beautiful BALI

I arrived in Bali later in the evening when it was already dark. I had asked about the taxi price earlier so when the taxi guys wanted to give me a high price I insisted on mine and walked away. And tadaaa, it worked. I arrived at 9 pm at Big Pineapple Hostel in Sanur when the reception was already closed. Luckily a girl from my room showed me where I would sleep. Upper bunk of course with a horrible way of climbing and all possibilities left for throwing everything down at all sides of the bed. There was no A/C, but only a fan, which somebody put off in the middle of the night and it got sooo hot. The hostel is a party location. Lots of youngsters, partying loudly all night, watching TV and jumping into the pool next to our dorm door. Bloody fantastic. I feel kinda old but then I have never been a party person and this might just not be suited for me anyway. But what really annoys me is that when you get to the big table in the center of the open-built hostel, that either everybody is staring at their mobiles or when I try to talk to most of them they just look at me like: who are you? There are a few nice people though of course. After arriving and dropping my stuff on the first night I went to a small street food restaurant, where I got some rice and vegetables for 1,50 EUR (20.000 Ind. Rupee). The next morning I joined 2 girls for breakfast at exactly the same restaurant as the night before. So it was rice and other stuff again and a coffee (also called Kopi here). The girls and me didn’t really enjoy each others’ company and it was raining a lot, for which I luckily brought my Batman-like poncho. Afterwards I just relaxed a little and then went for a walk around, dropped off my laundry and stuff like that. The area around the hostel is not that beautiful. Because of the heat when you walk through the streets it smells badly because of all the junk that has been dumped there. Each house does tiny spiritual offerings, which are eaten by animals of course (I saw several small rats running around). Offerings can be anything: food (often rice), a bit of coffee or also a cigarette. I was told that Hinduism tells everybody to share what they have and live together in harmony. Offerings can be done in round, flowery, triangle or square shapes which all have different meanings. In the afternoon I went to the beach (again not the best and most beautiful route), where I met an American named Joshua, who planned to be instructing divers in Indonesia for the next 2 years. And at the café where had a coffee and a beach lounger I also met Blacky who was spreading his touring flyers on the beach. He is a Balinese rastaman and seemed very nice. The car on his flyer looked very peculiar (jeep-style) and the price was okay. So I stared at his and another guides flyer for quite a while until I finally decided on choosing Blacky. I asked him if we could have an individual tour up to the North and if he could drop me in Ubud later (center of Bali) so I didn’t have to take another shuttle. Sure, that was fine with him. I told him I had to think about it a little but booked the next morning at my hostel. The night was quite horrible as first the people were behaving strangely again and then when I spent my time watching a movie (there is a cool open air movie area) and had went to bed in the middle of the night there some crazy people loudly singing, putting the TV very loud and then jumping into the pool all the time. Thanks a lot, guys. Anyway I woke up quite early and went to do some working and finishing my Malaysian blog post. I had some trouble getting the mails to my colleague and had nearly decided on a taxi to Starbucks, which they say has great wifi, but then I managed. There was a big cockroach trying to climb up my foot….baaaaaaaaaaaaaah! After lunch I went to the DHL only to find out that the guys couldn’t send out regular mail stuff so I kind of cursed Bali in front of him, told him this had already been a shitty day but then also apologized because I didn’t mean him personally of course. I was just so pissed in general that nothing worked around here. I think I’m gonna get back there and apologize again… Finally at 2 pm I headed off for the beach again, booked a surfer course and then a beach lounger again at my favourite bar. Joshua was there again as well as a German couple I had spoken to for a while last time. Joshua introduced me to Carla (who I think named herself after her beauty products, because they also were named Carla). They got me into having my nails done. She cleaned them and painted them (toes and fingers) pink with flowers. Sooo girlish. But I have to admit that with my mini-sun tan: pink is my colour. The rest of the day was quite calm and nothing really happened, especially not at the hostel after dark. On Wednesday I had a rather special day and for the first time in Bali I had fun all over: I made a trip to the North with Blacky in his VW Kübelwagen jeep with open front window and open roof and playing very relaxing Reggae music. He picked me up at about 9 am and dropped me in Ubud, in the center of Bali at about 5 pm. The daytrip only cost 500.000 (32 EUR). At first Blacky got me to a quite touristy Balinese dancing show, which took one hour. It was fascinating, although I did not understand the whole story that was behind it. In the beginning there was a huge beast called Barong (the good spirit) with a clapping mouth and 4 feet (two people under the very hairy costume) approaching cautiously. After its bit a monkey came on the stage, which’s actor was sooo good you could really take him for a monkey, scratching itself everywhere and moving the head. After a while a few human people entered, obviously royal persons, 2 brothers, then their father and mother and finally their sister, all in beautiful costume. They were all attacked by a two-footed beast called Rangda (the bad spirit, who had also a lot of hair). Now everything went haywire, but all the fighting and acting was done in an impressing manor. When Blacky and I went back to the car it was surrounded by silver tourist vans and was really an eye-catcher. And if this was not enough, the car had a built-in sound-device: it could moo like a cow!!! And Blacky used the button quite often, so people were always looking at us and laughing, smiling or waving. Our next stop, which we did very quickly, was a waterfall, beautifully set in the jungle surroundings, after which we went through lots of villages, where you could see hundreds of family temples. Blacky told me that every family has to have their own family temple – and they are huge! In front of every of the temples were long bamboo sticks with braided dried leafs around it. I was told that there are 1000 temples alone on Bali and that the Balinese Hindu culture is an aspect of everyday life, viewable also in the streets: in front of every house, mostly on the sidewalk, you can see small offerings differing in shape and content. There are small triangle, rectangle, round and flower-shaped braided baskets containing mostly rice, flowers, but also other food, sometimes a wrapped candy or even a cigarette. Share what you have is the thing on Bali. On the next stop – a rice terrace valley surrounded by trees – I was the only tourists and so all the selling women came on to me and shoved their postcards into my face. I said no, but ordered a coffee with one. Then we visited a rather big Balinese temple. As Blacky and me had both long enough clothes we just put a shawl around our waists. Usually the shorts-wearing tourists are made to wear a sarong. Finally at 2 pm we reached the Batur volcano with lake next to it. As the road up there costs money, Blacky went on a totally crumbling 1m-wide road through the fields, which seemed quite adventurous. It had been raining and we were pretty far up, so it was rather cool but dry. We stopped at a restaurant with lake and volcano view which was really awesome! The restaurant sat on the volcano rim and the rest of the rim and the top of the volcano were covered in clouds. I had some chicken and Blacky had some fish from the lake. He seemed to try to eat with fork and knife (they don’t do that around here – they use spoon, fork and probably hands), but when I got my hands to rip the chicken apart, he also did that with his fish. ;-) For “dessert” we were at a coffee plantation and tried (well, I did) different sorts of tea and coffee: ginger, ginseng, vanilla, cocoa and other sorts. I also had a kopi luwak (weasel coffee). The beasts eat the coffee beans and when they are out of their body again they are cleaned and roasted as the usual beans. It costs me 50.000 (about 3,50 EUR) to try a cup. It was okay, but I wouldn’t buy a kg for 170 US-$. It is not that good. On the way to Ubud we passed through a town. Suddenly Blacky stopped and told me: hey, I don’t like you anymore, get in the back. I thought “WTF??!” but he was just kidding. No, just go standing up in the car, because parking in this town is expensive and to see the rice valley that they have here, just stand up and watch. And so I did. Lastly he dropped me in Ubud at my hostel “Happy Mango Tree” and we said our goodbyes. After checking in and making myself comfortable for a little while I went to dinner with three Scandinavian girls (Sandra, Sarah and Ronja) from the hostel. We had drinks and tapas in Havanna bar, where they had a real latin music band consisting of Indonesians, who played quite well. Next day I was hanging out in the mango tree all morning, had breakfast there, rent a motorbike, and had lunch at a cheap place on my street. Then I took the motorbike, went to the post office and sent out my hopefully last package home. Then I bought a ticket to Sanur and saw the monkey forest. Lots of cute little monkeys are running around there or hopping onto people if they come to close and/or carry bananas. After I met up with Meiyu at the palace and we went by motorbike to Bali Buda Café, an awesome veggie/vegan food and smoothies place, where the menu came as a newspaper. Then we checked out 2 fancy yoga places – one in town and one in the middle of some rice fields up on a hill, where I almost couldn’t get up with the motorbike: lots of holes and totally steep. In the fields we met Ted, an American who was taking photos there. I found him a little too self-centered but quite okay and so we three went out to dinner later. But before that I had the most amazing massage: 1.45H (for only 14 $). One hour full-body massage, then a scrub, then they smeared yoghurt all over me and after that I had half an hour all by myself in a giant bathtub with flowers of 6 different colours. I couldn’t get up the next morning to do the rice-paddy-yoga course…but instead hung out half the day at the hostel with several people, including Meiyu, an English girl who was travelling for 2 years and some Dutch guys. In between I felt a little miserable (probably the heat) and I also talked almost 2 hours to Tina in New Zealand, catching up on things and deciding about our rental car. It will probably be 10 days with a sleeper van (which will get VERY cozy, as the bed is only 1m wide) and after that a normal car as we want to continue travelling together and not get fed up with each other through a too small car and too less personal space. Finally I headed off to the city center on foot, visited the palace temple complex and then endured a lot of hellos and what-are-you-looking-fors on the market. I came home with a light beach bag and a light black dress though. At 6pm my shuttle bus drove off to Sanur and dropped me near the Big Pineapple (so I had stayed just in a sort of fruit salad: pineapple and mango). I went to cheap dinner with some nice people and went to bed quite early, because of my amazing surfing lesson the next day. The driver picked me up at 7.30h and the course started a little later with some theory and then we headed out with a boat to the riff off-shore. The weather was very bright, not much wind (perfect for surfing, I was told), but we had to wait around for waves. I actually managed to stand up and surf a while several times. Yeah – I am a cool surfer girl! After 2 hours it was over, but it really feels a little addictive, so I was thinking about taking another lesson. After I got back I rented a motorbike – again – this also feels very addictive! Although I have a helmet on and no wind in my hair, it still feels like it. When taking a tour around Sanur and hanging out on the beach a little I was stopped by the police. And for what? For STOPPING at the red light and not go straight to the left. Crazy country. But I merely received a warning because my paperwork was right and I really HAVE a motorbike driver’s license. I even got used to driving on the left side after a while. Wow! That might mean that I am ready for driving in Australia and New Zealand as well.

Epilogue: Eventually I did take another surfing lesson, this time on a smaller board. It was so much harder keeping your balance on this one and the waves were much higher even though there were lots of longer pauses in between. After that I quickly showered in the hostel and me and a German girl called Hanna took a taxi to the airport. The paperwork went really smoothly so I had some time to spend my last money. And then, just before the gate opened, Jetstar informed us that the flight was canceled and would be scheduled for the next morning. Okay…PANIC! Where do I sleep? I have no money left (and don’t wanna get more Ind. Rupee for this)! How do I get my baggage? Jetstar was a bit chaotic on informing everybody (very big airplane=many people), but I was quick and managed to get my stuff done and catch a transportation early. Two hours later I sat in the arranged and free of charge Bestwestern in Kuta. Transportation back to the airport: 3 am in the night. But it’s a nice hotel. I can manage to spend some hours here and I already had a very nice chat to Paola from Melbourne - we had dinner together.