I typed this entry on the plane ride back from Hong Kong and never got around to posting it. Its long, but I feel like its a good ending to an amazing adventure. There are no pictures as my computer crashed and its pretty hard to do uploading with large pic files on my dinky little samsung computer, but if visuals can be referenced at " http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1594843347862.2038552.1139280160&type=3 " I write my entries so that the words relate to visuals immediately afterwards, so hopefully its still readable without them. Hopefully the link works! Enjoy.
As the semester came to a close, I felt myself both excited for my trip to Bali as well as seeing my family again, and also trying to juggle group project deadlines and the anxiety brought on by final exams. Although I didn’t have all that much to study for, the ability to coast through a full semester with relatively low work effort and traveling all the time made cramming for exams painstaking. I found myself basically forcing myself to stay focused by any means necessary, trying not to succumb to the attractive calls of facebook, online television, and naps. I pulled through however, and ended up doing a great job on my group projects, as well as put myself into a good position for my final exams, all of which I feel went pretty well. Although I have not gotten any grades back, I believe I’ll do just as well this semester as I have been doing in the past (partially because HKUST was honestly much easier than UW Madison classes, despite HKUST’s #1 b-school status in Asia).
There really wasn’t that much time to celebrate being done with finals immediately after it was over, as I had to go straight to the computer lab to print some documents out at 8pm right after my final ended. I also had to eat, and by the time I got back to my room it was around 9:30 and I had not packed for Bali yet. My flight the next day was at 11, so I had to be up around 6:30 in order to give myself some good time to make the flight. I was going to be experiencing Bali with my friend George, one of my regular travel buddies. Although we attempted to find other people to come with us, the relatively high price tag for a ticket, combined with other people’s crazy exam schedules (George and I were lucky, and had ours finish very early) made getting other people to join us hard to find. We get along great though, so it wouldn’t be a problem traveling with just him (although the ideal group number is 3-4). In the end too it worked out great.
George’s trip almost started in disaster, as he slept through his initial alarm by about and hour and a half, and luckily I called him to make sure he was in transit to the airport, which woke him up and forced him to rush in order to make our flight. He ended up getting there just fine with some good time to spare as our flight left a bit late. The flight was long, a good 5 and a half hours, but once we landed and felt the hot air on us, we were thrilled. It was in the afternoon once we landed, and the Best Western had a car ready to take us into Kuta, Bali in the south where we would be spending the next handful of days.
The first night we settled in and got dinner on the Kuta strip. It was an expensive place in hindsight, but still delicious. There wasn’t much of a sunset as it was cloudy, but due to the sun being so bright as we were close to the equator, the heavy clouds still changed colors from red to orange to black as the sun went down. We were excited for a full day of sun and relaxation to come, and as we were a short walk to the beach, we were eager to sleep in, wake up, and just lounge around all day.
The Sun gods answered out prayers of clear skies the next day, and we woke up to blue sky which made us quickly get ready and head out into the sun. We ate breakfast bought some sunscreen, and then proceeded to completely burn to a crisp in a matter of a couple of hours. Good Lord is the sun strong in Bali. I got a little more burned as I decided to hop in the ocean a couple of times, which washed off some of the sun screen I think. We lounged outside until about 3, where we then got some lunch, cooled off at the hotel, and then made out way back to the beach at around 5 so we could surf and then watch the sunset. The surf was great, and it was fun to get on a board again after learning in the Galapagos almost two years ago. I didn’t have much trouble getting up, and I even caught a few really good waves that carried me for about ten seconds or so all the way to shore. All throughout the experience the sun slowly lowered in the sky, mixing blues with yellows and reds and making the whole scene ethereal and unreal. It was one of the best Bali memories, and even Asia memories that I have made thus far.
We ate dinner later that night and walked around a bit, buying some BingTang beer tanks (a tourist staple of Bali), and found a tourism booth (they aren’t hard to find, walk 20 feet and you’ll be at a new one) which had a good price for a car and a travel guide for a day. It was amazing, for 35 USD you could hire an English speaking driver / guide and have him drive you around for 10 hours to wherever you want to go. Between two people, that’s a pretty damn good deal, and we took advantage of it right away. We told the tour guide to pick us up at 8am, and then we headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep
The next day we woke up and had a nice free breakfast, where we got to sample some Balinese breakfast cuisines. As an American, its weird eating fried rice for breakfast, that’s usually something one does during a hangover, or if there isn’t anything else in the fridge, but throughout Asia it seems to be a staple. I wasn’t complaining though, it was delicious. Our driver was a 23 year old that was born and raised in Bali, and as soon as he was told we were Americans he smiled and yelled “Obama!” in our faces, something that everyone seems to know and do frequently. The best thing I was told however was when I was haggling for a Bing Tang shirt, I got a woman down to 30k (about 3USD) from 50k, and I said I’m only paying this because I like you, where she then replied “well I like your money American”. I thought that was funny. I was also offered Viagra by the same guy that asked for me to come into his store because he had plenty of XXL shirts. I don’t think anyone could said two worse things in a row to get me to buy something.
The first destination on our list of adventures was the Sari Wisata Budaya Traditional Balinese and Indonesian Dance, a wonderful display of color, costume, and folklore tied in with accompanying music from a unique group of instruments including steel xylophones banged on my bone sticks, wooden flutes, and leather drums. The story, from what I understood and remember, describes a beautiful woaen who is possessed by a black magic witch, whom then fights the white “good” magic princess. There’s a Prime Minister in there somewhere that tries to kill the possessed girl after tying her to a tree, but then some bird came in and saved her / she couldn’t be killed. Then she turned herself into a boar, and then a monkey came out, and then other stuff happened. It was beautiful but obviously confusing. Oh and there was a lion in the beginning that was the best part. All of it was synced to beautiful music, which was my favorite part of it all, and some beautiful dance moves.
After the show, we headed further North into Bali to an area called Mas to see some wood carving. It was a bit of a tourist trap, and it seemed obvious that the place we were taken to had some sort of deal made with our driver, but its pretty hard to avoid that type of thing, and the place ended up being incredibly impressive and beautiful as well. Everything was insanely expensive, and rightfully so, everything is hand carved and impossibly breathtaking, so we didn’t buy anything, but we agreed that everything there would make the perfect additional to a man cave.
The next stop was a coffee plantation, and a particularly special one. It was there that a very rare type of coffee is made, one that is only made in very few places in the world, all of which that are in Indonesia. There is an animal called a Luwak, a cute little rodent that looks a bit like a ferret that likes to eat coffee berries. The little guys eat the beans, then poop them out, where the droppings are then collected, cleaned, processed, and then roasted into a very earthy and special blend called Kopi Luwak Coffee. It usually sells for up to 400 USD for a pound, and cups can go for 50 USD in some places, if you can find it. We however, were on the plantation where is it harvested, so it was a mere $5 for a cup. We didn’t think twice and ordered a cub, which also came with some other delicious beverages including Ginger and Lemon Grass Tea, Cocoa, Robust and “Male” Coffee, and a tea and coffee hybrid. All of it was amazing and the Luwak coffee was especially dark and delicious (even if it was technically made from poop)
We then hoped back in the car and made our way to Penulisan, a highly elevated little town that overlooks Mt. Batur, an active Volcano. The weather was kind of a bummer and a bit foggy, but the mist still made the whole scene look quite grand. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of Nasi Gorem, the main dish in Bali, and some tea as we looked out at the valley, Lake Batur, and lush green below. On a side note, we were in Bali during their rainy season, but ovrall we lucked out with the weather. Sure it rained in the mornings and late at night, but when we were out an about, it usually was dry, and the sun managed to peak out a bunch. It was grey sometimes, but more times blue than not.
After a filling lunch, we headed down south, passing by beautiful rice terraces and crazy beautiful rock architecture. Everything in bali is extremely detailed, and there are shrines in every building or location, all made of stone. The stone then gets rained on all the time, so it looks old and moss covers most of it in a relatively short period of time. The end result is a country that looks like some sort of lost, sunken city that was recently discovered. Bali just looked liked some other world the whole time we were there
Our driver’s next stop was the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary (or in Balinese, Mandala Wisata Wenara Wana) in Pandangtegal, Ubud, a place that we would be staying at shortly after our day trip. The forest was expectedly gorgeous, and monies really do roam free there and aren’t afraid of humans at all. Some of my best pictures from the trip was of the monkeys. One even jumped on my back as I was taking pictures, which freaked me out a little bit (who knows what kind of stuff they’re carrying). Everything was once again green, stony, and hidden, as if it was just one more secret that Indonesia was keeping from the world.
Despite a full day, we weren’t done yet, and we convinced our driver to take us to one more place before we headed back to Kuta. We were taken to a temple built on the coast called Tanah Lot in Tabanan, Bali. The tide was up so we couldn’t access the second half of the temple, but I think that just made the whole experience that much cooler. We didn’t stay long as it was pretty crowded (and we were starving), so we hoped in the car and then headed back to Kuta, where we were dropped off at our hotel.
The best western we were staying at sucked, and they wanted $89 for their crappy room to extend our stay another night, so we hoped on hostelworld and agoda to find some new locations. We found a place called the Velarsi Hotel which was really close to our current Best Western, as well as a place called Nick’s Pension in Bisma, Ubud where we were going to be staying in two nights. The new hotel was much better and about a third the price.
The next day we booked a trip to go snorkeling and visit a place called Turtle Beach in the south east of Bali. We were driven to a packed beach full of tourists and locals alike, and thrown into the ocean with crappy snorkeling gear next to hundreds of others and a couple dozen other wooden boats dangerously propelling all around us. The snorkeling itself wasn’t all that bad, but man was it crowded. George got hit by a boat I think, and lost a fin in the process.
After snorkeling we went to turtle beach, where the two of us like idiots didn’t bring cameras. We got to play around with giant turtles, hold a hawk, watch someone smack a porcupine, hang out with Toucans, let a giant snake constrict around us, nervously watch others hold a giant bat, and also drink beer. It was a great time, and the sun began to come out just as we made out way back to the beach
Lunch was amazing, and as the sun came out, so did our delicious food; A burger with ham, bacon, beets, Swiss cheese, and a fried egg. Aint nothing like it.
After the trips, we hired a guy to drive us to Ubud, about a 2.5 hour drive North of Kuta and where we were at. The place we stayed at, Nick’s Pension, was a bungalow type of place smack dab in the middle of the place where it looked like they could film a new tomb raider movie. It was green and beautiful, and we were happy to be away from the bustle and noise of central Kuta, even if it was only for a night.
That night we got some delicious food and watched the sky turn pink and purple as the sun set, and then bought tickets to a Kecak Fire Dance show in Desa Abat Sambahan, Ubud. Somewhat similar to the original show we watched, the story played out in this one was beyond confusing, but still impressive. In fact, a storm came in without the rain during the show, so lightning flashed all around us during the fire dance which added an epic touch to the experience. Some guy even danced around on burning coconuts as he acted as a goat.
The next day we hired another car to take us to some new areas around Kuta. The first stop was going to be the Bali Zoo, where George really wanted to see some tigers (As well as myself), but when we got there, the prices were unbelievably high not only for Bali but for anywhere, so we decided against it. We had a late start so we weren’t able to go everywhere, but out next stop was a temple called Ulun Danu that was quietly located in a mountain lake called Lake Bratan. The place was lovely and smelled amazing, and we got lunch at a restaurant that had tables that were situated all alone that looked up to the green valley walls in front of us. The food, as always, was amazing, and we devoured it in a matter of minutes.
Afterwards, We were driven to Jatilwuih which has some of the most amazing rice terraces in all of Bali. It was a fascinating view, and crazy to think that people live in those fields and see this landscape every day. We got out of the car at some nice spots and snapped some shots of the beauty, but then had to head back in the car quickly if we wanted to be able to see another place before we got back to Kuta.
The final location for the day’s agenda was a temple in Mengwi, about 1.5 miles north of Kuta. It was a charming place but nothing really all that special, and it just added to the list of amazing temples / shrines that we have seen in Bali thus far.
That night we went to our favorite place to eat dinner, Nan Xiang, an affordable Balinese restaurant that eventually got to know us and remember our orders (They were even sad to hear that we had to leave the last night when we ate there). We devoured our food, a meal that even now I am getting hungry over and yearn for.
The final day in Bali was a sleep in day, followed by a plan to do nothing but lay out again, and by did we luck out. After some rainy nights and mornings, this particular morning was sunny and blue, and we got some good sun time in. Everyone on the beach once again tried to sell us stuff, from tattoos to massages, to bow and arrows, to surf lessons, but it was still relaxing. That night though had the most spectacular, and one of the best sunsets I have ever seen. The pictures really do speak for themselves.
Our flight was late, so we left for the airport at 9 and began to say our goodbyes to paradise. The transition was petty fast as well. I went from a beautiful sunset and amazing food back to back to one of the worst airports I have ever been to. It didn’t leave anything on a sour note though. Bali was unbelievable, and I’m so happy I got the opportunity to see it for myself.
Thus ends my amazing adventures. Hopefully in a little bit, I’ll accumulate a list of my favorite parts of the experience, and some closing words. Untill then…
