Bali Hai
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2006
1
61
110
Trip End
Apr 01, 2008
Kuta,
Indonesia
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Indonesia has 240 million people and 300-odd languages, mostly Muslim, but the island of Bali is mostly Hindu and animist. Indonesia is also - by far - the most successful democracy in all of S.E. Asia, and, despite being the world's largest muslim country, alcohol is sold freely and there is a thriving and open gay scene
A Different Kind of Bidet
. The news is filled with Suharto's impending death, but I think most people, like me, just wish they'd picked him in their dead pool. Apparently, there are 20,000 temples, large and small on the island, but I can only vouch for the 19,000 I have seen - they are everywhere, and they are kinda cool, but often chock-a-block next to a 24-hour McDonalds, 1 trillion motor scooters, three bazillion girls offering "massage," or ten quatrillion dudes trying to sell you something. Saying "no" politely to the touts gets really old fast. One of the first things that struck me, besides the heat and humidity, was all of these little boxes filled with flowers, leafs, incense, crackers, whatever. (See pic.) These offerings to gods and ancestors litter the streets and temples, and everywhere else. Literally, there is one next to the computer I am using. Unfotunately, this one lacks crackers. Even on the beaches - these things are in front of every beach vendor. The beaches are alright - nothing great. I was going to go to the island of Lombok, where the beaches are meant to be much more pristine, but the time to get there for what is, to me, a marginal benefit wasn't worth it. So I stayed here four nights.
The first night I was pretty out of it after 37 hours to get here (there are quicker ways, but for 60,000 miles round-trip I can't complain) with little sleep
A Meal With a View
. I had a pretty good grilled seafood dinner and found the town pretty dead, even at 10:30 p.m., so I went to bed - for 13 hours. The next day I walked the town and the beach. The beach also seemed pretty dead, which fit the whole off-season thing. The little back streets of the town are cool, with all of these houses/temples, surf shops, and little restaurants with $0.50 fresh juices and $1.50 meals, but it is also the "developing world" so there was the de rigeur amount of wild animals, children, and trash mixing it up.I also read a couple of local websites for restaurant/nightlife advice, where I learned that no one goes out until midnight and doesn't go home until 6:00 a.m. or whatever, so I switched gears. I didn't eat until 10:00 (a decent Thai place) and then went to what was meant to be the more up-scale nightlife area. Ugh. Blech. God, I hate electronica, and I am clearly getting too old for the disco scene. I tried what appeared to be a more down to earth "chill lounge" but I couldn't tell the hookers from the regulars. Unfortunately, the hookers here don't dress themselves up too differently - there should be a rule against that. But, in the end, I don't like the big box DJ club scene in SF, so why should I here? The problem is I don't know the more "local" places here.
Although I did meet a classic new rich Russkie from Belgograd, who was so impressed that I knew where it was (80 km from Kharkov, Ukraine) that he bought me a cigar
Beach
. And I realized the next morning that I was at a disco less than 100 meters from the one that was bombed in 2002, killing 202 people. Oops.The third day (Saturday for those keeping my calendar) I did not do much, and I napped from 2:30 to 8:00 p.m., before going to one of the supposed best "haute Indonesian cuisine" restaurants in town. Good stuff. Prawn and quail egg satays as an appetizer, and rice bombs (cooked six hours and denser than tofu) with six different curries, in a cool outside atmosphere around a pool. $12 before wine. That started a long, much more interesting and enjoyable evening than the prior two.
I saw 20 police enter a club and leave for no appearent reason. I hung out with some drunk Aussie chicks (see pic), a dude from Saskatoon (that makes two I have met during these travels) who spoke fluent Indo, some guys making fun of their passed out friend (see pci), a Swiss girl from the Romanch area of Switzerland (more bonus points for my knowledge!), and ate weird random food from street vendors. It was light when I got back to my hotel.
Day 4 brought another 3:30 p.m. wake-up call. Ahhh. i killed some time and then took a taxi to Jimbaran Beach - where the rockin' seafood is
Dinner
. There are several restaurants, but I had been forewarned that all but the original six were rip-offs, so I chose "Club Seafood - Jimbaran Beach Cafe" purely because it was the busiest. Bitchin'. 5 fat clams, 8 big head-on prawns, 2 whole fishes, a whole clam, a pile O' calamari, garlicy green onions, the ubiquitous rice, and some water for finger-dipping. $15. Beers were another $1.50 each. And the Indo mariachi band was free. As I said - rockin'. It was then to Mama's - a German place to kill some time before quasi-karaoke at the coolest non-club here - Espresso's. Any place that lets some dude get up and scream "The Ace of Spades" rules, and what made it better was watching the 6' 6" 25-year old Aussie at the bar next to me fend off not one, not two, but three GILFs. Good times.That couldn't be beat, but I did spend three more hours watching the Chargers - Colts game from 2:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. with a few other degenerate Americans, before crashing until 3:00 p.m. today. The hotel charged me a whole $1.00 per hour "overtime." I wish Vegas would do that. With that, I am about to be picked up for a 9 hour overnight ride to:
Gulung Bromo
