Ubud and beyond: So this is Bali
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2009
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36
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Trip End
Jun 30, 2009
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Ubud,
Bali,
Indonesia
Sunday, June 28, 2009
I was hoping that Ubud would fulfill my Bali fantasies and it didn’t disappoint. While our time in Nusa Dua was certainly relaxing, it was rather sterile, and Nusa Lembongan had a fishing village atmosphere that was wonderful but very different from central Bali. Set on the gentle slopes leading to Bali’s highlands and volcanoes, Ubud is Bali’s cultural heartland. ‘Discovered’ by western artists in the 1930’s, they stimulated the development of Balinese art by lending it direction, support and a market. Today, Ubud is filled with galleries - from traditional to contemporary- of both Balinese artists and western artists. Balinese wood carving, stone carving, gold and silver smithing, kite and mask making, and textile weaving are world famous.
Bali roadside offerings
The narrow streets leading to Ubud are lined with their workshops. Ubud is also home to fabulous restaurants and great shopping besides art (clothes, jewelry, shoes, fake Prada and Rolex and the usual Bali tourist souvenirs). It is a bustling town, filled with the ubiquitous mass of scooters, but you only have to step a block away from the town center to be in the middle of rice paddies, village temples and women making offerings at the local shrine. It reminded me in many ways of a Bali version of San Miguelle de Allende (art, culture, a history of western artistic influence, a home to many expats who have succumbed to its charm).We stayed in a wonderful villa, Mandela Desa, about a 1/2 an hour south of Ubud. It is in a little traditional village that was bloody hard to find but once we did we knew we had stumbled upon a real treasure (actually, Trip Advisor helped). It seemed worlds away from the bustle of south Bali. To get to our villa you passed the rice paddies, turned left at the little warung, past the local boys constructing an enormous kite, right at the village temple with the men practicing their gamelen, down a lane way that certainly didn’t have cars in mind when it was built, past the young girl bathing in the irrigation ditch beside the lane (Balinese believe that while you are bathing you are invisible so there is no embarrassment), honked at the 3 geese that were resident to the villa, swerved around the barking Bali dogs and entered an oasis. We alloted some time to power shop in the markets and shops - I was like a kid in a candy store as there was an abundance of ‘antiques’ from Bali and Timor.
Bali temple offerings
I love tribal art and Andy does as well so we could have filled a container with what we saw but alas, we had to try to stick to a reasonable budget (and to what could be carried home in the already bulging suitcases) so restraint was required. In the end a few items were purchased, including a bronze buddha that I had to put in my backpack as carryon (this led to a laugh as Duncan has been carting around a book this whole journey called “Buddha in Your Backpack”).We had our own car which was dirt cheap to rent (about $20 a day) and this allowed us to really explore Ubud and beyond. Andy gets a big thanks for his GTA driving skills. Driving in Ubud is better than India, but only just.
One day we had a real adventure climbing Gunung Batur, Bali’s active volcano. You have to see it to believe it. It is a double caldera, meaning one crater is inside another. The outer crater is an oval about 14 km long which you wind up to from Ubud past rice paddies giving away as you go higher to farms of oranges, coffee, and spices as the climate gets cooler and wetter. There are a few small market towns on the crest and then you drop down into the outer crater floor. Gunung Batur is renowned for it’s trekking guide organization that intimidates and harasses tourists into using their guides for astronomical prices. We had done some reading so knew that it was more than possible to climb the mountain without a guide since we were doing it in the day (most people climb at night to catch the sunrise so do need guides).
Roadside offerings in Bali
We planned our route strategically avoiding the popular side of the mountain, heading down a road from Kintamani not on the map, parking near a roadside warung at the edge of the lava field -paying the woman to look after the car- and brushing off offers to guide by the few sleepy locals hanging about by saying we were just going for a walk and off we went. We were soon lost in the mounds of hot, black lava when the trail dead ended (no sign posts here). We could see where we needed to go, but finding the trail was a different matter, when low and behold, a fellow appears who doesn’t speak any english but motions to the mountain and is obviously offering his guiding services. He was out in the middle of now where but there were a few trucks about quarrying the lava so he must have been doing this and thought we looked like a better prospect for a days pay. As his fee was substantially cheaper than the official rates, we decided to help out the local economy and took him on. Up we went in the hot late morning sun - walking on loose black lava adding to the temperature and soon arrived at the first of many steaming vents on the lower western flank. Gunung Batur last erupted in 1963, and continues with geological activity and tremors (apparently killing 2 German tourists some time ago - don’t know how), so this section of the mountain is periodically closed to trekkers. We did check the official Indonesian volcano hazard website before the trek but this didn’t allay Maddie’s fears as we stood feet away from steam pouring out of the vents, the already hot, humid air intensified by the steam.
Bali village market
Common sense was telling Maddie that this was no place to be and it took a good deal of reassurance (and threats) to have her continue with us towards the summit. Actually, our guide required some extra encouragement too (more money always works) but I think his hesitancy was fear of being caught by the official guides further up the mountain. We did let him go before the last stretch to the summit, sending him back down the mountain since we decided to descend by the more traveled trail on the other side of the mountain (we were doing a bit of trail blazing on this side that wouldn’t be easy to get back down). The summit ridge around the inner crater was spectacular. We had to navigate a knife like summit crater ridge trail that was about a foot or two wide, dropping down on the right side into the crater, and on the left side some 600 meters below to the outer floor. Add to this the fact that in places, our handholds were right beside a steaming vent led to some exciting moments. We summitted by a little wooden shack and had our lunch. If you go with a guided climb your guide cooks eggs for you in the vent so Duncan and I improvised with a banana and shoved it into the vent for a few minutes with a stick. We all shared a bite of the ‘volcanic snack’. Though it wasn’t bad, I don’t think steamed bananas are on our list of repeatable meals - maybe some chocolate sauce would have helped? While we ate lunch we soaked in the view of Lake Batur below with its little farming and fishing villages dotting the shore, including Trunyan, a very traditional and isolated Bali Aga village.
Bali village market
This village is know for its cemetery as they don’t believe in cremation or burial but instead lie their dead out in bamboo cages to decompose. Apparently some tourists make their way to this village by boat to observe this scene but we passed on it. On the way down the mountain we were slipping and sliding on the steep stretches of loose volcanic sand and were reminded of the sand dunes in the Wadi Rum - quite the hoot! We stopped at a small warung selling eggs and cold cokes and, no surprise, picked up another persistent would be guide that we had no need for now that there was a clear trail down the mountain on the east side. But Andy took a liking to this young fellow who shared his sad life story with him as we descended. He gave him a small fee for his ‘guiding’ but I think he was rather hoping we would adopt him as a good cause and fund his education. He didn’t look too appreciative of the tip. We left him on the trail side with him hoping to sell warm coke from his shoulder bag to thirsty trekkers (the tip we gave him was more than he would have made in 3 days selling coke).
We descended the rest of the way sans guide through forest and farms to the lakeside village of Toya Bungkah. We had an uninspiring lunch (but welcome cold beer) at the hotel with a pool fed by the hot springs by the lake. Andy then commandeered a ride on a scooter (for an enormous sum) to retrieve the car on the other side of the mountain while Duncan swam and Maddie and I recovered by the pool side.
Ball village market
On another memorable day we went on a guided mountain bike tour. A van picked us and 2 other couples up and took us to the misty mountain and lake area of Danau Bratan. After a great breakfast with a view overlooking the lake, we visited an eco-farm and here Andy and I tasted the famous coffee made in Indonesia that is creating a ‘buzz’ amongst coffee aficionados around the world (at least those with too much money and not enough common sense!). This coffee is made from coffee beans that are fed to little creatures called Civet Luwaks. They are small mammals - they are native to the jungles here - and somehow, someone made the improbable discovery that when these creatures eat the coffee beans and then poop them out, the coffee is better tasting. I kid you not. The luwaks are kept in cages and fed the beans and their coffee bean poops are dried and cleaned then roasted in the usual manner. We had a small cup for a reasonable price of $3 but to buy a 200 gm bag would have cost us $60. I think the same amount of coffee costs the equivalent of a small Tiffany diamond in New York but it was still too much for Andy and I to fork over.
We then headed down the mountain along deserted small back roads, stopping in little villages, visiting a family compound and a local wood carver, watching rice being harvested (and helping) and all along the way being welcomed by kids who would shout ‘hello, hello”, and stick out their hands for you to ‘high five’ as you zipped by. It felt like the Tour de France (or rather Bali) - so this is how Lance Armstrong feels! It was a wonderful way to see the countryside and we felt like we had had a bit of exercise even though most of it was downhill as we opted for the optional uphill bit that took us to a restaurant for a great meal at the end of the day.
In the end, we all agreed that out of the many countries we have visited, Bali was the most relaxing and we all hope to return again sometime. I guess this should be no surprise, as so many other westerners have found the Bali experience to be irresistible too - as evidenced by the number of expats settling in for the long term. It really does have the magic combination of tropical sunshine, gracious and interesting people, abundant culture, wonderful art, breathtaking landscape and food and lodging to please the most discriminating budget and luxury traveler. Too bad we can’t trade Hawaii for Bali
