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Published: January 26th 2018
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Hopefully no more stories about unexploded ordinances, wars, or killing fields. No guarantees, though, because we only have tickets through Australia and New Zealand; we don’t know where we’re going after that.
From Cambodia, we went to Bali; the volcano had already erupted by the time we arrived, and life was pretty much back to normal.
We met in Bali in 1991. We were both backpacking, Pete for six months, me for five weeks. We were in line to go through customs at the airport, and I was unsure of how to get from there to the beach. So I asked the stranger in front of me if he had a place to stay that night. He didn’t have any plans, so I asked if he wanted to figure something out together. He was game, and we ended up renting a jeep and driving around Bali for a few days. We exchanged addresses, and he said that if I ever wanted to see Switzerland, he’d show me the country. Duh. So here we are, back where it all started.
Like a lot of other places we’ve been to on this trip, Bali has really changed in recent years. Kuta
is the most well-known beach in Bali (for various reasons), but the area has been totally rebuilt. In 1991, some girls approached me on a corner, asking to braid my hair. They pulled up a chair from somewhere, and the next thing I knew, there were three people working on my hair, one on my nails, and someone wanted to do my toenails, on the street corner. This time, I couldn’t find that corner; all we saw in the area were newly-built shops with glitz and glamour.
We stayed near Seminyak, a beach area north of Kuta, for a few days. We both got baked our first day out (even with sunscreen on) so mostly stayed out of the sun after that. Bali is known for its sunsets, which “explode in stunning displays of reds, oranges and purples. Sipping a cold one while watching this free show to the beat of the surf is the top activity at 6 pm. Genial locals offer plastic chairs on the sand and cheap, cold Bintang ” (Lonely Planet, Bali, 2017, p. 63). There are also restaurants on some of the beaches, so you just pull up a chair and eat and/or drink,
and watch the sunset, as the waves get closer and closer to your chairs. We saw a few surfers practicing and people fishing as we ate. We didn’t see many sunsets because it was usually overcast, but we still enjoyed sitting and eating at the beach.
We hired a car and driver to go around the island; if you’re more adventurous, you could also rent a motorbike/scooter and do it yourself. Although we got baked on our first day, it was hit or miss with the weather after that because it was rainy season. We heard a lot of thunder, something we really missed in Seattle. It felt like we heard more thunder in one week in Bali than during our 20 years in Seattle. It didn’t always rain for long; it may be over in a few minutes, but it came down hard, not like a Seattle drizzle, and you may have to walk through puddles four inches deep (good to wear flip flops). We didn’t see many sunsets because it was usually overcast, but we still enjoyed sitting and eating at the beach.
Ubud is an area in which “unbelievably green rice fields ... spill down
lush hillsides to rushing rivers below ... a feast for the soul” (LP, p. 147). We saw a lot of rice terraces, or rice fields, all over the island. Ubud is also the center of Balinese culture. The author of Eat, Pray, Love stayed near Ubud. Bali has a lot of dance performances, which tells stories through their dances. We went to see a Legong (girl dance) and Barong dance. “A performer of the Legong, the most beautiful dance, spends years learning minutely choreographed movements from her eyeballs to her toes. Each movement has a meaning and the language flows with a grace that is hypnotic ... the dancers tell stories rich with the very essence of Balinese Hindu beliefs and lore” (LP, p. 15). These were the tourist versions, though, cut down dramatically from what the locals see at the appropriate story-telling time. We enjoyed the Legong best. The dancers wear a lot of makeup around the eyes; the eye movements express emotion, while the rest of the face usually remains neutral.
The Barong dance is a story of good and evil. It is a masked dance, and the first “creature” is played by two people, one in
front and one in back. I couldn’t quite follow the plot of this one, except that the two-person creature was the good guy. In both the Legong and Barong dances, we were fascinated by their finger movements, which were almost constantly in motion. The dancers are barefoot, and their feet and toes were also fascinating to watch.
We noticed that in many Asian cultures, the women must have been trained in finger or hand gestures. In Thailand, women seem to point or gesture a lot, using straight fingers. In Cambodia, the owner of our hotel said that fingers pointing in certain directions mean certain things. When giving you the bill at restaurants, servers usually hand the bill over in one hand, with the other hand supporting the elbow, very politely. They also take the money after putting their hands together as in a prayer gesture, or in this case, a gesture of thanks.
What to do on a rainy day? One option - continue my research into different types of massages. One “fun” thing was to visit a “Dr. Fish” spa. Literally; the fish are the masseuses. You stick your feet into a pool full of a specific
type of tiny fish for twenty minutes, and the fish nibble at your dead skin. At times it seemed unbearable, if you’re ticklish, but I managed to get through it.
One last word on the common usage of bargaining. Our flight didn't leave until after 9pm. We asked the hotel how much it would cost to check out later in the day; in most western ciltures, it’s a flat rate. In Bali, their first answer was 100,000 rupees each hour (6 hours, 600,000 rupees, or $45). A minute or two later, she said 500,000 rupees ($38). We were still mulling over this price, and she said “final price - 400,000” ($30, which we agreed to).
Back to western culture. Next stop, Australia.
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janet dicillo
non-member comment
flowers, my favorite
Now that I have been to Hawaii and the smell walking to the beach at night is now my favorite smell. But try to buy it in a bottle and not so lucky .. beautiful ... all the pix .. thanks for sharing. Janet