I figured I would post the skimmed down version of my travel journal for those that are interested. I had such an amazing time there.
March 2nd.
We arrived yesterday after a 21 hour flight and wow! Bali is beautiful. Lily, Shon, Jesse, Sahni, and Leo all took the flight with me yesterday and Tim and Kevin are on their way and will be joining us shortly. It’s the rainy season here so we got thunderstorms last night but it’s still very warm (upper 80’s?) so the rain is actually kind of nice. We were picked up at the airport by the owner of the hotel we are staying at, then driven to Ubud, which we be sort of our home base for most of the trip. Did I mention it’s beautiful here? Very, very green and tropical.
The roads on the way were lined with a ton of shops. It seems like everybody has a little store selling something. I’ve already seen a ton of stonework, paintings, furniture and other craft type stores, as well as these tiny little corner mart type things where they sell drinks, smokes, etc. usually just piled up on a table. The roads are tiny with cars and scooters flying by at breakneck speeds with what seems to be very little room for error. It’s a little frightening but somehow we made it to the hotel.
Out hotel is called Oka Wati and is off on a little back street in Ubud. It’s stunning. I was expecting a regular hotel, which I was a little bummed about actually, but this is great. Our rooms are in a multi-story building with fantastic Balinese architecture and a great view. Right across from the balcony where I’m sitting right now is one of the most beautiful buildings with these amazing, ornate wooden doors and a clay tiled roof. Our courtyard has palm trees, various tropical grasses and these wonderful brick alleyways that lead between the buildings. I’m also loving the sounds here. Insects chirping and hum all night and you can hear roosters, dogs, and even a random duck (this wasn’t actually a duck, it was a lizard). The whole place just feels totally alive.
I’m a little jet-lagged today and got up at around 4:30 or so this morning which was actually really nice. There was a crazy thunder and lightning storm this morning which I got to enjoy and I listened to some of my Indonesian language tapes. I wish I had studied a bit more before I came. People here generally speak a little bit of English but it would have been nice to be able to do the basic interactions in Indonesian. I’m going to try and study each morning though. I’m so glad that I came here. I’m really looking forward to exploring, spending time with the people I came with and just soaking it all in.
March 3rd.
Yesterday was pretty relaxed. We did some shopping, hung out at the hotel, and went to get food. I bought a little musical gourd thing and a piece of fabric for my mom. The selling here is pretty in your face. You can’t go anywhere without somebody trying to sell you a ride (taxi? transport? taxi?) or a newspaper. I suppose since the entire industry here seems to be tourist related, there is only a limited time to get your attention so they really hawk their goods. It’s all incredibly cheap here though and you can haggle! I’ve never haggled before and am totally looking forward to it. I’d definitely like to have some interactions here that didn’t involve me trying to turn down a ride or haggling over the price of fabric before the trip is over. It looks like there are some soccer games that happen in the evenings and I’m going to see if I can get in on a game or two before I go and maybe I can get some non-tourist interactions that way.
We went to the entrance of the monkey forest yesterday. Oh my god are there a lot of monkeys there. We are going to go in today, but wanted to wait for Kevin and Tim, who just got here, before we went in. We also took a very beautiful walk back into some rice paddies. The mystery of how these grasses turn into rice is still unsolved, but I’m determined to figure it out before we go.
Also, there are little geckos everywhere called Cicaks. I love the wildlife here.
March 4th.
We left Ubud today after another relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable day. Yesterday we went to the monkey forest. SO COOL! These monkeys have no fear. One of the climbed up onto Tim’s head and hit his hat off. The forest also had an amazing temple that we checked out. We all had to wear sarongs to get in, which was great because we all matched which somehow pleased me.
I splurged (a relative term here) and got a massage in the afternoon. So relaxing. Seriously, this vacation is cush. Nasi Goreng every day, lots of hanging out, taking nice walks, yoga in the morning. I love it.
Last night we went to go see a Kecak performance, which is a traditional Balinese chanting/ story telling ritual. I’d seen it before (it’s in the movie Baraka) and it’s really beautiful. The performance left me feeling a little bit odd though. It didn’t seem like the performers placed a whole lot of meaning in it outside of something they do for the tourists. After each section, the performers who were done would just leave, not sticking around to see the rest of it, and at times you could see them laughing and talking in the middle of the performance. It all served to make me feel very much like the tourist I am. That being said, Kecak is really frickin cool and a wonderful form of traditional Balinese singing that I like a lot.
It’s interesting being here in that I feel very much like an interloper so far. I am definitely a rich tourist in the eyes of most people. As opposed to Europe, where real relationships seem more possible (most people don’t care to sell you anything as relatively few jobs are tourist related), here you are left feeling at times like simply an opportunity for people to exploit. There is some real poverty here, although it also feels like life in general is also pretty good. People don’t have a lot, but it’s not oppressive feeling here either. Granted, I’m not all that privy to people’s real lives at this point, but they seem to have rich community lives and rely on each-other to get by. It’s tempting to think that life is much harder here, but proportionally the number of people who seem really bad off, begging in the streets and what-not, doesn’t seem any different from the U.S. In fact, I see way fewer people here who seem socially maladjusted to me.
This morning we got up early so that Lily and I could start our open water diving training in Amed. The ride was amazing. It reminded me a lot of Kaui. Totally tropical jungle with rice paddies down in the valleys (taro paddies in Kaui, but same difference). Stunning. The dives were great. Our first dive was down to an old WWI U.S. Navy wreck that has turned into a big coral reef. The fish are so colorful and the sheer variety of coral here is awe-inspiring. We saw tuna, trumpet fish, damsel fish, and a ton of other amazing sea life. All the others saw a white-tipped reef shark, which somehow I managed to miss, which I think is an absolute travesty. I desperately wanted to see a shark. The wreck was amazing though. I’m stoked that I got to have my first scuba experience in such an incredible environment.
Our second dive was along the coral shore which was not quite as full of life as the first dive, but still, how can you complain about such a stunning environment and the fact that you are getting to see a world which most never do. I feel blessed. We saw a beautiful bright blue eel, more amazing fish, and more breathtaking coral. I’m glad that I’ve finally done this.
March 5th.
I finished my dives today. I am now fully certified! The dives were again great, although Lily had a migraine and couldn’t do the second dive, which put a little bit of a downer on the day. Our dive instructor M also had a massive toothache too, so it wasn’t the liveliest bunch today (people in various types of pain all around me!). M also broke pretty much every rule in the book, which was sort of amusing although a bit alarming too. He was on drugs for the toothache, had us swimming against the current on the way back, skipped a ton of skill reviews, was smoking the entire time, etc. That did mean though that we pretty much just got to dive the whole time, which was nice.
Last night we stayed up drinking and talking all evening which was great. I love that our group is such a combination of connections. While certain people know each-other well, there are all sorts of new connections being made. We bonded. It was great.
After diving today I walked to the next town over to find an Internet connection as the only one in Amed was down. The walk over brought me up to the hillside overlooking town. You could see the mountains, the ocean, lush valleys, the beach. It is breathtakingly beautiful in this part of Bali. At least, those parts not covered in trash, which is basically all the main roads in town. Everything else though - beautiful. I would really like to do some hiking and get out into the jungle a bit. Jesse and I might head out tomorrow to climb up to a temple which is at the top of 1,750 steps. Those not diving this morning started up it, but weren’t quite prepared for such a long hike so came back down before reaching the top. There are also supposedly more monkeys on the way up.
March 8th.
So two days ago we left Amed and headed to Siminyak to visit some friends. Tim, Jesse, and I decided to hike to the temple on the way so we took off early. The hike up to the temple was actually not that long, probably only around 25 minutes. It was a beautiful hike and when we got up to the temple, totally clear skies meant we could see a good part of the eastern island. The temple itself however was about as half-assed as I’ve seen a temple here. Normally the temples are very beautiful and well-kept. I guess nobody wants to climb the 1,750 steps to keep the place up.
After the hike, we headed to Siminyak, our driver getting us totally lost on the way. The road we were on got smaller and smaller with more and more potholes and the villages got more and more remote. Now, when you are in a different country that you don’t know, it feels somehow rude to tell somebody who lives there that they are probably going the wrong way, so we didn’t say anything although it was becoming pretty clear we weren’t heading the right direction. The landscape up there was stunning though, with some great views. We got up into some villages that were as remote as I’ve seen yet. Their houses pretty much consisted of a thatched roof over a dirt floor with a chicken coup or two. They have fruit trees on their land and rice paddies that they farm. They use the stream by the road to take baths, so we kept passing naked people who would just smile and wave at us. People seemed pretty unused to having westerners in their area, so you could tell everybody was really curious. I’d imagine that this can’t be all that much different than how people were living here before colonialism.
Eventually (after asking for directions 4 times) we found the right road and made our way to Siminyak, where the driver proceeded to get us lost again! Siminyak is an odd place. A total tourist resort town. Our friend Victor had randomly picked a place called Ku De Ta to meet up at. This place was as swanky of a hotel as I have ever been in. A complete 180 from where we had just come from. We had to go through a security checkpoint just to get into the place.
I found Siminyak totally exhausting. It was filled with western tourists, mega-clubs on the beach, and didn’t really feel anything like the rest of Bali we have seen so far.
The one really cool thing we did (apart from a whole lot of shopping), was go visit our friend Isis who has a clothing design company she and a few friends of hers have started. The workshop is impressive. They have a design studio where they are working on their current collection, and then a sewing workshop where they have hired about 8 or so very talented local tailors to actually make the designs. Their clothes are a fabulous combination of elven, pirate, and hippie raver that is really unique and so damn cool. They are expensive as hell, but wow. Stunning. I’m super impressed at their ability to take their considerable creative talents and figure out how to create a real business out of that.
Honestly though, the rest of the time in Siminyak wasn’t really my thing. I was glad when we left today and headed back for Ubud. It just feels so much better here.
March 10th.
Only two days left! Eek. Yesterday we woke up, grabbed some breakfast, then switched home-stays so that we could be with the rest of the group. The new place has a swimming pool and these beautiful terraced rooms overlooking a little valley. All for around $7 a night. We have been fantasizing about how cool it would be to have one of these places as an artist community of sorts where each person has their own space but could share common areas.
After switching home-stays, we went to a couple of old temples in the area, the first of which was called Ganga Giri. This was a miserable experience. I hated it. You pay for entry and are forced through a gauntlet of people selling you things (which I’ve come to expect), but then when you get down to the temple, people come up to you and just start talking about the ruins. While you suspect that they are going to want money for this, they never come out and ask up front, banking on you feeling guilty about it when they do, but since they don’t really ask, it feels rude to say anything. One guy led us into one of the meditation caves (which was very cool actually, you walk through the mouth of a demon to get in) then afterwards started saying he would lead us and we would give him money. It wasn’t even framed as a question and there was this very awkward moment where I just kind of slowly walked away. The rest of the group got stuck with him however (which I felt bad about) and ended up paying him. It’s weird because when you go into one of the temples, they have signs talking about respecting the temple, you have to wear a sarong and a sash, etc. But once you get in, the whole thing is set up to try and get as much money out of you as possible, which feels sort of dishonest and not very respectful at all. I wish they would just charge you twice as much up front and have that be it. It’s hard to respect an obvious hustle on their part.
The next place we went to was a little better on the hustle end of things. We went to the 10 chandis, which are a series of huge temple statues carved into the cliff side. There is also a so-called “secret” chandi about a kilometer away that we spent some time trying to find. The guidebook said to go through the rice paddies on the western side of the river, but it being high noonish, we couldn’t really figure out which side was west. We took off through some rice paddies and found some stunning views, but got a little lost and came back. I ended up finding some more temple carvings by myself and found a path which I believe led to the “secret” chandi, but I didn’t want to keep everybody waiting much longer so I came back. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the pool, drinking beer and enjoying the sun.
After dinner, I had an interaction I though was cool. I had stopped and was waiting for the rest of the group when 3 teenage kids stopped me and started chatting. After a week and a half here I was kind of waiting for the inevitable sales pitch, but it turns out they are from a neighboring town and come to Ubud in the evenings to talk with tourists in order to practice their English. They were just trying out their language skills and hoping to learn new words and phrases. They would ask every time they didn’t understand anything and were just very enthusiastic about talking with English speakers. It left me with a big smile.
March 12th.
Yesterday was our last full day in Bali. We woke up early and gathered to go on a bike ride/ educational tour. It’s funny because the whole tour is actually billed as a “downhill bike tour” which we joked was about the laziest thing we had ever done, but it did make for a very relaxing day. We rode up to nearby mount Batur, which is this crater of a mountain with an active (or recently active, not sure what defines that) volcano shooting up in the center with a big lake off the the side. We ate breakfast in a beautiful restaurant overlooking the lake. It was kind of like a tropical Switzerland or Austria up there. I kept singing random “Sound of Music” songs.
The ride was cool and definitely educational. Our guide gave us a lot of insight into the ways of life in Bali and also some of the problems they are facing. He showed us how to make plates and utensils out of banana leaf and explained how being used to the banana leaf is actually the cause of most of the trash on the island. Many people here are still figuring out that you can’t just toss plastic the same way you can a banana leaf so they just discard it wherever. He helps with a trash/ recycling program where they are just trying to explain the whole concept of garbage, which is new to many people. He also said that Bali has really only had electricity for around 20 years. Crazy.
He took us to go see how they make coffee and harvest various plants for food and medicine which was cool (they stir the coffee beans by hand to roast them), and then on to a couple village businesses where they make bamboo mats and wooden figurines, both of which seem like they take a hell of a long time to make. The woodcarving shop wasn’t exactly fine wood working. They mostly hire teenagers to crank this stuff out. There is a ton of really good woodworking in Ubud (like the mask-carver we went to day before yesterday) but this was more mass-produced. I think he said around 60% to 70% of the economy here comes from tourism and they are still trying to find ways to build a viable economy outside of that. The plus side of the tourist economy however is that there is a ton of art that gets made around here. Artists can actually make a relatively decent living and there is a thriving community.
We ended the ride with a buffet lunch right outside of Ubud. A couple on the ride with us was also from Seattle and happen to work with one of Lily’s old roommates. Both artists and designers. I liked them both a lot. The other people on the trip were the most morose Dutch couple I have ever come across. They might have been having a great time, or they might have been totally miserable. It was hard to tell.
We all met up for dinner later on. Kevin, Jesse, Tim and I were laughing pretty much all through dinner (as we have been pretty much all through the last couple of days). I am enjoying the company of those around me a ton. It will be hard to leave.
After dinner, we ended the trip on a fantastic note. Kevin, Jesse, and I were going to get some beer and started joking around with some young (mid-20’s maybe) taxi/transport drivers. After laughing and shooting the shit a little bit, they started yelling for us to come join them in drinks. So after grabbing our beer, we sat with them and ended up talking for quite a bit. It was great, because they were itching for interaction as much as we were and they asked tons of questions, as did we. It was great to get some insight into their lives and the things that they like doing. We talked about music, kids, life in general, etc. One thing I’ve noticed here is how little aggressive edge people seem to have. Even when they are trying to sell you things, people here are very open and seem to have very few of the emotional walls that we westerners tend to build up. People smile really big here and when they smile, their whole faces light up. I love it.
Now I sit on the airplane, heading back to Seattle. What an amazing trip. I’m sad to leave, but have a ton of memories to take with me. Bali is amazing. Someday, I will go back.
but we rocked it. It was really nice to have some time to just relax and catch up on sleep. We spent a bunch of time in the pools and had a really great time hanging out with our friend Rara and his fiance Jumana. Rara and I spent a morning in his studio on Saturday. I got him to play guitar over a track I’m working on and we also just geeked out on music, discussing ideas and techniques. It was nice to have somebody to shoot the musical shit with again. I’ve been missing that for a while. Harbin itself is beautiful. It’s located in a really beautiful valley just north of Napa and we got to take some really nice hikes in the surrounding hillsides. The resort is surprisingly big actually. It’s so spread out that you only rarely get a sense for how many people are there at any one given time, but there were probably several hundred guests I would say. I was looking forward to doing yoga in the mornings, but the yoga there was sadly very much on the new age tip - not so much on the physical practice.