We arrived at the Denpasar airport of Bali at night, and found a hostel in Kuta beach. Kuta is the most touristy part of Bali it is where all the Aussies go for spring break and most tourists start out there time in Bali.
Did you know...Bali is located 8 to 9 degrees south of the equator.
The next morning we decided to venture away from the typical tourist spots and hit Nusa Lembongan which is an island on the east of Bali not too far from Kuta. We slept the whole way there and arrived unsure of where to stay. After talking to some other travelers we found a nice hotel about 2 km from the boat launch area. We each hopped on the back of scooters with our huge bags and went to our relaxation, perfect, getaway hotel.
Chrissy on the motorbike behind me in the hunt for a place to stay
The "offerings" as seen above are presented daily as a matter of course, while more elaborate ones are specially produced for specific rituals. The spirits are presented with tiny canang - palm leaf trays containing flowers and betel as a token of hospitality. Being gifts to higher beings, these offerings must be attractive, and a great deal of time and effort is expended to make them so.
I noticed that a lot of the offerings contained leaves that have been re-worked into various shapes or rice cookies. These offerings are everywhere, even washing up on the various beaches we visited. One day I asked our driver "why do you have this offering on the dash in the car & who made it?" to which he replied "its for the god's...my mom makes them everyday for me."
For most of the day, we were the only people on this beach
I found this really cool cave that I decided to swim in just on the edge of the beach. The coral was covered in small crabs that scattered when you walked near them, disappearing to who knows where.
It was really rough all day so I couldnt swim around as each wave that came in made the water rise twice as high. Sometime during this swim I managed to cut myself on the coral. I now know that coral is a living organism and that human skin can be badly allergic to it. Scuba divers often get "burnt" from corals and get really damaged skin. Currently I have three large scars on my upper thigh, chest and stomach from my "reaction" to the coral. I have been telling everyone that my scars are from surfing near this crazy reef. Not everyone believes that but, oh well...I still think that it was worth it!
Later that day I put my first aid skills to the test, by taking out JJ's stitches and re-dressing her foot. I was happy to see that my Camp Wanakita lifesaving skills were applicable all over the world!
Leaving our perfect cute hotel
Balinese coffee...not the greatest.
It seems everywhere I have been I have yet to have any great coffee. It is either way too sweet, there is no milk (so you get coffee mate) or they have condensed milk therefore making it really really too sweet. I really like sweet things but I just can't do handle the sweet teas and coffees in asia. But then again, maybe I just really miss my daily Tim Horton's/Starbucks coffee with skim milk.
my bookmark
This day, two of my friends woke up with a really bad rash. They decided to go to the hospital while mere and I waited on the beach. During my time in Bali I powered through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was the perfect beach novel although it made me anti-social as I neared the conclusion. My friends returned from the hospital with bad news, the doctors had no idea what the bites were...this continued to remain a mystery even their next visit to the hospital in Kuta beach. [Upon return to Singapore we learned that the spots that took over their whole bodies like chicken pox were likely sand flea bites they got in Cambodia, their skin just was reacting more severely]. I was lucky and somehow didn’t catch them at all.
We decided to get busy and hire a drive to take us around the island. For $30 we got a driver to take us for 10 hours. We drove over 3 hours to Mount Batur (or Batur volcano). You can see on the map above it was quite far from Kuta beach. It was a beautiful drive, winding through countrysides of rice terraces and farms. We began to drive up the mountain beside Batur and at the top we had lunch. It was an all you can eat buffet but way too overpriced. We only paid for 2 people so we really loaded up our plates like we had never seen food before. It was hands-down the most interesting, beautiful and amazing place I have ever had lunch. Not to mention I ate about 15 deep-fried bananas dipped in maple syrup.
One of the desserts I also tried was called Balinese Cake. It was not like cake at all, in fact we though it looked a lot like Patrick from Spongebob. This pink worm like dessert was covered in coconut so it tasted okay even though I have no idea what it was.
We then drove down the mountain, past the volcano's lake and around some fields to the Tegallalang rice terraces. It is just to the north of Ubud and had the greenest grass I have ever seen in my life.
The fields were surrounded by little shacks that sold local handi-crafts and other goods. We had a wonderful time looking at all the mosaic tiles, cowbone carvings, masks, crochet and wooden carvings. Maybe bought a gift or two here for some lucky people back home!
I then found a man gathering grass for his cattle and asked if I could pose with his baskets. We had a little photo shoot and he just stood on the side smiling. He probably was laughing at us because we were sweating just taking the photos and would probably die of heat and exhaustion working on the fields.
After the rice terraces, we hit the market in Ubud. This town was filled with yoga workshops and quant restuarants. The market was bustling and filled with all kinds of treasures.
That night Meredith and I had dinner alone as our friends went a different hospital. We had splurged and were now staying in a "family" room at a nice hotel downtown Kuta Beach. They even had a pool! Their restaurant had great thin crust pizza & pad thai. Later, Mere and I went out to the bars that night with some of her friends who happened to be in SE Asia on a Model UN conference. We had a little too much fun.
The next day we got a driver again, this time going up to the North East coast to the biggest temple in Bali, Besakih. The drive there was beautiful and our driver told me funny stories and history the whole time as I sat in the front seat.
Pura (meaning templ) Besakih is the mother temple of Bali. In the 8th century, Sri Markandeya, founded the temple, where important ceremonies were carried out attracting monks from far and wide. Lontar manuscripts indicate that during the Majapahit empire in 1343, Besakih was already a very important place and became the main temple of the Gelgel and Klungkung courts.
As you can see it was beautiful. The mountains framed the one direction and on a clear day apparently you can see the water in the south/east. The temples are divided into three parts, one for each of the main god's and the element which they represent. For example, Vishnu was all yellow collars representing the earth.
The largest temple on the grounds of the Besakih complex is Pura Penataran Agung, known as the Great Temple of State. It is made of 7 terraces and over 50 structures including bales, thrones and shrines. The entrance stairway is lined by 7 levels of carved figures. The ones on the left are featured in the Mahabharata, those to the right from the Ramayana. Assuming you choose not to enter the temple with a local, a perimeter path circles the temple. We did not really understand this at first but to be able to actually enter the temple areas where people pray you need a "guide" or local to take you in.
We of course happened to go on a festival day so the main part of the most central place we could not enter as we are not there to worship. However it was nice to see all the traditional dress. We all had to rent sarongs when we arrived to be dressed appropriately and I did not take pictures of any of the big scenes because I didn't want to be rude and weasel my head in the entrance to snap photos.
We learnt how to pray in the temple of Brama. The men lead us through each step of taking the items out of the leaf woven basket. For example, you start by cleaning your hands by rubbing the green grass or leaf between your fingers. Then you take the blue flower and put behind your ear, as it represents water and life. The white flower you put on your head, as well as are splashed with holy mountain water for purity. At the end we were all given dots in between our eyebrows of rice and had flowers in our hair.
Our last night in Bali we walked along Kuta beach, which although is beautiful being the beach snob that I have become I realised how over-rated it is. Surfers flock here for the surf and young Aussies for the party scene. I would recommend exploring further away from the touristy sites like Kuta however as I saw the amazingness of the more raw cultural towns. And on that note of there being more to explore, I also only saw a sliver of the Bali and therefore Indonesia itself as it has 13 other provinces. If I had more time I would have loved to surf and see the Gilli Islands. Luckily I saved them because we ran out of time...I guess it means I will have to go back one day. Darn!
After nearly 12 days of traveling and sneaking my "backpackers" bag as a carry on i have no idea how I was able to return to Singapore with about 10 kg more stuff still all as carry-on luggage. I even had to buy a second bag to carry it all. I swear a lot of it is presents!
Returning home was sad as we had truly got a taste of what it is like to backpack and really see countries. The glory was short lived as we returned home to tons of school work and little time to do laundry and unpack. Not that I am complaining...at all.
Life is really really good.
Thanks mom and dad!
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