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| Our room and the picture I didnt like is above my head! |
We arrived in Bali about 8pm and were immediately accosted by taxi drivers outside the airport. We had done our homework as we were getting used to this by now and knew that our hotel was in Kuta, only 2kms from the airport. I asked the first bloke how much. “20 dollars” he said. I laughed at him and asked for the real price. He went down to about 100 000 rupiahs (about 8 quid) but we just kept on walking. We found ourselves in the middle of a car park, not really knowing where we were going, certain that there was a main road somewhere in this direction. As we hit a road, a taxi came round the corner. We asked, “Meter?”, he said yes so we loaded all our bags in the back seat and we went off. He drove down loads of tiny, tiny roads until he found our hotel. The meter was about 14 thousand, he asked for 20 I said I'd give him 15 but he still only gave change for 20. I couldn't be bothered to argue over 40p so I left it at that. The hotel people were straightforward and we paid 280 000 up front for the hotel bill of 855 000. We had only taken out 300 thousand and it was still taking us a while to get our heads around the fact that the prices of things were in thousands. £1 was 14 000 rupiahs. We asked where the nearest ATM was and went to dump our stuff in the room. The hotel looked like it was ancient, with big stone statues of Hindu gods covered in moss and ivy. Our room was OK, big, aircon, TV, fridge etc. There was a very nice painting on the wall of a Balinese lady but Bindya didn't like it for some reason...
We headed straight out for money and food. It was very dark and we didn't really know where we were going. The streets were very busy with hundreds of mopeds and motorbikes. Not a lot in the way of pavements and what they did have were not particularly flat. It had been raining that day so we had to negotiate large puddles full of muddy water and rubbish. The streets were full of little offereings made from woven palm leaves, with sweets and incence in them. Every other building seemed to be a temple and there were little shrines on every corner with big stone statues of Ganesh, wrapped in cloth. We found the ATM and took out a straight million – we were now millionaires! We wandered down a road that looked quite busy but most places were shut – it was around 11 by now – we passed one or two food places and we found a KFC but it wasn't really what we wanted so headed nack to the first place we saw. Luckily we had had some Indonesian food in Singapore already, so we knew what some of the menu was. We had nasi goreng and a couple of beers – fried rice with chicken and an ommelette on top. It cost us thousands. We went home and I found what seemed to be a leech wriggling around on the bathroom floor. And a cockroach. And loads of mosquitos. We bought some mossie coils and spray.
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| Kuta Beach |
The next day we went out to explore Kuta properly. Kuta is meant to be where it's all happening on Bali – where all the bars and clubs are, all the shops and the best beach. We walked down the road to the beach and looked in a few shops. Lots of tat aimed at Australians such as stubby holders, strange T-Shirts and sweary stickers. We saw one nice shop with loads of beautiful wood carvings of Balinese dancers and Hindu gods. It all looked a bit expensive. We got to the beach and stopped by some blokes to ask about prices of car hire. Bindya haggled with him and got him down to 100 grand for a small car per day. I wasn't sure about it so said we'd come back. 100 grand is about 8 quid so we realised we might be on for a good deal with the car hire. The beach was thoroughly disappointing. It was big but sloped very steeply into the water, with dirty, course sand, loads of rubbish on it.
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| The Bikes |
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| Statues like this everywhere you go |
We walked around a bit more, found a few of the smaller streets with shops on them – Poppies I and Poppies II – saw more of the same old tat. We stopped into a cafe that claimed free wifi and had a drink. The wifi didn't work. We continued down the road and it got dark and started lashing down with rain. We ran down a road and into some place that looked half decent. It was owned by an Aussie or something so did western food as well as Indonesian. We had a bite to eat and the rain eased off a bit so that it was just heavy rain, instead of insanely heavy rain. We asked another place about a car and he offered us a medium sized car for 150 K per day. After having seen a few of the cars around, I realised that I wouldn't fit in the smaller car. We jumped in a cab to get back which took us back and drove past the busy bar area – wasn't very busy but had a few people out. We got back and I killed a few more cockroaches before bed.
The next day we were about to head out when the rain started early so we sat in our room for a bit. By this point we had realised that it was the Very Heavy Rain season in Indonesia. We decided to change our plan of travelling up through Java and Sumatra before getting to Thailand and just go straight to Thailand instead. After a few hours the rain had eased enough for us to head out so we went to a small cafe we'd been to that had good Wifi. We sat around there for a bit, sorting out our travel plans, booking a flight to Thailand, catching up with stuff etc. We had a bite to eat and it was already getting dark so we went to find the car hire bloke. We asked to see the car and he said that I should go and 'leave the lady' at the office. I said that Bindya should come along as well but it turned out that I had to get on the back of a moped so Bindya stayed. He drove us around long, wet and busy alleyways, just in time for the rain to start again, until we arrived at a car park with a few cars in it. He found the one he was hiring out after trying the keys in a few different doors. It took about 5 mins to get it started but it looked and sounded OK so I said yeah and we went back and gave him loads of money on the promise that he'd deliver it to our hotel the next morning. Job done, we bought some postcards and went for an Indian.
Next morning I was up earlyish to check over the car and get the keys. It looked a bit shabbier than when I'd seen it last night but then it was a lot lighter. It took us around 15 mins to mark all the existing damage and the bloke got annoyed with his assistant when I pointed out that the petrol cap was on the roof. After we got packed up, we asked the woman behind the desk if she could book us back in again for 3 days time. She said that was fine and we could pay when we came back. We loaded our stuff in the car and set off. This was the start of the most stressful and terrifying driving experience I have ever had. Our first task was to find some petrol so we had to drive around Kuta a little bit.
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| Neil driving the car |
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| The cheeky Monkeys.... |
The cars were generally OK apart from randomly choosing which side of the road to drive on and making a third lane on a road where there wasn't really room for two but the mopeds and motorbikes were driven by blind, suicidal maniacs. After about 5 mins of stopping, swerving, braking and swerving again, Bindya said that the bikes would probably take care of themselves and I should just ignore them. I took this advice on board and pretended that they weren't there. Driving became a little easier. We got petrol (people serve you at the petrol pump – you don't even have to get out of your car!) and hit the open road. We sat in traffic for about half an hour then hit the smaller roads. A lot of small, winding roads later we arrived at Ulu Watu, which is a temple on the South coast of Bali, built into a cliff. As we paid our entrance fee of about 5000 Rp, an old woman came up to Bindya and waved a stick at her. “I'll come with you!”, she said, “Protect you from the monkeys!”. We politely declined and decided to take our chances with the monkeys. The sign outside told us to remove anything that might be grabbed form our bodies, such as hats, sunglasses and earrings. Suitably stripped down, we nervously headed in. There were a lot of monkeys. Mainly they just sat around on the road and looked at us out of the corner of their eyes. If one got too near I waved a stick at it threateningly. They seemed to get the idea.
The temple itself was quite small but a spectacular location on top of the cliff. We took loads of photos and wandered around, getting very hot and sweaty within minutes. We couldn't wait to get back in the car and stick the aircon on.
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| Ulu Watu in the distance |
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| Some of the temple up close |
After this we headed over to Nusa Dua which was meant to have a beautiful beach. It was part of some massive resort that had police checkpoints looking in our car and stuff. We parked, went out, looked at the beach, were rather disappointed, got back in the car and drove off.
After this we were to head up to Ubud where we planned to spent the next couple of nights. Ubud is about 30 Kms North, so it shouldn't be taking us long to get there. We didn't have a road map. About 3 or 4 hours later we arrived at Ubud. We saw lots of scenic villages and stuff on the way...
We parked near a place we'd emailed for accomodation but they were full, some bloke on the street showed us his place across the road. It was a simple room with a fan but had a beautiful view across the rice paddies. We got him down to 275 000 Rp for two nights (about 20 quid) so we agreed straight off. We unloaded our stuff and looked through a little booklet they had which listed all the different things to do and shows to see etc. and planned our stay.
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| The view from our Balcony in Ubud...stunning |
We decided to head to the tourist information centre in order to see what shows were on that evening as I was seriously missing seeing some form of theatre. We headed out and took the long route so we could see Ubud. It was a nice place, chilled, obviously full of shops owned by women who had read “Eat, Pray and Love”. We then arrived to the information place and spoke to the lady who helped us choose from all the shows...so much choice it was hard. Me and Neil agreed that since we were here 2 nights we could have one choice each and tonight was mine. I choose the Legong Dance and Ramayana at the palace, however due to a religious event taking place there it was moved to another temple. We still wanted to go so we bought our tickets, £5 each, and headed to the temple. When we arrived we were greeted by many people, some trying to check out tickets, others trying to sell us drinks and food. As we had not had any dinner we choose to bargain for beer which we got at a good rate. We were one of the first people there so took front row and waited. The temple setting was beautiful, the ornate designs on the doors, the umbrellas beside the door looking like the chariot covers you find in the BBC2 Mahabharat show and lights and flowers on the stage. We read up on our leaflet checking what Legong dance was and the story we were going to see. The show seemed to be split into 2 parts. One a story about 2 brothers fighting over land in the form of the Legong Dance and the other the Ramayana story told through Balinese dance. I knew the story well having been raised with it and also teaching it as a Year 7 SOW.
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| The Setting fo the Legong Dance and Ramayana |
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| Legong Dance |
After a while the muscians came on and did an musical introduction, it sounded amazing, the bells, echo, drums and the faces of most of the musicans showed their enjoyment of their craft. Then 2 women came out and started to play out the Legong Dance, it was amazing to see, the expressionsless face, open wide eyes which tell the story, the movements which are synchronised and gracefully performed.
I was captivated and I thought Neil was too (later he told me he was a little scared at first but then loved it). After this dance we had a small break and then started with the Ramayana. The dance, mime, expessions, costume were excellent, I was totally focused on it. What blew me away was when Sita was sad about being away from Ram and the dancer managed to make a single tear fall from her face, it really made me feel her pain. The kids playing the monkeys (followers of Hanuman) were cute with their playfulness and the funny element of a little panto scene (no idea why). During the performance there was a storm outside and the contrast of the temple, show and the storm made the evening atmospheric.
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| Hanuman the Monkey God |
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| Rama and Sita |
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| An emotional Sita...breathtaking |
It was a great performance and we loved it.
At the end of the performance it was still raining and we decided that we would try and walk down and grab a taxi. We did and he took us to a little restaurant near our hotel (mainly so we could get the password of their wi-fi and steal it for later) where we got some food before heading back to the hotel.
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| Outside the elephant caves |
Next morning we woke up and got breakfast on our balcony overlooking out beautiful view over the rice fields. Then we headed off for our day of sightseeing. We took the car and heading to Goa Gajah. We went in again having to place a ribbon across our waist (no sarong as we already knew how to dress when going to sacred places) and heading in. We shook off any people trying to give us a tour and just went at our own pace around the place. We did get a guy take us into the elephant caves which on the outside are ornate and detailed and in the inside dark and slightly creepy.
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| Broken Buddha |
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| Tiny offerings found everywhere |
After this we explored the gardens and broken buddha. Me and Neil loved the nature, the place was beautiful and was so photogenic. We then went up lots of steps to a small temple where a priest (gestured to us and used some English words) to tell us we can get a blessing, so we did. After spending most of the morning there we headed off and headed for another temple. This one was called Gunung Kawi, a place considered for Unesco heritage, and has 8m high carvings on either side of a river. We again drove there then took a long walk downhill (many steps) seeing people working on rice fields, working on their small stalls and children playing. Again a beautiful and picturesque place. The photos do more justice than my explanation.
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| Close up statues |
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| Gunung Kawi |
After snapping away and spending a few hours there, we headed back up the long staircase and decided to head back to the hotel to relax before we went out to see another performance tonight.
I really fancied seeing the Balinese Shadow Puppet show so we walked up to the hotel where it was at. We were there a bit early so browsed around the gallery shop they had there. When it was time we sat down on some plastic seats with about 5 other people. There was a sheet stretched across a gap, with a paraffin lamp behind it. Some bloke came in and explained a little bit about the different characters. There was only one puppeteer with a couple of assistants and some blokes playing music. The show itself was a bit difficult to follow as it was mainly in Indonesian with occasional 'humorous' bits in English. The story mainly involved a lot a fighting towards the end. What I was impressed with was the way that the puppeteer deliberately used blurring of the shadows that gave the illusion of 3D. It had me quite involved for a while but I think Bindya got a bit bored by all the fighting. The puppets were all very intricate and pretty too.
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| Shadow Puppet Show |
After the show we went out to find a place to eat – most places shut pretty early so the ones we found were all quite expensive but we eventually settled on a small organic cafe and had the usual. Absolutely tiny portions again... As we got back to our place I saw a bloke with a long rake, hitting it against the floor. I thought he was a bit odd and let Bindya walk in front of me to pass him. He shouted over, “Don't come this way! It's a snake!”. I stopped but Bindya obviously didn't hear him and kept walking. I shouted after her again and we carefully walked around the other side of the building, jumping at every leaf and twig.
Next day we enjoyed our last morning with our view and a great breakfast before checking out and heading for a drive (scenic way) back to Kuta. We drove to some rice terraces – amazing while being hassled about things to buy.
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| The Rice Terrances |
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| Bali Mountains |
We then drove to see a different side of Bali – the mountains which we stopped and took in. As we didn't really have a good map we were guessing where we were going and this wasn't working as we got on roads that were small, lots of uphill stuff which was not good for the car as it stalled every time it went into 3rd gear. It was very foggy up in the mountains and so driving was a little scary.
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| Very foggy road |
Somehow we managed to do a complete circle and end up in the same place so we took the clear route back to Kuta via Legion and took in the city like, busy, tourist areas. We arrived back out out hotel to check in and get the car picked up, but when we arrived they had nothing about our arrival and did not have any rooms left. After a heated debate we left to find a place to stay for the night. After looking at a few places and bartering we found somewhere, the problem was there was no electricity in the area and so we just had to hedge our bets that it would be back soon. Neil went off to drop off the car while I stayed in the hotel, it was getting dark and hot but the air con didn't work so I couldnt do a lot. Later on (few hours later) the lights came back on we could now shower, get ready and head out on the town. We decided to visit the Bali bomb memorial in Kuta before heading for some cocktails, drinks and then dinner.
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| Memorial |
In the morning we checked out and headed to the airport for our flight to Bangkok.
A very big THANK YOU to Pete and Gina as their generous wedding present got us a week in Bali. We has a fantastic time and some amazing memories. Postcard on it's way to you.
Around Bali and Kuta
Temples in Bali
Ubud and Balinese Dance
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