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November 20, 2003 - Bali Beautiful
After Oliver's visit to Timor-Leste, we spent 8 glorious nights in Bali. A small island off the east coast of Indonesia's most heavily populated island of Java, Bali is its countries' tourism jewel. Bali is lush and green, volcanic, surrounded by black and white sand beaches and turquoise ocean, and home to a people with a unique culture. It is interesting to note the incredible religious and cultural diversity of Indonesia, the world's fourth most populated nation. And with an archipelago stretching across thousands of kilometers, it is physically diverse as well.
The people of Bali are distinctly 'Balinese' with their own brand of colourful but dedicated Hindu spirituality with deeply rooted traditions going hand in hand with pleasant, visible day-to-day rituals - rituals which certainly don't seem to be lost on any type of rebellious teenage faction. I've never made such a generalization before about a people, but I can honestly say that the Balinese are the nicest I've ever encountered; genuinely interested in life and people and passers by. Of course I must state the caveat that the Balinese have greatly suffered economically since the Bali bombings of one year ago and all are eager to earn the tourist dollars that are now beginning to return. We flew into the skinny part of this funnily shaped island - it is generally triangular but has a little knob that sticks off its south end, making it look a little bit like a spinning top. The skinny bit attaches the knob to the rest and is where all the action is. We headed for Kuta Beach, a backpackers haven with low and high budget accommodations, zillions of restaurants, shopping galore from curios to Australian surf shops, little laneways connecting larger thoroughfares, and a piece of beach that is the resort-goers norm. On the beach, you can walk on the scorching sand or lie under your own little palm tree, but the only place to escape the persistent purveyors of carvings, pedicures, fruits, ice-creams, massages, sunglasses, jewelry and watches is in the surf itself. You would be quite safe there if it weren't for the constant threat of being run over by one of scores of novice surfers or a boogey-boarder run amok. We did a bit of shopping in Kuta then headed north into the island proper to spend the week in Ubud. It was in Ubud where we first met Ketut. Or should I say, we met our first Ketut. While the Balinese are charming, they certainly lack imagination when it comes to naming children. Regardless of gender, the first born child shall be named Wayan, the second Made, the third Nyoman and the fourth Ketut. Surnames are not commonly used. As if that doesn't make the phone book confusing enough, consider that the Balinese run out of names after Ketut and start all over again with Wayan for the fifth, Made for the sixth, and so on. I find it quite unbelievable that this system is still in place, but have to say that it is one of my favourite things about Bali. So every time we met someone and they told us their name, we would ask 'Now are you the FIRST Wayan or the fifth? Or the ninth???'. Another of my favourite things about Bali are the offerings. Continuous offerings to placate the array of Hindu Gods go hand in hand with the incredibly dedicated spirituality of the people, their traditional dresses, their elaborate temples and their persistent ceremonies, superstitions, beliefs and taboos that penetrate daily life. Twice daily, at sun up and sun down, women place these offerings unfailingly in all doorways and in front of all temples and shrines, of which there are a countless many in every place and every form. Carved stone door guards, two feet tall, often dressed (or draped) in black and white checkered cloths, with amusingly menacing faces (to scare away evil spirits) get piles of offerings placed at their feet. On special occasions, of which there are many, women carry to their local temples elaborate offerings of pyramids of fruit precariously balanced on their heads. But it really is the very pretty and colourful daily offerings themselves that I like best. They are most often small open boxes, square or pentagon or star-shaped, woven of green palm leaves. They are filled with an assortment of flowers, rupiah in coins or small bills, and food ranging from rice to fruit to Ritz crackers, and a stick or two of burning, sweet-smelling incense laid over top. Very hard to avoid, I inadvertently stepped on an offering every now and then, but felt less guilty when I noticed that stray dogs and monkeys wait in prey for the offerings to be made so that they can make a meal of the edible portions. Nobody seems to mind… Ubud is up in the hills just a little bit, where the heat of the day is no longer oppressive and night time temperatures are perfect. We arrived at Ketut's Place, a homestay about a kilometre north of Ubud's main intersection. The word homestay must conjure up images in your mind, but let them all go because Ketut's home was like none ever seen before. Him and his family and his cat Pipis live in a traditional Balinese family compound consisting of a series of cooking and sleeping and living spaces - simple outdoor, roofed platforms or enclosed rooms. Every home is traditionally arranged with strict rules as to proportions, distances between 'rooms' and orientation - it is important to be facing the sacred mountains rather than the evil sea. Carvings and decorations are elaborate, but must be most impressive in the family temple so as to show the utmost respect to the Gods. Behind his family compound proper, Ketut has built a veritable jungle of guestrooms and lotus ponds and swimming pools connected by decorative stone and tile pathways and footbridges. Thick, dark green foliage provides shade and privacy for the guests. Most impressive however, were the four luxury rooms built into the vertical wall of the gorge that the property backs on to - a gorge so deep and thick with jungle that you can not see the river at the bottom or the bank on the other side. The rooms, each on their own 'storey' built beneath the swimming pool, were newly replete with high four poster beds, sparkling fixtures and private terraces. We stayed in the second one from the top. From Ubud, we explored a lot of Bali. The first couple of days, we did so on foot - venturing out into neighbouring villages. We passed duck inhabited rice paddies where farmers could almost always be seen at work in some stage of the rice growing and harvesting cycle. Depending on the cycle, the paddies themselves could be dry and crumbly dirt, little square ponds, or fields of rice shoots or mature rice plants. Arranged in neat squares and rectangles separated by small mud embankments, they came in all shades of green and brown and gold and were very picturesque. We couldn't help but be impressed by the entire irrigation system of the farms; water flowed constantly through the paddies and around them in small canals and ditches. The systems are run by village groups, the head of each generally being the farmer with the lowest lying farm. Of course it is in his best interest to ensure the system works well so that the water will make its way all the way down to his paddies! While the scenery itself was worth the walking, the original goal of our ventures was to find various temples and shrines, rock carvings and sacred caves and pools, an easy task in Bali. We stopped at some of the more prominent sites and enjoyed learning more about Balinese tradition, culture and religion. We took one trip further afield from Ubud, hiring Wayan to drive for the day. Together with Ketut, he engineered a route that would take us to many sights. We headed north on Bali's typically narrow, winding roads skirted with villages, temples and rice paddies. On the way we passed through a (smelly) little village which for a reason no one knows, is home to thousands of white herons who ceremoniously fly home at sunset every day. We passed landscapes of stunning emerald-green rice terraces and climbed up to the town of Kintimani for views of one of Bali's volcanoes, 1717m Gunung Batur. After a walk up the many staircases to Puri Puncak Penulisan, Bali's highest temple at 1745m, we lunched on the volcanic black sand beaches of the fishing and tourist town of Lovina on the north coast. Heading back towards Ubud through the mountains, we stopped for a look at the very touristy but pretty Gitgit waterfalls, then continued on to the Lake Bratan. The main attraction of Lake Bratan is its temple, Puri Ulun Danu Bratan, the main stupa of which is built on an island. Sitting among fog brought in by threatening rain clouds, it was a positively eerie scene. Puri Ulun Danu Bratan was actually the most immaculate temple we had seen, with perfectly preserved shrines, carvings, lawns and gardens. Despite the Balinese people having religion as such a central part of their lives, their temples are generally surprisingly run down, but then perhaps this shouldn't be such a surprise given regular heavy rains and the odd volcanic eruption that serve to wear away sculptures and stupas typically carved of soft stone. We made one more stop at a local market before driving back to Ubud through the rain that had finally arrived. I was thrilled to find locally grown strawberries here, and the deliciously sweet mangosteen fruits that I fell in love with in Thailand - two fruits I hadn't seen in far too long. We indulged on these, and on local cashew nuts, and I bought a 'baseball' of pure palm sugar to send home for cooking and baking (much like maple sugar). We also admired the cute little caged bunny rabbits, but I was disappointed when the answer to my question of 'Are they pets?' was something along the lines of 'Yes, good for soup.' We enjoyed Ubud itself too; relaxing, swimming, shopping, eating like kings and taking in some of Bali's rich culture. We saw some touristy but nonetheless fascinating traditional Balinese dances which incorporated elaborate costumes with traditional tales to the backdrop of either large tribes of chanting men or strange but intricate 'gamelan' music created by an orchestra of gongs and chimes. I took a half-day cooking course and learned how to combine dozens of herbs and spices to make some of Bali's rich traditional feast dishes - satay, lawar, gado-gado and others. We partook in a couple of these feasts and they are definitely something I will try to recreate at home! We also indulged in a few of Ubud's many spa experiences on offer, trying reflexology and traditional Balinese massage. I even had a manicure and pedicure in a tropical garden, and came out with little flowers painted on my toenails. Ahhh… the little things. At the end of the week, we headed back to Kuta. From there we made one last side trip to see the sunset over Puri Uluwatu - a picturesque temple sitting high on the top of a cliff that plunges about 200m into the ocean. On the way back we stopped for a seafood dinner on the beach in Jimbaran for our last night together in Bali. Candlelight, serenades, sand in between our toes and black waves crashing loudly on the water's edge just steps away - what more could you ask for? :o) We explored a lot of Bali, but it must be said that with so much to see in this beautiful Indonesian province, we only just scraped the surface. Oh well, looks like we will just have to go back there one day! > See photos from East Timor. > See photos from Bali. > See other East Timor journal entries. Back to top |
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