Amed

We left Ubud via shuttle bus to go to the eastern coast of Bali. Our shuttle took us through gorgeous country, rice fields, mountains and beaches.

Once in the Amed area we found accommodations in a small fishing village on the beach, Jemeluk. Bali is chock full of beaches to stay at, and we finally decided on this area because it seemed less popular and more relaxed than most spots. We were very satisfied with our choice - the village was tiny, there were hardly any other people, and the seafood was excellent (especially the barracuda).

Probably the main attraction of Amed was the snorkeling. Nissa had never been before, and it was a perfect first experience for her. The coral was so close to the beach that I actually cut my foot pretty badly the first time I tried swimming out without a mask. And the varieties and colors of the fish was amazing. For two days we did basically nothing other than snorkel, eat, take naps, and read, but in the end it didn't seem long enough, and we were a little hesitant to leave.

our guesthouse

barracuda

Ubud: Fire and Trance

Our last full day in Ubud was spent on another hike through rice fields and villages. The countryside is very beautiful and we have enjoyed getting out into the paddies. Unfortunately though, Ubud was not made for walkers, and our hikes have been interspersed with harrowing walks on tiny thin roads with no shoulders, motor bikes and tourist buses zipping on both sides. I have seen very few people walking, Ubud is terribly over touristed and everyone rides in style in tour buses and motor bikes. It is too bad, I think that zooming through a place can't at all compare with a nice walk, but maybe it isn't worth the risk.... It is nice to retreat to our peaceful bungalow for a nap accompanied by gamelon music after dealing with near death.

We've been sampling all kinds of Balinese and Indonesian food, usually we don't know what we have ordered until it arrives, which is always fun. Most of the dishes have been rice based, with a variety of different veggie and meat combos. It has been mostly pretty good, a few misses, but the last few meals have been excellent. The local Bingtang beer isn't half bad either.

we visited a monkey forest on our walk. one of them stole Dan's water bottle

caged roosters

This evening we took in a Kecak Fire and Trance dance. It was pretty awesome. A huge group of men, all sitting on the floor in a big circle perform this haunting chant as accompaniment to dancers who act out a story that really was lost on me, but was fascinating to watch anyway. The next dance was performed by two girls who couldn't have been older than eight. They danced the whole time in synch, with their eyes closed! Very impressive. And they saved the best for last. As the chorus of men chanted a guy riding a stick horse jumped around a fire that was lit in the middle of the stage. He then jumped into the coals and started kicking them around and stepping on them. It was intense. I'm sad that we won't be able to see more dances, they have definitely been the highlight of Ubud. But tomorrow it is off to the beach!

Ubud: Bemos and Body Massages

On our second full day in Ubud, we scheduled the whole morning for an ancient monument called Gunung Kawi. It's a small site, but we knew we'd need the whole morning because Bali has the worst public transportation in the world. It's affordable for most travelers to rent your own car and driver, and if there is one thing this city is missing it is not taxi drivers, but our budget is extremely tight. And so we took bemo. Bemos are the closest thing to a public bus in Bali - basically a van with two low benches inside, usually pretty rickety, riding with the door open to keep things cool inside. They are very cheap, but have few, totally inconvenient routes and no schedules.

It took two separate bemo rides to get to Gunung Kawi, though it was not far away. We were the first customers in our bemo, but we were eventually joined by many older Balinese woman going home from the market. It turns out a bemo can fit 9 people, one baby, 14 shopping bags, one spare tire, and about 20 melons. I don't think too many foreigners take bemo, and some young girls on the street broke into hysterical laughter when they saw us pass by, but it was actually the highlight of our day.

Gunung Kawi and an important temple in the area were a little underwhelming at first glance, but an enjoyable trip nonetheless. We were obliged to buy sarongs before entering, which are large pieces of cloth worn kind of like a skirt by both men and women. Flabby white foreigner legs are not appropriate at a temple, which is probably just as well.





After lunch at a restaurant operated completely by 14-year old girls (with fun Indonesian soap opera TV viewing) and our required nap time, we were ready for a full-body massage. We felt that it was a little weird to be so man-handled by strangers while in our underwear, but it definitely relaxed us for the whole rest of the day.

Finally, we saw our second dance performance, known as a Legong. Unlike the previous night, this was a paid performance specifically for tourists, in a good way. It was a more reasonable hour-and-a-half, written explanations were handed out, and there 9 separate sections to give us a taste of Legong dance, which is a graceful dance performed by a group of young women. Balinese dance is very unique, especially the jerky eye and hand movements, colorful costumes, and eerie background music. The dancing troup was fantastic and the venue, Ubud's royal palace, made for a perfect evening.

Ubud: Arrival

courtyard of our homestay

A very long flight and one stop over in Australia later, we arrived in Bali on June 5th. After ten hours on the plane, we were greeted to Indonesia with a two hour visa line. We just happened to get in the line with the slowest customs agent of all time, I picked the line of course, and it took so long that our checked bags were being put into the lost and found by the time we were finally given permission to enter the country. That wasn't all though, we still had a two hour taxi ride to get to our final destination, Ubud. Bali has incredible traffic, but our valiant and ever so cheerful taxi driver got us there safe and sound. We arrived at our homestay in Ubud tired, but excited to have finally made it to Bali. Quite the climate change for us, coming from winter in the Southern Hemisphere, but we started adjusting to the tropics and spent the evening relaxing and watching the lizards on our walls.

After a much needed rest we woke up the next day ready to take in Ubud. We are staying in a bungalow that is in a family's compound. We have a simple room and most importantly, a porch that looks out into a courtyard filled with jungle vegetation and chickens. The father of the house is a Balinese music teacher so we often times have entertainment while he is teaching his lessons. The mom and grandmother, who are both adorable, make us banana pancakes in the morning and bring us tea. We are woken at dawn by roosters and other mystery animals that live on our roof. But, despite the gongs and cock-a-doodle-dos, it is very peaceful and a wonderful retreat.

banana pancake breakfast

We set off that morning to check out the city and hike through the surrounding countryside. The city of Ubud is actually not very nice, it is super touristy and has terrible traffic. Walking through the large sweaty tourists and speedy motor bikes can be quite a chore, but once out of the downtown part of city we entered a beautiful landscape of rice terraces and lush tropical plants. We hiked through some terraced fields and through a few small villages. At one point we came upon a procession going through one of the villages. It was made up of a large amount of traditionally costumed men and women, chanting, playing instuments and singing, while parading through the streets. We also came across an empty hindu temple to explore, which was a treat as neither of us had ever seen this sort of temple before and Balinese architecture is very beautiful. But we had gotten a late start and overexteded ourselves a little in the tropical heat, now we've learned our lesson and reserve about noon to 3pm for nap time.

That evening we wanted to watch a traditional Balinese dance. Bali has a very interesting spiritual culture, much of which is centered around a unique dance form that we were very eager to see. Earlier, as we sat at a cafe cooling off, I had noticed a procession of women wearing traditional costumes carrying baskets and fruit on their heads, all walking towards a temple. I'm a little slow on the uptake, and didn't realize at first that they were all headed towards a huge temple festival that was to happen that night in town and they were bringing offerings to the Gods in the baskets to bless the event. Thankfully we got a tip off from the tourist office where we had inquired about dances, and headed to the festival. Balinese temple festivals are held for a variety of reasons, unfortunately we had no idea why this one was being held, but we rolled with it and tried to be as unintrusive as possible. As we found out they are basically a large social event centered around a performance to celebrate something or other, and everyone comes dressed to the nines and ready to have a good time. There were hundreds of people there, the men were dressed in long skirts and cloth hats, the women in long skirts and lace tops. Everyone was gathered with their friends, attempting to see a dance that was going on in the middle of the temple area. The dance being performed that night was the Barong and Rangda dance, which involves a dog-lion and witch character and some sort of battle between good and evil. We joined the pressing crowd to try and watch the performance. We were able to see the lion dancing to the music provided by the full gamelon orchestra. The crowd wasn't rowdy, but their were a LOT of people and everyone was trying to get closer and closer. After an hour or so we got very claustraphobic and decided to give up our prime viewing areas, as I was afraid that I was going to get squished. Unfortunately we were then unable to see the performance. Temple festivals go on all night long, and the dances can last more than six hours. It was just getting exciting, some of the masked performers were stabbing each other with knives, but we could no longer see. We hung out for a bit longer and eventually left. It was an amazing experience never the less, and what we saw of the performance was spectacular.

morning offering for the gods - easy to trip over!

mysterious village procession - on their way to a performance?