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What a gorgeous romantic spot
we thought about getting married spontaneously there, but no...weddings to us are so much more than a gorgous place!I am deeply in love with the East coast of Bali. We are staying in a tiny fishing village at the Eastern-most tip of the island. Puffy white cumulous clouds are casting their milky reflections on the unobstructed ocean horizon. Waves lapping on the beach relax me like nothing else, and I wonder, is it because it might mimic the sound of rushing heartbeat propelled blood around the fetus in the womb? Strange 4-legged, brightly painted outrigger-style fishing boats line the black-sand shore. Young giggling children with golden skin and endless energy play naked in the shallow rocky water with their older siblings. Song birds twitter-pate around in fascinating mating dances while geckos optimistically call out for a mate. Pink frangipani, crimson bougainvillea and brilliant red hibiscus frame my view from our large porch as I write while laying luxuriously on our day bed, soaking up the deep relaxation and time for contemplation. Bali is good for the soul and the perfect place to PRE-charge one’s batteries. I have been viewing this travel time as ‘pre-charging’ our batteries before heading into a settled life with all of its routine, non-tropical weather, and lack of foreign culture and traveling adventures. Not that
I don’t spend a significant amount of my time longing for these things – familiarity, comfort, community, rhythmic routines, purpose/responsibility, building and deepening friendships, western grocery stores, not soaking my clothes with sweat every day, communicating in a common language, and most of all: nesting in a home of our own. We find ourselves talking about it at least every other day yet it is always followed with a reminder to truly be present to what IS and celebrate, express gratitude and truly appreciate exactly where we are, right here, right now. Which like I said, is not hard to do here in Bali.
And where we are is truly and seductively paradisiacal. Bali is sweet, warm, delightful and truly as near to a blissful place as I’ve ever been. The people are the most kind, helpful, open-hearted, smiling, polite, funny, friendly, gentle, welcoming people I’ve ever met. The weather is nearly perfect year round if you love to wear shorts, sandals and tank tops and don’t mind (and I certainly don’t) the occasional lightning and thunder torrential downpours. It is a land of abundance – of greenery, shorelines, restaurants, temples, playing children, ceremonies, smiles, flowers, terraced rice paddies, palm
Mouse Deer
At a temple outside Ubud trees, fruit, nuts, steep mountains, volcanoes, sea life (and sea food), and with all of this, of course, an abundance of tourists. Somehow, even with all the possibilities for the Balinese to abandon their traditional culture for the big tourist dollar, they seem to still keep a strong sense of balance. Balance is ultimately one of the most important things to the people of Bali. A perfect example is this: many people have realized that they can build two to 10 little rooms/bungalows in their family compound and make a mint (in comparison to non-tourist oriented jobs) and this has created a plethora of what are called ‘homestays’. We stayed in two different homestays in Ubud, and one in Sanur, and all the families had family members still working out in the rice fields, or painting, or wood-carving, or traditional Balinese dancing and music making. Even as we sat out on our verandahs eating our complimentary breakfasts of tea/coffee, fresh fruit (usually banana, pineapple and watermelon) and banana pancakes (the ubiquitous backpacker food – for some reason?), the old father would come by surveying the work being done, sweeping the grass and dirt, the mother would don her fancy lace
top and sarong to bring offerings of banana leaf, flower petals, incense and ALWAYS, a bit of rice (the essence of life to Balinese) to the various statues of gods and goddesses and prayer houses. The intention and effort put into every action here is astounding, and truly impacts the general atmosphere in such a peaceful and positive way. Even the cement-layers are artists, doing fine designs in different light colored pebbles to decorate the sidewalks and paths. Thus, tourism and deeply traditional lifestyle still live quite harmoniously, side by side. It is easy to see why so many people are drawn here time and time again. It is easy to BE in Bali.
Our first three days were spent in Sanur, on the South-East coast of Bali, but India left a little gastro-gift with Dave and so he mostly saw the inside of our quaint little room as he was recovering. I ventured out to get groceries to bring back to him and only explored a little bit, but what little I saw I did like. We were able to get out for a spa day, and for $80 total we BOTH had 3.5 hours each of treatment: full
body massages, facials, reflexology/foot massages, manicure and pedicure. Dave had never had a facial, nor a mani/pedi! Keep in mind that I worked at a spa in Monterey where ONE 50 minute massage cost $130-$160. It was a splurge in comparison to our typical daily spending, but we couldn’t pass it up and truly enjoyed the rejuvenation.
We then Couch Surfed (www.couchsurfing.org) in Ubud with a wonderful couple named Hillary and Cameron (he actually works for couchsurfing) who most recently lived in the Bay Area of California. We had a lot in common and really enjoyed getting to know them over 3-ish days and continued to hang out with them several times after we had moved on and were staying elsewhere. We then couch surfed with Hannah Mariya, from Denmark, who had recently relocated to Ubud, Bali to pursue teaching yoga and Nia (a form of movement that involves many kinds of dance and martial arts). She was also delightful and after staying with her for 2 nights, we met her several times for meals and even a Balinese traditional dance performance.
The Kecak dance is fabulously entertaining and powerful. Approximately 45 men come out and sit in a circle
and begin to chant “Chack-a-Chak-achack-achack” while swaying and shaking their hands in unison and holding space the entire 1.5 hours while fancifully dressed princes, princesses, warriors, gods, and goddesses all in stunning costumes tell a story with their delicate and precise (female), or powerful and decisive (male) hand and eye movements. Then a pile of coconut husks is lit on fire and a man walks through the fire many times until it is reduced to smoldering coals. A grand performance indeed! Once upon a time these dances were purely done for special ceremonies and not at all for observers so at first I felt a little uncomfortable with what felt like a little spiritual voyeurism, but today in many ways it helps keep the traditions alive and offers the dancers/chanters/musicians good living wages.
Ubud is Bali’s cultural and spiritual heartbeat, full of ceremonies, painting, wood-carving, handicrafts, music-making, traditional dance performing, ornate palaces and temples, lush jungles and verdant terraced rice fields. We found it hard to pull ourselves away and enjoyed 11 days total in this fabulous town. There was an abundance of delicious restaurants and for all those who are leaning towards organic and local – Bali does it
right: basically everything that shows up on your plate is sown, grown, harvested, sold and prepared lovingly and locally. Such a treat to see local mulberries, cashews, peanuts, beans, rice, watermelon, pineapple, papayas, bananas, greens, roots and fruits etc. on the menus!
Bali is not inexpensive. There is high value for one’s dollar, but it is significantly more pricey to live moderately well here than in parts of Thailand and most of India. We are both feeling the stretch of only spending, and with no income since mid-October 2010 for either of us, we are looking forward to making money again. Especially with some potentially large expenses coming up that include deposit and rent on new home in Eugene (we spent the day yesterday envisioning and writing about our ideal house/home which felt wonderfully clarifying), and furnishing this house. We sold and gave away every single piece of furniture we had in Monterey and we will be renting a van/truck to retrieve our California belongings that are in storage in early June.
I believe I have secured a wonderful fishing gig for myself this summer. My captain lives in Washington, is a Master Instructor at a Dojo there and sounds
Dave on the thousands of steps
down to the temple with the healing water fall like a wonderful man who catches a good amount of fish without being super stressed. I really think it will be a good fit and look forward to fishing with him this summer between June 15th and July 25th. It is predicted to be a great year fish-wise and price-for-fish-wise so I hope to be able to bring some good income home to help support us while we are both full time students in Eugene!
Currently we are staying at a peaceful, private, deliciously delightful place on the Eastern coast of Bali called ‘Meditasi’, in the fishing village of Aas. We are actually staying in bungalow number 7 out of 4. Turns out that it is the exact room that Elizabeth Gilbert stayed in for quite some time while in Bali and writing her book, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’. When she wrote a review of this place she mixed up the number of the room and said it was room #7, when in fact there are only 4 bungalows and this was originally room #4. Got it? Anyways, Smiling Buddha, the proprietor is quite an entertaining, if a little moody and less than sober, and welcomes us warmly, especially Dave’s guitar
playing. Dave had quite the concert last night actually – singing probably 20 or so of his songs and a few covers he’s learning. The other 2 guests just absolutely loved him and we all had a blast singing and eating and talking together.
We snorkeled around a Japanese wreck and enjoyed a multitude of brightly colored fish in a variety of shapes and sizes, all hanging out around the abundant coral and anemones. What a super-special world there is just under the surface of the ocean out here! I feel so blessed to have experienced just a taste of what the Indonesian underwater world has to offer.
While on the East coast we also had the experience of witnessing (and being decidedly drenched in) SPECTACULAR thunder and lightning storms with torrential downpour. I laughed like a giddy madwoman for 20 minutes as we rode home one night in a particularly voluminous squall with literally blankets, not even sheets, of rain dumping on us as we desperately tried to keep things protected (like this computer, a phone, passports etc). It was a wild ride I will never forget, especially the part where Dave had to make a super gutsy maneuver
crossing a rushing river that flowed over the road and was just a wide dry wash the day before!
The view that night from our room with the sliding wall open to the forces of nature was beyond description. The electricity in the air, the cracking thunder that went on and on all night only short seconds after the brilliant lightning strikes, letting us know how close they were – this was by far the most magnificent storm I’ve ever witnessed.
Leaving Meditasi, our new friends, the lovely staff, the divine food, the fishing boats, the quiet and peace was undeniably hard. I went through a day of mourning I think. Or perhaps it was exaggerated due to our landing straight in Kuta – the epitome of what I consider to be horrifying tourism. I tried with all my might to really like it there just as much as the quiet paradise we had just left, but found this uber challenging. The bad tattoos, brash, loud, rude, crude, obnoxious, over-the-top meat market culture, the thumping club music that kept me awake all night until I finally remembered I had ear plugs which saved my sanity…the vacant looks on drunk, drugged
Famous Kecak Dance
these men chant and sway for hours while other dances come and protray stories through dancing and eye/hand movements out, over-tanned, shopped-out people…it was all just hard to take in. So those were my negative judgments. We had an absolute blast at “WaterBom”, a world class water park that Dave had his heart set on experiencing and unlike water parks we’d been to in California, it was high quality, clean, had beautiful lush jungle settings, delicious food and fabulous staff. I also really enjoyed our last dinner in Bali at a place called Poppie’s Restaurant set in an unusually quiet (for Kuta) garden setting, it was truly romantic and was a delicious end to our trip. I ordered my two favorite Indonesian dishes: Mie Goreng (fried noodles) and Gado-Gado (boiled or steamed veggies like carrots, potatoes, greens, cabbage, green beans, smothered in mouth-watering peanut sauce and accompanied by fried tempe and tofu slices, a boiled egg and Krupuk; prawn crackers).
All in all, I cannot say enough about how much I love Bali. I hope to return again and again to explore new regions, ceremonies, cuisine, temples, mountains, volcanoes, tiny white-sand islands, jungles, underwater worlds, rivers, waterfalls and of course, to connect with more beautiful Balinese people.
Trimakasi Bali, we will miss you!
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