Touring the Island
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2005
1
57
72
Trip End
May 16, 2005
Kuta,
Indonesia
Friday, April 29, 2005
01-Balinese Orchestra
His friend the monkey comes out and the monkey bites off a nose of a man, not really sure why but that's what happened. Anywho, a couple of girl dancers come out and their dancing is beautiful and creepy. It's like their dancing mimicks that of a long legged stork. The have very large eyes which google around as they shake their head this way and that. The also flit their fingers about and the movements are very robotic almost but yet fluid. The girls represent the servants of the Rangda (bad guy) looking for the servants of Dewi Kunti whom I'm not sure who this guy was but anyways thaey are on their way to meet the Patih (Prime Minister). The servants of Dewi Kunti show up and they are the comic relief of the play, kinda like the servants in Shakespears plays. Anywho, one of the girl servents of the bad guy changes herself into a witch to enter the servants of Dewi Kunti maybe b/c they were pisssed they had to wait for the guys to show up. Typical behaviour from females:-) Anywho, the servents of Dewi Kunti meet the Prime Minister and continue to Dewi Kunter. Dewi Kunter and her son Sadewa come up. Dewi Kunta has promised the bad guy to sacrifice her son Sedewa. A withc appears and enters Dewi Kunti and she then doesn't want to give up Sedewa. The Prime Minister is also entered by a witch so he doesn't have pity of Sedewa and his mother. Sadewa is taken away and tied to a tree. A God then appears and gives Sadewa immortality. The bad guy appears ready to kill Sadewa but can't. Sadewa then give the bad guy a change to redeem himself but he doesn't so Sadewa kills the Rangda
02-The Barong
. The servent of the bad guy then confronts Sadewa and they fight. The servent has to change herself into a boar and then a bird but can't defeat Sadewa. Finally the servant changes herself into Rangda and Sadewa changes himself into a Barong. The fight is unended and follower of the Barong appear and help fight. Naturally good prevails, hooray.The whole production was about an hour long and I loved the colors and costumes. Quite lovely. While in Batubulan we saw the enormous amount of stone carving that happens there. All beautiful statues which are then used all around Bali as the shrines. We then headed up to Celuk which is famous for their gold and silversmiths... where everything was made from hand. Here you can barter still but it's more expensive than at the shops around Kuta as it's quality not quantity. I still lean towards quantity plus supposedly if you're careful you can end up buying some decent things in Kuta. So needless to say I didn't buy but I did look and liked a lot of it. Then up to Mas, the center for wood carving and then on to Goa Gajah for the Temple ruins. The ruins there ranged from the 8 and 11th centuries. We stopped at a plantation on the way where they grew coffee and cocoa and processed it entirely by hand. There was a man roasting coffee beans over a fire. Anywho, got to try the coffee, cocoa, and some ginger tea. Also got to try some of the fruit that they grow on the plantation such as the dragon fruit
03-Dancers
. I really enjoyed that fruit. It has a snake like skin which is where it gets it's name. You peel it to reveal a white fleshy fruit. YUM! Finally arrived at Mt. Batur where there were stunning views of the volcano that last erupted in 1963 and which even on that day was smoking ever so slightly. Lake Batur was also very beautiful and we had a fantastic buffet lunch there and was able to dine w/ the Aussie girls I had met as they were doing the same tour only for much cheaper. That always makes me mad... but anywho. We then continued and stopped at the rice terraces. These were amazing and is man's attempt to make hilly land farmable by terracing the hills as the land to grow rice must be flat. A beautiful landscape. Stopped at a monkey forest where 200 Macau (sp?) monkeys roamed around w/out cages. You could walk through and let the monkeys climb on you however a bad idea as I had not been told to take out my earrings and upon a monkey trying to climb onto my shoulder proceeded to grab my earring! BAD MONKEY! Still it was fun and I got to watch the monkey's harass other tourists:-) Always a good time. Here however is where Gusti asked me if I minded doing my other tour w/ the group of people who were on the same airport transfer as me. I said I didn't mind at all as it's more fun w/ other people however he also said an additional charge of $25 of which during the time of booking the tours he made it sound like I was to be getting the two tours for the price of one. I swear to God he made it sounds like that and I was just livid as this is a very common trick in Bali
04-Dancers
! I had even asked what the price would be for this second tour b/4 hand and he had said no charge! OH!!! That makes me soooo mad! So anywho, I was fuming by this time but did make him do the last stop in Ubud which he was trying to skip out of! Anywho, Ubud is a lovely town known for it's artists. It's about the population of Madison and I've made a point to take an additional trip up there to explore further. Anywho, the art gallery we stopped at was filled with beautiful artwork and I was very sad to not have more money to spend on these paintings... I might still buy one or two as really they are amazing and the asking price when slow can be as low as $30 per a 6 x 8 painting. Anywho, fumed the rest of the way back to Kuta and did not give Gusti the remaining full payment for that trip. I figure if he can change things so can I! I had a bit of the chat to the folks who Gusti had mentioned me going on the 2nd tour w/ in the pool that night and they were like just come along on the next tour anyways! How can he charge for an additional person when they've already paid! I mean he can definitely not let me come but I figure it's worth a try. Spoke to the other travelers that night about renting motorbikes and scuba diving. Made plans w/ Robert (one of the group whom I may do the tour w/) to scuba dive as you need a buddy to dive here! I got to say I can not get enough of the poolside bar! Fabulous thing really! 
