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Terraced Rice Fields
The fields were so beautiful they were surreal. Bali, Bali, Bali
One of the places we’ve heard such great things about since we’ve lived here is Bali, Indonesia. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken with anyone who’s been there who didn’t like it. After traveling there for the kids’ Spring Break in March, we’re in the same camp. It’s an
amazing place - beautiful, friendly, peaceful, relaxing, and fun!
After a major travel debacle that left us scrambling for a hotel late at night in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we arrived a day late and ready to go. We met friends there - the Williams family who moved to Vietnam from Shanghai last year. Our kids are friends and the same age, so it was great.
Bali is primarily Hindu, which made for a really great experience. It seemed that everything looked like a temple - the walls/fences, many of the houses, the entry gates to the towns, and of course, the many temples. Everyday the people make offerings at each important area of their homes/business/villages - houses, scooters, plots of land, the swimming pool at our villa, the small temples found at every home, the larger village/town temples - all of these receive a small, woven
Hiking the River
The kids had a great time hiking the boulders and playing in the water. basket filled with offerings such as rice, flowers, incense, even candy.
It seemed to me that the Balinese spend an enormous amount of time worshiping everyday. At all times of the day women could be seen walking to the village temples with baskets on their heads carrying the offerings. At night we drove past an area where all the village women gathered each day to weave the small baskets they use to hold the offerings. After we returned home, our friend Colleen told me she read that the Balinese women spend one-third of their days at worship…I believe it.
The Balinese New Year was celebrated just before we arrived. The day before the New Year is Tawur Kesanga, which is basically a large exorcism ceremony. The people build huge, terrifying monsters called Ogoh-ogoh with fangs, bulging eyes and freaky hair. In the evening, the celebrating Hindus start making noises, burning torches, and setting fire to the Ogoh-ogoh in order to scare away evil spirits. There were a few unburned ones still around when we arrived. . I think it must work - they were
really frightening beasts! Our first stay was in Ubud, a small, artsy town
A Great Spot
This is the fab house we shared with our friends during the first few days of our trip. near the center of the island. We rented a beautiful, quiet villa out of town in the middle of rice fields. The rice harvest provided an interesting show each day, along with the brilliant green fields and a huge blue sky. (Remember, we’re always blue-sky deprived here in Shanghai!) The villa was great. Along with our own pool, we had an amazingly friendly staff there to cook breakfast, drive us into town, help with trip arrangements, etc.
The first day we drove to two temples, a volcano and a terraced rice field. The small roads wound through the vibrant green countryside. (The roads were windy enough to cause Anika to have to run from the car with carsickness on our drive to Ubud from the airport on our first day. Fortunately she made it just in time!)
Our first stop was the Gunung Kawi Temple which sits on a clean, rushing river in a beautiful lush valley. After outfitting ourselves with the appropriate sarongs to cover our legs, we hiked down into a long string of stone steps to the temple by the river. While the temple itself was interesting, the highlight for the kids (and the adults
Morning Offering
While sitting outside in early one morning, I watch one of the women walk around placing the offerings and lighting incense. She picked these bananas for me as well. to be honest) was the cool river. We stood in the water as the four kids hiked up the boulders in the river.
Next we drove to the Tirta Empul, or the holy spring water temple, where springs bubble up into the man-made pools. Local Hindus believe this water has healing and blessing powers, so everyday people line up to douse themselves in the pools and fountains. In the inner part of the temple we quietly watched several people following a ritual prayer while an old man led them. He hummed a hymn-like spiritual chant (Westen told me to say that!)
After an uphill drive, we arrived at a restaurant perched on the mountainside with an expansive view of the active volcano on Mount Batur and the lake at its foot, Lake Batur. Unfortunately we only saw the scene for a couple of minutes before the clouds rolled in. So we finished our lunch and drove on. Our last stop was at a terraced rice field. Even though it was raining while we were there, it was still brilliant green.
One of the highlights of our week was an incredible day of white water rafting on the
Pool offering...
She's lighting an offering at the edge of the villa's pool Telaga Waja River. The brochure asked, “Are you dare to take our unforgettable challenge ending your adventure by hurdle down a 4 meter waterfall at Bajing Dam at our finish point?” We said to ourselves,
“We are dare!” We kept pinching ourselves at the views - around every turn in the river there was another waterfall, another terraced rice field, more wild jungle…or a topless old woman bathing in a waterfall (ok, we only saw one of those!) We felt like we were in Jurassic Park and that any moment a T-Rex might jump out at us. The river was really fast and full of boulders, so there was never a dull moment.
“Boom, boom!” the guides would yell out just before we ramped into a boulder or a rock cliff. Several times our raft went directly under a waterfall, so we had a nice, cool shower. We stopped at the mid-point and played in yet another waterfall. It was just spectacular.
We managed to fit in lots of relaxation, pool time, and some poolside massages at the villa. One morning Serge and I wandered around in the rice fields surrounding the villa, watching the rice harvesting.
Lovelies
Anika and her friend Brenna hamming it up in the pool We asked a group of ladies if we could have a turn at whacking the grains of rice from the stalks. They were happy to give us a turn and were
quite amused.
From Ubud we traveled to the southeast part of the island to Nusa Dua where we stayed on the beach. I much preferred inland Bali over the beach since it was really was very touristy around the hotel. We did manage to have fun however. The kids all took a surfing lesson in Kuta, on the west coast where the waves are bigger. We returned the next day for a few hours of boogie boarding.
We understand now why some people we’ve met decide to go back to Bali over and over again.
Who knows if we will? Unfortunately our trip ended with a car accident on our way home from the airport in Shanghai. Fortunately no one was hurt, but the car behind us was pretty badly crushed by the semi-truck that rear-ended it at the red light. Welcome back to Shanghai!
It makes me remember our return here after our first summer back in the US. The kids and I had
Carrying the Rice Harvest
We could barely walk on this narrow, slippery path...let alone carry a do it while carrying a giant bag of rice on our heads! Impressive. an extra long trip due to bad weather in Shanghai. After circling for a while, we were forced to land for refueling in Korea on Jeju Island. By this time it was the middle of the night, and we were all delirious. After we finally arrived at about 2:00 a.m., we were driving home (actually our driver was driving) when we came around the corner on a highway off ramp. Filling the
ENTIRE lane was a recently dumped load of concrete, which was quickly setting up. The patch was about eight inches deep and maybe 20 feet long. As we drove through it, with it scrapping the bottom of the car, I couldn’t help wondering if this was some sort of weird dream. Again…
welcome back to Shanghai!
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Kevin D
non-member comment
Awesome
Your pics and story are awesome as usual. Good reminder too of what the rest of the real world is up to. (BTW - I always thought Serge looked good in a skirt!)