Bali Adventure Part 2 of 3 - Ubud

Nov 15-Ubud

The morning was absolutely gorgeous.  We dressed in swimwear for breakfast so we could take a dip in the pool before we had to check out.  It was so nice!  Mornings in Bali are easily 75 degrees.

The driver, who called himself Gusti, picked us up bright and early.  We got pulled over almost immediately (for doing nothing wrong) by corrupt police wanting bribes. Apparently that is a huge problem there. The first stop of our tour was a theater to see the Barong dance.  The costumes were very elaborate.  The show was a little bizarre.  It’s about a witch who gets angry that none of the boys in town will marry her beautiful daughter Sadewa because they are afraid of her black magic.  The witch decides to sacrifice Sadewa to the evil spirits.  The rest of the story was rather confusing but the gist of it was a battle of good and evil spirits. There were a lot of people were running around, fighting, yelling including midgets being crude and humping things.  It was probably worth seeing, but still really strange.

The next stop was the silversmith shop.  Two rows of workers  flanked the entry way so we got to see them creating the jewelry and art that would eventually be sold in the giant sales room beyond.  Basically it was just a big sales pitch.  Prices were extremely high.  We were expected to bargain them down to a reasonable level, but I don’t think sterling silver with semi-precious stones should ever cost more than $100.  Starting prices were in the $550 to $750 range for bracelets.  I offered $20.  The girl got upset escorted us out.  Sorry mom, I didn’t get us all bracelets.  He took us to a cheaper shop.  I didn’t find anything I wanted there, so still a no go. 

Gusti took us to a traditional Balinese house to see how people live on the island.  They live in family compounds.  The oldest live in the nicest room.  Their children stay on the middle level and grand children or younger children stay on the lowest tier.  Bathrooms, kitchen and dining areas are communal.  Kids don’t move out til they are married and even then only if they are female.  The males stay with their wives in the compound with their parents, grandparents and unmarried siblings.  As many as 60 people live in these homes. Fascinating!

Next was a trip to see the wood carvers.  They had a gorgeous showroom complete with a carving of a man who could have been real.  Amazing!  Again, we were only window shopping.  By this point, the driver realized the money-bags Americans weren’t interested in buying things.  He became very surly and barely spoke to us the rest of the trip. He did, however, drop us off at what I’m sure was the most expensive place around for lunch.  It was full of tourists.  Great…  We ordered minimally and the meal still cost over $17.  Not happy!

After lunch, surly Gusti took us to an overlook of Mt. Batur the smaller volcano which erupted in 1963.  Very cool view, though I was a little confused as I thought we were actually going to the volcano.  Apparenlty not.  Also not as advertized was the next stop: the terraced rice paddies.  I thought there would be some explanation as to the workings thereof.  Nope, it was just a quick view and a “ready to go?” The two of us decided that no, we were not ready and irritated him more by walking around to see the shops but not buying anything.

Finally, he dropped us off at our hotel, which was a little out of the way, but nice enough.  He was cranky and angry.  Had I realized at the time just how rude he was being, I would not have tipped him at all.  Instead I felt bad for him and his family.  He told us Indonesians pay for school for their children.  It is not free for everyone.  Shrugs. Oh well.

A very energetic young man named July (cause he was “like your country: born on the 4^th of July!”)  checked us into the hotel and said he would take us anywhere within UBUD for free, outside for a fee.   The hotel had only an oscillating fan, no air conditioning.  As it was about 98 degrees and 100% humidity, I was a little on the cranky side, particularly after our day with Gusti.  Mike suggested a walk.  We took off down the road and found a market selling mangoes.  The woman working there peeled and sliced it for us.  That’s service!

Nov 16- Ubud

July made us Nasi Goreng for breakfast and drove us to the Monkey Forest.  We wandered around the park watching the monkeys fight over food, scare tourists, swing through trees and wrestle.  It was very entertaining.  They were not afraid of people in the least!  Some of the tourists were very afraid of the monkeys.  One poor girl about had a panic attack when one jumped on her backpack.  Hilarious!

From there we walked through all the shops up the main shopping area of Ubud to the market and palace.  The palace was very similar to the traditional house we visited, but more ornate.  Not too much to say about that.  The market is an absolute zoo with people selling, buying, trading, etc.  There were areas with souvenirs, fresh fruits and veggies, spices.  We bought an avocado banana smoothie that was super yummy.

We walked all the way back to the hotel (about 3 miles) and stopped for dinner at a cool restaurant that sat us over a koi pond.  The food was good and inexpensive.  We enjoyed the breeze and views of the rice fields beyond.  A shower was much deserved after the day’s adventure, so we went back to the hotel and caught a ride to a bar with a Balinese group remaking classic rock and reggae songs.  Most of it was really good, but they missed a few pronunciations.

Nov 17 – Ubud and Lovina

Our last day in Ubud, Mike suggested we take a cooking class.   The driver picked us up and delivered us to the market to meet up with the rest of the group.  There were a couple from Australia and two Canadian sisters there.  The guide walked us through the market and explained how everything worked.  It wasn’t just for tourists.  The locals shopped there.  He let us sample a bunch of fruit we had never tried such as snake skin fruit, which is like a drier apple, and mangosteen, which is simply delicious.  Then we packed up in the car and drove to a rice paddy.  There the driver explained land usage and how each family only has a certain amount of land.  Each family takes turns planting a few days apart so everyone can help each other.  The land cannot be sold or developed as of 2010.  It is strictly for growing organic rice.

Finally we headed to the home of our hosts for the class.  The compound was gorgeous!  These people obviously do really well.  There were only 4 people living there as the host had been adopted by his childless great uncle and aunt, now deceased.  They have their own organic garden, huge outdoor kitchen and dining areas.  We joined about a dozen other people from all over the world.  Mike and I were the only Americans as well as the only vegetarians in the group.  Everyone took turns chopping, sautéing, cooking, stirring, and using an oversized mortar and pestle.  We ended up with 8 dishes: mushroom soup, tempeh satay, vegetable curry, gado gado, snake bean salad, steamed curried tofu, sweet soy tempeh, and bananas in sugar.  It was all delicious!  Having cut sugar from my diet this year, it was painful to see how much syrup and salt they added to EVERYTHING.  I realized I would just have to do the best I can in Bali and detox when I got home.

Their driver took us all the way to Lovina and even took us to his friend’s hotel (Hotel Sartaya) which was incredibly cheap $25 a night including breakfast.  It was very cute.  The owners were a young couple about our age.  She talked us into a diving trip for the next day at Menjangan Island.  We hadn’t planned on it, but at $40 per dive in a place that was deemed “the best best in Bali”, how could we refuse?  We finished the day with a walk on the black sand beach.  Neither of us wanted dinner having stuffed ourselves fat at the cooking class.

Bali Adventure Part 1 - Sanur, Tulamben, Padang Bai

My boyfriend, Mike and I just returned from 9 days in Bali and 4 days in Taipei. Since everyone is interested, here's what we did. If it's too detailed, just skip down a few lines. :) I put all the pictures on my Picasa account. So I'll only put a few here and there in my posts.

November 10-11 Flight and Sanur
Our flight to taipei was fairly uneventful with only the TSA theft of our tub of hummus which they apparently consider to be a hazardous liquid. "Any spreadable food is subject to the same rules as shampoo." The plane was comfortable. We sat together in the very back of the plane in our own little 2 seat set. Having requested vegetarian meals, we received our food first. International flights provide each passenger with her own control panel which gives access to movies, music, games, and flight information. Mike and I watched Ted and Rock of Ages (which I loved) while we chased the night around the world.

Once in Taipei, we were transferred to China Airlines since our EVA flight was canceled. The plane was not even half full! This meant we had window seats AND a full center row to lay down in. We watched Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Mike read while I slept. I really can't waste the chance to actually lay out on a flight. That never happens!

Bali Denpasar Airport is hot, humid, crowded and noisy. The minute we left we were surrounded by people demanding outrageous sums of money for a taxi to Sanur. Finally we overpaid at half the amount demanded. The driver dropped us at our hotel, the adorable Sukun Bali Cottages. Sukun has a nice pool, free breakfast and beautiful gardens throughout. Mike found a lovely bunch of coconuts and immediately pilfered some for our enjoyment.

The two of us walked to the beach and found that we could hang out at the clean and upscale Mercure without paying. ta da! We played a giant game of chess on the beach to tinkling Balinese music. On the walk back, we bought a haircut for Mike who was well past due and a pedicure for me. Neither was spectacular, but the price was a grand total of $5.50.

Nov-12- Sanur
We woke up early, still adjusting to the time change. The hotel fed us a breakfast of banana pancakes with fresh fruit. Yumm! We walked to the beach and played a game of chess on the Mercure’s giant chess board. Stand up paddle boarding sounded fun so we wandered off in search of paddle board rentals. They were more expensive in Bali than in Hawaii, so we gave up and eventually settle for spending even more money on a kite surfing lesson. It was a lot of fun. We only did the level 1 class which involved learning kite skills and how to set up and steer the kite. We played with small trick kites and a bigger kite for several hours on the beach.

Mario, our Italian coach, suggested we go just up the road to a padang style restaurant for lunch. We got to the restaurant and learned that you pay for rice as the base then add on curries, veggies and meats/tofu/tempeh. We had an interesting time finding vegetarian food most of the time, but this was easy. The whole meal cost 24,000 IDR which sounds like it could be a lot, but is probably about $2.50.

Since the whole day was ours to get adjusted, Mike and I grabbed our books and headed to a resort to lay in the shade on chaises. Afterward, we stopped in at a massage parlor (they are everywhere) and had hot stone massages. The stones were really hot! Jet lag hit us early and we really weren’t even hungry. We went straight back to the hotel and were asleep before 9.

Nov 13- Tulamben Diving.
Tuesday was our first day of diving. I had forgotten to set my watch to local time the day before so I guessed what time zone we were in based on my apparently not so excellent geography skills. The alarm went off at 6, we got ready and walked out the door. It was pitch black out. Mike suggested we go up to the front desk. It was 4:30 in the morning. I was 2 time zones off. Whoops! Since I was wide awake by 3:30, it was nice to have a little time to go back to bed. Yay time change.

We had our customary breakfast pancakes and headed to the dive shop for gear. Once in the car, we met Depu our dive master as well as Humberto and his wife Marisa who were on holiday from India, but originally from Mexico. We had a nice time with them and Humberto shared his diving pictures with us. I didn’t take any of the diving pictures I post for this.

Two hours later we arrived at Paradise Dive Resort in Tulamben. All of the dives today would be beach dives, a first for me. The first dive was a reef dive. We saw a small black tip reef shark, tons of ribbon eels, shrimp, fish, spotted rays, gorgeous coral, etc. This place is amazing diving! We were playing with these little shrimp that clean your hands and teeth. Mike opened his mouth to let them clean for a picture. All was going well until a reef fish wanted to see what he was missing out on. The fish nipped him right on the lip. It was hilarious! The dive master and I laughed as hard as you can through a regulator.

The second dive was the USAT Liberty wreck sunk in WWII (as recommended by both Randy Niven and Yooko Yoke). It is fairly deep on the one side and there was a ton to see. We saw things that were similar to the first dive, but bigger! I always enjoy a wreck dive. There are a lot of places for little critters to hide.

In addition to the two day dives, we did a night dive on the wreck. It was my first night dive and I was a bit nervous. We took our torches and headed into the dark water. I was amazed at the difference in life between the afternoon and the evening. The big bumphead fish were hiding inside the rusted out hull. My torch picked up different colors and textures I hadn’t noticed before. I saw a reflective band running down the spine of a ray, several fish I hadn’t noticed during the day, a couple of mantis shrimp. Neat!

Nov 14- Padang Bai
In the morning we piled into the van and headed to Padang Bay for our second day of diving. We added to our dive group for the day Benjamin from the Netherlands and Nicolas and Vincent from France. The six of us piled with our dive gear into what looked like a canoe with a canopy and motor. This place was extremely different from the diving at Tulamben. It was a sandy bottom with coral living on rocks. The current here is very strong, so the visibility is not great. We could only see a few meters as opposed to the 20 meters of visibility in Tulamben. There was not as much to see, but still plenty of diversity and intrigue. We saw a lion fish (my favorite), some eels, a big octopus, several large rocks covered in coral and fish.

The second dive was more in the current. I struggled with this one. The current was strong so there was a lot of swimming involved. On top of that, it is hard to work with a group of six divers. I think four is the maximum I like. With six, things get crowded, you have people coming up underneath you and running into you and everyone wants to see the same fish. It’s a bit frustrating for me. 

It was back to Sanur that evening. Mike and I took a walk down the beach in a different area from the night before. We checked out a few shrines and the sides of the roads, looked at menus, and just enjoyed the sunset. It’s a rough life we live. We also found a travel agency and booked a car up to Ubud with a tour for the next day.