And now that I have finally purchased the do-hickey that allows me to put the camera photos on the iPad, all the photos in this post are 100% mine. (some are Phil's. If it looks like a really good, arty, focussed shot, ten to one it's his).
As anyone who has ever seen me with an animals would know, I'm a bit nuts about animals.** In Bali, there are animals just everywhere. I will go so far as to say it is literally impossible to go for even a short walk without encountering at least a couple of species. Every Balinese village I've ever seen owns guard dogs (ultimately wimpy ones) which sit outside the family compounds all day. They're not very effective although they generally do stand up and bark a bit - usually once you've already passed them. There are some village dogs that are more aggressive, and they trigger Phil's inner alpha male. In Lovina, he ran through the villages with a bamboo stick in hand to ahem... discourage any little nips from over-protective doggies.
Right now, I'm sitting outside our room in Ubud which is situated in the middle of the rice paddies in central Ubud. I am on a large daybed in the garden listening to the unbelievably noisy chickens and roosters that live next door. For the past two nights there has been a 4am wake up call from the over-excited poultry. I did come prepared with earplugs after reading other people's reviews on trip advisor, but the roosters cry is piercing and still wakes us up.
I am sitting with a ginger and white striped cat, who is very friendly. We gave him a bit of a pat at breakfast on our first day, and last night he crawled through the window at about 3am and jumped on our bed!! Lucky for him I recognize the movement of a cat on the bed, or there might have been a melt down in room 3 at the Sawah Sunrise. I was pretty confident that GOMP would kick him out, but GOMP was off duty and the softer side of Philipp let him stay til the morning. Here he is:
Every place we've stayed has pets. In this place in Ubud, they have two cats and two dogs, plus a pond full of fish. There are fish everywhere. In the rice paddies, in ponds, even for sale in random village markets.
In Lovina, the guesthouse had a gorgeous kitten with no tail who liked to bite and an old grumpy dog that was incredibly loyal to the staff but not so crazy about guests!
The general approach to the pets here is one of assumption by the Balinese owners that you will love their cat/dog as much as they do - which I do. GOMP is fond of telling me that when I pat someone's dog in the street, I come across as a slightly deranged person who might kidnap their pet! I do wonder what it's like for those who are not such big fans of strange animals traveling through Bali. The dog here is undoubtedly harmless, but we did ask his permission to come through the gates the other night to avoid lots of barking and possibly a nip.
The dog situation was more extreme here a few years ago with innumerable strays. Then a rabies outbreak erupted and rather than treat/ vaccinate dogs, there was a wholesale rounding up and putting down. On this trip, it is rare to see a dog without a collar outside the villages. I think this has led to an increased sense of ownership by the Balinese towards their dogs. They definitely love their pets. A couple of charities have also popped up devoted to helping the Bali dogs.
Most villages also have a healthy dose of chickens, roosters (often kept in basket cages for cockfighting), cows for ploughing fields and some pigs for food - esp the Babi Guling.
They eat a lot of Babi Guling! Speaking of which, we went on a looong walk yesterday around the rice fields of Ubud. I'm not sure exactly how far we went but my legs were jelly by the end. Here is the Babi Guling we had for lunch in a village (and on rosh hashana no less):
And here is the warung's dog sitting patiently waiting for scraps:
We came across a cute three month old pig in the village next to our bungalow in Lovina, probably destined for a table. I mentioned in an earlier post that we had driven through an area near Bedugal where there was lots of egg farming going on. We also drove past large pig farms. I think the commercially reared pigs fared a little better than the poor chickens! So much for my idea that Bali's eggs are free range. The cows seem happy and always have a nice comfy shelter though:
Which brings me to Tuesday. I had read about a tour called Bali Bird Walks, which I had wanted to do for a while. The tour was set up over ten years ago by a bird enthusiast called Victor Mason who started taking groups of people walking through the rice fields to look at all the different birds. His sidekick is a Balinese woman called Sumade who also takes the tours. We haven't actually ever done an organised tour while travelling together because generally you can usually do it yourself. But I was really keen to go along to this one. Phil less so. He agreed to drop me off at the meeting place yesterday morning and when it became clear that we would be the only two participants, he gallantly allowed himself to be roped in.
A pair of binoculars in hand, we set off for the rice fields. It turned out to be an awesome morning. Not only did we see lots of beautiful birds, we also ate wild raspberries and cherries, sucked the nectar out of hibiscus flowers, drank a coconut, spotted two rice field water snakes, dragonflies, butterflies and learned lots about the rice cultivation from Sumade, our guide.
I never realized the rice production was so coordinated between the farmers on adjoining lots. They aim to plant and harvest at the same time, so any losses from the flocks of rice-eating birds can be shared between farmers, instead of decimating one crop only. She also said that these farmers travel up to two hours a day to their rice field from their village, work all day tending the rice and only harvest it for their families to eat - so they're not making money from it. That's some hard work! A Balinese person can eat half a kilo of rice a day (3 meals a day of rice as the staple) and without their own rice fields, the family can't afford to buy rice. Makes you wonder what happens when someone is sick and can't work in the rice field when needed.
A few myths were debunked - Someone had told Phil and I on a previous trip that the ducks which are plentiful in the rice fields and certainly help fertilize it, also eat the baby snakes which grow in the rice fields. We asked and it was total crap as it turns out. I think we must be the only people to have ever asked such a question, because she looked very confused... and then highly amused. I think she was too polite to laugh directly at us, but I'm pretty sure she was close to it.
Anyway, it was too difficult to get any pictures of the birds, but here is an amazing nest we found in the tobacco fields in Lovina.
Beautiful, no?
Tomorrow we go by boat to Lombok to continue the Bali exploration...
**Arachnids excluded
- Posted using pig power
Location:Jalan Campuhan,Ubud,Indonesia
Dave says something similar about me when I randomly stop to pet peoples dogs! Although we did come across a 'timid' boxer on the weekend. I said he was shy, Dave said he was afraid of the crazy lady making stupid noises at it.
ReplyDeleteLove you!