Bali-wood
This Holiday season in
Craig met me on the
Poor Craig, after thirty hours on a plane, he was thrown in Chandra’s SUV to cliff side beaches, giant gauruda statues and monkey dances during the sunset at Ulu Watu. 
The Kecak (monkey dance) is a traditional trance dance where Indonesian men drink heavily and chant in a circle as a tale of the Monkey Gods is played out in the center. The temple we witnessed it at is known for it’s beautiful sunset and the monkey thieves who have learned how to steal only expensive items from tourists (i.e. cell phones, cameras, jewelry and sunglasses) to hold for ransom until they are fed bananas. These little beasts are aggressive too.
Hit U with my Monkey Stick
Yes, I had a Monkey Stick! To keep the little monsters off me, because, as you know, I have trouble not terrorizing the monkeys. After the dance, we walked the dark temple and Chandra warned us not to venture down certain shady alley-ways for fear of the monkey gangs attacking us.
When we got to Ubud, our villa was on the opposite side from the
Prior to Ubud, Craig went to Densapar to take his Indonesian driving test and obtain a national driver’s license. It took a little to get used to driving on the wrong side of the road, especially in a world where horns are used not to mean, ‘watch-out’ but ‘I’m coming, get out of my way.’ There were a few times where we realized we were driving on the wrong side of the road and others when we learned not to drive the white lines on the map. That was when we almost got stuck in a rice field.
Ubud is the Napa Valley of Art. The town is remote, yet very cosmopolitan, traditional, yet the cuisine can rival the best SF restaurants. Ubud is ubber-friendly. Artists from all over the world have set up shop there to get away from it all while Balinese craftsmen work alongside them. We spent
http://www.alamindahbali.com/alam_jiwa.htm
We loved Ubud so much we returned for two more nights towards the end of the trip.
Note to anyone planning to travel to
Everything is $5.37!
What can one buy for 50,000 Rupia (~$5.37)? Taxi to the Airport. One-hour massage. Manicure AND Pedicure. Two glasses of wine. A dress and a rattan purse.
After Ubud, we set off to Kitamani via Goa Gajah, the elephant caves, that smelled like elephant butt, but that was probably the smell of the former rotting corpses that once lined the sides of the caves. We also visited Gunang Kawi with 11th century carvings and the site of the first Monkey Dance that we saw in the movie Baraka. If you haven’t seen this movie yet and want to feel like you have gone on a trip around the world – pick it up!
http://www.spiritofbaraka.com/baraka.aspx
Unfortunately, Craig was bit by a snake in the rice fields surrounding the temple which sent him into a long slumber that night with an inflamed foot.
In search of Sun, we headed to Lovina, a beach on the northern coast, where for about twenty bucks, you too can have your private bungalow on the beach surrounded by rice fields and fishing villages. The children in the fishing villages were adorable on our morning walk to the town.
From Lovina, we visited the Gitgit Waterfalls, into the foggy mountains/volcano lakes, Munduk for a panoramic view and lunch, then a sunset drive down the coastal road along the black sand beaches to the diving town of
We drove further around the coast to Amed for lunch and an afternoon hike into the hill tribes on Gutung Seraya. We traversed small menageries and rice field terraces to make it to the ridge where families lived like billie goats in bamboo huts overhanging the terraces.
Sorry we hit your chicken. Here is a glow bracelet to make up for it.
Further down the road were even more remote coastal villages. Dogs sleep in the middle of the street. Children run from their homes to the street to high-five us and say hello as we drive through the villages. Teenage boys gather along side of the road and beg us for cigarettes and sunglasses. An old man stopped us and made a shivering gesture as he pointed to my white blouse that was drying in the backseat. It would have made him look like a pirate and I just couldn’t contribute to fashion faux pas in
At sunset, not knowing exactly where we were on a map, we stopped at Irene’s Homestay, in which ended up being Ujung. In the morning, I went for a jog, used the boulders as weights to work out, and taught some local boys some kickboxing moves as the sun rose. We also observed the local construction techniques in which women are used as manual labor carrying boulders and bags of semen on their heads in their OSHA approved flip flops. Oh – ‘semen’ is Indonesian for cement.
Our second trip to Ubud, we brought the sun back from the coast. We rented bikes to ride the river valleys.
After overheating, sore buttocks, and Craig, 6’5” riding on a child’s size bike all day, we relaxed at the most beautiful infinity pool to get our Zen back. Craig is very well read and indulged in a book on explorations in
Kuta Cowboys
New Year’s Eve after more banana pancakes, we left Ubud for the Temple Tanah Lot on the western coast –the Mt. Saint Michel of
We realized that we are some of the only Caucasians on kuta beach this holiday season, as it is filled mostly with families from
Oddly enough, the hottest NYE hangout in Kuta is the Circle K Convenience store. This is where the biggest crowd is gathered. Trying to stay out of confined spaces, we were going to hang on the beach to watch the festivities, but we were starving! Restaurants all had their special buffets that would take hours to divulge in, besides the lines and cover charges for the big parties. So we figured we would grab a pizza before taking it to the beach. As we were waiting for the ‘za there was a mad dash of people and bodies flying by the window. Who would bomb a Pizza Hut? Unfortunately, twenty minutes before the countdown to 2008, a torrential downpour with Gale-force winds hit Kuta beach, forcing the crowd to seek shelter.
We were trapped in a Pizza Hut for an hour while the clock struck twelve and the streets flooded. We still got rained on all the way home, two beaches up. Happy New Year 2008!
