Bali

After leaving China, I had turned south to head to Indonesia and Bali was my first stop. Of all the places I have been on my trip, this has probably got to be one of the least planned segments. I bought a Lonely Planet book on Bali and Lombok a few days before my flight left and I didn't even crack it open until my plane was in the air. I had a list of a few things that I wanted to see, but had not really planned it out yet. I wasn't even sure which town I was going to go to when I stepped off the plane. After thumbing through Lonely Planet, I decided that I should first embark to Kuta.

Kuta is like a mini-Australia. Plenty of surf and sun, and much cheaper than the Gold Coast in Oz. Cash strapped Aussies flock there just like Americans to Mexico and Brits to Spain. Kuta was the site of the Bali terrorist bombings in 2002 where hundreds of Australians were killed. The tourists have been slow to return and the economy (which is relies on tourism for 40% of its GDP) is still recovering slowly.

Don't got to Kuta if you want to experience a traditional Balinese atmosphere. This is a purely party atmosphere fueled by Westerners. Even though the Euro Cup games didn't start until midnight or 3 am, finding an open pub was not difficult. It seemed like half of Germany was in the pub for their defeat against Croatia. The Germans would live to die another day in the tournament though.

Kuta was my first exposure to the Indonesian harassment to buy things. Coming from China, my defenses were still up pretty high, but I was delighted to be able to lower it a notch or two. Unlike the Chinese, the Balinese are very friendly, speak English (at least in the tourist areas), and are much more polite. It's hard to walk down the street without someone trying to strike up a conversation with you, usually beginning with "Where you from?" It's much more pleasant, but I did find that people would try to sell me very random things. For example, why would I want to buy a toy bow and arrow set or a dragon carved out of wood while I am laying on the beach?

Kuta was good just to chill out a bit and try to reacquire my tan, which had gone missing since Japan. The bars are open aired and some of them show DVDs at night, which is a pretty good way to chill. One of the first things I noticed when I arrived is that I had to step over a lot of flowers. Although Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, Bali has somehow remained almost completely Hindu. Instead of Mosques, there are temples everywhere and Hindu customs supplement Muslim ones. One of the Hindu traditions is to create offerings for the gods every morning and lay them at temples or the entrances to buildings as blessings. The offerings are a little basket made from leaves with flowers, incense, and sometimes food laid inside. They are meant for the gods, but it seems to be the stray dogs which get the most benefit out of them.

I only stayed in Kuta for a few nights. I met some people who were headed out to the Gilli Islands, so I followed them the following day. Transportation in Indonesia is an adventure in itself. There isn't any public transportation, so I needed to secure my own from travel firms or from private individuals. Pretty much any form of land transport is called a bemo. This could mean a scooter or a bus. Travel could be in someone's car, an overloaded van, or a big air-conditioned bus. Since prices are rarely posted, I needed to ask around and gauge how much I needed to haggle. Traveling by myself put me at a disadvantage as nothing seems to push the price up more than asking for a single ticket. Fuel prices have been hit hard here as well. While I was in Bali, there was a demonstration in Jakarta by over a thousand people against rising gasoline prices. The ferry between Bali and Lombok takes about 4 hours after it has decided to leave the port. Before disembarking, a mass of merchants flood the boat to attempt to sell anything from fruit to sandals to sunglasses. When the boat is just about to leave, they all leave just as quickly as they came on board, eager to harass the next crowd.

After my Gilli Islands and Lombok adventures, I headed back to Bali so that I could do some more diving in Tulamben. Tulamben is home to the USS Liberty, a WWII supply ship which was sunk by the Japanese. It is about 20 meters off the coast and can easily be reached without a boat. If it wasn't for the ship, the town probably wouldn't exist. There are only a few places to stay and almost all of them are attached to a dive shop. I did two dives on the ship and got to see the biggest fish I have yet to encounter underwater. As I passed by one of the cavities of the ship, my guide pointed out a HUGE barracuda that was just suspended at an angle in the water. It must have been about 4 or 5 feet long! His eye was bigger than my fist and following my every move. I didn't get too close once I saw his teeth protruding from his mouth. My dive master later told me that I shouldn't worry about them, but I didn't know this at the time. After the dives, I would wade to shore and a woman would take my empty tank from me and place it on her head to walk back to the shop with perfect balance! How is that for service!

From Tulamben, I headed down to Ubud, which is the cultural capital of Bali. I ended up enjoying Ubud more than I thought I would and spent an extra day there. There is a big art scene there and there are tons of shops to buy paintings, carvings, clothes, and what not. One of the kings of Bali still lives in his palace, which is at the center of the town. He had just died (3 months ago) and the locals were preparing for his cremation ceremony the following week. Unfortunately I would not be there to witness it.

One of the things that Ubud is famous for is their cultural dances. Every night, at a multitude of locations, dance troupes put on a series of traditional dances to highlight the Balinese culture. The first one I went to was a bit of a "greatest hits" of sorts of all the different dances and story lines woven into one performance. It was in front of the King's Palace. It consisted of mostly girls dressed in elaborate costumes and head dresses. They danced in slow graceful movements which made them appear to glide from one end to the other. The movements seemed to focus on how they moved their hands and their eyes. It was kind of like a Bollywood movie in slow motion. There was an orchestra of sorts assembled on each side of the performance area. It consisted mostly of drums and xylophones. I really liked the Balinese music that I heard in all the shops and restaurants and even bought a CD of it. I found it very relaxing. During the dance a few men appeared as well. Most of them were wearing elaborate painted masks. The climax of the show seemed to be when 2 guys dressed as a lion came out. I'm not really sure what this dance was about, but it was good entertainment.

The other dance that I witnessed was the fire walk dance. This was pretty much a mens only event. There must have been about 100 men who filed out of a temple and formed a circle on the ground. All the while they were chanting and waving their bodies around in a way that almost made it look like waves in the ocean. Some more masked guys came out and danced in the center around a tower of candles, but the main event was at the end when one of the men straddled a wooden horse and appeared to prance around in a trance. A pile of dried coconut shells was set ablaze and he proceeded to kick them about with his bare feet and then walk on the hot charcoal. The others would keep chanting and rake the charcoal back into a pile. The entranced guy would repeat the exercise until there was hardly any coconut left to burn. I didn't like it as much as the first dance, but the chanting was pretty cool. I bet Pharell could use it to lay down a good R&B track for someone.

At the southern end of town is the Monkey Forest. This is a small park which, funny enough, is full of monkeys. You can buy a bag of bananas at the entrance and feed them, which I did of course. I found that the monkeys at the entrance were a bit tame and almost indifferent to the bananas. As I moved further into the forest though, they became a bit more aggressive and towards the center, they were not asking for bananas anymore, they were just snatching the bag from out of my hand. The small monkeys were kinda cute, but the bigger ones could be a bit more intimidating. I had one jump on my back and try to steal my water bottle while I was squatting down to take a picture. It was while I was in the Monkey Forest that I heard "Jason?" I looked up and it was Mark and Carly, the British couple I had road tripped with for a bit while in Australia more than 3 months ago! They had changed their itinerary to visit Bali for a few weeks and we just happened to bump into each other. Turns out that they were staying at a place next door to mine of all places! It really is a small world. I was glad to see them and we ended up spending the rest of our time together in Ubud.

We all went on a bicycle tour the following day which took us around the center of Bali. Our tour guide was really good, and about as happy a guy as you will ever meet. He helped explain every thing about Hindu culture in the region. We visited a local village and he showed us around the family compound. There are many different traditions that are practiced, which were new to me. At the age of 13, it is customary for boys to get their teeth filed down. Pointy teeth, such as incisors, are meant to symbolize evil. This is why the evil masks used in dances always have sharp pointy teeth. After the teeth are filed, the tooth line is straight and flat.

After a baby is born, its afterbirth is buried in front of the entrance to the house. Offerings are made at the spot for certain number of days. A girl's placenta gets buried to the left of the entrance, and a boy's to the right. Also, for a specified period of time (I think a few months), the baby's feet are not allowed to touch the ground. When the special day comes, there is a big party and a ceremony.

Perhaps the most unusual, to me anyway, custom was that of when someone dies. Hindu culture insists that people are cremated in order for the soul to be reincarnated. It is expensive and time consuming to hold a cremation ceremony, so the villages like to batch them up. When someone dies, they are buried in the ground with others from the village who may have recently passed away. After a while, maybe half a a year, they are dug up for the cremation ceremony. The exception to this rule is for priests who must be cremated immediately after death. After the bodies are dug up, they are placed in elaborate coffins made of bamboo, wood, and cloth. The coffins are built to represent a particular type of animal which corresponds to the caste of the person to be placed inside. The coffins are then set alight and another ceremony ensues. I think the Balinese have a different attitude to death. Our guide kind of chuckled as he relayed the tale of when his uncle's coffin was set alight, he actually witnesses his brain explode. Talk about a splitting headache!

Ubud was a nice town and bumping into Mark and Carly made it even better. It was great to have some friendly faces to go out with and enjoy dinner and a drink or two. My local favorite was Arak Attack, which is Arak (a local rice wine) and Sprite. One night in the pub, Mark and I met a rather eccentric guy who's job was designing clothes for dogs. He had a white poodle, Bianca, with him who was not just his muse but also a show dog. In a town of strays and mutts, it is pretty unusual to see a pure bred. It's even more unusual when you see one dressed in a gold gown that matches the owner's gold waistcoat. You meet the most interesting people while traveling.

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