Bali Highs

 

Ubud, Bali

September 14th-19th

After only five days, both we are in love with Bali. Despite only having visited one village as of yet, it will probably go down as a favorite stop on our three month journey. The allure of Bali cannot be pinned on any one thing; it is the total package—an idyllic paradise setting, a smiley and welcoming people, and a fascinating and accessible culture. This is probably why millions of tourists visit this small Indonesian island each year and why parts of it have begun to succumb to the mighty tourist dollar. Luckily, there are still places here that have somehow found the balance between economics and tradition. Ubud, a smallish village in the heart of Bali is one of those places.

 

Unlike the more famous beaches of Bali it is located in the foothills of central valley. The town is cooler than other parts of Bali and is dominated by rice paddies, rivers and ravines. It is also one of the spiritual and artistic hubs of the island with many temples, yoga centers, traditional craft centers, and art galleries. There is also a well organized and surprisingly authentic series of live shows that rotate and take place each night (more on this later) In addition, due to a thriving expat community, Ubud has an especially tasty foodie scene. Traditional food is readily available of course, but so is French, Belgian, Italian,  and American gourmet at the fraction of the cost.

 

We arrived to the Denspasar Airport from Singapore late at night.  Based on our very ambiguous e-mail communications we could not tell if we were going to be picked up by the hotel we had booked.  Luckily we were met by a nice Balinese guy named “Wayan” and a tall Dutch guy named Jon.  So they drove us from the airport to Ubud and the ride took about one and half hours.  We could only see a little in the dark but one of the first things we noticed was the unique architecture.  Among the hovels and buildings there were fairly frequent stone sculptures and gates.  All the sculptures were of different sizes and depicted either Hindu gods (Bali is the single Hindu-dominate country in Indonesia) or other figures in Indonesian folklore.  One was a a towering giant warrior about 30 feet high fighting a sea dragon.  Also every town or village is marked in entrance and exit with a prominent gate demarcating the boundaries.  Both the gates and the sculptures were beautiful and very unique in style.

 

We arrived at our hotel called Inda Lodge (and yes many jokes about being “In Da Lodge” we made by Pearce).  We had gotten an unexpected upgrade in rooms due to some booking issue and were given a bungalow suite with a four poster bed.  This hotel was set up on a hill overlooking a small rice paddy and in among an irrigation canal.  The room was beautiful and the view was great.  We settled in quickly and this was a good thing because in Singapore, I (Pearce) had become fairly sick and this continued into Ubud.  So on the first full day I rested and Allyson did a walking and scouting tour of Ubud.

 

 

The next day, feeling a little better, we did a walking tour of a bigger rice paddy just across the street from our hotel.  This was a large field that was only slightly sloped and terraced.  There was a very narrow walking trail between the paddies.  Despite the small caliber of the trail it had the occasional tourist, Balinese woman toting large buckets of dirt balanced on their heads and too frequent rogue motor bikes who were shuttled all sorts of construction materials back and forth to a remote site.  The field itself was beautiful with almost an unnatural green.  With a significant breeze the tops of the rice stalks would sway with hypnotic rhythm mixed with soft ringing of Balinese whirligigs to ward off birds.  Allyson described it as one of the most beautiful scenes in our entire trip.  I was feeling drained during the walk, so I stopped in at a restaurant called Sari Organic in the middle of the field that is regionally famous for its organic juices and fare.  I cooled off with some mixture of fresh juices while Allyson adventured further on through the countryside admiring the local ducks skirting in and out of the tall rice.On a tip from a local, she ventured off the literal beaten path and found a deep jungle ravine with a small river with a questionable bamboo bridge that crossed it. Despite her adventurous spirit, she only made it halfway.

 

 

That night we did our first show.  Again in Ubud they have done something very clever: they have incorporated a series of shows dedicated towards tourists, but have maintained the traditional graces without pandering or cheesiness.  You really believe the people are in touch with and have a passion for their ancient culture.  (For example as opposed to a “traditional” Mayan dance we saw in an all inclusive in Mexico that bordered on comedy)  There are probably a list of ten to twelve different shows that occur on a rotating schedule but every night there are at least three to four to choose from.  I think the best part is the proceeds of the show goes to the temple the show is held in.  We went to one that was recommended called the “Kecak Fire Dance.”  This one was held in a beautiful temple with traditional architecture and stone work with the jungle barely maintained among the walls.  It was dark and chairs were set up around a small stone plaza and at the base of the stone steps of the temple.  In the middle there was a tall golden and ornate torch with candles set in concentric circles. 

 

When the show started about 100 Balinese men dressed in traditional checkerboard sarongs and sat in concentric circles around the torch.  They would chant in very brief strong grunts sounding like “ke -chack.”  Each part of the circle had different cadences with only two elders leading the transitions and actual singing.  In addition, the chanters provided an ever-moving ring around the “stage”. They would slap their hands, waving them around, move around, and basically acts a props to move the story along. In the stage elaborately dressed actors would come down and do traditional dances depicting the Hindu story of Ramayana. There was a evil villain, two huntresses hunting a dear, a monkey king and an old wizard.  At the end of the show an elder came out dressed as a horse and, while in a trance, would walk over burning embers of coconut shells.  All the while the men in the circle were constantly chanting.  It was a mesmerizing show and one of the best we have ever seen.  We felt very grateful to have seen this side of the Balinese culture.  After the show we went to a restaurant called Murni’s that was recommended for its pork ribs.  It was only meters down the road and overlooked a large jungle ravine.  The service there was very friendly and the food was excellent.

 

We went to bed early because we had signed ourselves up for an early morning adventure tour of one of the Batur Volcano.  We had hired the driver from the lodge and he would be taking us for a sunrise on the volcano.  Because the sun rises so early and the drive is so long we had to wake up at 3:30 am.  It was hard getting up, but we were off in a suped up Volkswagen Thing!  We arrived in the dark and met our walking guide.  Armed with flashlights and water we started the long dark climb up the volcano.  The journey was complicated by my illness which by now had to be a wicked respiratory infection because I was liable to terrible fits of coughing and fever.  This added to the alternately jagged and loose lava basalt made for a harder than it should be climb.  But we made it to the summit, had some breakfast our guide carried up and settled in to watch the sunrise. It was well worth it.  We watched the sunrise over the ocean and next to another volcano in the foreground.  We bought two cups of hot chocolate (it was cold at elevation) and enjoyed the view.  After the sunrise we walked just behind where we had been sitting and saw the deep and active caldera. Our guide pointed out active sulfur steams coming from the ground in the very active volcano. Interestingly, you also saw many flower offerings near many of the vents as well. Our guide said that many Balinese trek up the mountain to pray.  Luckily, the walk down was much easier. Our ride back in the actual daylight was very pretty. You pass a large lake, a remnant of a past rupture, and then climb up and out of the volcanic area with great views and chilly breezes. The rest of the trip is a slow downhill for about an hour or so passing villages, jungle and rice paddies.

 

 

After the early morning tour, we both took a nap and later strolled some more of Ubud. For a small town, it is heavily congested with both road and foot traffic. We felt bad for the day-trippers who would visit and only see the main drag of store and restaurants. Little did they know that just behind the store front was an endless green landscape.That evening we went to a French restaurant that was recommended and we had amazing food.  I had a steak for the first time in a long time.  Later that night we went to our second show.  This one was known for being an all women’s troupe.  It was only recently that women were allowed to partake in the shows at all after a council of elders decided that they should be able to show their skills. This one was held in a different temple and was more enclosed than the last one making for a more traditional stage. There were musicians on either side plating a variety of traditional instruments like drums, flutes and xylophones.  There were about five different traditional dances they performed including one involving a giant dragon costume that needed two people to operate.  The dancing was very different than any I or Allyson have seen.  The women dancers had incredible control over their bodies, isolating certain parts of their body (eyes, fingers, feet) at the same time. It reminded me of when you try to pat your head and rub your stomach. Additionally, they would act with very dramatic facial expressions that would  that would oscilate between stern, surprised, then sweet. Naturally, we have been uses these with each other in jest; we are terrible at it. 

On our last full day in Ubud we walked around the rice paddies again trying to find a certain path, but we got pleasantly lost and reentered the main drag near the Monkey Forest.  Ubud is known, in part, for this preserve of monkeys.  For example, the main drag is named Monkey Forest Road.  We did not have too much interest in going to this for fear of it being a tourist trap, but since we were in the area we decided to go in.  It was a nice park of sidewalk and temple in the midst of outright jungle.  The place was packed with two things:  monkeys and tourists.  We are still not sure which was more unruly.  People can and do pay to feed the monkeys bananas and so there are several tourists bravely (or stupidly) handing out food.  This was not a zoo and there are no cages therefore no separation of man and animal.  This is great for the monkeys but a little disconcerting for people like myself.  We had heard from our friends Katelyn and Gordon that they had witnessed someone getting bit while trying to feed the monkeys.  This was not surprising to me after watching several people trying asinine things with the feeding.  Here is a tip: never tease a monkey.  After about an hour of watching monkeys run around, climb and make tourists scream we left the forest.

 

We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets and shopping, including the local sprawling tourist market. We also stopped in a few totally legit DVD/music stores to see what the kids are interested in these days.  Later that night we went to a restaurant called Ibu Rai.  Allyson had a seafood avocado curry that she contends was her number one meal in Asia.  After that night we had to sadly leave Ubud and head to a port town on East side of the island to make for our next destination.  We took a personal driver there, the most common way of getting around Bali, and were able to see more of Bali’s beautiful countryside. Amed is a much less charming town then Ubud, but to be fair we did not have as much time there.  We needed a place to stay and we did not book ahead.  The coastal town had no central area as far as I could tell and was lined from North to South with many similar looking bungalow resorts on the ocean.  We found one on the second try within our budget and it had a pool over looking the ocean.  It was nice and we spent time at the pool most of the day.  That night we went to a restaurant called the Sail that would pick us up and drop us off from the resort.  We had some good food and a Bali microbrew called Storm beer under a stary sky.

The next day we headed for Amed’s version of a harbor which was a beach with a restaurant (and aggressive hawker children) and awaited our boat for our next destination….

 

 

Hint: you can almost see from this picture on the volcano