The people are warm with genuine smiles and a generous nature. For locals, life often starts at 4 or 4:30 in the morning and work lasts for long hours until the sun goes down on the end of day. Children begin school at 6:30 or 7 - with the younger ones out at 1 PM for the day. Although life is filled by long hours and hard work the Balinese appear more relaxed and happy in general than a lot of folks who live in the western countries where there are more commercial opportunities and greater wealth.
This is a very spiritual country where worship is a part of daily life and there is usually a temple around every corner. Although I read and hear that Bali is a country that integrates many religions, Hinduism is the most obvious with dramatic temples, symbols and celebrations evident everywhere. Most homes have a small temple for daily use. A larger temple is found in every village for community worship and celebations. A third type of temple is the preofessional temple - those found at places of work, be it a dive site, a technical centre or any place where people are employed. Finally, the fourth and biggest temples yet are the public ones that are famous in the island and cover regions for large celebrations such as the New Year. To understand the culture of Bali is to understand how nature, spirituality and religion blend. These are very important pieces of the Balinese fabric.
We've spent time in 3 main areas of Bali so far - which is saying a lot as Bali is not a big island! We have spent a week in the luxury resort-filled south area of Nusa Dua, 4 days in the ocean side in Tulamben on the east coast and are currently in the rural and more central city of Ubud. We've spent time at temples and sites along the way between these areas as well. Unsurprisingly, we've found that east and central areas of Bali have been much more tranquil and less touristy than the southern regions popular with holiday makers.
In Nusa Dua we stayed in one of the many luxurious resorts, as a 'treat' to ourselves for a week. The Westin resort provided everything one might hope for in a family vacation away from it all. There, we were waited on hand and foot by a well-trained staff who were efficient and friendly. Big swimming pools are placed in landscaped gardens edged by sunbeds and gazebos as seems to be the offering of most resorts in this area. Children run about with bracelets that allow them to sneak sodas at may locations and have 3 buffet or a la cart squares a day at the ridiculously reasonable cost of 10 dollars.
We met a lovely family from Melbourne whose 2 boys, Louis and Ed, clicked right in with Sam and Andy and Ben paried off with a few kids including another Aussie named Jake. They children just meandered away ever day and appeared back to join us for meals or ice creams. For our boys, who haven't had much exposure to other boys their ages in our half year away from home, this was a welcome respite.
Mindy and Paul, Louis and Eds' parents, were great company as well, joining us for drinks, bicycle excursions and a trip out of the resport to a popular restaurant, Bimbu Bali - which hosts highly rated cooking courses as well. Mindy reported back on a find of 10-20 dollar massages at a hut on a nearby stretch of beach. Compared to 70-115 dollar a go massages at the luxury resort, these beach massages were a real find! In fact the children even joined us all for turns at the massage shack and massages finished with nail painting and a browse of jewelry and beach sarongs. All of the boys became divas, asking for more massages and wrist charms. Didn't take long for them to grow accustomed to the life.
For Easter, we headed out of the resort to go on an elephant trek with 'A True Balinese Experience' company north of Ubud. There we were assigned to an elephant cow and bull named Mari and Ido (sp?). Andy and I rode on Mari, a 23 years old from the island of Suamatra. Her trainer has been with her for 10 years, the most recent few at this location. They were sent to Bali by the Indonesian government who are sending many native Sumatran elephants to Bali to accomodate the tourist trade (so her trainer tells me). He and his wife had to leave a son who was in higher years of school back in Sumatra along with the rest of their family and friends, something that there was no choice in for them. It is good for Mari that he has consistently stayed with her, even if he really hasn't had a choice in the location - it was Bali or no work.
Mari being a female, can work to about 60 years old, then retire for the rest of her years (til 90 or so). The bulls like Ido can only work to 40 years or so when their hormones make them become territorial and aggressive so they must be released from the tourist trade. For the moment, however, both elephants are ideal citizens, polite and hard working.
We enjoyed drinking fresh coconut water and giving our shells to Mary who took them by the trunk, threw them into her huge mouth and chewed the whole coconuts as if they were only as crunchy and solid as carrots. She seemed quite happy about the sweet treat.
At the end of our hour long rides, we were given trunk-hugs from Mari and Ido. They both patiently stood with us for photos as well before toddling downhill to bathe in a big pond with other elephants. I loved watching all the elephants showering themselves with water and lowering themselves under the surface until nothing was visible before reappearing and rolling about. It's obvious this is a fun time for them too.
Sadly there was a lone bear kept on the premises for the aim of luring tourists in for a 'photo opportunity'. We all felt very bad for this one lone bear who had a zoo-like life in a small circular paddock unlike the elephants who have a their dedicated trainer and lots of other elephants, plenty of space for excercise and a good climate and variety of food. I would like to hear that this bear program has been deemed unsuccessful and he is now free somewere ... but, ok, this is probably wishful thinking.
As if the elephant experience wasn't enough for an Easter afternoon, we stopped at our drivers suggestion at the Sangeh monkey forest on our way back down to Nusa Dua. This monkey forest has a temple that dates back to the 17th century and is located in a forest of tall shady trees. The temple alone is quite impressive with ornate carvings, settled into the forest of trees and vines as if in an Indiana Jones movie set. However, the real attraction here is a set of monkey families, 3 in total, that have lived here for many years. These monkeys are pretty friendly and very used to to people.
An elder man who worked as a guide in the temple site accompanied us into the forest areas and helped us to understand what we could and couldn't do with the monekys. No touching the monkeys, no flashing metal objects about. Not too much to remember, but important. He had fistfulls of leaves that he fed to the monkeys and they followed us around, wanting some of these. As he instructed us to sit down, big monkeys came and plopped into our laps, where they accepted leaves from the older man and seemed to enjoy a little picnic, nibbling and looking at us as though we might be the more interesting specimens.
While we were walking around, a couple of big monkeys got too excited and jumped onto our shoulders and heads, which we were told was ok as they were being playful and friendly. We couldn't stroke them, though they looked very soft and were so warm and cuddly. There was always a level of healthy suspicion of these cheeky guys, we had to keep an eye on them. The fellows who work in this monkey forest carry slingshots and the monkeys eye these with fear - when any got too excited, just showing them the slingshot seemed to be quite calming. I encountered some other monkeys a few days later at Uluwatu Monkey Forest and Temple that were more aggressive and jumped at people's bags, grabbing onto legs and arms, but not in a nice way. That experience made me appreciate the Sangeh mokeys all the more.
We left the resort life in Nusa Dua on the 10th to drive in the countryside to Tulamben to get a real feel for the country. Tulamben is a small village in the eastern side of Bali that is dedicated to scuba diving and fishing. Actually, the 'village' is not much more than a group of diving shops with associated restaurants, cafes and accommodations. This area around Tumben and Amed hosts some of the most famous dive sites in Bali and even the world. The biggest draw, beside bathwater warm seas and amazing marine life, is a large sunken ship, the US Liberty.
Tulamben does not have sandy or even pebbly beaches. The coast is made of dark rocks created from lava. There is a nearby volcano, Mt Agung, that last erupted in 1963 taking thousands of lives and leaving a lot of lava stone across the region. This lava stone is used in creating much of the temples that dot the region nowadays. From higher up in the mountains, we saw a beautful lake, rice fields and villages, nothing much left to see of that 1963 eruption... time has healed the area in a beautful way.
Just before Tulamben, we stopped at the Royal Water Palace. This was nothing like I'd expected (not that I'd read anything about it, our driver recommended it as a spur of the moment thing). The water palace is set of gardens, ponds and natural swimming pools that are fed from springs that run from under the neighbouring temple. This used to be a holiday retreat for the royal family, a place where the family could come to swim amidst beautiful temple gardens. Of course, there is no royal family now and some of the property is owned by a hotel/spa. Stilll the swimming pools are public and are a real treat for the locals, costing only around 60 cents to swim in clear spring water amongs flowering trees and temple statutues.
Arriving in Tulamben, we found prices dropped significantly from the heights of Nusa Dua - everything cost a fraction of the earlier prices, from meals and drinks to the welcoming villas along the sea. This was a very welcome change for our budget.
The Tulamben Wreck Divers who we used for our diving, accomodations and meals, were a well oiled machine, efficient in providing us with everything we needed in a low key way. We got to know Made1, Made2, Made3, Wayan, Ketut and Ilu1 and IIlu2 through our stay. They are all so warm and friendly.
We learned that in Bali first born sons and daughters are called Wayan and daughters sometimes Ilu, while second children are called Madeh and third are Neuman or Ohman and fourth are Ketut - don't trust my spelling of these! My name would have been Madeh and Justin's Ohman or Neuman. This naming convention for children makes it very confusing for others when referring to oe person or another because so many people share the same name!!! But you also know right away what order a person was born in just by hearing their name... interesting.
We were surprised to find that we had a personal dive master to accompany Justin and myself on as many dives as we'd like daily with the all-inclusive 115 a day rate covering everything. Ketut worked with Justin and me to arrange the first dive of the day and then as many more as ew wanted to do until the end of the day. Ilu took care of our boys when we went diving and was a complete saint allowing us to relax, without worries and knowing that they were in good hands - in fact, we were always far more worried about gentle Ilu than our crazy boys ... always certain that they would get carried away fighting and frighten her off at some point!
We were surprised to find that we had a personal dive master to accompany Justin and myself on as many dives as we'd like daily with the all-inclusive 115 a day rate covering everything. Ketut worked with Justin and me to arrange the first dive of the day and then as many more as ew wanted to do until the end of the day. Ilu took care of our boys when we went diving and was a complete saint allowing us to relax, without worries and knowing that they were in good hands - in fact, we were always far more worried about gentle Ilu than our crazy boys ... always certain that they would get carried away fighting and frighten her off at some point!
I came back from one dive only to have Sam come up to me, lower down to one knee and open his hand with a ring in it. He asked me 'Mummy, will you marry me?' Oh so wrong on so many levels, but so funny!! The ring was one I'd set aside that morning, but the offer was earnest and I had to actually explain why we could not marry each other .. though I pacified him with the explanation that we will always be stuck together as family, no matter what.
Justin got in 5 dives a day while I did 3 and Andy 2. Ben got to go on a Bubblemaker dive holding our dive master Ketut's hand all the way. This was his fourth open ocean bubblemaker - the first in Akumal on the Mexican Riviera, the second in Belize at ReefCI and the 3rd in Isla Lobos in the Galapagos islands. Lucky kid!
We all loved getting in to start each dive. I've never felt such warm water or expereienced such great visibility on a dive. It was a new experience to dive in water that did not require a wetsuit and was so comfortable all the time. We did actually wear think 'skins' that provided some protection from stingers in the ocean, mainly fire coral. We ran into quite a few people who were left bruised from bumping into fire coral, but although Justin had a couple light stings in his shorty-suit, we didn't run into any real issues with stingers.
Justin got in 5 dives a day while I did 3 and Andy 2. Ben got to go on a Bubblemaker dive holding our dive master Ketut's hand all the way. This was his fourth open ocean bubblemaker - the first in Akumal on the Mexican Riviera, the second in Belize at ReefCI and the 3rd in Isla Lobos in the Galapagos islands. Lucky kid!
We all loved getting in to start each dive. I've never felt such warm water or expereienced such great visibility on a dive. It was a new experience to dive in water that did not require a wetsuit and was so comfortable all the time. We did actually wear think 'skins' that provided some protection from stingers in the ocean, mainly fire coral. We ran into quite a few people who were left bruised from bumping into fire coral, but although Justin had a couple light stings in his shorty-suit, we didn't run into any real issues with stingers.
We saw so many great new things in the waters off Tulumben. Firstly, the famous wreck, the US Liberty. It is magnificent as expected. Nearing the dive, you get an impression of the size when the shadow emerges, towering from the slopes of coral dotted sand and stone. Just when you think you've seen all of the wreck, you go around a corner and a whole new section appears as a hole opening below or an open carcass of several levels or a supporting beam now supporting many layers of new life. The wreck is home to a wonderful ecosystem including schools of large bumphead parrotfish, giant cod, the biggest angelfish we've seen to date and a wonderful assortment of corals, sponges and anemones.
The weirdest and wackiest creatures seen on these dives have to be the numerous, diverse nudibranch.. The nudibranch are so colorfu and crazily shaped that they seem to be made of playdough and not real at all. On the last wreck dive we also encountered a sea turtle gently hovering, crunching on coral. She eyed us over but stayed in place and continued her meal. Andy and I enojyed watching her for awhile, but I pulled him away to give her some space and we swam onwards.
The weirdest and wackiest creatures seen on these dives have to be the numerous, diverse nudibranch.. The nudibranch are so colorfu and crazily shaped that they seem to be made of playdough and not real at all. On the last wreck dive we also encountered a sea turtle gently hovering, crunching on coral. She eyed us over but stayed in place and continued her meal. Andy and I enojyed watching her for awhile, but I pulled him away to give her some space and we swam onwards.
Each time we visited the wreck, on our way back we would encounter a 'Tuna Ball' with thousands of Jacks swimming in an endless loop, closely turning and returning so that sometimes they formed a circle and sometimes an eternity sign. We could swim into the group or hang outside, they didn't move from us or seem bothered by our presence. I wondered why there weren't predators around to claim their stake in this great ball of fish ... but our dive master and other divers assured us that they don't see much in the way of big predators in the area. We were told shark sightings were rare, though we did see a black tipped reef shark in the distance on our first dive. The waters are too warm or there is sufficient food further out or for whatever reason, sharks just don't swim into the waters near the shores of Tulamben.
Back at our digs, however, we heard lots of tales of diving in shark-infested waters off the coast of Australia from die-hards living in Perth and Adelaide. A couple of divers we met described diving with electric shark shields on their wetsuits and it has been an unusual year with 4 deaths by shark attack so far. I don't know if I love diving enough to dive in those conditions, to each his own, those guys are either incredibly brave or just plain crazy.
Diving with Andy is always a pleasure. He is very observant and much calmer in the water than on land (and with his brothers). He and I have fun doing sumersaults and pretending to 'fly' when we're just hanging around. He shoots off like a rocket when there's a sign that something interesting's been spotted. Justin loves looking under rocks for morays and octopus. I like looking around coral and anemones at the interacting communities of life. Ben is still learning basics like keeping his body level and staying calm, watching his buddy for signs. We all come out of each dive with a lot to talk about.
One intersting occurrence in our stay in Tulumben was a drama over Andy's iTouch. He had decided he did not want to hand it back to us or have us take it at the end of the day, so he hid it. Only he hid it very well. He hid it so well in fact that he couldn't remember where he had hidden it! We all looked around the place, under mattresses, sheets, pillows, in drawers, on shelves, behind books, in vases and urns. No itouch. Andy grew more and more upset and began thinking it must have been taken by a brother or someone. I grew mortified that the lovely staff who had been in our villa (mainly Ilu) would worry that they were being held responsible. It's absence began to hang heavily over us.
Then literally in the 11th hour, the morning we were packing to leave, Justin had a final inspiration to look inside a leftover stack of magazines on a shelf and there it was squeezed between travel guides and photography tips ... the thin black iTouch he'd treasured since christmas. Andy was definitely not the only one relieved - Justin and I looked at each other and brathed a HUGE sigh of relief, appreciating the lease of life we'd been granted, the narrow escape from the tears and temper tantrums that would surely have erupted as we left and carried on for days - whew!!
The trip from Tulumben took us up through greens mountains overlooking the picturesque volcano of Mt Batur, skimmed down low by Lake Batur. We wound through jungle terrain and fields of rice paddies, many villages filled with private and public temples. But my favourite was a stop at the Besakih temple.
The Besakih temple is the oldest and also the biggest temple in Bali. We arrived as the temple was in the middle of a month of celebrations for Malasti - which end the 27th of April. A we arrived and found a guide, we joined hundreds, no, thousands!, of people arriving to worship. Andy was very worried that we were the only 'tourists' there and kept tugging at me to check that it was ok throughout the visit. There was a literal ocean of Hindus in a stunning arrary of clothing, carrying offerings of flowers in small baskets.
The women heading into the temple for worship wore beautiful fitted blouses over richly colored sarongs, a wide ribbon sash usually tying the outfit together. Men wore sarongs with elegant white shirts and sometimes a mini-turban around their heads. Children were in similar outfits, sometimes a little more colorful, but usually sticking to the same tones and styles. I couldn't stop people watching - or really outfit watching. I've never really seen sarongs look so stylish and dressed up before.
We received lots of smiles and kind looks from everyone walking past. No one was bothered that we were in t-shirts with beach sarongs and a camera sling over the shoulder. It was ok. I did feel a bit conspicuous, but that was far outweighed by my curiousity at the customs, outfits and, of course, the huge and ornate temple structures as well.
We walked through several different levels of public temple space and walked outside the many private temples and courtyards. We saw a cermenoial prayer session taking place in one temple. We found it was the temple for people from the business/finance class. It was explained to us that there are 4 classes of worship - 1. priests, 2. government, 3. economic/finance persons (white collar jobs?), and 4. farmers and labourers. I found that all a bit confusing to understand and had lots of questions on class mobility and flexibility. Our guide was patient and tried his best, with his secondary-english language skills.
Finally we arrived in Ubud in the evening. Ubud is a popular village of arts and crafts nestled into the green fields and jungles of central Bali. Although it is well-known as a tourist destination, it doesn't have the commercial feel of areas such as Kuta or Nusa Dua. We've settled into the Sri Bungalows here. We have luxurious porches overlooking rice paddies and inside are lush, oversized beds - such a welcome respite after hours of travelling through the day!
There's more to tell ... but that's for another blog, another time.
Here's the link to Bali photos - full unadulterated set without sorting yet!
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