Indonesia

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First impressions of Kuta Beach, Bali? The place is packed with young Aussies running amok in this hedonistic destination! I landed at the Denpasar airport at 2350 hours on Tuesday, November 23rd and it took over an hour to travel the 5 kilometres to the Aquarius Star Hotel on the main party strip, Jalan Legian! There are constant traffic jams from the proliferation of cars, taxis, mini-vans, and motorcycles plying the narrow streets dodging hoards of tourists. I hadn't realized that I was so close to Ground Zero from the 2002 Bali bombings and a memorial wall created just down the street from my hotel. After checking in I decided to explore the local entertainment, having beers in the recommended bars down the street. First stop was the MiniBar just as the local band was wrapping up. Next over to the Espresso Bar next door listening to another local band playing Aussie faves like AC/DC. Several local ladies ( I use that term loosley) approached me to chat and dance. A couple of them were of the "Lady Boy" variety, but I had fun dancing and tipping back a few of the local beers, Bintang. When Espresso closed about 0200 we all walked across the street to the rebuilt and relocated Paddy's Club, where the first detonation went off in 2002. Security measures now in place include swarms of police and security officers armed with automatic weapons patrolling the streets on foot, and bouncers performing pat downs at all the big nightclubs. At 0400, when they turned the air conditioning units and fans off, I knew it was time to leave.

I stayed in the 3rd floor room with fan only for the first two nights, but had to move to the more expensive A/C bungalows to escape the constant, sticky heat and noise. The racket from the nightclubs next door shut down well after 0400, with a few hours respite until the construction crew showed up at 0900, pounding away with their hammers and chisels! That explains the headache!

The narrow streets are chock-a-block congested with vehicular and pedestrian traffic, which makes getting around on foot very difficult. "Hey Boss." Where you go? "You want; transport, taksi, sunglasses, trinkets, Viagra, smoke, etc." They've got it all. I saw one oriental guy dressed in a stormtrooper tunic & helmet, complete with Nazi armband and flip flops, cruising the streets on his 200 cc motorbike with his old lady on back! Not sure what that was all about. As this is the rainy season, we can get the occasional shower or deluge like the other day while taking my lunch. The streets were flooded with the shopkeepers picking the litter out of the storm drains.

On Friday, November 26th, I went on a cultural tour with my new friend Tony and his Indonesian girlfriend Sri, in a hired mini-van with driver. Off we went to the cultural district of Ubud with all the Balinese art galleries and textile works. Handmade silk shirts, one thread at a time, hand stensiled cost over $200 each! Lovely, lush, various hues of green jungle foilage on the way to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary, populated by hundreds of cheeky Balinese macaques. The antics of these creatures were amazing. Many were pushing rocks and scraps of material in puddles like they were doing the laundry. Others were looking for loose items to snatch away from unsuspecting tourists. Three of the little devils swarmed a young lady, and while one of them was pulling the girls hair, the other two on the ground managed to pull her pants down! Later in the day, we stopped at Yoga Agro Wisata. This is where some very unique coffee is made. The ripe beans are collected and fed to a local creature, looking like a small fox, called a Tuwak. The beans are processed through the Tuwak's digestive system and collected for further attention. They are roasted over an open fire, ground, packaged and sold as some of the most expensive coffee you can get! Can you believe it? Me neither, so Tony and I ordered a small cup each. It tasted less bitter I must admit, so I didn't need sugar to sweeten the taste. However, by the time I got to the bottom of the cup, I think I understand where the name "Poop Coffee" comes from, as the sediment had settled to the bottom! I didn't slug that down let me tell you! We continued onto the Tanah Lot Temple, which is built upon a small rock out in the sea. There we were blessed by one the elders after splashing ourselves with the holy spring water. He sprinkled the holy water on our heads, applied some rice grains to our foreheads, and put the local flower, Frangepani behind our ears as part of the ceremony. That night we went to Jimbaran, famous for fresh seafood, having dinner on the beach at Ganesha Cafe. Patrons choose their live fish to consume. I chose a smallish Grouper of 1.5 kilograms, which is meant to be eaten by at least two people, but they don't do halves! Talk about sticker shock when the meal was finished. With two small Bintang beers, my bill came to over half a million Rupiahs! I can't really be doing much of that, even with an exchange rate of 8750 Rp/Australian dollar.

Finally, cleared out of Kuta Beach on Monday, November 29th for Sengiggi on Lombok, including the 4 hour ferry crossing from Padangbai. Ended up staying at the Hotel Elen for 100,000 rupiah/night in a basic room, but much better than the 70,000 dingy offering by Sonya Homestay. The manager of the Elen Hotel showed me his 3 inch abdominal scar from his early days of Pencak Silat, traditional Indonesian stick fighting.

Some of the menu items are funny to read like Chicken Gordon Blue and Black Paper Steak! Good Indonesian eats include the classic Nasi Goreng, fried rice with chicken/fish, topped by a fried egg and spices.

I got to know the local bars in Sengiggi like the live music available at Happy Cafe and Papaya Pub. And when those closed, you could always go over to the Marina Club for more late night dancing.

I rented a scooter for two days to drive around the countryside and see the locally recommended sights. I took lunch in the rather well stocked, multi-level mall of Mataram, at the Oceanic Cafe. I had a Red Hot Calamerreti, but not with the expect calamari, instead shrimps! Still a blazing hot meal. I went to visit Narmada Park, built in 1805 as a replica of the Gunring Rinjani volcano and Segara Anak crater. Lovely gardens surrounding various pools and a swimming lake. While walking the grounds I ended up in a local village just north when a big rain storm hit (it is the rainy season). I took cover at a small shop run by a local lady. As the rains continued, I observed the children at play, one little girl of 5 or so, running to the shop in her underpants and bare feet, picking up supplies for her parents. She was delighting in the tropical rains, dancing in the street with arms askew, twirling, laughing and enjoying the moment! I was fed Sing Kong (sweet potato and water) as the rains subsided. I bought the village boys a cheapo soccer ball to play with and they were quite thrilled, posing for a couple of photos before my departure.

Then I rode onto Pura Saranadic, oldest and holiest of the Balinese temples in Lombok, founded in the 16th century. It is the proper place for for holy water for Hindu cremations from the pools of water inhabited by sacred eels. Onto Lingsar, a sacred sight open to all religions to pay homage. The 5 fountains represent the 5 faiths of Christianity, Islam, Budhism, Animism, and Hinduism. I made a donation of 50,000 to the temple priest to call out the sacred eel, by clapping her hands on the side of the holy water tank, and enticing the eel out with some hard boiled eggs. I was lucky in that the eel made an appearance, which is not always the case. While on the grounds, I was approached by Alex, who said his wife, Ein, wanted to pose with me for a photo. That was a cute request which I was happy to oblige. I went out that night to practise my Karaoke at a club down the street. I provided some laughs and chuckles with my rendition of Yellow Submarine! I never could understand the Asian attraction of Karaoke, except for the many pretty young girls hanging around.

On Thursday, December 2nd, I drove north of Sengiggi to see the Gangga Falls, which were flowing quite hard due to the rains. I lunched at a small Warung, run by an ex-pat Frenchman, Cedric, who also runs a dive shop. We chatted and I got some good local knowledge of the area. I had trouble finding the Traditional Village of Sengenter, and didn't arrive until near sundown. I was walked around the village by one of the village elders, who brought me back to my scooter, maybe 10 minutes later. I guess he wasn't thrilled to have me in his village. As it was now almost dark, I raced home under a bit of stress as my headlamps wouldn't project much more than 30 feet in front on my scooter. What a hair raising ride as I was caught out dodging horsecarts that loomed out of the inky blackness, motorcycles with no lights, cargo trucks in a big hurry kicking up dust and diesal fumes, dodging potholes in the road, plus getting pelted by tonnes of insects as I drove through the night. It took me almost two hours to get back to the hotel, very fatigued but safe and sound.

The next day I was off for Gili Trawangan's turquoise, bathtub-like waters and see the sights, limited as they are. It is a small island, easily circumnavigated on foot in 1.5 hours, with no motor vehicle traffic, nor a police presence. I checked into the pretty decent Edy Homestay for only 100,000 Rp/night. But the place was too hot and after a night of hard partying at Rudy's Bar, drinking plenty of large Bintangs, I went back to Sengiggi the next day for a rest.

In my next segment, I'll continue with "Hunting for Komodo Dragon's by camera!"

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Photos

2002 Bali Bombing Memorial
Kuta Beach, Bali

Sari Amerta
Textile Shop

Balinese Macaque
Monkey Forest Sanctuary

Hear, See, Do No Evil!
OMG!

Have a Cuppa!
Specialty coffee tasting, beans digested by a Tuwok!

Tony and I at Tanah Lot Temple
Temple by the sea.

Neighborhood Restaurant Cat
Kuta Beach, Bali

Comments

[mom]

Thanks for update
Hi Rene. Thanks for the update. As it was over 2 weeks, I was getting a bit concerned. Great reading. Take care, hugs, mom