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Published: August 17th 2007
Taking a short holiday out of the travelling, we flew into one of the more modern top tourist hot spots in Asia, Bali, Indonesia. Being a little lower down than our previous Asian destinations, the humidity is more bearable to unnoticeable, the mosquito level is much lower, and the weather is still damn hot. Our main goal of this stop was to chill out for a bit, relax on the beach and top up that tan!!
We had been warned about the constant scamming from the Indonesians in Bali, but were still not prepared for the extremities of hassling that were inflicted on us, and all other tourists in town. Unfortunately, this has been the snowballed affect of the Al Queda bombings back in 2002 on the people of the island. Less tourists have visited Bali, therefore, less income has come into the country and they are getting increasingly more desperate to sell their stock/product to you, regardless of what it is. You cannot walk down the road for more than 10 seconds without being shouted to. Some times they stand in the middle of the path and close in on you, so you have to step into the grounds
of their stall, where others will grab your hands as you walk past, or chase you down the road asking your name and where you come from (you have to be careful when asked your name, in case it is carved into something and you are pressured to buy it). "Braiding, braid your hair honey", "manicures?", "massage, massage your foot", "yes, look in my shop", "yes, eat in my restaurant", "watch, 10,000 RP, you want watch", "transport", "passport", you name it, they sell it. It is really funny the way that they say "mate", sounds like they are trying to do an Ozzy accent, but it comes out all cockney! There was a guy that stood at the end of the drive way to our hotel everyday during our stay there, and everyday he would ask us every single time that we walked past whether we wanted to rent a motorbike from him. You would have thought that he would have caught on eventually that we didn't want to, but it appeared not. Funny place! Out shopping one time we walked into a stall and before we even had the chance to look at anything, the guy was asking Adam
Beach Style Shopping
Man having a massage whilst woman tries to sell him some fruit. Classic beach activities.what size, and the woman pulled up a chair and tried to start braiding my hair. Needless to say, we got out of there as quickly as possible.
We have done a lot of shopping in Bali, considering the cheapness of it, and have had our first attempts at bartering. Not doing too badly at it, but I always seem to come away from it feeling like I could have done better, and wondering whether I was scammed. Something I will have to get used to. I think it is better to shop in the morning, as they are desperate to get their first sale of the day, I'm just not sure, I could have been given that impression to think I was getting a good deal, or maybe I am just analysing it a bit too much! You don't have to haggle in the surf shops though, and it is still really cheap.
We spent much time on the beach here, as you can probably imagine. A typical beach day involved finding a spacious place to lie down and read, close enough to the shore front to watch the 8 foot waves crashing down on the novice
surfers below, and the skilled ones carving into them, all the way to the beach. As we laid on our sarongs, we were constantly interrupted by the beach sellers, offering watches, sunglasses, beads, fruit, massages (if we wanted to go shopping, we wouldn't be lying down on a beach reading a book now, would we?), although one time we bought a great invention of sarong pegs, to stop the wind blowing the corners up, and sand onto it (can be quite annoying). He wanted a ridiculous price for it, but Adam haggled him down loads, saying that it was just a piece of wood. "I scream, I scream" come the calls of the ice cream seller walking around. As soon as we had baked enough, which wasn't that long as it was incredibly hot that close to the surface of the ground, we hired some boards and hit the waves. I enjoyed the surfing so much in Bali, much more than Oz. The rip currents were not as strong, so it was more enjoyable not being a constant fight to get out to the waves in the first place, and they broke a lot more cleaner and strategically. Hired fiberglass
Beach Gathering
Loads of people. boards from a surf school (as got the use of lockers and a huge swimming pool included), but had a board that was a few inches smaller than what I have been used to, making a little harder at first, but soon got that hang of it. With each session, we noticed an improvement, although still not the greatest surfers in the world, but it certainly rekindled a love for it that I thought I lost in Surfers Paradise. Some of the waves were a bit frighteningly huge, but I soon got over that! As the sun goes down each night the beach fills up more than it does in the day. It is incredible to see, as well as the perfect view of a sunset, the way that the town comes together and socialises, drinking beer and having fun.
Since we missed out on doing a bungy jump in NZ, we finally surcumed to the powers that be, and jumped off a 45 meter platform over a swimming pool, by the side of the beach. What better place to do it. Now we are fully fledged adrenaline junkies, and have got actual certificates for loosing our sanity (I
Beach Gathering at Dusk
All in aid of watching the sunset, hundreds gather every night. guess that is true, to actually do it). 45 meters looks a lot higher when you are looking down, than when you are looking up. I remember watching 45 meter bungys in NZ and thinking it was not really that high. I figured the best way to do it was just not to think about that fact I was going to jump, and just go ahead and do it. It worked in the respect that I did not feel as scared as I did when I did the canyon swing, but I think it prevented me from screaming uncontrollably as a result, although it could just be that I was shocked into silence. For my first jump I didn't jump out that far, not as brave as I thought then I guess, and I ended up free falling feet first to begin with, which sent me spiralling around like a spinning top when the bungy began to tighten, pretty exciting. I came down with a slight shake afterward, possible caused from the increased blood pressure in my head. I liked the way they let you bounce around until you naturally stopped, as others that I have seen let you bounce
twice then lower you down. The second jump I got to go first, something that I do not usually do, as I like to give myself a chance to prepare, or scare myself first, and I asked to be dipped in the water. Unfortunately it didn't work, but since I jumped out a lot further than the first attempt, it looked as if I was headed towards the concrete around the side of the pool (although I obviously wasn't), proper ground rush, before being pulled backwards over the deep end of the pool. A great rush, glad I did it in the end. They have it in the grounds of a super club, and on Friday and Saturday nights it is open for the drunk and stupid between the hours of 2am and 5am, crazy. Surprised that they do that, our hotel receptionist told us that he did it on new years eve, and only knows this because of the photos, he was so blind drunk he couldn't remember.
This is another heavily religious country, I guess it just seems weird coming from a place were religion isn't so in your face. They are primarily Hindu here, and everywhere
in the town you have to be careful not to stand on the little parcels left in really random places as an offering to their God. They are little open topped boxes made out of woven palm tree leaves, with little gifts of food, flowers, incense, and even sometimes money in them. Every morning someone within each organisation, shop, restaurant, bar, hotel and home, wraps a sarong around their waists, lights the incense, and places it in a place for the God to see. They are literally everywhere, even on the beach, and by the end of the day they are dried up, but have mostly been squashed by non noticing pedestrians, or unseeing drivers. The minute that I stepped out of the taxi arriving in Kuta I almost stood on a row of them. I have even seen them on the rice fields, to aid the crop growth, and often the dogs in the area would eat the food from them (there are domestic dogs that wonder around like strays, mimicking the normal behaviour of cats, very strange).
We hired a driver for the day, although at the time thought we were booking ourselves onto an organised tour,
and he took us to the most popular and important Hindu temples. The first one Pura Taman, is a water palace and temple, described to be for Kings and Queens, although I don't think it was meant literally. It was very pretty, with a series of smaller alters/temples within it. As with all the temples, we were not permitted to go in, as not Hindu, so walked around the perimeter and observed. Outside was a sign that instructed women to never enter inside if they are menstruating (wonder if it is ever used as an excuse to get out of going to a service). The second temple was Pura Ulan Danu, meaning temple by water, and was situated beside Lake Danau, and the third was Pura Tanah Lot, a temple on a rocky islet beside the sea. When we were at the latter, a young Javanese boy asked Adam if he could have his photo taken with me, saying yes, about 15 other boys came up wanting photos and put their arms around me. It was so hilarious, guess they don't get to see a white girl very often!! All the temples were very extravagant, with such great attention payed
Motorbikes On The Beach Front
The most popular form of transport, and in the back ground you can see surfing Ronald Macdonald! to detail, creativity and significance to their religion. Driving past the homes of the Balinese, it became evident that they all had their own private temples in the grounds of their properties, and these were often far more grand than their actual houses, shadowed by the beauty of their temples. On the trip we also saw many rice fields, and various other crops, but the interesting part of it was how they made economical space of the hilly landscape. Steps had been made into the slopes to enable the crops to be grown on flat ground, and were evident all over the island. As we travelled through the country I was amazed at the beauty of it. I almost forgot to mention the monkey sanctuary, how could I!! Hundreds of monkeys protecting a temple, it seemed, it was amazing to see. We fed them nuts, wicked!
I loved the cheapness of things in Bali too, how we lived in stunning 5 star accommodation for two pounds fifty a night each, and amazing food for next to nothing. My favourite place to eat was a place called Swell, where we spent many nights eating shockingly great food, and watched films
Pura Taman
Water palace and temple. play over a big screen. An amazing business idea, keeps everyone in for hours. Although Dodgeball is a funny film anyway, they had the English subtitles on which had everyone in hysterics for the entirety of the film. They must have been done by someone who didn't speak English as a first language, and the DVD was probably bootlegged, but they hardly matched what was being said in the film, and sentences had really random words in them! Funny as!
Even in the airport on the flight back to Malaysia, there were people standing outside the duty free shops enticing you to come in and buy, their desperation to sell is incredible. Even though it seems like I have been moaning, I have really enjoyed the time spent in Bali, and will defiantly be returning at a later stage, I think that it is an amazing place. From Malaysia we have just got a connecting flight to Phuket, Thailand, and are due to meet friends Couch and Lucy in a few hours, I'm so excited! So until next time, take care, look after yourselves and each other. XX
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Sam Carr
non-member comment
Bungee Jump
I can't believe you did a bungee jump, twice!! I am such a wimp with things like that. Even Jasmine (who has now returned from her travels) did a bungee jump when she was in Bali too. I really need to stop being such a girl! I totally sympathise with you about the pushy salesmen. Gary and I went to Egypt in February and they are exactly the same there. They constantly asked us our names and where we came from and once they offered to take a photo of the 2 of us and then made us pay them so we could get our camera back!! The punks! Everything you have been doing sounds so awesome, you both are really lucky. Anyway, take care and i'll speak to you soon. xx