Bali -- The Goodbye Interlude

I must admit that while I enjoyed parts of Bali, (its funny memories most of which I haven't even begun to type out here) but I surprisingly did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Here is a place I have heard about for many years, from friends, from books, even now from popular movies! (we all remember Eat, Pray, Love?).... Bali is apparantly a wonderful and magical place where people fall in love; either with one another or with the land, the people... the Gods even.




However this spirit I have heard about did not touch me in the way that it has with other people. While I loved the culture I did not think very well of the cuisine.





"Thailand: 1 Bali: 0 " As Oliver put it on day 3. I slapped him and said to give it time and we'll find better dishes along our travels... but over all Balinese food (ok- Babi Guling* aside), you just didn't rock my world. Food from Sumatra and other parts of Indonesia is another story. I love you Sumatran jackfruit curry!!!!


One of our best, most memorable meals in Bali was actually one of the "BEST" steaks we've ever had.... and boy I mean EVER!!! The sad part was... there was nothing about it.

We encountered some divers on Menjangan who told us to go to KUTA for a night and head to this place called "Rumors" if you would like to "try the best steak you'll ever had." They had been in Bali for 14 days total and had eaten there 5 times.

We were warned to stay away from Kuta, the seedy beach side town full of drunken Aussies and loud nightlife... but Oliver wanted to surf, and I wanted to try this legendary steak so we went! ...and you know what? It was awesome!

Ubud was great for culture, and Bali was nice for beaches, but I didn't feel that I connected with the place partly because I couldn't relax there since every time one walks down the street in Bali he/she is bombarded by people asking you "tranport? transport?" or offering you shirts, tours, massage, or a whole number of things quite aggressively (at least more than what I'm use to.)It doesn't help that when you walk away quickly you must take care not to step on the mass amounts of sidewalk offereings to the Gods, thus creating an obstacle course of sorts.

Now from what I hear a walk in Bali makes a walk in India look like a fucking cake walk (hecklers galor in India) but coming from Thailand, where I am in the lap of luxury with heckler-free zones I found it very difficult to not be on guard of having to force "no"s upon people. This also made me create a self-built wall around myself from connecting with people since the moment someone greeted me with a smile I already felt like they would sell me some if I lingered for too long.

...sigh...

All that said... I'm glad I went. My first days in Bali I will never forget, riding my bike beachside in Sanur taking in the temples, offerings, beaches, and smiles. Sadly though, you have not touched in in that magic place Bali, and it saddens me since you are the Second place** that I have ever travelled where I have not fallen in love. That's ok though... you can't win them all...

Even as I write this I am thinking of even more fond memories we had... like getting to watch a midnight cremation ceremony on the beach in Lovina, making friends and meeting Nung-Ah the owner of Gandra house (he and his smile WAS one of the main highlights of our time there). Our day trip to the Bali Bird park was awesome!...





....and Tanah Lot Temple... and ofcourse, diving that amazing shipwreck at Tulamben. We won't forget that.




(* delicious suckling pig grill on a spit with Balinese spices best eaten with you right hand and a side of rice!)

(**The first place where I have not fallen in love with the land, people place was Cambodia. Cambodia can be a difficult pill to swallow. It is a hard country, full of struggle sadness and all too recent echos of countrymen killing countrymen. Let it be known that it's not that I didn't like Cambodia. -I would return to Cambodia before Bali.- but Cambodia isn't a country to love, it is a country to feel. If no one told you what to feel you would feel her. She is viceral, She is sprase, deserted and a pre-carpet bombed landscape that can leave you breathless... while the hard faces of it's children can leave you shaken and stirred. In short, Cambodia is anything but soft.... it is real, very real though.

...But that's a story for another time.)


As the plane took off we reflected, and Oliver and I found that we were quite relieved to get back to Thailand.

The Return Home... where ever home is...

And so off we sped over climbing mountain crater rims on our little pink motorbike back from Lovina in the north heading south down to Ubud going back on a different route from the way we came.




The weather changed from tropical humidity to cloud forests to just plain cold.... and I mean freezing!




We stopped at a hillside town to fill up a liter of petrol (Benzin) from a used water bottle into our tank and put several layers of clothes on. Brrrr!!!!!





The ride was a truly breathtaking journey that lasted about 4.5 hours. When we finally reached the highest town, Kintamani, we stopped at the towns major intersection to gave up at the oldest Pura on the island. I guess we had stopped a moment too long since a little women ran out to us frantically holding a big plate of offerings and incense telling us she needed to bless our motorbike.

IN one feel swoop (before we really had the chance to say yes or no) she threw holy water on us, chanting while walking a circle around the bike. next she took a square banana leaf plate of flower offerings, folded it in half, then shoved it into the space between the bike and the licence plate. She then lit some incense and stuck it straight through the top of the folded mound of offering. She then stuck flowers in our ears and pushed grain of holy rice onto our foreheads.



She looked like a professional. We were thoroughly blessed.





After some picture taking with the women we asked if there was any hot Soto Ayam (delicious Balinese chicken soup w/ ginger and spices) shops near by, since we were wet and freezing from driving through clouds in the past hour. She made some more frantic gestures, told us to park our bikes and follow her. She then proceeded to run into the building of a small shop across the street, shout a few things in Bahasa, and motioned for us to sit outside.



She then began cooking Soto Ayam for us in the small shop/house/building place while the people who actually lived there worked around her hastily. Soto Ayam appeared in less than 2 mins with sweet hot tea and as we ate we laughed about this whole event, all the while flowers and rice falling off of us as the clouds continued to roll by on the street. All the ladies involved in the operation were very sweet and let us snap a picture before we sped off again, this time warmer!





About 30 mins past Kintamani we rounded a corner and the distant half blown shape of Mt. Batur surfaced from the left to greet us. The view was stunning, (and really cannot be captured in this measily little photo here.)





Shortly after the mountain view we began to decend in altitude and the weather became warmer once again. Thank God! The drive past Mt. Batur was the coldest place in Bali we had experienced so far. I think temp. plus wind chill factor had us driving through 45 degree weather --- we were prepared only for 85 degree weather.





Upon decending we stopped to take off our layers and found ourselves along a hillside town of rice paddies and spontaneously decided to go off the major bi-way in search of a stroll through some lovely fields... and boy did we find a nice walk!




We hit Ubud by about 4:30pm surprised our friends at Gandra house and a surprised Nung-Ah returned our lovely pink motorbike back to where it came from.

Lovina: Hot Springs, Cold Beaches and Everything in Between

The original plan was to head directly to the small town of Permuteran ...a place really only known for being where you take the boat to Menjangan Island -aka- a snorkelling and diving haven for the most part all year round.







However the moment we stopped to rest in Lovina a friendly Balinese man approached us telling us he could make a us better deal on our dive trip to Menjangan than any place in Permuteran could AND he'd even throw in free accomidation. Skeptical I let Olli deal with that situation while I proceeded to borrow the nice man's cell phone and call the dive shop in Permuteran. Sure enough the dive shop wanted around near $80 for 2 dive per person while the man in Lovina offered us a room and 2 dives with meals and transport for ~$55 ...how does this country work?

...and so we tired travellers and our pink motorbike were coaxed into staying in Lovina, the place of the black sandy wind-swept nothern beaches.




Luckily for us it was the lowest point in tourist season there and there were only about 30 foreigners in the whole place. Ultimately the town gave an extra lazy/sleepy vibe.

Unluckily for us it was the lowest point in tourist season because the sea was ultra rough and unforgiving while the cloudy skies poured down heavy rain at least once a day allowing the humidity to rise and eat us alive.





Seas being rough or not Oliver wanted to swim, and nothing was going to get in his way... not even 3 meter waves. As I watched from the black sand shore in a mild panic while beached coconuts periodically punched me in the ankles (thrown ashore by the nasty incoming waves) I watched Oliver get thrown around the washing machine of the surf, finally exiting the waves with exhaustion and a butt full of seaweed.



I asked him if he'd has enough of being tossed around. He confirmed that it was rough waters out there, but maybe he'd try again tomorrow if he could find a make-shift body board... oh boy here we go...my reckless German is at it again! :P




Rain and wind aside our first day of diving was awsome! travelling to the NW coast of Bali is like coming out of a rain cloud. while the rest of Bali is raining it is sunny to Partly cloudy with decent to good visibility.


The original plan was to head directly to the small town of Permuteran ...a place really only known for being where you take the boat to Menjangan Island -aka- a snorkelling and diving haven for the most part all year round.

On our diving trip we made some friends, saw eagle rays, a sea turtle, digging trigger fish, and a variety of fish and coral life all of which I cannot name at the moment since there was just too many...






We decided to spring on the nicest "resort" in town (a whole $40 a night!) and stayed at the Sea Breeze Cafe and Bungalow wow! The place was nearly deserted that we felt like we had our very own private poolside bungalow and beach bar!




So remember that body boarding crack Oliver made which i told you about?




...Well turns out one night on a shopping run at the local night market Oliver managed to buy a crudely made, large, plastic water/gas/liquids container and a length of rope which he then tied to his leg and ran out into the surf again in a half pitiful attempt to body board.




half way throught he hilarious session (so said the faces of the Balinese hotel staff) oliver has somehow mange to rip the skin off his knuckles again!!! (we all remember the glacier sliding incident on Mt. Rainer from last year?)





Oliver definitely took advantage of the pool that next afternoon (by the he had found a delapidated green slime covered surf board which he then attempted to use for morning wave playing only to get more cut up with) and proceeded to nurse his wounds with a large application of beer in the pool outside our bungalow.





Apart from diving, swimming and generally relaxing in Lovina the only other things we managed to do was take our motor bike our to the Air Panjar hot springs (about 8 km west of Lovina) where we spent an afternoon in the jade waters of the local natural public baths taking funny pictures and dunking eachother under water.






Oliver even spent some time entertaining the public while walking upside down.






The hot springs were surprisingly delightful since the weather was cloudy. As I relaxed in the water I reflected on all the nomadic homelessness we were in.






When I first left Seattle I was a little scared, but this small fear only dawned on me once I was tasting my first couple days in Germany. a shock of, "wow, Mel, you're really leaving everything behind now... " I never have felt like I was doing the wrong thing or anything silly like that, but I guess my mind at that moment felt like I should be realizing something, and that the permenance of this ultimate move overseas was nothing like travelling, but instead a commitment to reassimilating somewhere.

...I only trembled a little though....


..because I think my genes for being scared of the unknown abroad is broken. Maybe this is a blessing and maybe this is a curse, but whatever it is it allows me to jump into crazy adventures like "Germany until TBA" with excitement, even with small shivers of fears.... and I guess, yes... I love Oliver.

Wind-up Melli

If Oliver could make a wind-up Doll of me called "Southeast Asia Travel Mel" the three main things it would say are:

-I'm Hungry!

-My Tummy Hurts...

-OOooo! Jackfruits!

The Adventures of Little Pink Motorbike!

So we left Ubud... quickly one morning... on our little pink motorbike adventure~!




Our motorcycle ride took us up through windy roads of mountain towns and through parade processions. (As I may have mentioned before the Balinese have a festival for rice, tooth filings, deaths, birthdays, building roads, blessing cows, temple birthdays, etc etc... the long list goes on. ) We had the blessing and the curse of being stuck in a parade procession (the curse since it slowed us down, the blessings because it was not only interesting to watch, but goodluck since it also slowed all the cops down who would be interested in bribing us if they stopped us to check our licenses, or lack there of...oops)



Bali has several pre-blow volcanoes on it with deep calderas which have several lakes.We took the route north around Lake Tamblingan and as we drove around the rim of the caldera we stopped at a ridge-side cafe to have a coffee with pineapple pancakes and to give our butts a break. While there we encountered a couple of guys with bats, lizards and a baby owl trying to get us to take pictures with them.


I gave in.



So these are not small bats... they are more like Dog Bats! The have long snouts and very VERY visible genitals! The funny part is watching them pee, where they they turn right side up hang from the branch pee at full force and after they finish they shake there little butts to get any excess pee off so it doens't drip on them when they hang back upside down. Hilarious. ok... maybe I'm amused by simple things...



After coffee and bat pictures we got back on the bike for the long stretch through the mountain and down to the NOrth coast.



After 4.5 hours of travel we hit Lovina, a sleepy beach side resort town. OUr goal for the the day was to continue onto Permuteran-an even smaller little beachside town, but closer to the Marine park on Menjangan Island where we were heading to for 2 days of diving however our butts hurt too much so after a little bit of price comparison, haggling and chatting with the friend of a local hotel owner who convinced us diving and rooms would be cheaper in Lovina.... we stayed. Nothing beats $10 rooms over looking rice paddies!~

A 7 min. summary...

...it's 7mins to 10:30 pm and the Ubud juice bar is about to close, but I feel that it's been way too long since I've written something, so this random summary will have to do... pictures later people... sorry.

So we got to Ubud and spent 3 days immersing ourselves in traditional dance, puppet theater, and other theatrical performances every night and spent a day with a rented car and driver taking us around to silver smithing factories, wood carving, the Bali Bird park and the famous temple by the sea, Tanah Lot. These were all fun (ok the Bird park was the best part! ...and I could of done without the industry tours really) but by the end of it when we were about to rent another car and driver to take us across the island to the far northwest part of the island (for killer diving) we decided to change plans the day before and spontaneously ditch half of our things in Ubud, take 1 backpack and 2 people and have some freedom from drivers and tours for once. Skeptical and scared at first I shortly realize... this was the best decision we could of made during the whole trip!


Oliver and I really don't like organized tours...actually we kinda despise them. So the most exciting and liberating thing and REAL thing was for us to take our own transport to see the real Bali through windy roads of mountain towns with cloud forests hugging volcano craters and sacred lonely temples perches on top of peaks and every turn....

...shit. 7mins are up. sigh.. Oliver hates it when I come to the internet places since I take forever typing in my blog or writing to people.. I keep telling him it's not my fault my inbox has 40 emails and his doesn't have as many. He knew he married an extrovet....damnit.


Gado-Gado Kisses!

-Mellington

Ps: will re-edit this blog with pictures asap.

Diving At The Crossroads of the Gods...

I had heard from friends and other travelers that Bali is a place steeped in culture and a unique place among Indonesia (while the rest of Indonesia is Muslim Bali has remained a stronghold of Hinduism ever since the trade winds brought it here.) I think that when one comes to Bali its kind of like coming to a convention, or holiday retreat for Gods. Everywhere there are spirit houses and shrines and temples, pronounced “Pura” in Bahasa Indonesia, the language of this country of islands.







Now I am use to having spirit houses since most private residences and business have spirit houses since you must give daily offerings of food, incense and flowers to appease the spirits of land and house… however here, the Balinese make our daily offerings look like a cake walk of minimal ritual. 4-5 times daily I see Balinese locals walking around with giant baskets of offerings balanced on their heads as they make there way around the property, the street and sometimes even the block giving offering in front of the house on the ground, to the spirit house inside the yard, the spirit house outside the yard, the local statute of Ganesh down the street, as well as any neighboring statues or guardian statues that guard the house. The offerings look pretty handmade- a large banana leaf shaped into a square shallow bowl (about 5inx 5 in.x 5in.) filled with flowers, rice, sometimes deserts sometimes even cigarettes!-all topped off with a sprinkle of holy water. By the evening it is hard not to step on these little square banana bowls since they are in front of ever establishment on the street…however by morning they have all magically disappeared by 7am and fresh ones are put out.

To give you a visual of this amount I took a “before” and “after” picture of one of the shrines:

“Before” ---notice this lovely stone alter with minimal offerings at 8am.






“After” ----this is around 9pm at night, the shine is now packed in offerings above and below. Here is Gods get a lot of attention!





It makes me wonder that if this is the retirement resort where all the Gods have flocked to when others stopped believing in them, since here there are gods for everything and everyone to pray to. There are Gods for rice, Gods for birth, Gods for wind, Gods for tooth-filings, even Gods for relieving bad music! (I should know, I prayed to him one night to stop this really awful techno at a beachside bamboo bar, and lo and behold! It worked… wow...and…damnit! I guess I need to make some offerings at our next Pura stop.) Along with all these Gods there are also festivals for all of the following just about everyday I am told, and it’s very common for people to be parading down the street and dancing and singing daily. Oliver (with his efficient German mind) sometimes wonders how anyone on the island really gets anything done since… well efficiency is NOT the word either of us would use to describe how anything is done around here. However I would use the word “Happy” to describe the people here… oh…and the word “Hasselers”…. Since everywhere you turn it seems there is someone trying to aggressively sell you something. One time I aggressively gave into getting a beach massage and while she was massaging me she was trying to sell me stuff from her shop… blah… not cool. Sometimes this gets rather annoying to say the least, and you get far less Hasselers in Thailand, which surprises me to say that.

Of course our opinions could be eschewed since we have only been here for 4 days now and in the beachside surf town of Sanur --aka Dutch tourist/expat central. We have yet to truly experience the culture of Bali full-force and are hoping to do so at our next destination in Ubud. For the past 5 days I have spent my time riding my bike around town and up and down this lovely beach-front side walk that goes the entire length of Sanur, taking random photos of the coast as I go. Olli has been spending the past 4 days getting his PADI scuba diving cert. and that is the main reason why we are camped here in expensive-land. There not much to do here, but lie on the beach, read, spend money on overpriced meals and drinks, and go scuba diving or windsurfing. Oh, I did my first windsurfing lesson 2 days ago! It was rather fun! I enjoyed it and would probably consider doing it again…so Olli is going to try and locate his beginner windsurfing gear when we get back to Germany… yay!

Here's a picture of some random cock-fighting we saw on the beach, it was pretty awesome and also pretty brutal. FACT: before gambling, cock-fighting was actually a ritualistic tradition here only performed in temples during festival holidays.




Yesterday we woke up early and drove 3 hours to the north part of the island for 2 fun dives at Tulamben… it was a beach dive to the Shipwreck, USSA Liberty- a cargo ship during WW2 which was sunk offshore by a Japanese sub.



The ship made it to land and was unloaded where it sat on the beach near Tulamben for over a decade until an earthquake ~1967 rocked it back into the ocean a convenient 50 meters from the shore. Yay~! Even for rainy season it was a lovely dive, and the perfect beginners dive since the wreck ranged from 6 meters-28meters deep and you were able to swim through the hulled. Apart from the basic impression of a ship the massive object was a playground of sea life, teeming with hundreds of colorful fish, bright coral, and poisonous organisms. We swam up to sandy beds of sea kelp which were actually a field of sea snakes disguised as kelp who would slither calming and retract into their sand holes as we drew near. Swimming through the inside of the boat was like being inside a beautiful opera hall with intricate chandeliers suspended from the ceiling, while the rotted out hull created pillars of coral which spiral upwards with fish of all sizes-singular and in schools- swimming past us in their underwater highways. It was simply spectacular and we are thinking of heading there again.

Alright, it’s time to check out of the guesthouse and head to the beach one last time. Then onward to Ubud!

New Years Offerings --aka--lowering the excercise 2010 deficit

After getting dropped off in Chiang Mai central we immediately booked a trip for a day hike jungle trek on the 30th then got picked up by my friend Marisa and Paul.



Marisa is a British-born Thai-Chinese-German 3rd culture kid who upon first glance you think is a gorgeous 100% Asian, and then you notice her stunning green eyes and obvious English accent. We met in AUA Thai language school in BKK about 3 years ago and have kept in touch since. Paul, her partner in love, and in business, is from Singapore and is a trained raw food chef and together they are about to open a café in 2 months—not of the raw food kind, but of the veggie friendly.


During our 3 day stay in Chaing Mai we didn’t really do many touristy things in town. (I mean, maybe it’s just my jaded sense of humor, but the things most do in Thailand are eating, shopping, and getting massaged.—God I love my country!)


Day 1—after a stunning lunch of traditional Northern Thai cuisine with Marisa I took Olli to Doi Sutep, the stunning temple on Sutep mountain. Olli tells me he needs to see at least 3 temples before he leaves Asia… I tell him you can see three temple by just walking through Chiang Mai for 3 hours!



The weather was lovely as we wandered around the temple complex while people lit candles and burned incense as giant glints of gold reflected sun danced around the giant chedi.



Whenever a slight breeze would come you might hear a subtle wind chime of a prayer bell, calling out from the underside of the intricate roof where thousands hung. After this we went back home to Marisa’s for a relaxed evening of XBOX playing and beer drinking. Beforehand though we made sure to buy some lotuses and incense and do some merit-making offerings for the New Year. (hey Mom this merit making picture is for you!!!)





Day 2--- jungle trekking; 8am-5pm.






Basically the pictures speak for themselves. Lots of jungle.



Lots of pretty rural hill tribe villages, lots of farming.





Our guides were nice, and Olli even was able to learn more Thai while we were on this hike. He’s finally picking up on some of it. He knows about 5 words now-- I’m impressed.





Along the way home we also stopped by the Doi Chang Dao caves and saw some very old Buddha statue. The cave was a little over 600 meters deep…really cool cave temple. I will try and insert more of these pictures here at a later time.


Day 3--- New Years Eve Bike ride!





Okay, so even though the length of this bike ride was unexpected (and complained about it a lot on that day, I embarrassingly admit since I must have been a bit of a pain) this was by far the best way to spend the last day of 2010 –aka- clearing my lack-o-exercise 2010 deficit.

We got a late and lazy start to the day and the 4 of us all took a long bike ride around the hillsides of SW Chiang Mai totaling at about 50km at the end of it all. It was a super awesome day of a bike ride, not too hot (ok, well going up steep mountain dirt roads kinda sucked). After riding through long stretches of winding mountain roads we began to head back to the city and stopped at a shack along the highway that was grilling meats… well ok not really meat… just chicken butts mostly. Yes, you head me! Delicious skewered fatty chicken butts! Yum! My favorite! Olli was a bit disgusted. Apart from me and the chicken butts we all ordered sticky rice and hot cucumber and papaya salad. We laughed and ate and I complained about my legs starting to hurt, (but after a beer my morale was up) and I poked fun at Olli saying that we had popped his cherry for unsafe street food.




After a very long final stretch of the bike ride (with a detour to the train station to buy tickets) we headed home to get ready for the evening. Marisa and Paul had invited us to a friends house for dinner, drinks and a low key NYE.

On our jungle trekking day Olli and I found a street side vendor selling those fire balloons and fire works AND fire works that you attach to the bottom of the fire balloons which you light *at the very last min* when the balloon has generated enough hot air to lift off, then you have a rocket balloon with sparklers, firecrackers and eye hazards shooting off everywhere. Everyone loved them, but the hostess was a bit concerned since we were accidentally lighting her front yard on fire… oops… I wish we got pictures of this but there was simply too much chaos that we forgot to capture it. Just imagine 12 people with 7 fire balloons (3 of which had fireworks) in a small garden with power lines overhead all trying to light them at once…. Yeah… a little chaotic.

After Olli prematurely lit Paul’s fireworks and scared the lot of us the smoke settled and we all looked and eachother, laughed and shouted “HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!” and gave hugs and kisses while we watched the Chiang Mai sky filled with hundred of fire balloons…..

Here is a youtube video of these amazing fire balloons in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhMIkoGkWzQ