Ubud and just Bali

Our first two days in Bali were spent lounging around on Kuta beach. Not much to report here and actually I just want to write about Ubud. 

We left Kuta for Ubud Wednesday afternoon and it seems that our luck with transport is still a bit rotten. The bus broke down and we had to get out and give it a push up the road. Nothing to complain about apart from the fact that I did notice Katie Finn cheekily stayed in the bus while the rest of us huffed and puffed the bus up the road. Anyway, we got to Ubud and after dumping our bags in the hostel ran out the door to catch a traditional dance performance in one of the local temples. Local dancers told us the story of their legendary Sita princess in traditional costumes. The music was made by the voices of the men and we were engrossed for the full show. We rounded off the evening having some Balinese tapas before bed. 

Our continuing bad luck with transport didn't end with the bus. Just after I asked Katie - and I mean literally within a second - if she trusted me enough to drive her around all day on a moped, we skidded on some sand at the bottom of a tiny bump in the road and off we toppled off to the side. In fairness, it was the slowest fall in the history of mopeds falls. My leg was a bit scratched but no injuries to report. The biggest victim was the right mirror, smashed into pieces. We were lucky that a lady from the salon across the road, Sri, saw what happened and took us in. She cleaned up my wound and took our bike to a garage down the road where they replaced the mirrors for 5$. We struck gold with her. Such a genuinely nice person who actually apologised to us about the that the mirrors costing so much.

Happy to report the rest of our day went a hell of a lot better. We must have driven at least 50km through small villages, past hundreds of Hindu temples and not to forget the amazing rice terraces we came across. After stopping for a tea we climbed down into the terraces and found ourselves being led around the different levels by a local farmer who showed us a few things we wouldn't have found ourselves. The rest of our day was then spent finding our way back to Ubud and eating suspicious looking tofu from a local cafe. When we got back to Ubud we ended up visiting a Monkey Sanctuary in the centre of Ubud. We were a bit wary of them seeing as they were fighting with each other, grabbing things from other people and lifting up the skirts of some women. Awkwardly, one man asked such a woman if she was hiding a banana up her skirt. Scarlet for all involved. 

Our second day in Ubud has beaten all so far. We enjoyed driving around by ourselves the day before but the cycling tour we booked with Bali Emerald was unbelievable. We were picked up at 7.45 from our hostel along with our other tour members. I won't go into too much detail because this post will become a mile long but here's a rough breakdown:

- stopped at coffee plantation where we got some insight into coffee harvesting. Tried all sorts of teas and coffees - Katie got a cup of the famous Kopi Luwak or CAT-POO-CCINO as we heard someone say. Seeing as I'm suffering from 'Bali belly' at the moment I stuck to the teas.

- second stop was for breakfast with a spectacular view of Kintamani Volcani and Batur lake. Picture below, the black part to the left of the slope is lava from an eruption 20 years ago.

- freewheeeled 20KMs downhill through the most amazing Balinese countryside.

- stopped at the holy Banyon Tree on the island. We were embarrassed because a couple of tourists were swinging out of the vines, which was clearly requested not to happen. The ladies were also requested not to approach the tree if they were menstruating, cue some discrete conversations on the side between a few tourists. 

- finally ended the tour by cycling the last 4km uphill and after wiping the sweat off our faces sat down to a local Indonesian lunch overlooking rice terraces. Not a bad way to spend the day. 

Then to take the edge off our strenuous workout we called in to the salon of our friend Sri (the lady who saved us in our moped skid) for a Balinese massage and floated in dream land for the rest of the day.

Having a cup of the good stuff:

Mount Batur Volcano, Kintamani:

Banyon Tree:

Our third day in Ubud went something like this...we got up reasonably early, had breakfast and mooched around the market for a while. Katie is an awful influence. After six months of travelling almost I haven't bought one souvenir. One morning with her and I've a bag full of stuff. Anyway, one fish pedicure, one actual pedicure and one portion of street vendor noodles later we found ourselves hiring a driver (that's how we roll) to take us to the Tanah Lot temple on the west coast. Except he didn't just drive us there. He took us to another coffee plantation, the royal family temple (no menstruating ladies allowed!) and then Tanah Lot. Now, be warned, Tanah Lot is jammers with tourists but for a very good reason; it's out of this world beautiful. Then the evening we spent eating chicken and pork sate and black rice pudding from a local restaurant. Bliss.

Fish pedicure:

Ubud statue by local market:

Royal Family Temple:

Tanah Lot Temple:

That's that for now. Tomorrow morning we have an early start to go off and catch a boat to the Gili islands where I expect to snorkel to my hearts content. 

If you are interested, below is a couple things we learned about Balinese culture: (and mostly because I can't help myself). 

• a baby does not touch the ground for the first three months of it's life.
• the husband assumes all the wife's chores for the first three months of above baby's life.
• placenta of new born is buried within family compound in a coconut to ask spirits to protect the child. 
• yellow and white means a balance between holiness and purity. 
• black and white means a balance between good and bad, meaning security.
• offerings to spirits (good and bad) are made twice a day by families. Little banana leaf trays are filled with food and flowers and left on pavements in the morning and evening.
• people have their teeth filed in straight lines to remove any 'imperfections' in their characters.
• they believe in reincarnation - but that an ancestor will come into the body of a baby - not a random spirit.
• a Balinese house (compound) is split into three; head (temple and grandparents house), body (family celebrations like funerals, weddings and baptisms) and legs (sleeping area, kitchen and toilet). 
• when people die they are buried for five years then dug up and cremated in a mass cremation. We were told this was the split the cost of the cremation.
• Bali Hindus sell their beef to the Muslims while the Muslims sell their pork back to the Hindus. 

Offerings:

Cambodia to Bali.

Since I last wrote a lot has happened. I went back to the school for my last two weeks in Cambodia. I've been to Singapore for a weekend and now I'm sitting in a hammock in beautiful Bali, enjoying my few weeks before I go home. 

Yes, home as in home, home. 

I just don't know where the last couple of months have gone, it's crazy how fast the time has flown by and my thoughts keep meandering to finding a job when I get back...but less about that for the moment.

Going back to the school in Cambodia was the best decision. I mean, I didn't get to see everything I wanted in Cambodia but that stuff will always be there. The children I've gotten to know and the other volunteers, well they won't be there if I come back in a few years. Easy decision. And while I didn't get my old classes back I got to help out in other areas I didn't the last time round. For example: supervising a Microsoft Office class, teaching ABC's to brand new beginners and also 'helping' out with PE. I also just spent a lot of time sitting out in front of the school with the kids, the other volunteers and Visal, the most head strong two year old in Cambodia.

The night before myself and Cecile were due to leave the village for good there was a party in the village, though not for us. It was an amazing way to say goodbye and see all the kids happy and dancing. What happens in Cambodia is that everyone dances around a table with flowers on it and all the kids were trying to give us flowers to put in our hair. There wasn't a flower left on the table within an hour and us volunteers looked like we had gardens growing out of our heads. It was so nice to say our last evening was spent dancing up a storm on the streets of the village surrounded by all the children we've been teaching the last couple of months.

Needless to say I balled my eyes out crying when I left the village the following morning. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it but Visal gave me a cuddle and the girls followed me out the gate waving goodbye. I cried the whole kilometer walk out to the main road in the blistering heat carrying my backpack. How embarrassing. But then when I was waiting for the 'bus' an old Khmer lady offered me a seat on her bag of rice so that cheered me up a bit. There was also an old man on the 'bus' who seemed to think my white skin was absolutely hilarious.  I'm even tanned at the moment. 

So then, I hopped a plane to Singapore to stay with pals, Katy and Matt, and not only that but to meet the one and only Katie Finn after 6 months apart. I won't go on too much about Singapore since I've already been there and we'll go back again before jetting home at the end of March. 

At this exact moment we are in Kuta, Bali. It's a bit unbelievable to be honest. We were looking at the map and just can't quite picture that we are on this little island in Indonesia below the equator.  Not that it was easy getting here. Katie asked me that morning if I'd ever missed a flight and until that day I could say that I hadn't. And we jinxed ourselves, not for the last time, because we did in fact miss our flight to Bali. Spectacularly.

Here's what didn't go our way:

- we just didn't leave early enough. It's a fact but we just didn't anticipate the rest of our problems.

- couldn't book a taxi. 

- couldn't hail a taxi when on the street. 

- had to walk to the metro station and the metro was an asshole. 

- couldn't pay for a ticket with a card and had to change money.

- had to change metro trains twice on top of everything.

- arrived at airport and proceeded very wilfully to the wrong terminal.

- check-in lady at wrong terminal didn't spot our mistake very quickly and tried to check us in for at least 15 minutes. 

- we had to take a train to the right terminal. 

- Desk staff at AirAsia less than helpful. 

You can just imagine the sweat coming off us. Although Katie said travelling must suit me because if this was six months ago I probably would've tortured and murdered a few innocents along the way and I 'seem calm' now. So nice when friends can be honest with each other. In the end it only cost us 35eur each to catch the next flight out at midday which, as luck would have it, we were just about on time for. 

So, after our interesting journey we finally arrived in Bali. We are staying in a little hostel called Granny's where we've met great people, spent the day on Kuta beach watching surfers getting bashed by waves and later today we are heading to culture capital Ubud further inland. 

We might have missed our flight but, whatever.