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Published: March 5th 2009
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Start of the Bike Tour in Ubud
Amazing views of the volcano and crater lake. Last night in Bali. Apparently the tropical heat (not really all that hot actually, mid 80's for the high) and humidity (much like Houston) conspire to make me lazier and lazier.
At the Denpasar airport, expect to stand in line for at least 45 minutes for visa on arrival, and this is low season too. Getting around to my first stop, Ubud, was extremely easy. "Hello? Taxi?" you hear this every 2 steps, from people soliciting busy to drive you to here and there. Overall, just negotiate and if the price sounds reasonable for you, just hop on and a short drive later (Bali is a small island afterall), you'll be there. Being used to taxi fares in Salt Lake, almost anything they offer sounded reasonable.
Ubud is the cultural center of Bali, with hundreds of shops selling paintings, silver, cloths, carvings, and endless other things. I thought I was surely to blow my $100 per day budget here despite cheap hotel rooms. However, the sheer abundancy of things to buy actually worked exactly the opposite. Only 3 small purchases in the end.
The place I stayed was Nirvana Gallery and Pension, owned by a batik artist. His
family lives there also, so everyday, you are living with the locals. The other "locals" were my neighbors, a couple from California. There are many expats around Ubud, most of the ones I ran into are French. Staying in a family compound has a security advantage: I always just left all my valuables in the room, and since you turn in your keys before leaving, eventually I stopped bothering to lock the door. So far so good, nothing lost.
Ubud activities (since at bit removed in time now, just comes in list form now):
Day 1 - Through the Monkey Forest, which is filled with free-range monkeys (and free-range mosquitos) and little jungle areas with moss covered statues rather Indiana Jones like. Then taking a long long walk recommended in Lonely Planet around the more rural parts, getting a bit lost, and then of course semi-conned into a rice paddie walk and silver factory visit from a local.
Day 2 - Bike tour from Kintamani (mountain?) where there is a gorgeous view of Mount Batu (an active volcano) and its crater lake, 45 km back to Ubud. Given it's low season, I was the only person on the
tour, so just me and my guide, wandering through multitudes of villages, orange groves, rice paddies, arriving just 3 minutes before the hardest down pour started.
Day 3 - Batik painting at Nirvana, with Nyoman and his apprentices. Apparently the apprentices study of 11 years before opening shop - makes residency sound not so long afterall. Nap. (which was actually in everyday's itinerary), then a Kecak and trance dance show at a near by temple. The architecture of Balinese houses around Ubud is quite amazing, even just the normal living quarters. The dance was actually very entertaining, with literally a 100-men chorus chanting in a circle and elaborately dressed dancers acting out the same religious story in every dance. The rich Balinese culture, prior to tourism, is all intended as religious offerings, and I heard at between 20-30% of the Balinese income is spend on offerings and cereomonies.
Day 4 - Visiting a healer - at the suggestion of the Californian couple (the woman has migraines and fibromyalgia, and I thought I had escaped from this stuff being half way around the world from our clinic...). Never been to a traditional healer of any kind before. After witnessing
his diagnosis and treatment of a crowd of giggling Japanese girls, a local headache patient, my neighbors, and myself, I am thoroughly unconvinced of any supernatural efficacy. Happy to know that somatization and placebo effect are not just Utah phenomena. At least a local meal of roasted suckling pig followed!
Next day, I left for Sanur, which is a rather sleepy village (but still very catered to tourists with "Hello? Taxi?" at every step). Hopped over to Nusa Lembongan for a beach holiday. I stayed at Shipwrecks Villa, which is beautifully built with an indoor-outdoor bathroom. An Australian couple owned the place and there was another Australian couple staying at the same time. We pretty much played and ate together the four days I was there. Very nice people. Snorkeling, lounging by Dream Beach (the nicest little cove on the island) were great, until I finally got caught something. Fever, chills, stomach ache, which put me down for a day completely and now with a second recovery day, but on the upswing at least. Can't even guess what exactly got me, except I knew I was not OCD enough about avoiding uncooked veggies and drinks with ice. The constant
traveling probably got me a bit too, so I'll just be chilling for a couple of days...until Istanbul.
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