Bali days

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Bali unfolded for me like an intricate chinese fan. Like the landscape, as each fold opened and spread,it revealed traditions and old stories from years long gone. The days were enveloped in humidity & heat with an afternoon rain shower cooling the roads & bathing the landscape to a luminescent green. Walls are covered in moss, the scent of incence burning is all around you & everywhere you turn, you will find art. From the carved doorways to the frangipani flowers lining the entrances of doorways, shops & restaurants; and this is just your surrounds as there are scores of retail stores selling the familiar Balinese Art as well as unique & individual.

I chose to stay in a family compound that appeared quiet & affordable. As I relaxed and unwound into my new enviroment I enjoyed just observing the day to day goings on of a Balinese family within the confines of the family walls.
It was here in Ubud where I was reunited with my grade three (I was 8 years old) teacher, Ann. As fate would have it she was delighted to see I was boarding in the same family compound she too had boarded at. I was sitting on cushions reading a book in the family Warung when Ann dropped in to say hello and she excitedly pointed out which rooms she had previously stayed in. Ann was also excited to see & meet again Tjok Ngurah who was the matriach of the family and although he was now 85, he too remembered her as his guest some years before.
Ann is also from the Whitsundays in Australia and spends her retired years between Ubud, Bali and Bowen, Australia. I wrote to her and told her I was in Ubud and would love to see her and share the stories of my travels and to see her guest house she has in Ubud that I had heard so much about.
Ann had her driver Kadek collect me the following day and we enjoyed a traditional Balinese lunch inside at her home amoung the rice fields.

One of my most favourite things about staying at Pura Mura is waking up at day break to the sounds of birds and bamboo chimes clacking in the breeze. Rising out of bed, I am sure to open the carved door to my room and find a flask of freshly brewed tea waiting for me outside my room. I have my own private verandah which has a daybed and coffee table and overlooks the garden.
I spend the early part of my morning drinking tea and reading a book. Occasionally I put my book down to watch Tjok Ngurah amble around his family home tweaking the perfection of his already ornate surroundings. Whether it be snapping spent leaves off the desert rose bushes or trimming the grass along the paths (with scissors!), I am reminded of an artist who is forever retouching his one great masterpeice, adding colour here and there, forever adding, forever unfinished.
A family compound is laid out by no accident and everything is positioned for their religious purpose. It is virtually impossible to ignore the religion in Bali as there are temples, shrines and offerrings all about.

Unlike the many times in Vietnam where I went exploring on a bicycle by myself, I chose this time to go with a group. Fortunately the group was small and consisted mostly of girls within 15 years of my age.
(I am usually the oldest with most female backpackers in their 20's)
The tour I went on was called An Eco Cycling Tour and aptly named "Cycle Down"
You are driven to the hills surrounding the Mt Batur (volcano) and then on mountain bikes you litterally roll down almost the entire way. Rolling through villages, rice paddies, coconut tree groves and farms. The guides were fun, the bikes (& brakes) were reliable (phew!) and the day just seemed to get better and better.
Breakfast was served before the ride and was enjoyed whilst overlooking Mt Batur and the crater lake below. A stop at a coffee house to sample a variety of coffee made from Ginseng, lemongrass, ginger and other local plants. I even braved the coffee which was knicknamed "poo coffee" as it is taken from the "poo" of the Asian Palm Civet. The Civet looks a little like the Australian Possum. After the Civet has eaten the coffee cherry and swollowed the coffee bean whole, the process in which it passes through the stomach and bowels is what the locals call natural fermentation. The "poo" is collected and beans removed, washed & then roasted and ground to make a cup of exotic Kepi Luwak AKA Civet Coffee AKA Poo Coffee. The price for this delicacey is about $30 per cup. Lucky for me, I only paid $3 as I sampled it where it is made. (the rest of the coffee was complimentary from the tour)
The coffee house also supplied a breif talk on some local fruits where we all sampled the fuits we had seen in the markets but weren't too sure on their taste. My favourite was snake fruit except I have to try really hard not to think of snakes as it is the colour and texture of the deadly Australian Brown Snake. Makes me shudder!
The ride is 25km long and it is hard to believe you actually roll down for most part of that, resulting in the easiest 25km ride I have ever experienced. There is a pot of gold at the end of the ride which is a traditional Balinese lunch which is inclusive of your tour and to date, it is the best food I have had in Indonesia yet. I smile when I think of all the girls at lunch tucking (eating) into their food, all you could hear was mmmm mmmm mmmm.
Details of tour are at bottom of page.

I decided to brave the narrow roads and traffic and hire a car for a day to go exploring with my friends Yasier & Laura. For 120 000RP I hired a Suzuki Jimny which was rough but did the trick. Its amazing what you come across when you are kind of lost. Lost in a sense that I had no idea where I was driving to, just coming to a halt at an intersection and we three decided at that particular moment which road to take.
Noticing that there was a pilgrimage of some sorts we decided to follow the crowds and see what was happening.
Arriving at Kintamani Temple we watched a prayer ceremony called Kedasa, a massive Odalan Agung ceremony which is held over two weeks. All/most Blainese people must pray at the temple at some point within the two week period. The prayers are continous for 24 hours a day so there are people constantly coming & going to pray in shifts. We stayed at the temple for a couple of hours to watch the prayers and admire the festive decorations which adorned not only Kintamani Temple but also the Town.
Afterwards I drove the Jimny down the Mountain and around the most part of the Crater lake where we stopped off to have lunch.
We arrived back in Ubud at nightfall where I dispelled any thought of going out for Bintang or even dinner as driving up & down a mountain in a Jimny with poor brakes & steering, then negotiating motorbikes on narrow roads & one way streets proved enough for one day.
Shower. Snack. Sleep.

PT. Bali Budaya Tour (Bali Eco)
8691089 or 88998841 or 0812336329090
300 000RP

Puri Muwa Accomodation
Monkey Forrest Road, Ubud
0361 975 441
110 000RP double low season
80 000RP single low season

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Photos

Rice Fields
No matter where I have been, I am convinced its the women who hold up these countries.

Comments

[Mum]

Your travel stories are so interesting, I smileto myself everytime I think of you riding push bikes and exploring the country where ever you are...who wouldn't want to see and be in any of these places you've traveled so far...Enjoy, love and miss you...