Gail South
Bali, November, 2009
Wed., Nov. 3, 1999
Left Beach Haven at 6:45 am and drove to Paige's and Tom's where we left Jake. Tom drove us to Phila. airport without incident, and we took off on time (10 am). We had great seats, bulkhead by the big emergency door. We had all three seats with plenty of legroom. The crew was excellent, very friendly and helpful. We had breakfast. Jerry slept and I read more Bali info. When we flew over the Grand Canyon, the captain circled around so both sides of the plane could see it. MAGNIFICENT!! We landed a bit ahead of schedule at LAX and walked around, looking at all the different airlines represented, before we went to the boarding area for our flight on EVA air to Taipei. We took off on time in a very large 747. The plane was less than one quarter full, and we had the whole back row. We had upgraded to Deluxe Class which gave us four extra inches of seat, private TV screen and purportedly better food. The meals were fine and pretty continuous. We had excellent chicken and vegetables one time and some kind of tasty shrimp porridge with lemon grass another. They kept bringing around juice and water. Jerry slept a good bit. I probably managed three hours, off and on. We landed at 9 PM on the next day (Thurs.), having crossed the International Date Line. My watch, which I hadn't changed, read 8, so 22 hours had elapsed (6 hours to LA and 14 to China plus transfer time). We got through Customs expeditiously and caught the already waiting shuttle to the Chiang Kai Shek Airport Hotel, where we had a voucher for tonight's stay. It was rather empty feeling, but we had a nice double room on the top floor with cable TV and all the amenities, except potable water. We had to go down to the 8th floor to find a functioning water fountain.
We got through Customs and our driver, Gusti, was waiting, green sarong and all. It was about 45 minutes to Mas, over a very narrow, very congested road. He kept pressing us to hire him as a driver, but his English wasn't great, and he didn't really enlighten us on the way. Everywhere were dogs barking. Bali seems to have the ugliest, most undernourished, most ignored dogs in the world.
As soon as we turned off the road, quiet began. It reminds me of balcony, with a brick pathway leading through the property. at the front is the wood carving gallery and different buildings used for teaching (dance, batik, wood carving, etc). Then comes our "honeymoon cottage", a building set apart, and steps to a balcony with table and mattress overlooking the rice fields and Gunung Arung, Bali's most holy mountain, towering more than 3000 m. It is the home of the Mother Temple, Pure Besakih. On the left are the restaurant and reception and little gift shop area. Then come the other rooms and the hotel temple. All over are orchids and other flowers. The people seem very nice and they know a little English. Everyone seems surprised that we are only staying one week. We went for a swim to revive us in the lovely pool right outside our door and then took a walk (inside the grounds; it appears too dangerous to walk on the very narrow roads outside). We decide to have dinner here, even though we knew it would be expensive (we're still tired). We had avocado salad, then I had curried chicken and Jerry had chicken satay and nasi goring and Bali Hai beer. The bill was $12, but it was our first night. We'll be more frugal from now on. We came home and tried to plan. Jerry went to bed at eight and I a little later. The staff had locked our bathroom door and spread the netting.
Sat., Nov. 6
Slept soundly although it did rain hard. Our cottage has a four-sided peaked roof made of teak, thatched on top. The peak is about 25 feet high and open from below. The porch has two chairs and a table, and we have a beautifully carved door. The front of the cottage has a marble floor with a 5' x 10' sunken area with couched and a table. Tall teak beams go to the ceiling joists. The kitchen has a sink and a small frig and a bar with two stools. Also a ceiling fan. The bedroom has a queen-sized bed with netting to the ceiling an and a big closet. From the bedroom you go to our outdoor, walled garden bathroom with a sunken tile shower. There are tiny ants in the kitchen, but otherwise only in the evening, when mosquitoes come out, are there bug problems. When we return at night, the bed is turned down, the netting arranged, and a mosquito coil burns in the living room. In the bedroom, we have an electric de-mosquito thing. We had our breakfast of fresh fruit, juice, toast and tea, and then the manager took us to Ubud. He spoke very good English and asked what we wanted to do. He took us to a wonderful wood carving gallery way OBT where we spent an hour or so seeking out a Barong mask for Tom and Paige. It rained and rained.
In Ubud, we first visited the sacred monkey forest sanctuary. It was a real jungle walk, with a Holy Bathing Temple complete with life-sized Kyoto Dragon statues that were made in 1997 but looked centuries old.
No place could be greener than Ubud. Everything here is green: the young rice fields glow a fluorescent shade of emerald; the thick curtains of foliage appear all the greener for the scarlet accents of ginger and hibiscus. Things that began another color, brick walls or pebble walkways, soon become green with shaggy moss. Even the air has a pale-green cast. The moisture suspended in it picks up the pervasive glow of the verdure. The Balinese have long called their island "the morning of the world." It's an extravagant phrase, but that morning I had an inkling of what they were talking about.
The main temple was full of monkeys. I had on a sarong, but Jerry had to wear a borrowed one. There were monkeys everywhere and even though the guidebooks had warned us about them, none bothered us.
We left the forest and walked to the market. It rained and rained. Our only purchase was an umbrella. I tried on some batik clothes, but there were so many shops and it was raining so hard, I just gave up. There are temples everywhere here. They dress the statues at the entrance in real cloth. Every morning and evening women place offerings around the temples and other holy places. Today is the festival for the Tumpek Lamdep, dedicated to Sanghyand Pasupati, lord of all heirlooms, weapons, tools made of metal (including cars). All of the cars and trucks are decorated with offerings, and we saw some women with beautiful tiered platters of fruit on their heads.
Ngedjot offerings of little baskets with rice, flowers, salt and chili peppers. The dogs eat them, but their essence has already been consumed by the gods. We went for lunch to Cafe Luna, recommended by Jerry's friend, Barry Elsworth. It was fine, not great. I enjoyed my spring rolls and grilled salad, but J didn't like his Ikat Bali--too spicy. Gusti picked us up We arranged to go back at five to see the festival. There was nothing to see. Apparently each household celebrates at its own temple inside its walls. Instead we went to the market and bought two sarongs for $6 and two bags for $4. I'm learning to bargain. Then we found Lilies Garden Restaurant on Monkey Forest Road, down a narrow alley. It was incredibly peaceful place overlooking rice paddies and a bale with offerings and incense. We had shrimp, asparagus, crab, corn and egg soup and kruluk, wonderful puffy shrimp crackers. Jerry liked it!!
Then we went to the Palace for the Legong Dance Performance. Gusti had warned us to arrive early. We were first and got the Taj Mahal seats, front and center. it was a wonderful performance, although Jerry kept falling asleep. The orchestra, gamelan, was made up of drums, gongs, xylophone-like instruments, and other unknowns, plus one flute. The dancers were unbelievable; their fingers turned backward and their fingers were everything. The last dancer was a Jauk, where a large man in a mask conveyed his emotions and the orchestra had to follow. He asked me to dance, but I said no. Gusti picked us up and we are TIRED!!
There really is magic in Ubud. When Balinese people lose something, they consult a balian, a benign sort of sorcerer, who tells them where to find it. named can interpret dreams, cure sickness, go into trances, and speak in the voices of their ancestors. And magic, in the form of the island's unique religion, is at the core of Bali's arts. A blend of Hinduism and nature worship, the Balinese religion is an ecstatic union of the spiritual and the aesthetic, reminiscent of the religion of ancient Greece. Bali's famous trance dancers, for example, suggest the rites of Bacchus: in one of the sanghyang dances, two girls who are supposedly untrained in the dance's intricate choreography go into a trance and, eyes firmly shut, move in perfect unison. The dance is named after the divine spirit that inhabits them.
Sun., Nov 7
Very full day. Woke early to beautiful sunshine. Breakfasted on fried rice and fresh fruit, the arranged with the desk for a driver for today and tomorrow, Dewa is his name. I had worked out two programmes; we will do the first one today. We began with the Barong dance in Batubulan. Arrived early and again got front row center. This dance is somewhat different from Legong. It tells a single story representing an eternal fight between good and evil, the two halves of the human soul. They battle eternally, but neither is ever vanquished, emphasizing the Hindu sense of balance.
Next stop brilliant and the Pura (Temple) Pentapan Sasih with one of the most impressive antiquities in Indonesia, the Moon of Pejeng. Actually a large bronze kettle drum, it dates back to the Bronze Age (300 BC). It is the largest drum in the world to be cast as a single piece. Shaped like an hourglass, the drum is of a rare type decorated with eight stylized heads. Legend says that the drum used to be a wheel of the chariot that drives the moon on its nocturnal journey through the sky. It fell from the heavens and landed in a tree near the temple. One night, a thief broke into the temple and was annoyed at the brilliant light that revealed his deeds. So he climbed a tree and peed on the wheel, whereby the wheel lost its shine and the man lost his life. Since then, no one has dared touch the drum. Today, people from the village take turns sleeping here to guard it from Javanese who have come to Bali to find work. It's odd how everybody dislikes "intruders". Note the offerings everywhere.
Jerry asked Dewa what that pretty fruit was we just passed. It looked like the pinecone he had picked for me in CA. It turned out to be durian, the very fruit we had just read about in Smithsonian. Dewa said it was delicious but very expensive. He bargained, while we hid in the car, and got two for 15,000 ($2). We ate one and gave the other to him for his wife. He was very grateful. They smell like offal but taste like custard. if you drink water from the shell, it takes away the bad smell from your mouth.
Then we headed for Gunung Batur, 5635 feet above sea level. It appears dormant, but occasionally erupts. The lake in the crater was beautiful, and we had a stunning view before the rain began. We fended off many vendors, but were trapped when a fruit vendor next to our car offered us a free taste of mangostinos and something else then demanded 2000 Rp. Jerry gave her 1000 ($.15), the we left, lesson learned. Dewa took us to a buffet lunch place with an outstanding view except that the fog was like an LBI November morning, zero visibility and the thunder was frightening. Dewa said it wasn't thunder but was the voice of the volcano.
It was still raining when we got to Pura Besakin, the Mother temple. Dewa recommended a guide and we took his advice, which turned out to be good. The boy was only about 16, but well worth having. We agreed to pay 10,000 Rp, but gave him 13,000 at the end. The complex originated as a terraced sanctuary in the 8th c. over a period of a thousand years it was enlarged until it grew into 80 temples with 22 main complexes. The paramount sanctuary is Pura Panataaran Agung, with its lofty meru on a high bank of terraces. Steps ascend to the austere split gate. Inside the main courtyard are the three shrines enthroning the three aspects of God: Shiva (destruction, white, air), Brahma (creation, red, fire), and Wisnu (sustaining, black, water), yellow is compassion. There was a festival for the day after a cremation, and we saw the processions. it was still raining.
Then we drove to Bangli, a provincial capital, with an interesting looking market. Dewa explained everything. He is turning out to be a good guide. I was getting tired, but it was time for the herons at Petulu, so we went up a very rickety one-lane road and saw thousands of herons coming to roost. Then home, very tired, raining. Dinner was crab and corn soup and gado gado for me;asparagus soup and avocado prawn salad for Jerry.
Mon., Nov 8
What a busy and wonderful day!! After breakfast and some internal hotel staff discussion, we set off again with Dewa. We had apparently planned a very full day in the north. After a stop in Ubud to change money, we went to the "most beautiful rice terraces in Bali" in Kedawatu and Sayan.
It was great. Always with vendors, but I think I understand the difference with, say, Mexico. Here the community (banyar) practices "gotong royong" in which everyone works together for the good of all. This includes selling goods produced.
In Mengwi, we visited the elegant Pura Taman Ayun, the second largest temple complex in Bali, and one of the island's most beautiful shrines. This trim, impressive garden dates from around 1740, when ruler Cokorda Munggu built what was to be his state temple on high ground. it's partly surrounded by a wide moat whit lotuses, which gives the impression that it's floating. This temple is a penya-wangan, or place to worship other sacred sites or temples. here are shrines to Bali's mountain peaks, Agung, Batukau, Batur, and Pengelengan. The three main courtyards that represent the three realms of the earth: spirit, human, and god. The entire complex symbolizes the holy mountain of Mahameru floating in a sea of milk.
Dewa bought us a surprise--jackfruit, which is bagged to ripen and to protect it from the birds. Then we headed north through Tabanan, with spectacular scenery over a wide range of landscapes ranging from volcanic mountains to lush tropical rainforest with rich plains of colorful rice fields. This is one of Indonesia's richest rice growing areas, the "rice bowl of Bali" with plots of vegetable gardens spreading out.. On a small promontory jutting out from the eastern shore of Lake Bratan, source of irrigation for much of northern Bali, is the peaceful half Hindu, half Buddhist Ulun Danu Temple complex built by the raja of Mengwi in 1633. It was surrounded by lovely gardens. The eleven roofed meru are dedicated to Vishnu and the three roofed ones to Shiva. This is a destination of pilgrims from all over Bali. They come to worship Dewi Danu, the water goddess. This is the most Muslim area of Bali and we heard the call to prayer from a mosque next to the temple.
On to the market at Candikunnug, where we bought spices and Jerry got soup from a stand. Then the botanical gardens, which were a bit of a disappointment, as the orchids were not in bloom and the cacti had all been disfigured by carved initials. Still it was peaceful in the rain. In Bedugal, the landscape had changed to vegetable farms. The clusters of farmhouses are no longer thatched huts, but sturdy cottages made of wood and tile to withstand the steady downpour of heavy rains. The road winds and climbs its way around steep cliffs covered with ferns, wild flowers and tall grass. Everywhere are offerings hung over the road on bamboo poles. Then Gitgit with the highest waterfall in Bali. We walked and walked down and down to the bottom of a gorge and the magnificent waterfall. Then the skies opened up and it poured. Even though we had four umbrellas in the car, we had left them all and were soaked by the time we again reached the top. Jerry bargained for a small beer. The driver had said to go to 4500 Rp from the opening offer of 7000, but J got her down to 4000.
Finally Goa Gaja, the Elephant Cave, dating back to at least the 11th c. A monstrous head with a gaping mouth appears to be pushing the entrance apart with its hands. All around are fantastically carved leaves, animals, waves and humans running from the mouth in fear. Some say this represents humanity's helplessness in the face of natural danger. Inside is a 13-meter long passage stopping at a junction 15 meters wide. This inner sanctum contains several niches which could have served as sleeping compartments for ascetics. At one end of the passage is a 4-armed statue of Ganesha, and at the opposite end is a set of three lingga. Outside the cave, large gargoyle nymphs literally spout water from their stomachs in bathing places in front of the cave. Down a path is a bathing pool where naked Balinese people were taking their evening baths. Back at the hotel, we were offered a special smoked duck dinner (bebuk betutu) we had ordered the day before and had a Balinese red wine which complimented the duck nicely.
Tues., Nov. 9
This was a beautiful day, but we still managed to get soaked (why spoil our record). It was the day of our whitewater adventure. It was expensive (negotiated down to $60 per with outfitter Sobek) but worth it. We thought the water would be high after the rainfall, but it was actually low.
This trip was on the Ayung River, from Begawan to Kedewatan, through tropical rainforest, complete with waterfalls and birds (kingfisher, sandpiper, and swallows). It lasted about two hours and had enough excitement for us old folks. Our captain, Agus, was great, talking all the time and "attacking" other rafts. At the end, Cafe Wayan's prepared a really good buffet lunch, then we showered and met our driver for the trip back.
At the hotel, the manager, Nyoman, was waiting to take us shopping. We spent an hour or so at Bali Margarita with Putu Darmada. We spent a bunch of money, but saved lots more and got a table, chairs, and two steamer chairs and tables for pine Island and two barstools for NJ (and a cane for Jerry).
Nyoman took us to look at batik, but I couldn't find what I wanted so we came back to the hotel. Jerry is very stiff and sore. Rested and went for dinner. I had lemon chicken and Jerry had satay. Then we were introduced to "arak atak": arak (palm brandy), belem (rice wine), lime and honey. Tastes like a Marguerita and packs a wallop. Jerry is now out negotiating (he lost) 60,000 ($9) for two bottles of arak and one of belem.
Wed., Nov. 10
Now the after day arak atak, very potent brew. Gorgeous hot day. We went for a swim before breakfast then sat by the pool for an hour and almost got sunburned. Nyoman took us to look for a mirror like the one in our bathroom, but we couldn't find one. His father is a wood carver so maybe he can make one. I hope so.
He dropped us in Ubud where we shopped for a bed cover to go with our new carpet. Unsuccessful. Then we went to a real Balinese warung and had, finally, utensils Delicious (roast suckling pig). We were the only non-Balinese there. Most ate with their fingers, but we got utensils. Delicious and spicy. Jerry made it all the way through. I was proud of him. We had discussed this with the hotel and negotiated a feast down from 500,000 to 300,000($45). Our lunch cost us $3.50 Across the street was a cremation tower being built for a ceremony on Sat.
Then we walked to the bridge over the river and watched some sort of ceremony. Dewa said later that they were making holy water. A procession of about a dozen people, two carrying ceremonial umbrellas and one carrying a black and white pole, walked down the steps where they met a holy man. The people all rinsed their hands and faces in the river and then the holy man blessed their offerings.
We found just the batik cover I wanted and bargained down from 400,000 to 225,000. We got a few supplies in the drugstore then met our driver. We stopped at a market and got some limes. Then home. Still very hot so we took our arak ataks out to the pool. The cool water felt wonderful. Some new people, Americans, checked in and we spent some time talking to them. had a late dinner, soup and spring rolls for me and salad and satay for Jerry, then went to bed. We are thinking about opening a furniture store on LBI. Interesting idea.