Photo essay: Bali

We arrived in Bali late Saturday night, purchased our visas-on-arrival and waited in a long, long line to have them checked (but! it's a full page sticker in the passport!).  Took an hour taxi ride to our guest house in Ubud.  The hot, muggy air smelled of smoke - the burning of incense and of garbage. Pairs of helmeted locals whizzed by on their scooters by the dozens.  "Like mosquitoes," our cab driver said.

In the morning, our host and owner of the eponymous hotel, Oka Wati, asked us what we'd like for breakfast.  We ordered banana pancakes and an omelet and the "Indonesian Specialty" nasi goreng, a delicious fried rice dish.  "Also you will have fruit," Oka Wati told us.  O.K.!  The papaya, pineapple and banana came in a lovely little tower topped with shredded coconut and a sprinkling of nutmeg.  Yum!  It was all pretty heavenly.

We spent the day walking around Ubud, getting a lay of the land.  Well.  I have never been in a place more expressly designed for tourists.  Every (I am not exaggerating) yard, a man asks you, "taxi? You need transport?"  Your "no, thank you" elicits a "maybe tomorrow?"  Without fail.  Every 3 or 4 yards, a woman asks you "massage please?" Your "no, thank you" elicits a flyer in your face.  Every storefront has a shopkeeper smiling and waving you inside, "come in, just looking!"  Nonstop.

We did check out the main temple, with its incredible display of orchids:

We wandered off the main roads and into a path in the rice paddies.  What a stark difference.   Nothing but green, green, green everywhere:

A long, lazy and excellent lunch at Nomad Cafe - we had an Indonesian sharing menu for two - was the perfect way to cool off.

Later we decided if massage was the thing, we'd better try it out.  Walked into a place without the flyer brigade outside and had an excellent 1-hour Balinese Traditional massage in a beautiful setting, then an outdoor shower, and tea and fruit afterwards.  Grand total: US$14.  So yeah, I highly recommend the Wibawa Spa. It looks like this:

To round out the evening we saw some traditional Legong dance at the Ubud Palace.  The performance mixed narrative dance with theatrical play-acting.  Perhaps most striking was the dancers' incredible use of their eyes while they danced.  This was the opposite of "modern dance face."  Costumes also dazzled - colorful, layered, sparkling with gold...then there was the 2-person dragon...

I've created an album of these photos here: Legong Dance, Ubud, Bali - 30 April 2010

The next day we strolled to the Monkey Forest.  I thought, cool, a shaded area, maybe we'll see some monkeys.  LITERALLY upon entering there were monkeys everywhere.  We're talking 1 yard in from the entrance, and Ben and I just sat down to watch the monkeys cavorting around.  I felt something on my leg, and looked down to see a small macaque monkey draping its hand over my leg.  "Ben!  Ben!  Get a picture!" The little guy then climbed into my lap, posed for a few snapshots, then dashed off.  This made me immensely happy.  Further into the Monkey Forest, I realized, wherever you sit down, most likely a monkey will come over and check you out.  None like that first guy, though.  I did have a monkey jump on my head and start social grooming me.  One jumped on Ben's head and stole the flower out of his hatband.  Another ran off with my sunglasses (a park employee retrieved the glasses).  Monkey photos here:  Monkey Forest, Ubud, Bali - 1 May 2010.

For all of Ubud's delights, we still found it quite touristy.  It didn't seem at all like the place where Balinese people might actually live.  Tourism ruled the town, so we opted to leave after our short stay for the shores of Nusa Dua.  Turns out, Nusa Dua is quite touristy as well!  The (according to Lonely Planet) "best Balinese food in Bali" is found there, at a restaurant run by a Swiss guy.  Go figure.  We did go to the famed Bumbu Bali, though - along with the other tourists who were cheerfully greeted by the entire staff of the open kitchen with a resounding "Selamat malam" (good evening) upon entering.  Ben and I had a special dinner in celebration of six years (!) together, feasting on some extremely delicious local fare and sipping Balinese beer. Lovely.

We thought we'd get away from all the hawkers on the beautiful Geger Beach.  And for a while, we did, until the place started filling up with other tourists, followed of course by opportunistic locals selling sarongs, strings of beads, and massages right in your rented lounge chair.  (Note to self: start a beach massage company offering SUNSCREEN massages.  Brilliant, no?)

We're on the tail end of the rainy season here, though no complaints; while everyone rushed inside for the 20-minute sunshower, Ben and I took a swim in the (super warm - mom, you would go in without breaking stride) ocean.  Perhaps this is when I got sunburned, or perhaps while seated IN THE SHADE! under an umbrella, the sun snuck around the edge or just shined right through that thing, but I got Sun Burned.  I wore sunscreen! I sat in the shade! The rule is: reapply, reapply, reapply.  Even Ben, who rarely burns, turned a lovely shade of bright pink.

So that evening, looking like lobsters, we went in search of the famed shellfish and other fruits of the sea of the Jimbaran seafood warung.  We taxied (really the best way to get around, unless you want to brave a motorbike) to the beach and chose our meal with a net instead of a menu.  The front of the "restaurant" = a grill and a bunch of fish tanks.  The "waiters" point to the tanks and tell you about their contents.  We had the fish in the photo, and prawns and rice and vegetables and wow, yum.  This was good.  By this point you've probably guessed that the entire clientèle was...yup, tourists.  Still, there was beauty in listening to 6 or 7 different languages floating above the sound of the waves, eyes in soft focus on the cloudy and exquisite sunset...which gave way to a skyful of stars mirroring the twinkling lights of the surrounding cities.  Simple, beautiful.

The next day was a day of travel organization.  I spent a LONG time in the internet cafe, and a LONG time on the phone with JetStar trying to change my flights  I spoke to four people there: person number one and I got disconnected.  Person number two changed my flights, but to the wrong date.  So I spoke to person number three, who changed them to the right date in the wrong city.  Person number four sorted me out and apologized profusely.  I tried to smile through the whole thing; Ben says I sounded very friendly.  Still, I was pretty worn out by the whole thing.  This photo captures it pretty well:

So!  The next leg is as follows:

Tonight, fly from Bali to Singapore.  Land early tomorrow morning (12:45am).
Four days in Singapore with Joe!
Sunday fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Can't complain.
Takin' the passport out for another whirl tonight! Until soon...
Julia