and started in on what is one of my least favorite things - trudging around looking for a place to stay.  Part of this is my fault.  I bought a small suitcase that has roller wheels and backpack straps.  But it doesn't really work that great as a backpack, and a backpack is needed much of the time around Bali.  The streets and sidewalks usually aren't smooth enough for pulling a suitcase.  So I was hot and uncomfortable, but fortunately we found a place pretty quickly.  In general it is very easy to come to a town in Bali and find a clean room with a private bathroom with a western toilet for under $25/night.  It might not include hot water, but in this warm climate that's not too big a deal.  This room was $20/night, no hot water.

This was one of the noisiest places we stayed at.  A band was playing live music across the street in the evening and the roosters started up by 5 in the morning, followed by singing from the temple at 6.

 

We saw roosters in baskets/cages like this all over Bali.  Cockfighting apparently is popular, both in the temple and just for fun.  These guys make a racket in the mornings.

I hate to post this picture, but this was the reality.  There was a lot of garbage on the beach in Padangbai by where the ferry comes in.







We decided to stay in Padangbai two nights so the next day we hired a driver to take us around to see nearby sights.  Our first stop after lunch was Tenganan, a village of Bali Aga people who are descended from the first inhabitants of Bali.  They are known to be more conservative and to cling to old ways, although they also practice Hinduism.

A guide took us through the village and told us about their customs.

Next stop was the Water Palace at Tirta Gangga:

We headed back to Ubud on the morning of the 11th.   On our route we saw about 10 groups of students marching in the streets.  We've been told that this is all practice for the big day - August 17th, Indonesia's Independence Day.  I won't be here, but Liz is going to check it out.

Students marching

When we arrived in Ubud we found a nice room close to where we stayed before, in a family compound called Goutama Homestay.  An extended family composed of grandparents and at least three grown brothers and their families lives there.  They rent out 8 or 9 rooms and have several buildings for their families, including a family temple. Art is everywhere in Bali, even the door to our room was beautifully decorated:

Liz and I have seen offerings everywhere, everyday, in Bali.  We decided to take a class at the Arung Gai Museum of Art on offering making.  We were hoping to learn more about the meaning of the offerings, what type is done when, that sort of thing, but it turned out to be a class on physically making the offerings.

Our instructor cut up the leaves and then showed us how to fold and stitch them together.  We had a hard time getting the hang of it!  Balinese women typically spend at least an hour everyday making these, so I'm sure they get very fast.

Next we added flowers, each color and type in it's own spot, with a decoration on top.  Some we took to the temple on the museum grounds, some our instructor took home to her family temple, and we took two back to our homestay to give to our hosts.

Offerings, like dance, music, wood carvings, and stone sculpture, are all done as part of a Balinese Hindu practice to please the gods and keep good and evil in balance.  To outsiders such as ourselves, it is very complicated, but the results seem to be a harmonious society with beauty in evidence everywhere.  One of my favorite aspects of Balinese culture is the music and dance.  Ubud has 8 to 10 dance performances every night.  We've gone to three performances since we returned to Ubud.  Last night we saw the Kecak dance, which involved more than 60 men as the chorus, chanting and clapping, while dancers acted out a well-known story from the Ramayana.  It is really amazing.  We didn't have a camera that worked well in the dim light so I don't have pictures. However, watch a bit of this video from youtube, it's pretty interesting.

Kecak dancers

Another type of dance that is very popular is done the Legong, done to the gamelan orchestera, mostly by young women.  Here's another borrowed video clip that shows the type of dance we've watched.

Legong dancer

I'm running out of time, leaving soon to catch the shuttle to take me to the airport and on to home.  I feel I've barely scratched the surface of life in Bali.  I hope I get the chance to come back again.

Lombok

Mosque in the distance in Senggigi, Lombok

The people of Bali are primarily Hindu, in contrast to the rest of Indonesia which is primarily Muslim.  We wanted to visit nearby Lombok because it was the easiest Muslim island to visit from Bali, and it's very close to the Gilis.  We timed our visit for the end of Ramadan hoping to see some of the celebrations.  We arrived in Senggigi on August 7th and the end of Ramadan was the 8th.  We talked to some people and found out that everyone would be at the mosque on the 8th until 10:00.  Other than that, we didn't know what would be going on.  We saw an interesting thing parked on the street, like a mini-mosque on the bed of a pick-up, it looked ready for a parade:

We sat down at a small cafe across the street to have a dinner and watched as people gathered and the lights went on.  About an hour later, the truck drove off.  We left the cafe and wandered back down the main street towards our hotel.  We found a big shop and spent some time looking at all the items for sale.  It was such a treat, because it was a large shop and we could look around without someone trying to get us to buy every item we looked at, as usually happens.  All of the sudden we heard noise from outside and ran out to see a parade.

We saw several of the mini-mosque floats (as we called them) with many people following each float.

There were also drums and singing from each float.

Overall it was a very festive occasion, and we were very excited to have seen it.  The parade seemed to pass quickly and things felt so quiet when it was over.  We sat in cafe on the main street for another hour just in case there was more to see.

The next day we we went to the capital of Mataram and stayed in a very nice hotel in the downtown area with government offices, Hotel Santika.  We were told it was all there was available due to the holiday so we had to spend more.  It was a real change from the type of place we'd been staying - there was a swimming pool and we had a TV in our room, along with air conditioning.  We enjoyed the luxury! We had some fun looking through the TV channels.  There were some stations in English with Indonesian subtitles - an interesting one from Singapore, some Australian shows, and some from the US.  We took a walk to a nearby mall, curious to see what that would be like, but it was closed for the holiday.  But of course it was an interesting walk.

Motorcycles stopped for a traffic light, happy to wave for my picture.  Helmets optional.

Park across the street from our hotel.  We visited in the evening and there were lots of people in the park, many couples.  People were very friendly, one group even asked to take our picture.

The hotel had an amazing buffet breakfast in the morning and we saw again our friendly waiter Sapar from the evening before.  We had spent some time talking to him and he brought us local home made treats first thing in the morning, such a generous thing to do.  It was mostly Indonesian people at the hotel, and one family had a teenage son who pretty clearly was autistic.  I so badly wanted to talk them, but didn't find an appropriate opening.

The following day we took a shuttle bus to Lembar, and then took the slow ferry back to Padangbai on Bali.  We were so happy to take the slow boat, it was a big ferry and a nice smooth ride.  We had comfortable seats and they even showed two American movies - Oz the Great and Powerful and Jack the Giant Slayer.  Since it was a 4 hour ride it helped to pass the time.  

Ferry similar to ours

There were two types of seating inside - the chairs to the right used by the tourists, and the sleeping areas to the left used by locals.

Next post - back to Bali...

Gili Air

From Amed we took a "fast boat" over to the Gili Islands.  We'd been hearing about them since we got to Bali - they are three very small islands just off the coast of Lombok, the island to the east of Bali.  No motorized transportation is allowed and each has their own reputation.  Gili T is the party island, Gilo Meno is very laid back and Gili Air is in between.  We decided on Gili Air.  The ride on the fast boat was not fast enough - 45 minutes and alot of it very bumpy and jarring.  We got to the island with little cash and no room reservation.  Our friend Maria assured us she had no problem finding a room, however, the guidebook did say that July and August are very busy, so we were a bit worried.  When we got to the island we headed for the lone ATM only to find a group of people bemoaning the fact that it was out of cash.  They were waiting for a delivery within the hour, which didn't happen.  We found a place close by that took VISA (unusual for many places) but it was a bit more expensive than we had been paying.  It was their last bungalow, we took it.

Getting off the fast boat

Gili Air is a tropical island with dirt and sand roads, and the only way to get around is by walking, biking, or taking carts pulled by ponies (see picture on Liz's blog).  Little cafes line the main "road" and seating was usually in tables and chairs on the sand.   We found a comfortable place to spend the afternoon - eating, drinking iced tea, reading, playing bananagrams and cards, and taking turns snorkeling.

Not shown - lots and lots of ants, even paradise has bugs

Our bathroom was partially open air - I could see stars at night!  (Liz also saw a mouse scurry through, and we saw a mama cat and kitten outside our bungalow later that night with a dead mouse...)  The shower and sink water seemed to be salt water, which was interesting and left a bit of a sticky feel after washing.

 We rode a boat like one of these over to Lombok when we left.  These boats are also used to take people on diving trips and to bring supplies to the island.

We had fresh fruit and fruit juice for breakfast.  The juice was actual fruit blended up - not from a can.  Liz had the papaya juice on the left and I had the watermelon juice on the right.  Yummy!

Lovina and central mountains in Bali

Dolphin monument on the beach in Lovina

The big thing in Lovina is the dolphin tours.  The boats go out at 6 in the morning to see the dolphins swimming in the large bay.  We were hesitant, but decided to give it a go. The boats are small, holding six people max, and the captains use small outboard motors.

Boats chasing the dolphins

Boat we took to watch dolphins

We had some very nice moments - watching the sunrise and when the captain turned off the motor and six or eight dolphins popped up right by the boat.  We were out in the same area with about 20 other boats.  The disturbing moments were when dolphins were spotted and many boats would zoom over to them.  It just felt like too much for the poor dolphins.  I think they need some rules like we have for Orca watching, that motorized boats can't approach within a certain distance.

Dolphins and the sunrise- picture taken from the internet, this one isn't mine

After chatting with the local woman, Sori, who gave us massages by our hotel pool, she invited us to a ceremony at her Hindu temple.  We had an uncomfortable conversation about how much to pay for her son to take us there, but decided to do it even though the price seemed high.  We dressed appropriately for a temple - shirts with sleeves below the elbow, sarongs, and sashes.  We spent about 2 1/2 hours there and didn't understand most of what was going on - after all it wasn't in English and we're not Hindu.  However it was a very special experience because we were able to participate in a real ceremony, not something put on for tourists.  I'm sure we looked a little awkward, we were the only non-Balinese there, but everyone was very gracious and friendly.  We even received a blessing by the priests as they went around to everyone.  This involved holy water sprinkled on our heads and hands, and taking rice to press on our foreheads.

Dancers at the temple

Sitting at the temple

Liz and I appropriately dressed for the temple - it's not easy riding side saddle on a motor scooter in a sarong!

We counted 38 vendor stalls on the way to the waterfall.

Our next stop was with a couchsurfing host up in the central mountains of Bali, in the village of Wanagiri.  This was an interesting situation because Jero has a small guesthouse and actually rents out rooms, but he also takes in couchsurfers for donations only.  A woman from Holland, Maria, stayed there our 2nd and 3rd nights, so we ended up making a donation similar to the price she paid.  Maria was bicycling around Bali and Lombok which we found interesting because we had seen few people riding bicycles.

Jero and his family were great hosts.  He took us to see sights in the area and we got to know some members of his family.  Highlights were Gitgit Waterfall, the Water Palace, Bali Botanical Gardens, Jatiluwih, visiting his daughter Koming's elementary school and listening to his local gamelan orchestra during their weekly Saturday night practice.

Gitgit Waterfall

1st grade class at elementary school in Wanagiri

We were very excited to visit Koming's elementary school and the kids seemed very excited to see us.  Maria from Holland is doing a project for a friend where she takes a polaroid picture of local people and then takes a digital picture of the locals with the polaroid.  She took a picture of the first grade class and then took a picture of some students with the polaroid.  Not shown are all the kids looking in the windows and crowding in the doors.  Kids didn't seem to be in classrooms when we stopped by, but it was 9:30 on a Saturday morning.  We're not sure if school on Saturdays is the norm or a special thing.  We had been seeing many groups of students marching in the streets, all in preparation for a big contest on August 17th, Indonesia's independence day.  Some of the students were out marching that morning, so we wondered if that might be why they had school that day.

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan - "Water Temple", a very important Hindu temple

Statue at Bali Botanical Gardens

Liz, Maria and Jero having a snack at Jatiluwih, known for its rice terraces

Trying out the gamelan instruments

 We were fortunate to be staying at Jero's on a Saturday night when he has weekly practice with his gamelan orchestra.  He has the instruments at his house so we were able to try them out before everyone showed up.  The orchestra is composed of only men, there were also teenage girls who danced.  The men are wearing jackets and hats because it was cold!  At an elevation of around 4000 feet Liz and I wore several layers in the evenings to stay warm.  The teenage girls also invited us to dance with them, which we did, no pictures of that :)

Wanabiri village gamelan orchestra

Liz, Jero and his wife, his son Yudi, me

There are many small farms in the mountains, many vegetables are grown, as well as strawberries.  There are also many fields of the flowers which people use for offerings.  Jero has a small coffee farm which we visited.  I was also surprised to see lots of bushes and small trees which look like poinsettias.





We left Wanabiri on August 4th and headed east for Amed.  Along the way we had a great view of Gunung Agung, Bali's tallest mountain and a volcano which spewed a lot of lava in 1963.

Amed is a series of villages along the eastern end of Bali's north coast, known for great snorkeling and diving.  We snorkeled right off the beach and it was great - coral and many types of fish. The main road going through is quite small, explaining why it takes so long to get places.

The next morning we took a fast boat for the Gili Islands - that's the next blog post.

Ubud to Lovina

We left Ubud July 28th and took local transport to the north of the island to a town called Lovina.  We took a "Bemo" from Ubud - this is a small van with two narrow benches running down each side from front to back.  We had 5 legs on this journey which took about 4 hours, 4 by Bemo and one on a local bus.  Just checked on Google, our route was about 82 miles.  We had short stopovers, but considering the fact that we were usually going about 20 miles per hour, 30 max, it's not surprising it took so long. Three school girls got on at one point, they were in uniforms and going home for lunch.  One, a 15 year old, spoke English and asked us if we were going to visit her orphanage.

We really wanted to talk to the locals sharing our rides but language seemed to be a real barrier.  The people we've talked with who speak English all generally deal with tourists, it appears many Balinese do not speak much English. (And we don't speak Balinese or Bahasa Indonesian.)


The day before we left Ubud we visited the palace grounds and a wonderful museum.

Grounds of Museum Puri Lukisan

I really enjoyed the Balinese style paintings.  They seem to fill every inch of the canvas with detail.  Here is a favorite:

The Idiot Who Became King, 1932, Ida Magus Made Togo, based on Balinese folktale

Detail from above painting

This was a beautiful mask which I believe is used in Barong dances:

After a relaxing time at the museum we walked back to where we were staying.  It was late afternoon which apparently is rush hour.  The traffic was crazy!

Last night we attended a children's performance of music and dance. The children had been taking classes and this was a performance to show what they had learned.  Western tourists were invited to attend and there were about 10 of us.  It was delightful to watch, similar to everything we had seen at the dances in Ubud, but at a kid level.  One of the girls dancing invited each tourist guest to get up and dance with her.  Liz and I got up together and I got to practice some of the moves I had been watching so closely.  I threw in some finger twitching and got a cheer from the kids.  It's very interesting, the skilled dancers we saw in Ubud move their hands in a very particular way which involves a twitching of some of the fingers.  We could see that the girls were learning those same skills.

We have been seeing more cats in here Lovina.  Liz made a friend - a young kitten.  We were happy to hear from the woman selling things at her stall that she takes care of this kitty and has another one at home.

Liz and I both had a massage yesterday afternoon and had interesting conversation with the masseuse beforehand.  She is 53, married with three adult sons.  Some things we learned about Balinese culture from her and a few other conversations:  extended families live together with the wife going to live with her husband's family.  Marriages are not exactly arranged, but the child and parents will typically agree on the spouse-to-be.  Free education is available for 6 years of elementary school. (But I later heard from her daughter that there is a cost...) Junior high and high school can be quite expensive.  I don't know if children with disabilities are served at school, but tend to doubt it.  We've seen a couple young adults with deformed feet, one who is able to walk with difficulty, one in a wheelchair.  I'm quite sure both of these conditions would be corrected with surgery at a young age in the US.  Medical care seems to be very expensive for the average person.  Many people live in family compounds which are a walled in area with several buildings.  Every compound seems to include a family temple, even if it is as small as 8 feet by 8 feet.

Art is everywhere, sculptures at intersections and in the temples on buildings.

Next post - dolphin watching tour and visiting a ceremony at a Hindu temple.