Bali, Indonesia

Statue at one of the many temples
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Bali...how could I not go to Bali. Chinese New Year is a very big holiday in China, if not their biggest holiday. Shops close for a week, maybe two weeks. We had a week off from school. This was the first solid week off (other than Christmas break) and I wanted to make the most of it. Bali is a 5 hour flight, so it was more expensive than flying to a closer location such as Thailand or the Phillipines. We could not get a direct flight we could afford because it was Chinese New Year. We ended up flying with Royal Brunei airlines. Have you ever heard of Brunei? Me neither. It is a small country near eastern Indonesia that is very wealthy from oil, with only a population of about 375,000.

local men talking in the temple
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We (Liz and I) spent the first half of the week in the beach town of Seminyak, north of Kuta (another well known beach area). We stayed at the Resor Seminyak hotel right on the beach. I spent time every day walking the long beach. Because this is a volcanic island, this particular beach had gray sand, so the water was not crystal blue like I had imagined. It was a lovely beach though. When I first saw the waves crashing here, I thought they looked quite similar to the color and force of the waves at South beach! Many surfers were taking advantage of the waves. I have read that there are white sand beaches on other parts of the island that we did not travel to (next time maybe!). This hotel had a spa and pool bar. It was a very relaxing location, complete with a massage, facial, sunsets on the beach and lime crush cocktails in the pool. We met some very nice travelers from Australia in the pool! (We hear that this hotel will be closing down for renovations this spring and will probably be out of my price range when it reopens if I ever make it back to Bali!).

Bali...how could I not go to Bali

local woman preparing offerings in the temple
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Our second half of the week was spent in Ubud. Ubud is the town to go to if you are looking to see some Balinese culture. We hired a driver to take us from Seminyak to Ubud. It is only about an hour away if you drive directly, but we took the scenic route. Our driver's name was Wayan (like many first born Balinese boys) and we knew how to contact him directly because our friends, Nancy and Patrick, used him as a driver while they were in Bali with their children during Christmas. Wayan drove them around almost every day and shared some of his daily life with them. One thing he shared was that he has an 18 month old who is very sick and won't eat and when she does, she is can't keep anything down. Wayan's monthly salary is extremely low, probably less than $100US a month. Nancy contacted her physician sister-in-law when they returned from Bali and she gave her a prescription for a medication for the daughter that I then delivered to Wayan! I get my good samaritan points for that one!

typical offerings left everywhere you looked: doorways, sidewalks, staircases, etc.
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Back to Ubud.....on the drive to Ubud, Wayan took us through all the side villages so we could take a look at some of the artist workshops. We stopped in the village of Batubulan to see a batik workshop. We also stopped at a wood carving village, as well as Celuk which is well known for their silversmiths and goldsmiths. It was fun to explore these areas, but they weren't as inexpensive as I thought they might be given we went directly to the workshops instead of a gift shop in town. Wayan also took us to Goa Gajah, also known as Elephant Cave. This is a big tourist attraction. There were never any elephants on Bali. They say the cave probably got its name from the face over the cave entrance that might resemble an elephant. The origins of the cave are uncertain-one tale relates that it was created by the fingernail of the legendary giant Kebo iwa. It probably dates to the 11th century. Another stop along the way was Tirta Empul. About 95% of the Bali population practice the Hindu faith. This was an amazing place to see local people come out to practice their faith. It was a holy day so it was crowded with Balinese people dressed in their finest clothes with hands full of offerings. The holy springs at Tirta Empul were discovered in AD 962 and are believed to have magical powers. The springs bubble up into a large tank within the temple, which is next to the springs, then runs out through waterspouts into a bathing pool. On this particular day, people were lined up fully clothed to have a chance to bathe in the holy water. Anyone visiting a temple must wear pants or a sarong to cover your legs. If you do not have a sarong with you, they rent them at the entrance. We were ready to head to our bungalow in Ubud where we would stay for the rest of our trip.

village "petrol" station- bottles filled to run the many motorbikes
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The Agung Raka bungalows were just right outside of town, just out enough so it was quiet, just close enough so we could walk to the shops and restaurants. These Balinese bungalows were very cool, to say the least. Our bungalow was a two story structure that was situated right on the rice field. The first floor had an outside living/dining area that was right on the rice field. The "garden" bath room was also on the first floor. The bathroom was literally open to the outside, half of it was covered by a roof. The large bedroom and small balcony was upstairs. Every night their was a live concert of tropical animal sounds coming from the fields! We had breakfast delivered to our bungalow every morning at our requested time. It was quite nice!

pool bar at Resor Seminyak hotel with Australian acquaintances
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We went into town to see an example of local Balinese dance. There are many different styles of dance in Bali. We saw Kecak which is considered a classical dance style. It is performed by over one hundred dancers and singers. The music for this performance was amazing, there were no musical instruments, all the sounds were created by the human voice and some hand clapping.  This dance which told a mythical Hindu tale, was followed by a fire dance. All the nearby electricity happened to go out during this dance which added to the drama of the flames!

sunset over Seminyak beach in front of our hotel
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We spent some time during the next few days shopping and dining at some good Balinese restaurants. We spent some time bargaining for some local treasures at the marketplace in the center of town. We also had a luxurious massage and body scrub for very little money, and one afternoon took a drive to the volcano (it was very hard to see though because it was rainy and overcast). The day before we left, we took a 3 hour walk through some outlying villages. The walk started just outside of town in Campuan. This walk took us north climbing up onto a ridge between two rivers, fields of elephant grass covered the hills on each side of the trail. We walked through the small village of Bangkiang Sidem and then onto Payogan. It was fun to walk by the local homes, rice fields and farms. We were quite lucky to stumble upon a local festival in the last village we walked through. It seemed like the whole town came out in their best clothes with offerings in hand to bring to the temple. The street was filled like it was a 4th of July parade! Some of the older women were dressed in quite elaborate costumes, complete with big hairy head-dresses. Two adorable boys stopped when they saw my camera and asked me to take their picture.

batik artist
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Bali was warm, green and lush. Everything is so inexpensive there. It took me awhile to get used to the local currency. (9,000 rupiah equaled about one US dollar!) The Balinese people are very kind and welcoming. One week in Bali just made me want to go back to explore the many other corners I missed!