Advertisement
Published: June 29th 2013
Flower Decoration at Restaurant
Flower decoration at River View Terrace Restaurant, where we had lunch on Day 2.:
In this entry, I make reference to three people named Made (pronounced "ma-deh"). A quick discussion of Balinese naming conventions may be in order first. Balinese names usually begin with "I" (for males) or "Ni" (for females), followed by Wayan, Made, Nyoman or Ketut to signify birth order, and then followed by their given name(s). Our guesthouse owner, I Wayan Karja, for example, is a man and he is the firstborn in his family.
Prologue
I first visited Bali 20 years ago when it was mainly a backpacker destination and long before Elizabeth Gilbert hit that midlife crisis that led her to write
Eat Pray Love. I planned on staying only a day or two thinking it was a tourist trap. Arriving into Ubud late at night after a long bus ride from Java, I was scooped up by a charming lady who brought me to see a room in her family's compound along Jalan Karna in the heart of Ubud. At this point, I had been on the road for three weeks living in very basic accommodations. Staying with this multigenerational family in comparative luxury, I fell for Ubud's artistic, laid back
Ganesha Statue, Penestanan
My favorite quote from The Year of Living Dangerously is: "Spiritually, this place is still a colony. Not of Holland; of Hindustan". This pretty much sums up Java and Bali for me. vibe. I ended up staying ten days.
Like many other travelers who are familiar with pre-
Eat Pray Love Ubud, I have mixed feelings about the changes that have happened. During my
second visit to Ubud in 2011, it was disconcerting to see numerous yoga and meditation centers, a Starbucks, large tour buses with day trippers from the beach towns hellbent on souvenir shopping, Ary's Warung having gone very upmarket, newly-affordable motorcycles crowding the roads and contributing to the demise of the formerly ubiquitous bemo (minibuses used as public transport), and being able to conduct entire conversations in English with just about anyone without having to resort to Indonesian or Malay. The family compound on Jalan Karna that I stayed at in 1993 was no longer surrounded by rice paddies.
Seeing these changes, I decided to show Jeff the Bali I know and love before things change even more. This blog records our six days there.
Day 1: The Arrival
Landing at Denpasar airport around noon, we cleared immigration and customs and then went to the taxi counter to book the 1.5 hour ride to our accommodation,
Santra Putra in Penestanan, a village within the Ubud area about ten minutes walk to
Day 1: Walking Into Ubud
We walked along this road to get to Ubud every day. It was atmospheric and pretty but the pavement was very uneven. Carry a flashlight if you plan on walking here at night. the main drag. Santra Putra is a friendly guesthouse owned by Wayan Karja, a well-known artist who has exhibited around the world, and his wife Made. Getting to the guesthouse itself was a bit of an adventure as I only knew how to get to there from the Penestanan steps, but the driver did not know where those steps were. After a couple of wrong turns, we found the steps and made our way up. When we arrived at Santra Putra, Karja and Made welcomed us warmly. Made recognized me from my prior visit two years ago.
It started raining heavily soon after we arrived, so we chilled out from our arduous 32-hour journey. While napping, Neko, the resident guesthouse dog, joined us in our room. I put my foot down when he jumped on the bed, but he did sleep on the floor and hang out with us. He hung out with us throughout our stay.
After the rain, we walked into Ubud to acquire sarongs - a necessity for the sites we planned to visit. Walking down Jalan Raya Ubud, I was dismayed to see how crowded it was, and that the market - once a
Day 1: Penestanan
Village meeting hall, I think. vibrant venue frequented by locals - had been taken over by shops selling cheap tacky souvenirs, with penis-shaped bottle openers taking prominent position. Anyway, we bought our sarongs from a friendly lady, had an early dinner at Made's Warung near Santra Putra, and turned in early to sleep off the jet lag.
Dinner at Made's cost under $10 for the two of us. Made is friendly and personable, her food is tasty, her portions are generous and the menu is vegetarian friendly. The setup at Made's is cool too - instead of a traditional restaurant setting, the tables were scattered among several pavilions. We ended up having dinner there every night.
Day 2: Ayung River Gorge Hike and Jegog Dance
We woke up early and took a walk before breakfast. During our walk, we worked our way down a steep path to a small stream and crossed it using a rickety bamboo bridge. The steep path then led us up into the center of part of Penestanan village, from which we returned to Santra Putra for breakfast. Breakfast at Santra Putra consists of a fruit plate followed by your choice of one item such as fried rice, jaffle,
Day 2: Pre-Breakfast Walk, Penestanan
Jeff on a makeshift bridge, Penestanan Village. omelette, pancake, french toast, etc, all prepared by Ketut. They also offer black rice pudding, but you have to order that in advance. Ketut was impressed by my liking for Bali Kopi and that I drank it black.
After breakfast, we went on a hike to the Ayung River Gorge. Our route initially took us along roads through Penestanan village, on to Sayan village and then Kedewatan. At Kedewatan, we took some steps down to the river itself, and then crossed a swaying but sturdy bridge to Tegalkuning village. There, we wandered around a bit and approached what we thought was a temple. A nice man beckoned us in and we realized it was his home! Feeling a little uncomfortable, we thanked him and made our way out and back to the Ayung River.
Our one mile hike along the river gorge was very enjoyable. The trails were not well marked but we knew we were okay as long as we kept going south with the river on our right. The gorge itself was beautiful. We barely saw anyone else while we were hiking, save for several rafts of screaming tourists going down the Grade 1 rapid. We
Day 2: Ayung River Gorge Hike
Crossing bridge leading to Tegalkuning Village. both thought it was funny that these tourists were so excited by the silly little ripples in the river.
A bathing area with pretty orange umbrellas marked the end of the trail. There, we exited the river gorge up a set of stairs to Sayan village. I had developed a headache by then, so we stopped by a small provision store to buy painkillers. The proprietor did not speak English, and this was my only full conversation in Indonesian/Malay during my stay there - a sure sign that things had changed. We then made our way back up to the road near Sayan before making our way back to the guesthouse and then out to a late lunch at the River View Restaurant in Ubud. The food at this restaurant is reasonably priced and has nice views of the river. While at lunch, I saw dark clouds and so we went back to Santra Putra just in time to avoid a heavy downpour.
After the rainstorm, it was dinner at Made's again before our evening's entertainment - a Jegog (bamboo gamelan) and dance performance at the Pura Dalem temple. This was Jeff's first Balinese dance and he found
Day 2: Ayung River Gorge Hike
Dam and waterfall at start of gorge section of hike. the jerky eye and hand movements scary! This troupe featured mostly younger performers and they weren't the most polished, but it was a worthwhile cultural experience nonetheless.
During the day, we got to know one other guest at Santra Putra whom we labeled the
Eat Pray Love cliche - she was in her early 40s, single, in-between jobs, spent the last five months in an ashram, was perpetually frazzled and had come to Ubud looking for answers. She was even from New York, just like Elizabeth Gilbert. She was the talk of the guesthouse and restaurant owners in the area because she had to search for alternative accommodation (Santra Putra could not accommodate her beyond a few days) and her perpetually confused manner amused everyone.
Day 3: Campuan Ridge Hike, Monkey Forest and Barong, Kris and Legong Dance
Our hike today was up the Campuan Ridge. From Penestanan, we crossed the Campuan Bridge and then started up a hill past Campuan village and up to the ridge itself. The views were spectacular en route but the real star of this hike was the rice terraces at the top. We stopped for a refreshing drink at a restaurant strategically
Day 3: Campuhan Ridge Hike
A refreshing drink while admiring the rice terraces at the top of the ridge. placed among the rice terraces. On the restaurant menu was an advertisement for taxi service back to Ubud for 50,000rp. I guess this is for the tourists who underestimate the hike.
After the drink, we made the rest of the loop back to Penestanan. The second half of the hike took us along a main road and it wasn't too interesting. We did peek into a temple en route, though. As we approached Penestanan, we stopped at a supermarket for supplies, including mangosteen which Jeff tried for the first time.
It did not look like it would rain that afternoon so we braved the central Ubud crowds to get to the Monkey Forest, where we spent a very pleasant afternoon watching cute monkey antics. The highlight of our time here was when a macaque stole my water bottle, unscrewed the top and tried (but failed) to drink from it. He then ran off with the bottle when I tried to get it back. Eventually he lost interest and I got it back. The Monkey Forest Sanctuary has some interesting side trails that led over two very dodgy bridges. These trails did not seem to lead anywhere and after
Day 3: (Klepto) Monkey Forest
This kleptomonkey stole my water bottle. He ran away with it and tried to drink from it but could not position it properly. I guess having opposing digits can only get you so far. a while we realized we had gone in a circle, which meant crossing the two dodgy bridges again!
Heading back to Santra Putra, we rested a bit and then changed clothes and went back to Pura Dalem for a barong, kris and legong performance. This troupe was much more polished than last night's, but Jeff still thought the eye and hand movements were scary. After the performance, we had a late dinner at Made's.
We walked a total of nine hours today.
Day 4: Penestanan Village and Kecak Dance
20 years ago, I witnessed a cremation ceremony during my time in Bali. Cremations are one of the most important events in Balinese culture, and families often save up for years for the cremation, after which they exhume the body to be cremated. On my first trip, I sat at a street corner and watched in awe as sarcophagus after sarcophagus - each one grander than the last - went past me onto a field where they were all burned. Each sarcophagus was accompanied by a gamelan orchestra and bearers who tilted and turned them around to confuse the spirit and prevent them from returning.
Back to
Day 4: Penestanan Village and Surroundings
Ogoh-ogoh, leftover from Nyepi several months prior.
Apparently the priests want to burn the ogoh-ogoh to get rid of the bad spirits trapped inside, but the artists want to keep it. I guess the artist won in this case. the present day, I asked Made (guesthouse owner) if there were any cremations going on, and I was severely disappointed when she told me that Penestanan had a 46-person cremation just days before our arrival. However, she told us that the "next stage" was still going on, and that it would be acceptable for us to visit. After the initial cremation, the remains are kept for twelve days in a location where offerings are made before they are burned again along with effigies of the departed. (At least this was our understanding; Made told us all this while balancing a tray on her head and we were so distracted by the bobbing tray that we had a hard time focusing on what she was telling us!). Our goal of this morning was to find the site. We tried to google directions but to no avail. We thus threw everything to chance and set out in the direction we thought the site was. We set out along a road that we thought led to the site, only to turn back when it became apparent that it was not along that road. This happened several more times with several other roads. We
Day 4: Penestanan Village and Surroundings
Lush rice fields we encountered while looking for the cremation site. Not a bad thing to see when one is lost! walked around for quite a bit, getting lost among the village roads and the rice paddies, but still enjoying ourselves nonetheless. At one village, we saw an ogoh-ogoh left over from Nyepi. We saw several more the next day during our driving tour; our guide for the day told us that ogoh-ogoh are supposed to be burned according to religious tradition, but sometimes the artists successfully lobby for the preservation of the ogoh-ogoh.
Along the way, we encountered some kids playing with large umbrellas while their compatriots played percussion. See the video below:
We eventually found the site where the cremated remains were kept, and we walked around looking at the offerings and the effigies. We also walked around the village temple, where we saw our second ogoh-ogoh. I was slightly uncomfortable because I wasn't sure it was okay for us to visit this site despite Made telling us we could visit. The Balinese at the site did not go out of their way to interact with us with the exception of one man who gave us a thumbs up, probably in appreciation for our culturally appropriate attire.
Leaving the cremation site, we realized that
Day 4: Penestanan Village and Surroundings
Post-cremation offerings and effigies. Our understanding is that the remains from the initial cremation are kept here for twelve days before being burned again. we were actually within a half mile from Santra Putra. We were more amused than anything else. We then walked down the steep thoroughfare from Penestanan to the Campuhan Bridge and onward into Central Ubud to visit the
Threads of Life store. This store is owned by an expat couple, one half of which wrote the book "A Little Bit One O'Clock" chronicling their life in Bali. We badly wanted to find out what happened to a kid in their book called Ade Pubic Hair, a naughty boy with an inappropriate interest in pubic hair. Sadly, the store owners were not there so we never learned his fate. The textiles on display in the store were amazing and I had to restrain myself from spending several hundred dollars on a textile. After this, we hung out at the guesthouse waiting for a rainstorm that threatened but never came.
In the evening, we went back to Pura Dalem (we were seriously in danger of becoming groupies there!) to watch a kecak (monkey) dance, a performance featuring no instruments - just men's voices harmonized to sound like monkeys. The kecak dance tells a story from the Ramayana about how the Monkey God Hanuman
helped a good king defeat an evil king. There was also a firewalking display as part of the performance. Most of the performers in this dance were in a trance, and the priest came out at the end of the performance to take them out of the trance. Jeff loved the kecak dance and the tunes were stuck in his head for days.
Day 5: Driving Tour of Lake Batur, Tirta Empul, Gunung Kawi, Goa Gajah, Mas Village, Waterfall and Petulu Village
We hired a car and driver for our last full day in Bali. Our driver turned out to be Made, Karja and Made's son. Made is a great kid and a fantastic guide. He was friendly, engaging and worth every cent we paid, and we were fortunate to have him as he was on break from Architecture school and was looking to earn some extra spending money. Quotable quotes from him included: "In Bali, there are speed limits, but everybody drives by feeling. The police also give you tickets by feeling".
Our first stop of the day was to Lake Batur via Penelokan. Lake Batur is situated within a large crater. Also within the crater is
Day 5: Lake Batur
View from Penelokan looking down into the caldera. Mount Batur. Both the lake and mountain were formed when the old volcano blew its top off. The drive to Lake Batur took around one hour. Arriving at Penelokan at the crater's edge, we were treated to a spectacular view of Lake and Mount Batur. Made then drove us into the crater where we spent some time at a hot spring and then had lunch (I had fresh fish from the lake) by the lakeside. At the hot springs, Jeff did some dives and the locals tried to emulate him, without much success.
After lunch, we went to the village of Tampak Siring which is famous for two monuments. The first is Tirta Empul, one of the holiest temples in Bali. Tirta Empul is the source of a spring famed for its curative powers, and the locals go there to bathe in it. There, we got an insight into how the locals worship. Tirta Empul is my favorite monument in Bali as it is a living cultural site that has not been repurposed for the tourist dollar. We did have one upsetting encounter here, though - we heard pitiful meowing coming from a sack at a food outlet, and
Day 5: Tirta Empul
Devotees praying before going into the pool. the proprietor walked away when we asked her why there was a cat in the sack. We both wanted to do something but we were also mindful not to impose our Western-centric views on local people.
The next stop was also in Tampak Siring, and it was Gunung Kawi, an 11th century temple where candi (shrines) were cut into rock. Getting to Gunung Kawi required us to go down several hundred steps but the result was well worth it. There were surprisingly few visitors at Gunung Kawi.
Our next stop was Goa Gajah in the village of Bedulu near Ubud. Goa Gajah an ancient cave whose entrance resembles an elephant. There are also ancient fountain-statues in the compound. This temple also required a hike down steps. This site had far more tourists.
Our next stop was a waterfall near the village of Mas. En route, we chanced upon a village celebration where the village men were trying to scale a greased up coconut tree to get at prizes at the top. Interestingly, the prizes were day-to-day items such as pots, towels, and clothes hangers. We watched as they tried and failed several times. Finally, Jeff asked Made
Day 5: Gunung Kawi
Our Indiana Jones moment. if it should be acceptable for him to join in, and Made said yes. Jeff then volunteered his 6'6" frame for the task. They did not make it the first two times, but they finally made it on the third try. Jeff became a village celebrity for a few minutes! He was even given one of the prizes - a bar of soap. This was easily the highlight of our time in Bali.
See the video below, which records their third (and successful) attempt:
After the excitement of the village celebration, we went to a huge waterfall to swim and cool off.
Our final stop of the day was Petulu at sunset. Petulu is best known as a nesting ground for kokoran or white heron, and we sat in a warung sipping refreshing drinks while flocks of birds flew into the village to roost for the night.
Our tour over, we bade goodbye to Made (the guide) and had dinner at Made's Warung.
Day 6: Goodbyes
Our ride to the airport was at 10am. We had a final breakfast prepared by Ketut, and said our goodbyes to Karja, Made and Neko. We were
Day 6: Saying Goodbye
Goodbye Santra Putra. We'll be back! both very sad to leave Bali but I was looking forward to showing Jeff my former home of Bangkok.
Personal Reflections
So, how did the post-
Eat Pray Love Bali fare against the pre-
Eat Pray Love Bali? While I lament the changes that have taken place, the old Bali is still there; one just has to work harder at finding it. Walk around the villages, interact with locals, and you'll find it. Just avoid Starbucks, the yoga centers, and avoid placing yourself in situations where you only see the money-grubbing aspect of the locals (i.e., don't go there just to shop).
Travel Tips
USD1 = IDR10,000.
Accommodation: Santra Putra is excellent and is staffed by great people. Cost was 350,000 rupiah/night, including breakfast. Made (the one who owns Made's Warung) also has houses for rent. Some guesthouse owners may offer discounts for longer stays or for single occupancy (= less breakfast provided). Karja's art gallery is on site. Because Santra Putra is listed as a "top choice" in the Lonely Planet, the rooms fill up fast. Reservations are therefore recommended. Karja checks his Facebook email more frequently than his Yahoo email that is listed on his
website, so contact him via Facebook.
Which Village Should You Stay At?: Ubud has grown from a collection of discrete villages to one continuous village. Central Ubud was too crowded and noisy for our liking. Penestanan was an excellent choice - only ten minutes walk to the main drag, yet quiet and friendly. I reckon that Campuhan would also be a great choice.
Transportation: We considered renting a car but decided to go with a driver instead for ease of movement. Cost is 600,000 rupiah for a full day - this recently went up due to increases in the price of petrol. 600,000rp is pretty much what you have to pay to incentivize your driver to not bring you to souvenir shops or restaurants where they will make a commission. Airport transfers are 250,000 rupiah. Most guesthouses will arrange transport for you; consider this option if you like your guesthouse operators as the money you spend will stay within their family.
Food: We can't recommend Made's Warung enough. Large portions, reasonable prices, great atmosphere, and friendly service make for a winning combination. Definitely try her tomato soup. Meals for two with drinks included can cost under 100,000
rupiah.
Lake Batur Hot Springs: There is an obvious, snazzy resort and a not-so-obvious one down a dirt track. Take the latter - it is cheaper and just as good.
Avoiding touts: Ubud touts were not too persistent. A simple "no thank you" and a smile sufficed in most instances. The same cannot be said for Penelokan or Kintamani touts.
Arrival formalities: If you are eligible for visa on arrival, make sure you have US$25 in exact change. US passport holders require a visa to enter Indonesia. Singapore passport holders can enter visa free.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.029s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Former Homes 
Been 
Home 
