Bandung the fabulous Bali and Bandung again

  After that bit of fun in Surabuya  it was the waiting game for my flight back to Bandung, in the morning.

When I got to Bandung  I got to spend time with a few friends before heading out to Bali in two days time.  Jaspreet, David, Richard and Mina all agreed to go to the hot springs with me.  I had been talking about it for ages, and David got the ball rolling and Jaspreet provided the car and some of the booze.  It was a great time.  We went at night because it is supposed to be better.  And it was a lot of fun.  It was in the mountains, and there were only a few people up there.  After splashing around and relaxing we headed back to the city.  First we had to get food.  So we stopped for nasi gorang and then headed home.  The rest of my time in Bandung was spent eating almost passable Korean food, chillaxing, and seeing Robocop.

The flight to Bali was delayed, and when we got to the airport they didn’t know what time we would be flying out.  So all I could do was check in and wait.  I hate waiting.  To make up for their (Airasia) incompetency they bought everyone a McDonalds meal.  I hate Micky D’s, but I took the food and tucked it in my bag.  Beggars can’t be choosers and I was voluntarily poor, and the food would help me out with my budget.

Once I got to Bali I got to sleep.  And my sleep was amazing.  I booked myself a very nice hotel.  I had a balcony, a swimming pool, and a bar.  What more could a girl ask for?  I guess the same price I would have paid in Java but, this is Bali baby.  The land of tourism; everything is going to be much more expensive than Java.

Actually Bali was so hyped that when i got there I was pretty disappointed.  It was supposed to be great beached and super cheap.  and I found neither of those things to be true.

When I got up in the morning I kind of explored the little neighborhood I got dropped off in.  It was well into the night when I got in, so I hadn’t really seen a thing.  I was amazed at all the colorful flowers and bit of rice I saw on the streets.  In the mornings it is custom to give offerings to the gods.  The majority of the people on Bali are Hindu; or more specifically Balinese Hindu.   This is much different from the rest of Indonesia, who are majority Muslim.  

 After a bit of exploring around my hotel I asked for directions to the beach and got pointed in the general direction.   I walked all along the beach in Kuta.  It was disgusting.  There was so much plastic and garbage everywhere.  Sometimes the water was discolored and smelled like sewage.  In front of the fancier hotels they had people cleaning up the garbage and raking the beach, and I think more people did that later as well (I tend to go for long walks at 8 in the morning).  Someone told me I had just come during the wrong season; that the way the currents, winds and storms were working was bringing all the trash from the surrounding sea to Bali.  I think I could buy that.  Asia isn’t real well known for disposing of their trash properly.

  

 I noticed some graffiti on the street that was great.  I think Bali has many problems with tourist not respecting the people and the culture.  It must be hard to separate the money that tourist bring in from the trouble makers.  This article on Bali growth may give you some insight why people are starting to get upset, regardless of all the money tourist are bringing to Indonesia.  This also might explain why there is so much trash on the beaches.

Japsreet and Richard, who I had met in Bangdung were coming to Bali as well.  We were to meet that night, with Richard’s cousin and a few of Jaspreet’s friends.  The place was called Potato Head.  So I tried to figure out where it was during the day, so I could find it again later.  I found where I thought might be close and just plopped down on the beach and had a few, over-priced, beers and a nice chat with the local selling them.  That night me and the almost o-jek driver had a hell of a time figuring out where it was.  I say almost o-jek driver, because I just asked a guy at a shop where I could find an o-jek (motorcycle taxi), and he just closed up shop and jumped on his scooter with me down the street.  I had my cowboy hat on, I was feeling pretty cool.  When we did find the club it was super posh, with security guards and several floors of different dinning and drinks.  It even had a pool and bed/sitting areas with lots of fluffy pillows.  Neither Jaspreet nor Richard had arrived yet, so I plopped myself down and enjoyed the view.  

When they did finally show up no one was really in the mood to pay 5 USD for a beer, when it usually cost 2 USD for a large one.  So we went out on the steps to sit in the sand and drink the beer that Jaspreet had brought for everyone.  You obviously can’t dink mini-mart beers inside the establishment, and we got a slap on the wrist when we had tried.  The girls that Jaspreet had came with were Jetlagged, only just getting in from England that same day.  So they didn’t stay long.  Richard and his cousin stayed a little while longer and then offered me a ride home. Yippee!! Way better than paying for a taxi even thought it was a bust night.  We all talked about maybe meeting up somewhere else on the island later, but of course plans never worked out like that.  *shrugs* It would have been nice to see them again before I flew out to Australia. 

The next day I went to Ubud.  I had heard from my friend Josh that Ubud would be a good place to just walk around and it had a monkey temple, which is pretty cool.  I got a mini bus out of town and arrived at my hostel The Happy Mango Tree.  This was the cheapest hostel and pretty chill.  It had a lot of surrealist art around too, which I appreciated immensely.  The Happy Mango Tree was a bit outside of main street, surrounded by newer houses and rice patties, which meant it was quiet.  It was also close enough to the down town area that I could walk there in about 10 minutes, which was great.  I love walking, and I defiantly stretched my legs while I was there.  I was determined to walk everywhere, and I did.

 So monkey temple.  It was pretty cool.  I’ve seen a lot of monkeys in my travels.  So, even though they are quite cute and all, they don’t phase me anymore.  The best part of the monkey temple was the complex its self.  There were ancient carvings of protector dragons, lizards and the ancient gods.  The monkey’s were very well behaved.  The vendors outside the main gates were selling peanuts, but I declined.  Evey said she had been bitten by a monkey, so I didn’t want to take any chances.  Touching wild animals is never really a good idea anyway.  After seeing the main temple complex I went on a “forest hike” but it was just a trail through the back part of the park.  It had a sign that said “Beware Wild Monkeys!” but the monkeys here were just as disinterested in me as the others in the temple.  

After that morning fun I headed over to the market.  More like I passed it and thought I needed a few things.  My pants had magicly disappeared from the drying rack in Kuta, so I knew I needed at least to buy some of those, and a gift.  I always need gifts for people because I’m constantly crashing on people’s couches, couch surfing through the website or wwoofing.  It just seems polite to show up with a gift, and how much more special is that gift if it comes from your travels.  

 

I managed to haggle me some pants and a beautiful batik silk scarf.  The scarf I haggled down from 500,000RP to 50,000RP.  That’s about 50 USD to 5 USD, that is a big price difference.  I knew she had bought it from a mass produce store somewhere, because all the scarves are the same at all the little stores.  It blows my mind how much people are willing to pay for these things.  

After that fun I headed toward the art center way on the other side of town.  It took me about an hour to walk there, and it was worth it.   I got to see all sorts of Balinese artwork, traditional and modern.  The lawns were manicured and they even had a little café, that you got a free coffee from when you finished your museum walk.  I loved it.  I took a picture of one the pieces I would like to emulate in my work.  The way it deals with textures, detail and layering is amazing.  Hopefully I can create something as intricate and beautiful as this.

 

On the way to the art center I saw a taco place.  Richard had text me earlier in the day and had me drooling over the tacos he had in Kuta, so I decided I needed my fix in Ubud.  The place was expensive (as all western food is) but delicious and pretty darn accurate to American-Mexican food.  I scarffed it all down.  Wherever I go, I manage to find some passable Mexican food.  I love it.  Later I discovered that it was owned by the same guy as the one in Kuta.  Small world.

That night a few girls from the hostel and I went to the Kecak dance, a two part show that was put on everynight in Ubud.  This is an almost  traditional dance of Bali that was created in the 1930s.  It was the traditional trance dance, blended with more entertainment qualities in order to please more and more tourists that were visiting the island.  It is an amazing “monkey” dance, performing the story of Rama and Sita.  The costumes were absolutely gorgeous!  They were so intricate and so was the face painting and body paint.  The majority of the singing is done by the “monkeys,” men in checkered skirt/cloth coverings.  These men would create wonderful chorigraphed sounds a and movements adding to the storie being told.  I enjoyed watching one man in particular.  He seemed to be one of the older men, and he was the most animated.  You could tell he loved his job while others, like the younger boys, seemed to only be there for the shear number quality of the monkeys.  The “monkeys” sat in a circle creating a stage for the show to begin.  One of the monkeys would lead and everyone else would take their que from him; when to start sound effects or hand motions and when to shut up.   The performance of Rama and sita was entertaining all by it’s self.  There was dancing, play fighting, stand offs and death.   

The next part was the trance dance.  This dance was not as disturbing as the first dance I witnessed in Yogyakarta.  It was still a bit strange though.  The man in the trance seemed to be a horse…. Man.  He had a horse made out of palm and other natural materials between his legs.  It was quite impressive and better than any of the wooden horsy sticks we had as children.  Before the horse man came out one of the monkey’s from the last performance lit a cocnut shell bonfire in the middle of the room.  The shells seemed to hold embers for quite a long while.  The man started riding or danincg around the coconut shells and then suddenly runs right through it and kicks the embers all over the room.  Assistants hurry to sweep up the embers into a pile again while the man continues his crazy dance.  He does this for a good 15 minutes, running or dancing through the embers.  It was quite impressive that he couldn’t  feel the heat.  At the end of the performance, he knelt down at the end of the room and people gave him money and offerings.   I was feeling sick, so I went home to sleep it off.

The next day I was off to Lovina.  It was supposed to be a place to watch dolphins and dive.  I didn’t want to really do any of those things, I just wanted to hang out in a real relaxed place.  But I met a few nice people while doing that.  This was lucky because it rained quite a bit.  

When I first got there the bus dropped me off near all the fancy hotels.  Lisa and I, another girl my age, started looking at the hotels at the same time.  I’m sure the bus drivers get some kind of commission if people book at those hotels, but I wasn’t biting.  I lugged my bags to the main street and waved down an o-jek for hotel shopping.  He took me around to a few overprices places and then he made a mistake by bringing me to a hotel right next to Harri’s homestay.  This was recommended in lonely planet as super cheap and really nice.  So I went next door and enquired about rooms.  They had one, so I booked in.  The o-jek driver was less than pleased, but I ended up renting his scooter from him the next day.  So it was fine.

Betty was the owner of Harri’s, a German lady in her mid 40s.  She was a real sweetheart, made sure everything was perfect for me.  Later that day while wandering around I met Lisa again and we had a few drink with a couple of Indonesian boys.  The next day I took the scooter for a ride up into the mountains to the hot springs.  The hot springs were pretty, but luke warm.  It’s not as exciting without other people to spend time with either.  So I didn’t spend much time there.

Then after that it was all just riding around on scooter with no real direction.  That was kind of a bad idea.  I was looking for beaches but I couldn’t find any.  I must have headed in the wrong direction.  I did find some fun dead end streets though.  After my failed beach attempt I went back to my homestay and decided it was beach time.  I chatted with everyone and their mother.  I always try and be polite to the vendors, even though they are annoying.  I didn’t buy anything from the shops or the people walking around with jewelry but I did get a massage from one lady.   I knew I had drinks with Lisa later, so I only stayed on the beach for a little while.  Drinks were fun, Lisa brought along a friend and then repaired my  jeju glass necklaces.  Fricken awesome!!!  Those necklaces mean so much to me.

The next day it was time to head over to Kuta again.  After a three hour bus ride I was able to meet up with Jaspreet before he caught his flight out.  We went out for Chinese seafood!  It was delicious in a spicy red pepper sauce.  Then he wandered around and tried to help me find a hotel, in the end I went back to my original hotel.  I sunbathed drank a beer and just waited for the next day’s flight to Bandung and then to Kuala Lumpur.