Bagus in Bali

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After our very memorable trip up to Mount Bromo as the conclusion of our visit to Java, it was time to leave this first island and move to the in this great nation of Islands. The trip was another pretty long one but at least this time we were on a comfortable bus with legroom and the voyage was broken up by a trip on the ferry between the islands.

Originally our plan was to bypass the tourist hell of Kuta, in south Bali but since we wanted to book a ticket to Flores from here and had to go to the airport to do so, we decided to spend one night there. Things turned out a bit different and anyway, Kuta turned out not to be all that bad, well not for a day or two anyway. The first night however, we really did think we’d arrived in hell. We got there very late which meant all the accommodation was full and we had to lug our backpacks around the place for an hour before checking into some overpriced shithole. Meanwhile we were subjected to loud music blaring out of the speakers of discos lining the main street. However, the next morning in daylight it all became a bit nicer. We found a nice, quiet guesthouse and a third of the price and explored the small ‘gangs’. Because there are so many tourists, the streets are lined with stalls selling everything from t-shirts to sarongs to (most importantly) dvds for $1 each. It’s a big backpacker destination so the prices are very reasonable, both for food and accommodation and after the small portions of food that are the norm on Java, here we struggled to finish our plates.

We felt quite tired and travel weary after the last few days so decided to change our plans a little bit to give us some more time to relax and explore at a more leisurely pace. This also meant we wouldn’t have to go to the airport anymore, but we stayed in Kuta for two more nights; just walking around, sitting on the beach, eating and drinking and doing some shopping. We met some nice backpackers, found good local warungs tucked away behind a construction site and generally rested and relaxed.

After this we took the bus up to Ubud, which is something of the cultural centre of Bali, to use that as a base to explore more of the island. The change was immediate and extreme. Ubud is much more quiet, set in the hills amidst rice fields and dotted with temples. The difference between Java and Bali is big anyway. Java is loud, crowded and dirty and offers little in the form of nice architecture. The population is almost exclusively muslim and because they don’t have much money, the mosques aren’t very impressive buildings. Bali on the other hand is almost entirely Hindu and for every five houses there is a temple. Most bigger houses and guesthouses have their own shrine or temple, often taken up more than half of the site. People don’t seem to work much, instead they spend their days with rituals and ceremonies. It’s a very nice contrast and makes for a much more pleasant holiday environment. No more blaring imam at 4.30 but instead the soft tones of traditional music throughout the day. People laughing and dancing as they perform ceremonies and, also not unimportant, pig on the menu!

There is a specialty in Ubud, Babi Guleng, which is a whole roast suckling pig and there is a famous warung in the centre of town that sells this dish. It’s very busy there around lunchtime and although we didn’t actually have to queue up, we had the last seats in the house. For 25.000 rupiah (US$2,5) you get a big plate of rice with different parts of the roast pig, some vegetables cooked in a special way in coconut milk, Indonesian blood sausage and deep fried spleen. It was very, very nice and if you’re in Ubud, don’t miss out on this! The place is called Warung Ibu Oka and it’s located just near the markets next to the temple.

We rented a little 90cc scooter (at $5 a day and with fuel at $0.30 a liter!) which finally allowed us some freedom of movement without the restrictions and stress of local or organized transportation. On our first day in Ubud there was a cremation ceremony not too far away so we went there, not sure if it would be something they put on for the tourists or ‘the real thing’. It turned out to be the latter and along with another family we were the only tourists among some two hundred locals who had turned up for this. Our timing was good as we didn’t have to wait long for the cremation to begin. A big band was playing music while the two bodies were placed inside ‘ships’ which were set on top of wood piles and subsequently lit. To assist the burning -and probably to limit the smell- the fire was eventually fuelled by big gas burners. For those with too much western sensitivity: the pictures are fairly graphic.

Two more days were spent zooming around central Bali on the scooter and it was absolutely fantastic. The feeling of freedom, wind in your face and the ability to stop wherever and whenever you want to explore or take pictures was nice. The traffic would perhaps be a little stressful to some but I found it very relaxing. Traffic here is much more organic, more fluid. People don’t adhere to silly arbitrary traffic rules but instead find their way from A to B however they can. It seems chaotic but it’s a calculated chaos with its own set of rules, sprouting from the logic that everyone wants to arrive alive and as quickly as possible. People communicate, using their horn to indicate they are overtaking, or using indicators to show when there is oncoming traffic. It’s a do-or-die way of driving with quick decisions and small margins, but at the same time no one is trying to kill each other. If you try to overtake where it’s impossible, the car you’re trying to overtake will simple brake and make room. No anger or frustration; at most good humored disapproval. On Java it was a bit more crazy and aggressive but even having driving through rush hour in Denpasar on a scooter between perhaps a hundred other scooters and countless cars with questionable traffic lights I have to say it makes sense and is in many ways less dangerous than the way people drive in Europe.

Anyway, we saw a lot of temples, monkey forests, shrines, handicraft, had a lot of good food, went off the beaten tourist track, drove across the island to the east-coast tourist area of Amed, through a beautiful mountain pass with steep rice paddies and epic views and finally returned to Ubud to take care of some necessities such as laundry before heading over to Lombok. Unfortunately, Janine’s back was playing up so we made a detour back to Kuta to see the American chiropractor there, and back again the next morning. Pretty interesting, twice through the rush-hour of Kuta/Denpasar and both times there and back in about half the time it would’ve taken us on a shuttle bus. Two-wheeled transportation rocks!

In the afternoon we caught the bus with Perama (the main transportation company on Bali and Lombok) to Padangbai; the gateway to Lombok. It’s a nice little town nestled in a bay with all the guesthouses and restaurants strung along the beach. There’s a few options for transportation to Lombok (or in our case, the Gili Islands) from here. For the ones on a proper European travel budget there’s a speedboat straight to the islands which takes just over an hour and costs US$50. Then there’s the Perama boat which goes straight there in four hours and costs US$30 or, the third option, you can take the local ferry, transfer to a shuttle bus to Bangsal and then take another local ferry to the Gili’s. This option takes about a full day but costs only US$12,50. If you did it by yourself you could possibly do the same thing for a few bucks less but honestly it wouldn’t be worth the hassle. This stretch of transportation is notorious for overcharging and rip-offs and if you’ve never been to any of the places before it would be difficult to know fair prices and options. We therefore decided to go with door number three which turned out to be quite a nice trip. Four hours on the public ferry, followed by a fairly painless transfer to Bangsal via Mataram, the capital of Lombok. In Bangsal we had time to grab some food before taking a longboat to Gili Air, our next destination. This last leg was especially cool because there is no dock in Bangsal, so you wade through the water with all your stuff, get stuffed into a longboat with twenty other people and their belongings and then cross the short distance to the islands in about half an hour before wading through the water again.

I’ll keep my story of the Gili’s for the next blog, to follow soon. At the moment we’re already back on Lombok, in Sengigi and will board a boat to Flores via the magnificent Komodo National Park tomorrow.

For now, enjoy the pictures and we’ll catch up again soon!

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