"My skin turned the color of the earth, I felt like a tree.
People asked my name, the next day they remembered who I was..."
BALI EYES - Perry Farell
We land in Denpasar, de-plane and step out into...
...The Heat
Bali is hot...a tropical, stones throw from the equator (8 degrees), steamy, glasses fogging-up hot. We meet our hotel appointed driver and make our way toward Seminyak, about 40 minutes from the airport. Like Japan, everyone drives on the left side of the road. The difference is the rules of the road manual was tossed out along with the Japanese after WWII.
Every road seems to be about 1 1/2 lanes wide to accommodate what seems like 6 lanes of traffic. Lot's of horns here, not aggressive honking, more like little 'excuse me' taps. Moving Evel Knievel style through the cars and SUV's are the scooters. "Like mosquitoes" says our driver, horn tapping and swerving to avoid a motorbike driven by a woman with her four (!!??) passengers. Kid you not, little boy on the driver's lap, driver, little girl, another woman and another little boy.
We get to our hotel and settle in. It's a very charming Balinese style group of bungalows called Puri Cendana.
Seminyak and neighboring Kuta (where the 2002 bombings occurred) are known for their vast beaches and nightlife. They are also somewhat notorious for their tout's. Touts are selling sunglasses, hats, beach chairs, 1/20 scale wooden motorcycles (?), hotel rooms, watches, jewelry and so on. A typical exchange:Tout: Good Afternoon my friend, you want nice hat yes?
Doryeh: No thank you.
Tout: Ah but good quality yes, see many colors…
Doryeh: (already wearing hat) not interested, thanks
Tout (walking with): Ah but good price, maybe 2 for better price yes…
Doryeh: Nope, don’t need.
Tout: Maybe tomorrow yes?
(when someone says ‘maybe tomorrow’ the exchange is over)
Doryeh: Maybe
Another tourist passes and the tout moves on.
“Hey brother, you want hat yes…”
The most oft-heard offer on Bali is “transport?” There is always a driver ready to whisk you off to wherever you need to go. Walking from our hotel to find a restaurant we pass a line of 10 taksi’s (sp) and each one asks “tranport?”
“No Thanks.”
“Maybe tomorrow yes?”
We walk for about 10 minutes and are both soaked thru from said heat. The next offer of transport is readily taken up and the bargaining process begins. “How much to Ku De Ta?” “30 thousand” (Indonesian Rupia is around 9000 to 1 USD), “No, Fifteen.” The driver ponders a moment, “25 thousand.” We counter-counter-offer with 20. It is agreed and we get in his car, glorious A/C cranked and take a back road that wouldn’t be out of place in Beruit. As we bounce around the back seat we see a myriad of styles and stores next to each other; designer boutiques, hi end eateries, dilapidated hotels, push carts set-up serving street food, K convenience stores, (‘watch out for those dogs!’ – more on that) internet cafes, scooter dealers/repair and so on.
We get to Ku De Ta, a restaurant/lounge on the beach and settle in one of their immense sofa/barca loungers facing a floodlight lit night ocean, order some foo-foo drinks and appetizers and settle into the chill music, the surf and the day.
A little aside. Indonesia is predominately Muslim. Bali is an anomaly among the islands because it is mainly Hindu. There is a wonderful sense of spirituality and tolerance in Bali that is apparent from day one. In front of every home, storefront, restaurant is a little offering arranged on a palm leaf filled with flowers, incense and rice. These are offerings to the gods, spirits, ancestors and demons that live in Bali. These offerings are really quite beautiful in their arrangement and are made throughout the day. Many of these offerings are eaten by the dogs that run around the island, mangy single or pack dogs that the Balinese barely acknowlege exist (therefore they reproduce unchecked). One driver told us that many Balinese consider the dogs to be evil spirits manifested.
After 2 days in Seminyak and Kuta, the heat, traffic, exhaust and touts began to wear on us. We woke early and met our next driver Wayan in front of the hotel and left for Ubud.
As the city receded and we made our way north the buildings and traffic gave way to rice paddies, intricate shrines, more vibrant shades of green than can be imagined.
The jungle thickened and deepened and the lushness of it was almost tangible. Moving up in altitude the air cools off a bit, the clouds formations in the distance are for lack of a better word, perfect. These are the kind of clouds that make you want to take up oil painting. In short the Bali of anticipation was unveiling itself in spades.
Our driver Wayan and his wife Ketat owned the bungalows in Ubud we stayed in. Called Gerebig, these bungalows were located outside the city center and overlooked a small rice paddy. It was beyond perfect.
Ubud is an artist’s enclave. Painters, metal workers, wood carvers, stone carvers and jewelers have workshops and studios in and around the city. There are large, pristine acres of rice paddies and terraces and dense jungle foliage, towering coconut and banyan trees. We took several walks around the countryside and eventually rented a scooter to explore a bit further out.
We planned on staying in Ubud 5 days and ended up staying 10. There are a lot of expat’s living in Bali, most in Ubud. It was interesting talking to a lot of these people, hearing what drew them here, how 6 months turned into 15 years. The Balinese people in the Ubud area are disarmingly friendly. After Seminyak we became a bit bristled at every hello because it was usually followed by the hard sell. In Ubud a “good morning” is always genuine and in abundance.
We took in several traditional dances, the Legong and Kecek Fire/Trance dance were particularily awesome.
We were there during Saraswati, which is celebration of books and knowledge. All the school kids were dressed in traditional ceremony garb and all the high schoolers were out and about on scooters with their friends and significant others.
The Balinese people we encountered were also big believers in luck, for example shopkeepers have a ritual of taking the money from the first sale of the day and saying out loud as they hold it up, “for good luck” and then patting many of the items in their store with the money, hoping that the luck of the sale would move the other items. With regards to the tourist industry, many Balinese told us that ecomonic conditions have been difficult since the bombings in Kuta – tourism is still way down, so competition among hotels, taxis, etc is fierce.
One day trip involved hiring a driver and visiting an enourmous shrine called Gunung Kawi. The highlight is 10 rock shrines cut directly into the cliff face. These are said to have been created in one night by a single fingernail of Kebo Iwa. Gotta love the stories!
Further up the road we came to Danan Batur, a large lake which sits at the base of the volcano Gunung Batur. The side of the volcano is stained black from the constant lava trickle.
Many days in Ubud were spent relaxing; walks, some yoga, an outdoor movie across the street from our bungalow. Eventually the time came and we reluctantly packed up for the last little leg of our Indonesian jaunt, the Gili Islands.
The Gilis are three small islands just off Lombok, which is the Indonesian island just east of Bali. The Gilis are far less developed, perhaps how Bali was 20 years ago, with small hotels and restaurants right on the sand.
We chartered a speedboat which took us to Gili Air, the smallest of the three. The ride was great, took about 2 hours as opposed to the alternate way of taking multiple public ferries which take the entire day.
Gili and the rest of Lombok is primarily Muslim but any preconceived notion of a rigid, oppressive lifestyle is quickly dispensed because on the Gilis, at least, they know how to party. Sitting back, drinking tasty mojito’s mixed up by a Rastafarian Muslim named Naz, we listened to Bob Marley and watched our red snapper cooking over coconut charcoals. Gili Air was very secluded and low key, a great way to spend the day. We left the next day for Gili Trawangan, the largest of the 3 and ‘the’ Party Island (we skipped Gili Meno as there was mention of malaria). Gili T was fairly bustling (high season is still 2 months away) with lots of Australian, German and Dutch folk on holiday. We snorkled in Turbo reef (got to get dive certified back in LA!) and had a great time that night in Tir Na Nog, an Irish bar where we also rented a room.
One interesting and completely awesome aspect to the Gilis is that motor vehicles are not allowed on the island. Transportation is instead provided by pony drawn carts called Cidomos.
The next day we took another speedboat back to Bali. The ride turned scary when we got caught in a storm while we were out on the open ocean between islands. Without any land in site, we bounced along through the choppy waves and had to hold on as stinging rain and seawater pelted our faces and soaked us. We began to understand how the Gilis were able to maintain a small tourist population – they’re difficult to get to, but hold great allure.
We spent a final night in Semiyak back at Puri Cendana then accepted one last call for “transport” and headed to the airport.
Bali…truly a state of mind.
Many thanks to Laura, Peter and Mark for their recommendations and advice.
(coming soon…ramblings from India)
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