Stamp Collectors :): 11/01/2010

BALI… I am sayin’ BALI
Our loooong time awaited Bali trip has finished yesterday, 5th Nov which is Deepevali the holy celebration’s day of the Indian subcontinent. We especially me waited for my parents like X-mas, its been one too many months I have not seen my family which is why I wanted to get the best out of the time when my mom and dad started their very first journey to the mysterious Asian continent.

I was very proud of them, they traveled through half the world without any problem, and let’s not forget the problem that they hardly speak any English, which is actually changing, even my mom has picked up quite a bit… just basic stuff like ‘cup of coffee’, ‘no I don’t want to buy your day tour’ etc.

So 29th October in the evening we all got to Bali and as my dad is crazy for water we planned to spend the first couple of days at the sea side, at the place called Sanur. Sanur is overlooked by many; mostly the people there were the older generation but Mike and I also enjoyed the little bit laid back attitude.

Our first accommodation was a villa, nice and spacious the downstairs area was for my parents and the upstairs area was for us. It was pretty and the garden was exotic with the bright green leaves everywhere. As we got there quite late we said no to the sea restaurants and just stayed inside of our facilities and had our first meal in the hotel restaurant. Beer being cheaper we tried the local Bintang which passed the test and became our beer for the rest of our time. (Heineken was a strong competitor though)

First morning my instinct woke me up way too early, wasn’t even 7am, I thought to myself let’s see the sea before my parents just to make sure that everything is cool. Somehow I had this feeling that I have to double check it, donno why.

Well soon enough I was becoming worried… the little street which supposed to lead one to the beach apart from looking like a 3rd world’s back street had 3 unfriendly, way too big dogs on the left hand side and on the right hand side people were collecting the unofficial street trash corner…. yaaa

I walked past the garbage part trying to not inhale too often when I ended up on the “main” street which reminded me of Marocco (who knows me knows that I really did not have great time in Marocco). The street was filled with locals, the poorer types, sitting around, waiting on the dirty pavements, street dogs running, cars busses… oh that was too much for 7am! I run back to the reception and asked… ‘Are you serious, this is the neighborhood?’

Affirmative! Ok I got worried, not because my parents are picky but even for my somewhat South East Asian trained eyes were surprised. I sneaked into the villa, woke Mike up and asked his help, we walked down to the beach and generally speaking had a second look but the more we looked the worst it seemed.
We came up with 3 options:
A, stay where you are and shut up
B, stay where you are and take taxi to better/cleaner beaches
C, leave ASAP (that was me)

All 4 of us decided to leave the area which was the north part of Sanur, although we liked the villa (the hotel was just 5 years ahead of the area’s development) and took a cab to south of Sanur, we chose another villa which was a bit less modern but the location was unbeatable. Seriously it was 10 m from the beach!!! The hotel had many bungalows, cottages all around the garden which burst with half ripe bananas, flower trees, tropical plants… swimming pool etc.

We had a small stroll down the pedestrian walk along the beach and all the hotels had GEARGIOUS terraces, romantic sets, pools facing the sea …oh it was just perfect. Our hotel was less attractive after all, but still we were very satisfied.
(In the morning we learned that our hotel also has a great terrace which we did not know about :) )

We of course jumped right into the sea, which was 35 degrees hot, very shallow. The surprise in the water was the sea grass, I think hippos would eat that, it was dense like a carpet; huge part of the beach front water was covered with sea grass which made it hard to get into the deeper water as it was not that comfortable to cross the roots and plants. There was a tiny little fish among those grass fields, wow they were aggressive indeed. They were half of your pinkie but they attacked you.

It felt like being hit by them but really they were attacking us and biting hmmm given their size we were puzzled, did not really know what to think of it.
We rented a boat to go passed the grass and the beach area to see some marine life. It was alright but I would not say that the marine life was all that lively but we were happy to see even that much. WE were informed that Bali is no good for snorkeling and in fact it is true.

Amed is a place up in the north west corner of the island where marine life is said to be perfect but Mike found out that the car ride would be 3h one way so we did miss Amed.
We headed down the streets of Sanur central area to see what are the options e.g. the restaurants, shops etc. We decided to try some Balinese massage which Mike and I have already tried on our first Bali trip. It was a bit of a challenge to find a massage place which can give massage to 4 people at the same time. Finally we found a place and I have to say probably it was the best massage we ever got.

All of us were in heaven after an hour of experienced massage hands’ work. Full body massage.. oh heaven not to mention that we paid 8 SGD / 6 USD / 4 EUR / 1,100 HUF per person!!!!! It’s a deal.
The rest of Sanur time was spent in the pool, in the sea and in restaurants.

I have to say we tried, we did try all kind of Balinese flavors and meals but none of them seemed to win. Either it was straight bad like Dad’s curry fished grilled in banana leave (we even sent it back as not edible object) or just not that taste to eat it again. Rice is essential in Bali, rice rice rice, people wake up and eat rice and go to bed eating rice.

I know that in Asia I should not be surprised but I am they definitely ate more than average.
Mike and I planned a trip for each day. First we went down to Uluwatu which is the south tip of Bali, being far from us we did leave a bit late (we had a massage on the beach). There are 2 sea temples on Bali, Uluwatu and Tanah Lot.

The original idea was to build sea temples all around Bali like a pearl necklace and they wanted to be able to see one temple from another as it was meant to protect Bali forever. The great idea resulted 2 temples but the rest never made it, unfortunately. Uluwatu is a spectacular site of a temple on the rocks, the south part of the island does not have a proper beaches but huge cliffs, steep walls and the temple on the top of these rocks promised a great experience. But as we left too late from Sanur we missed the sunset and saw only the last minutes of sunlight, it was pretty but hasn’t impressed us as much as I expected. It was over all nice and still it was well worth the effort of driving there because of the sound of the gigantic waves hitting the rock walls, the cliffs were still great.

This temple was filled with monkeys who have bad reputation as they have stolen all kinds of stuff from previous tourists from hat till camera, from bag till your book and glasses.

They seemed to chill out just fine when we were there but I believe the stories.
The Sunday’s trip was to Tanah Lot which was probably the highlight of our entire trip. It is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any of us would say that Tanah Lot was absolutely impressive. It was said to be the most photographed site in Bali but I don’t mind the tourist tag, it was beautiful. The idea is the same, temple on the rocks but this time the temple was built on a small rock island just 30-50 steps away from the main land. The whole are is filled with black sand and rocks as it is volcanic material. The pictures can talk for themselves. We went down to the bottom of the rocks and in the sea water foggy, black rocks this place had a very special atmosphere.

Nobody is allowed to step on the small temple island unless you are Balinese, according to the mythology if an unmarried coupled visits the temple they will split up.

It was funny as Mike and separately I was asked to pose in other people’s pictures. Local boys asked me to be the ‘white chick’ in the pictures and Mike as ‘handsome – I will never get you – boy’ in the local girls pictures. …?
We had a 2bucks coconut on the restaurant terrace which was great as it was the first real green skin coconut for my parents. On the horizon the clouds changed color and became angry. It looked like as a seen cut out from the Lord of the Rings, Sauron’s clouds were coming to get us, but we were quicker and by the time the rain came down we were in the car. This trip was just absolutely amazing!

After Sanur we headed to Ubud the most waited place from all Bali as there was nobody who did not agree that UBUD is the best of Bali.
I am sure Mike and I will be stoned to say but guys… what’s all that craziness around UBUD???

We seemed to not get it…?

We had a great accommodation, nice garden, small but ok pool, spacious room and fine bath. We were on the main street of Ubud, the Ubud palace was just down the road, many many pretty Balinese are shops and things. We were lucky with meals, although prices were above Sanur’s. Mike and I were wondering why Ubud is the none-plus-ultra for almost all our friends…? We agreed that if we could rent a bike and bike in the countryside among the rice paddies or if we would have luxus villa for 400USD per night with some awesome view and private masseuse we would not question it for a second, but given the situation we were honestly wondering.

First day we just walked around the area, discovered Ubud ‘village’ and as my parents were tired with aching feet we could not see any rice paddies. Next day we rented a car with a driver and went up to the Batur volcano which last eruption was in 2000. Along the way we saw many villages, rice paddies, local life.

The driver was exceptional he was pretty intelligent and ambitious to learn English well. He was telling us a lot about the locals and their living.
Balinese are seriously religious and superstitious. They think that there is one God, but he has many manifestations thus God can be in sculptures, in stones in places in trees, almost in anything. If you were born with healing power than you have some God in you as well which cannot be taught.

Everyone without exception has to give offerings to the Gods, which is a small plate made of a special leaf and this tray/plate has to have offerings which always have to contain at least 3 different types of flowers, cookies, crackers (feeding the Gods), some drops of water or coffee, and anything you would just like to add in.

We saw cigarettes and as it were explained to us: “well after a meal one likes to smoke, right”
The offerings are places everywhere, you see them in front of a house, shops, on statue, around temples, in a car, on a car…. anywhere and everywhere.
It is said that 30% of a Balinese woman’s day time is spent on religious preparation such as making the offering, cleaning after the ceremony etc

There should be at least 3 times during the day when you give offerings to the Gods, 1 family counts as 1 person but still. I asked the driver what if you forget or you are bored of doing it and just quit this offering thing and I have to say his answer showed me he did not even understand my question… No exception I take it.

Some statues had dressed some didn’t and we did not know why, the answer is that those statues with clothes have spirit living in them and those standing, as they are, are just statues. There is no method or rule on how to identify living spirits in objects, if you say it’s there than it is there, that’s it.

Here rice comes in as religious element as rice has its God and rice is almost holy if not entirely that is why you cannot leave rice on your plate. (I don’t think the waiters were impressed with us leaving half the rice on our plates) The other reason is the hard work. Rice agriculture is no joke, it is hard, labor demanding job.

Bali is self sufficient with rice and with almost all of its food. The whole island felt like a big garden. When we went to the volcano there in the crater people were keeping kitchen garden size terraces and grew beans, chili, and other things.
Balinese like it tough; although I am convinced it is not a question of choice. They use no machines!!!! No tractor, no trenching – machine, no harvesting machines nothing just manpower, hours of work and a reaping-hook!!!

We learned to feel different about rice and food after all that. Most fields are so tiny our Western eyes would not even think of them as possible lands for gardening. Not to mention the irrigation issues… Land is ploughed by bulls.

Balinese have 2 options it seemed either stay with their family and farm their land or do something with tourism.
Back in a day when kingdoms were vital rulers of the territories caste was important. There are 4 castes; the highest 2 are is the Gods’/kings’ caste those born in these castes are kings and priests. Then ...