a jaunt into southeast asia - bali style!

after 24 hours of flying (36 hours of total travel time), with stops in istanbul and kuala lumpur, we finally arrived to our next destination: bali, indonesia - a small island among the 17,000+ islands of indonesia.  not only is the time zone half a day ahead, but you literally feel like you are on the other side of the world.  we had been to india before (joe for 2 months, lauren for 2 weeks) so we had an idea of how different it would be.  however, you can never really prepare yourself for the drastic change until you get there and face it head to head.  

one: ok, it might sound obvious seeing as we're in the tropics and all, but it is freakin HOT.  the sun and the humidity drain away your energy every day.  our general rule - stay in the shade.

two: as in a lot of southeast asia, motorbikes dominate the roads and traffic is nuts.  bali has especially bad traffic from motorbikes and other cars because it has undergone an enormous amount of development in the last 5-10 years.  lots of balinese sold their gorgeous land for it to be overtaken by tourism. with that money comes the purchase of motorbikes, phones, playstations, etc etc. it is unlike latin america in the sense that public transportation has actually gotten worse because so many people have their own private transport now (one motorbike will suffice for an entire family - yes, we have seen 5 people on a bike at one time!).  we read things awhile back saying that you could drive around all of bali in a day.  seriously not possible now with the traffic.  you normally don't catch yourself going over 30 mph.

three: this is the first country we have visited on this trip where christianity/catholicism is not the dominant religion (what a nice change!).  here in bali, hinduism is the dominant religion, as opposed to the rest of indonesia which is mostly muslim.  different religions bring on different customs, attitudes, sights, etc etc.  beautiful temples take the place of churches.  statues of jesus and mary are replaced by statues of ganesha, hanoman and barong.  we have learned a lot about this very different country but feel that we could never really comprehend it unless we stayed for another 10 years!  

all of that said, (and believe us, there is much more to say) bali is a magical place.  the colors, people, foods, and landscapes we have seen are so new and beautiful.  this blogpost really stands out to us from the rest of our travels...

our first week was spent at a bungalow style hotel adjacent to the beach where we worked in exchange for free room and board and beautiful views of the coast, near candidasa, bali

first meal out!  for 10,000 rupiah we got a sweet bowl of noodly deliciousness on the beach. note: 10,000 rupiah is just over a dollar.  this is one of the few countries we've been to where we regularly take out over 1 million notes from the atm.  needless to say, the term 'millionaire' is not even a term here :)

joe building the foundation with lots o' mud.  the majority of our time volunteering was spent working on an earthen building project.  we were building 3 walls which would form a bird aviary.  instead of the standard cement, we worked with rocks, sand, clay, and straw - all natural elements.  although it was a pretty laborious process, it was fairly simple and straightforward.  after we established the rock foundation for the walls, we mixed parts of sand and wet clay with our feet (the day after mixing we felt muscles in our feet we had no idea existed) and then add straw as a binding element.  then, apply to the wall, bit by bit.  it's really interesting stuff! 
learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cob_(building)  
watch: http://www.davidsheen.com/firstearth/english/

kaya, the youngest of our host's 3 children, swimming around in a big pool of wet clay

the german guy who owned the bird aviary also owned a huge orchid garden adjacent to his house.  

day off to explore! we checked out the little (yet touristy) village of tengangan, up in the hills.  pictured here is a typical, beautiful entrance to a balinese home.  

a lot of the time you'll see this kind of sign posted to the entrance.  this lists the family names along with the number of men and women living there. in total, 24 people lived in this one.  each "home" would include a number of separate "units" - one for children,  elderly, etc etc.  and then separate units for cooking and making religious offerings, among other things.

and nearly everywhere you went you'd see roosters hanging out in bamboo cages by the side of people's homes.  

at first we thought they might be for sale or something.  but no, these are the chickens that families own for cock-fighting, a HUGELY popular "sport" here.  this one had been dipped in pink dye.  makes him look pretty tough, eh?
note: although cock-fighting isn't illegal here, gambling on cock-fighting is (too many balinese have gone broke).  this law is definitely not enforced.   

a huge banyan tree.  these guys are incredibly important as sacred and spiritual figures to the balinese hindus

a traditional balinese temple set in the hills

one of indonesia's classic foods - nasi campur.  basically a mix plate of tempeh, tofu, chicken satay, and veggies in amazing sauces. always with rice, always

after a week on the southeast coast of bali, we headed up to ubud, the cultural center of bali (also the hawker center of bali, in a 10 minute walk you get asked about renting a motorbike or taking a taxi probably 20 times!).  after a few days of getting settled in ubud, we headed out on a bicycle tour around the northeast part of bali.  first stop, breakfast with a view

the luwak is a little animal similar to a fisher.  got an idea of why this is called luwak coffee?  

this little guy (who looks way more vicious in this picture than the cutie that he actually is) eats the cherries of coffee plants.  little does he know, he can't digest the beans inside so he poops them out whole.  the farmers collect the poo, take out the 'processed' coffee beans, and thus, luwak coffee!  surprisingly expensive to buy

joe, biking along the roads of bali.  our bike tour was mostly downhill, which makes for a very relaxing day, just coasting along, checkin' out the beautiful scenery

so this is what we pictured of bali. sweeping palms with little trafficked, tiny roads

and TONS of rice fields.  

just hanging out in the rice fields

so, this is a balinese cemetery. you don't see many and they are not that large because cremation is part of the hindu culture. however, if a family can't afford a cremation after a death, the body is buried.  once every few years (or whenever there is no more room in the cemetery), a mass cremation takes place.  then, the body is cremated in a mass ceremony.

enormous tree spider!  harmless, but freaky - about the size of your hand

another huge banyan tree, covered in white and yellow sheets - something to do with being holy and good colors in hinduism (seriously, there is just too much too learn about this different culture :)

rice plant still needing about 1 month longer before harvest (a single rice paddy yields about 3-4 harvests a year)

some balinese red rice drying out

and, more beautiful rice paddies, behind the busy streets of ubud

so, we went to a legong dance, one of the many different types of balinese dances.  the costumes were beautiful to look at. but, besides slight movements of their eyes, their hands and their feet, nothing much really happened...  for an hour and a half.  people were literally asleep behind us.  beautiful yet boring

this guy was pretty cool though

dig this wacky flower

checking out some sweet bugs at the bali butterfly garden.  

creeped lauren out just a little

beautiful, beautiful butterflies

sensitive ferns!  you touch em, they curl up

ant on a flower - cooooool

really cool temple batu karu.  this was the first local temple we actually went into.  with this privilege, there comes a set of guidelines...

our favorite is number 6 - we wondered how they decided if a particular lady or gentleman is indeed 'mad'.  sometimes, i would assume, it is obvious.  however, there must be some 'sneaky mad' folks, or some who aren't aware they are mad.  they could sneak in without anyone knowing...

here we are, complying with rule number 7

within the temple grounds, there was this cool little temple in the middle of a pond.  notice the cool stepping stones, a few inches below the surface of the water

more rice!  this rice is in the hills, so it's built on these terraces which are hundreds of years old

this is one of the most beautiful views we've seen in indonesia - rice terraces as far as the eye can see.  thankfully, this entire area is protected by the government.  otherwise, i'm sure there would be one or two huge resorts behind us in this picture.

the famous ulun danu temple, set off the shore of a gorgeous lake

these guys looked pumped about the ceremony going on right now

colorful decorations were found all around the temple grounds

many of which were made out of food, like these guys

the magical setting of the temple would not be complete with a large circle of men gambling.  even more inspiring was the bloody cock-fight going on right next to this.  joe had the "pleasure" of watching his first (and last) of this type of event

after the temple, a trip to the fruit market, nearby.  some really cool fruits that were new to us:  the snakeskin fruit, the "bali kiwi" (absolutely nothing like a regular kiwifruit), and one of our favorites...

the mangostan, mmmm

a bit later, we stopped on the side of the road for the main event in indonesian fruit-tasting - the "king of fruits", the durian.  you can see these weird looking things hanging behind us.  wikipedia really nails the description here: "The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine and gym socks. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia"


the verdict?  joe like (not love), lauren dislike (not hate)

babi gulang, or roasted suckling pig - looks a little strange, but man is it tasty...

a trip to ubud is not complete without visiting the famous monkey forest sanctuary.  these guys look innocent, but they are just waiting for their opportunity to strike!  during a casual stroll near the sanctuary, a monkey jumped on lauren's shoulder from behind and stole here ice cream right out of her hand!

a couple of young ones having a bit of a wrestling match - "how does that taste you little punk - you like that?"

the babies are just too damn adorable, especially this one with his rad double mohawk

we were lucky enough to be in bali during it's most important festival - galungan.  ubud was so beautiful during this time because every house puts up a tall, colorfully decorated bamboo pole, called a 'penjor' outside their entrance.  every street is lined with these cool structures, reaching high into the sky

a look at the base of a penjor, holding offerings to the gods

part of the fun for the kids during this festival is this small type of 'parade', involving two dancers dressed as barong (king of the spirits), accompanied by a small band

the second dance performance that we attended was much more entertaining.  the kecak dance involves a large circle of up to 100 men who chant to create an incredible musical sound.  in the center of the circle is a play, in this instance a portion of the ramayana

some video of the kecak performance.  you might not see much (it was outside at night) but you can definitely hear their amazing voices

after ubud, we traveled to the small port town of padangbai, on the eat coast of bali

love this view of the beach - there were often fishermen, like this one, casting off the shore

a shot from a relaxing white sand beach in padangbai

and...some fishermen hanging out on the beautiful waters of senggigi, lombok island.  

this morning we depart beautiful senggigi for a tour of the islands east of here, the nusa tenggara.  on that list includes komodo and rinca island where the varanus komodoensis, aka the komodo dragon, is king.  hopefully on our "hunt" we shall find some of these dudes.  but at the same time, we shall stay far away, seeing as they have at times killed humans who got too close...whoa!  you would think then that no humans would inhabit these islands but they do, surrounded by dragons on land and sharks, stingrays and other crazy guys in the water.  

tallyho,

lauren and joe

“Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” – Roy M. Goodman