Round the World Journal
by Matt Donath
(Note: The Indonesian rupee fluctuated from between 16000 and 11000 to 1US$ during our month long stay in Bali. The most common exchange rate was about 12800 to the dollar.)
July 14. We're off! Of course we stay with tradition and get a late start to Changi Airport. Rushing into the terminal we discover that our Garuda flight is delayed, first from 9:20 a. m. to 11:30 a. m., and then until 1:45 p. m. No worries. Sybil stretches out on the floor for a nap while I go exploring. Wandering around upstairs I discover the airport's new "Multi-Religious Prayer Room" tucked away down a corridor.
I think they put the Prayer Room out of the way for quiet and solitude. Maybe no one can find it though because it's deserted. Changi Airport Magazine describes the place as follows:
"Wood paneling and dark green carpets give a warm and cozy touch to the room. A wooden shoe rack has also been provided for the neat placement of shoes. The tiled wash area, done up in blue and green, is bigger, with benches for greater convenience."
Looks good to me. I wake Sybil up and bring her over to perform our HEN ritual boko-maru. We pray for a safe journey.
Our prayers are answered a few hours later when we arrive in Bali. Outside the tiny airport the taxi drivers want US$10 for a ride to Ubud. We walk 100 meters towards the road and the price becomes 60,000 rupees. Another 100 meters brings us down to 37,000 rupees. I'm sure we could have kept going and found cheaper but that seemed good to us.
The jeep winds its way down crowded narrow streets filled with treacherous traffic for a bit more than an hour before reaching Ubud. We just grab the first place we see on Monkey Forest Road, a room in a place called Lumbung Sari Cottages (0361 976393) for 50,000 rupees, including breakfast. It has hot water, a lovely garden, and a huge bathroom with vines creeping up one wall. Not bad, but a bit dark and not especially quiet.
July 15. After checking out several places, we move over to Warsa Bungalow (0361 975590), just a bit further south on Monkey Forest Road. I can recommend this place with its pleasant garden, quiet setting, hot water, and good breakfast. Bungalow prices are 35k-50k. The owner's name is Wayan and he is very enterprising. He will go out of his way to help you if you need something.
OK, since we're not far from the Monkey Forest we decide to check it out. They have some interesting statues near the water temple, including some fabulous moss-covered lizards lurking on the slope. Gravesites scatter the hills. A larger temple sits at the back, but most people come here just to feed the monkeys so they are far too used to people. One monkey bites a kid on the shoulder sending him squalling to his parents. Another steals some food from a child, climbing on her head and bringing an angry mother to the rescue. Nasty things.
We talk with some students (mostly to Lucy) visiting from Central Washington University. They are spending a month observing the (bad) behavior of the monkeys. Nice place to do your research, but some of the students are a bit bored of sitting around all day watching monkeys.
The rest of the afternoon is spent wandering around. We eat a tasty dinner at the Balina Lagoon Restaurant (10 Kajeng Street) for 15k. On the way back we walk by the Ubud Palace. A Barong and Legong dance performance is just about to start, so we pop in.
After the gamelon orchestra bangs out an overture we watch a Legong Dance based on a 13th Century romance. A court lady dances an introduction, followed by two more female dancers playing a prince and princess. As we will later see in other Legong performances, this dance includes a battle and an omen in the form of a dancing bird.
The Barong Dance is quite entertaining with a large monster puppet being teased by two monkey characters.
Finally, we see a long dance drama in four acts depicting the Sunda Upasunda from the epic Mahabharata. Two giant brothers have their plans for dominion of heaven foiled by heavenly Bidadari nymphs. Stricken with love by one of the beguiling nymphs, the two giants fight each other, turning themselves into monsters and use up all of their powers -- very entertaining. This performance was by the Panca Artha troupe and I believe they show it every Wednesday.
July 16. If you stay at Warsa, you will no doubt be solicited by some local artists who pass through the garden during breakfast. We made it clear we weren't interested in purchasing but some would offer to show their work anyway. One of them even has a web page: (link dead now).
We head west to do some sawa (rice padi) trekking. On the Campuan Bridge we meet a vacationing college student named Nyoman who strikes up a conversation with us and winds up tagging along. This is a mixed blessing. On the one hand we are practicing our Indonesian and his English is pretty good. Plus he knows several shortcuts that would have taken us a bit to discover. On the other hand there are times when we'd prefer to be alone to bask in the wonder of the incredible scenery. We hike above and along the beautiful Ayung River and see some rafters disappointed by their short, $56 adventure ride.
I'll say more about sawa field trekking later, but this was the beginning of a favorite activity on Bali. It was an amazing day for us in many ways, but more to follow!
After buying lunch and drinks for Nyoman we agree to meet him later to go to his temple for the start of a festival. He says he will hire a car for us. We take a short rest and have a fancy dinner at Cafe Bali, sitting upstairs on tatami mats overlooking the rice fields with croaking frogs. Then we hurry over to the tourist office to meet Nyoman.
Hmm, he's not around, even after waiting for some time. A man at the tourist office tells us that the temple we want, Pura Taman, is not too far away. We hike over and find the festival in progress. We don't find Nyoman, but no matter. The celebration lasts nine days and they have different performances every night from 7:00 to about midnight. This is the first night and one of the most elaborate. To get in you need to don a sarong and a sash. Don't wear black - a white, long sleeved shirt is best.
We enter and sit entranced by the gamelon music as we watch the elaborate rituals. Women in colorful dress carry large baskets of fruit and cake offerings. Many of the men wear white shirts and headbands. They attend prayer sessions and just hang around. Everyone seems to be moving in and out, carrying things around the temple. There are three gamelon orchestras. One plays during the offerings and prayers. The other two trade off performing for the dance pieces.
The dances amaze us. We will wind up seeing many dance performances in Ubud but the Taman temple festival dances were among the best. After offerings and a prayer, the show begins:
A male dancer with a serious, frightening mask comes out and stomps on the offering. Perhaps a representation of a god?
A particularly memorable dance follows. A small, athletic man dances out wearing a goofy pig-like mask and a long-haired wig. He goofs around with the audience, usually with the few foreigners in attendance. He pretends to piss on the woman sitting next to me. He offers cigarettes around and smokes while dancing, pretending to ride a motorcycle and falling several times. During one fall he loses his hair. The performance was wildly popular with the locals. I'm guessing he was supposed to represent a demonic character - a naughty spirit with bad habits.
A woman dances and sings. Then she goes into a long (complaining?) monologue with the audience. Another woman joins her. She appears to be a goddess figure and may be teaching her acolyte. After some more dancing they engage in a series of questions and answers before dancing away.
The last dance we saw that night was most interesting. A stern, traditional warrior dances out and starts directing the gamelon orchestra. He seems to be running them through a mock practice of the traditional Kecak dance chorus: "chak-chak". Then he makes fun of their efforts. A modern, sardonic warrior comes out and engages in a long dialogue with the traditional warrior. The sardonic warrior is more soft-spoken, but he's sarcastic and gets most of the laughs. We can make out that some of the references they make are to the economic reforms and the financial crisis. The audience laughs frequently. Finally a goddess figure dances out and the warriors seem to pay tribute to her.
It's an incredible experience sitting on the floor in the crowded, smoky temple watching the dances. We chat with some locals and near the end we sit with a bunch of Balinese children. A day and night to remember!
July 17. We hike north through sawa fields. If you head north on Kajeng street until it ends, turn left and go up the hill you will find the quickest path into the rice paddies. We come out onto a road and return through the towns of Sakti, Junjungan, and Tegaliantang. Sitting in a small warung, having a drink, Sybil practices her Indonesian with a small child. "Memberi" "mau" - "Give me, I want it."
At night we have a "mandi lulur" at Maria's beauty salon (0361 975622) on Monkey Forest road. We will return here many times during our stay and can highly recommend it. We usually just got a one-hour massage, but the mandi lulur consists of a one-hour massage followed by an herbal scrub, a steam bath, and a rose-petal bath (yes, the women there scrub you down in the bath). All this for 40k, although before we left the price increased to 50k. A massage alone is 35k and well worth it.
After dinner and a short arak (a palm brandy) with honey and lemon at Mendra's Cafe (0361 96236) we are too beat to return to the temple. We share a small pizza and drink papaya juice and lassis while watching The Truman Show on VCD. About half a dozen restaurants in town show VCD movies every night.
July 18-19. Spent these two days stretching, getting massaged, walking around, and lounging in the Warsa garden. We have a nice Rijstaffel lunch at the vegetarian Monkey Cafe.
At night we see dances, including the traditional Kecak and Fire dances. The Kecak Dance was created in the 1930's by two expats, painter Walter Spies and author Katharine Mershon. They took the ritual "chak-chak" chorus from the native sanghyang trance dances. We also see some of these original sanghyang trance dances. These are fascinating but I strongly suspect they fake the trances, even while doing the fire dances. Weeks later I discuss the issue with a dance expert and we agree that it's better if they do indeed fake the trance as it was originally only for religious ceremonies and it would seem strange if they went into a trance just for tourism. One theory we've heard is that the dance itself is sacred, so even if it is done for tourism it still has religious significance.
Anyway, getting back to the Kecak Dance, Spies and Mershon took elements from traditional dances, threw in story lines from the Ramayana epic, and created a choreography that reminds me of a Busby Berkley musical. The result is enjoyable and hugely popular. Wayan, proprietor of Warsa Bungalows, is one of the performers in the 100 man chorus. Just about every Balinese male above puberty must know how to do the Kecak. Seems fairly complicated to me but they tell me it's easy.
The Fire or Sanghyang Jaran Dance is equally fascinating. A huge bonfire of coconut husks is lit in the center of the stage. A male dancer, supposedly in a trance, pretends to ride a horse as he gallops around kicking the burning coconut husks around, often sending them flying into the audience. Some women behind us start screaming when some flaming husks come our way, but no one is hurt.
Unfortunately I'm injured in more tame surroundings - upstairs at the Cafe Bali. Leaning back while sitting cross-legged on a bamboo mat I put my hand down on a shard of broken glass from a broken lamp. Ouch! In the States the restaurant manager would have done backflips to try to prevent a lawsuit, but here they simply give me some iodine and a paper towel to mop up the blood. I was quite lucky as the glass went into my palm and not my wrist. It heals fairly quickly and I don't have problems with it.
July 20. We take a long, winding trek east to Pejeng. We visit some temples there but the real attraction is the hiking. At one point, while hiking down a ravine from a sawa field we find a gorge so narrow it appears to be a cave. Numerous waterfalls flow down the sides. We take a break here in this enchanting place, wading down the dimly-lit stream with water splashing down on our heads -- truly like something out of a "lost world" movie. It's so beautiful we can hardly believe it.
On the way back Sybil is intent not backtracking. I claim this is impossible and that we must make our way back along the road. She's stubborn though and insists on trying, even after several locals tell her it can't be done. In the end I follow her, knowing full well she is inadvertently heading in a circle. This is the wisdom of love. When I first met Sybil I would have been even more stubborn than she is and insisted she give up on her "idiotic" quest and go back to the road. Now I know better. I stop bitching and genuinely enjoy the walk, even knowing we're moving in a circle. Eventually we come back to the road and return to have some smoked duck, a local specialty, for dinner.
We've been asking a lot of locals what they think of the political situation. Most Balinese are decidedly apolitical and just want a stable situation. They think Habibe is OK - for now. The resent the Javanese to some extent for causing trouble on Bali. A few days ago, two Javanese men were captured in Denpasar after robbing a tourist. A crowd beat one of the men to death and broke the other man's leg. Despite harsh punishments like this, there appears to be a slight increase in crime on Bali. We heard about increased break-ins on expat homes. However, on the whole Bali still seems to be extremely safe and it has not experienced any of the large scale rioting that afflicted Java and Sumatra. I'm certain that the most dangerous thing a tourist on Bali will experience is the traffic.
July 21. We take a tour! This is a first for us. It's not an organized one though. Basically we have a driver who will take us anywhere we want to go until 4pm. There is a list of places on a set tour we can choose from. We decide to check them out and have the choice of spending as much time there as we'd like. In fact, they were going to cancel the tour because they needed a minimum of three people. At the last minute we persuade Kevin (our neighbor, hailing from Washington but lately living in Saipan) to join us.
First we go to Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave). This is a 13th century site with great sculptures on a cave face. Next we head to Klungkung to see Kertha Gosa, the old Justice Court. Some gruesome pictures of tortures of evil doers adorn the ceilings of the pavilions. Demons hold burning torches to a sinner's genitals, eviscerate another, saw the head off a third, and so on. A book in a museum in the back explains the lengthy story behind the many drawings. Passing by Bukit Jambul for a quick look at the view of rice terraces below, we see the same view we get during our sawa treks. Some kids beg here so it must be a popular stop.
Then we go to Besakih, the "Mother Temple" near volcanic Mt. Agung. This huge temple complex is fairly high up the mountainside, offering a sweeping panorama all the way south to the ocean. Next we go around the crater of the volcanic cone of Gunung Batur, overlooking the lake far down below. At Penelokan there are several buffet restaurants. Our driver recommends one, so we stop. It turns out to be a bit of a scam. The lunch is 30k each and not very good. Plus it's clear that the drivers have an arrangement with the management to bring people here. However the tour is only 35k each, so we don't mind buying the driver some lunch and letting him get his kickback.
Last on the tour is Tampaksiring, the Holy Spring. Its waters are supposed to be healing (Tirta Empul). Above this site is the former palace abode of first president Sukarno. Overall, it's a great tour.
At dinner at the Bamboo Restaurant, the waiter helps us decipher some cartoons. Many are political and refer to the rising price of cooking oil, rice, and other common items.
Back to the Taman Temple for more dances! We see many this evening including:
The dance that sticks out most is another version of comedic warrior dance/dialogue we saw our first night here. This one is much longer, more elaborate, and gets bigger laughs. The guys who play the traditional and "modern" warriors are more expressive. Once again we hear references to current affairs - the ekonomasi and reformasi. This time a third "leader" warrior comes out for dance and dialogue. As before, a goddess figure dances out at the end for a tribute.
July 22. We hike northeast, up through Keliki. Along the way we have trouble with village dogs. Bali has more dogs per square foot than any place I've seen. Some of them are the mangiest, most god-forsaken creatures on earth. Many have horrific bleeding wounds or limp around on damaged legs. For the most part they either leave you alone or just bark as you pass by. However, a few of them are nasty and will attack with snarls and snapping. For some reason, the dogs up near Keliki are really bad.
So, on the way back, we're watching out for these terrible dogs. Unfortunately, a stray dog picks that moment to enter town, just in front of us. One of these monster dogs comes up and chomps on the newcomer's throat and all the dogs in town start joining in a snarling, yelping, biting, free-for-all whirling dervish fur ball. We climb up into a sawa field to get out of the way.
No way are we going back that way now. We try cutting through the rice terraces but get stuck. We keep coming up to ravines or plateaus and can't find a way across them. Finally, we give up, return to the road, and start hiking north. A kid tells us there is a road heading east a few miles up so we head up there and eventually negotiate a ride back to Ubud with a local.
July 23th. We grab a tourist bus to Lovina for 13k each. Along the way we stop by Kintamani. Heavy smoke spews from the volcano. Following the winding road down to the sea we can see trucks loading mandarin oranges and smell the harvested cloves, left to dry in the sun. Eventually the bus pulls into one of the small, side streets that leads down to Lovina Beach.