Getting lost amongst the rice paddies...twice!
Trip Start
Jul 16, 2008
1
2
7
Trip End
Aug 10, 2008
Ubud,
Bali,
Indonesia
Sunday, July 20, 2008
One leg down, now to reach Ubung. It is quite easy to get around in Bali as english is spoken a lot and when you get out of a bemo at least one, but usually a herd of men are there waiting to scam you / send you in the right direction, depending! But you do have to be prepared to wait, and stand your ground. At Tegal I waited a fair while sat on the pavement for some more people to be dropped off, also trying to reach Ubung. Meanwhile the bemo drivers at the bus stop were very friendly and offered me something to drink!
Ubung - and so the scamming begins. After being passed by one guy to a man wanting me to charter a whole bemo direct to Ubud, I persisted it was not necessary and set about finding the public bemo going to Batubulan, my next stop. Noone else was going that way and so I sat in the back of the bemo and waited for some more to show up. It wasn't long before an Indonesian man came and shook my hand, and proceeded to 'talk' to me - yet he could barely speak a word of english, and still her persisted. Things became especially strange when he climbed into the back of the bemo with me and kept trying to hold and stroke my hand! He liked my face and kept staring at me...apparently "it's like Madonna"! New one for me! Finally he saw it really was hopeless and left, and shortly after, myself and two others decided to pay a little bit extra for the bemo to leave directly. We could have been waiting all day otherwise, although I was happily entertained by watching all the touts literally run after the buses when they pulled in and the passengers alighted!
True to form myself and another tourist from the Canary Islands got collected by a group of touts and set next to the bemo heading to Ubud, but as we were the only ones, we sat down for a long wait. They offered us 30,000IDR each for the bemo to leave right away, but we were happy waiting! Soon a french couple turned up and we were about to leave, having negotiated for 15,000IDR each, when a German lady declared the normal price was 10,000IDR! So neither parties would back down and so we settled down for another wait (for the sake of 60p)... I decided better to do it in the little restaurant (and spend that 60p) across the road and had my first experience of masakan Padang - basically they give you a bowl of rice and an assortment of preprepared, cold delights on top: deep fried prawns, tofu, soya bean cake, pork etc. It was really good and even better was the company... a really lovely guy with a stammer served me and his Mum sat and contributed a few words of english, as well as making a joke about her saggy boobs when she put her bra out to dry! She seemed to be one of those people that likes to see people enjoying her food!
As soon as I made my way back across to the bemo, the touts had given in and we were off - Germans, French, English and Spanish! In the end it would probably have been cheaper and certainly easier to get a tourist bus direct to Ubud, but you would miss out on that experience of real Bali that is absent in Kuta, and as it turns out, in the town of Ubud too.
Arriving in Ubud at 1pm I searched for a guesthouse and found Kabera Guesthouse, which is a delightful, quiet homestay with bungalows looking out onto the garden and the smell of wood stoves coming from the kitchen, reminding me of my days in Laos. At 40,000IDR it is a really good deal and the family are really lovely and made me feel really at home. Aside from this peaceful haven, the rest of Ubud town is very busy, with tourists blocking the pavements, traffic filling the roads and souvenir shop after souvenir shop lining the streets. Went for a walk about in the afternoon and saw the Palace, which is decorated from a huge Royal Cremation I missed yesterday. It seems there is little autheticity about the town as it is very touristic, however the abundant hindu architecture dotted about, religious offerings placed on the pavement outisde every shop and the obvious inhabitants orientation about religion makes me think otherwise. Both men and women tend to wear their traditional dress in daily life and you can see people worshipping and making religious offerings everywhere you go. Passing the temples there is always a hive of activity, especially because of the big cremation and this is what daily life tends to revolve around.
I treated myself to a full body massage, which cost about 3 pounds and was well worth it - after months of travelling I was in need of it! I went back to the guesthouse to sit on my veranda and eat a decent batch of my favourite purple fruit (which are officially called mangosteenes by the way), whilst chatting to the owner. Ubud is a good place to try traditional Balinese food, and today I had grilled fish in banana leaf - yum!
Day 144 - Breakfast is included in the price of the room, and the wife brought over a banana pancake, fruit salad and fresh coffee to my veranda. I went off to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary at the end of Monkey Forest Road. The wooded area was teeming with monkeys and although they weren't tame, you could get right up close to them and watch them grooming and bashing rocks on the road. It was really cool to see monkeys so close and they were so active as it was pretty early in the morning before anyone else had arrived. There were a number of temples in the area, which were interesting as my first of Balinese style.
Back in the town I ended up indulging my asian skirt fetish and buying another sarong - for the purposes of visiting temples of course! Whilst I was in town I saw a procession of local men and women, donning their traditional outfits and with the men carrying parasols and women with silver and gold bowls on their heads. I figured it probably had something to do with yesterdays Royal Cremation and felt very privellaged to watch part of their religious practise.
I went for a walk into the countryside, and on the way passed another temple, teeming with people eating from banana leaves. The path took me through rice fields, which was a brilliant view of country life in Bali, with farmers working and cows dotted about. On the way I saw a rat, a number of lizards and the biggest snake yet. Not long into the walk, a family on their bike had turned around and advised me to do the same, as up ahead was a crazy woman screaming at them and brandishing a rice machete! I had a look and saw it to be true - she was out of her mind and literally mad! I left it a few minutes and as she wandered back across the terraces, a few other locals beckoned to me it was safe and I snuck passed - but I could hear her screaming for most of my walk!
When I reached the road - the furthest point away from town - I started along another path back towards Ubud, and somehow managed to get completely lost! The paths were so unclear, and as I had to start weaving around rice terraces I started to realise I must have made an error somewhere. I asked a farmer for the direction to Ubud and he told me... in bahasar Indonesian! I back tracked a little and started in another direction and on the way saw the most amazing sight - a man literally climbed a coconut tree right in front of me, without any shoes or ropes - just a cigarette in his mouth! It looked so effortless, and as I passed he stopped, looked around the tree at me and nodded! It was one of those moments I'd wished I'd taken a photo, but in a way it felt like a sight just for me to see and noone else! So walking somewhere towards a road I wandered through a ravine and stumbled across a man having a poo just downstream from where other villagers were washing their clothes, which was awkward!
Asking the direction to Ubud, I started along the road, thinking it can't be too far, but had somehow ended up completely off the beaten track and wandered through a very local village where the women were raking rice and carrying piles of wood on their heads and the children flying kites. It's amazing how these problems, such as getting lost, can end up a blessing as I got to see some of Bali that most tourists would never see. However, every scruffy, rabies infested dog seemed to recognise me as a stranger and came running out of their houses snarling and barking at me! I had quite a pack at my heels at one point when a man pulled up at his house on his motorbike. After a brief chat it transpired I was in fact 6km from Ubud, and had managed somehow to do a semi circle in the wrong direction and ended up further from Ubud than where I turned around! He gave me a ride back to Ubud on his motorbike and we laughed about what an error I'd made! It was an adventure though, despite almost being mauled by rabies ridden canines!
In town I had gado gado for lunch - vegetables and tofu covered in peanut sauce - yum! I booked a tour to see Gunung Batur (an active volcano) at sunrise tommorrow morning with a nice man called Putu.
Day 145 - Putu picked me up along with 5 french girls at 2:30am and we drove the hour or so to the base of Gunung Batur. There were quite a few groups congregating at the base camp and we met our two guides that are provided by the park, although it was very dark and it was difficult to track which ones were ours! The walk to the summit took about an hour and a half, which was quite difficult at times due to the black sand and steep lava rock, especially as I was wearing sandals. I really enjoyed the walk and as the french girls kept needing to stop on the way up, one of the guides took me on ahead - apparently I'm very strong!
We walked passed the first viewpoint and stopped at the second as there were less people there. The weather was perfect for a sunrise, completely clear and a full moon in the sky... but as a result it was bloody freezing! There was a little shack where we could sit as the guides made breakfast; boiled eggs and banana sandwiches cooked by the geothermal heat. The guides were really good - really energetic, enthusiastic and attentive, if not a little cheeky! But aren't they all in Indonesia!
At 6:20am the sun began to rise and the view was stunning. The red sky itself was beautiful, especially at one point when both the moon and sun were entirely visible, but also the scenery, as the light gradually illuminated our surroundings, was stunning. You could see as far as Lombok in the distance and a huge, turquoise lake down below, between Batur and Bali's two other volcanoes: Gunung Abang and Gunung Agung (the tallest peak in Bali). Once it was light we went on to see one of Batur's three craters and a lava tunnel and on the way down you could see the entire lava field that we had previously walked across.
On the walk back down, me and my 'personal guide' got separated once again from the group again and came down to the bottom to find the girls having a slight argument with Putu over coffee! He consequently sulked a fair bit of the way back! The rest slept but I stayed awake watching the villages go past - if I slept now I'd feel I was missing out! The view of Batur from the other side of the valley in the morning light was amazing - I'm really pleased I made the effort to see it, even if it did mean missing half a nights sleep! As we pulled over to take a photo, a group of local boys in biker jackets asked for a photo with me, which was a bit embarassing as they kind of singled me out!
We arrived back in Ubud at 10:30am, and feeling entirely out of synnc, I went for lunch as everyone else had breakfast and tried to have a nap, but feeling too cold (in Bali?!!) I sat out on my veranda in my pyjamas with my book instead! I tried another restauarnt for dinner and on the way back to the hotel there was a 4 piece girl group playing a set on a stage in the football field - in matching outfits may I add - so I stood and watched them for a bit, and I think the highlight was when a wasted old tourist climbed the stage and came on to the drummer!
Day 146 - After my yum banana pancake - the wife must have got them down to a tee after making them daily for all her guests - her brother in law drove me on his motorbike to Tirta Empul, a holy spring and temple. Despite already wearing a sarong, I had to borrow a scarf to tie around my waist, and I went in to find the place absolutely heaving with worshippers. I saw the entire floorspace covered with people kneeling and praying, with the leader of ceremonies sprinkling holy water over everyone in turn. It was really great to witness Balinese worship and to see one of their very scared temples, especially as it is SUCH an important part of their lives. The temples are very beautiful, with lots of carvings and offerings in the form of food, flowers and incense. This particular temple, being set on a holy spring, has a pool for bathers, which was also heaving, like a swimming pool and also a number of fountains with water representing different occasions on each one ie cremation, birth etc. It was quite a sight seeing all these people in the temple area - it seems a family day out in Bali is a trip to such a place, and in a way I felt I shoudn't have been there! But I figured I must be wrong as I had to walk through what can only be described as a maze of souvenir shops!
We drove back towards Ubud, along the smaller, winding, up-and-down country roads and stopped at Gunung Kawi, which is a stunning sight of ancient stone memorials cut into the cliffs on either side of a river valley, with picturesque rice paddies all around. The memorials, as well as the remains of a temple, were built in the early 11th Century, and is very impressive. Both places I have visited this morning has given me a much greater insight into Balinese culture and heritage, which is different to what I have seen in SE Asia yet. After seeing all the Hindu worship and important sites, it was very odd to pass a Christian centre just after Sunday service on the way home.
In the afternoon I set out on a walk, which took me along the main road a fair way. I was getting quite fed up of the traffic and the constant staring and interfering by locals (which is apparent everywhere is Indonesia - you do not get a moments peace) and was glad to follow the route through a little village, where the entire female population sat on the side of the road carving wooden elephants! They all said hello, and seemed very pleased to see the likes of me, but once again I felt I shouldn't be there, and this feeling was only exacerbated during my afternoon walk. Despite checking the way with a few people, I ended up with a similar situationas on Friday, only this time I missed the path from the start! I wandered down and around the individual rice fields and after I had walked too far, it was soon obvious that this was no real path, just one created by the farmers! I sat for a break and ate a banana muffin and decided all I could really do was head straight, and passing the locals on the way, noone seemed to mind I was trespassing, in fact most smiled and said hello! I did get the benefit once again, of seeing sights right off the beaten path, but as I reached a kind of village I had to walk right passed someones open kitchen. I was nearly by as the wife's back was turned when her damn dog starting having a go at me AGAIN, forcing me to own up and declare my presence! She was quite shocked but was very good to show me the way to the road.
For dinner I went to the same restaurant as last night for their 'Satay Sunday' and had some really really good tuna kebabs with satay sauce. The girl band were playing again, even in a bit of rain - you've got to give them A for effort - but this time covers of Avril Lavigne and Rhianna, and still in matching outfist I'm afraid! That evening I went to see a performance of the traditional balinese dance at a gallery slightly out of town. The stage was beautiful as it was outside in a garden, and all lit up. It was very intimate with only 30 people watching (I think most people go to the more expensive performance at the palace). The show was excellent, especially the main dance - the Legong, and the outfits to die for! There were five other dances, the last and most interesting being a masked dancer depicting a demonic male with really long fingernails - a bit like the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!
