Bali's animals

Given that Tuesday morning was devoted to a nerdy-sounding, but actually fascinating tour of birds, it seemed that a post on Bali's animals was fitting.

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

Ubud

We have had a fantastic few days in Ubud. It's probably been amongst the most activity filled days of the trip so far. We ventured on our first real tour, went on a looong walk through the rice fields and villages that surround Ubud and I had the spa day to end all spa days. Aahhhhh... Oh, so good.

Today I will be picking up the essential lead that allows me to transfer photos from the camera to the iPad so I can stop ripping off Internet pics to represent our trip. Yay! This will probably mean a few posts full of photos - feel free to skip if boring! GOMP claimed that I was likely losing readership due to the inauthentic photo postings, which appears to borne out in the lack of comments lately (sob)...

So I'm holding off on stories of the Ubud adventures until I have the photographic evidence! But I can record my wonderful spa day... If you're ever in Ubud and in need of a serious relaxation day, I can recommend the Bali Botanical full day spa outing.

You are collected from your hotel by car at 9.30am and taken down the road to a building hovering over a river and surrounded by jungle. The pre-lunch treatments were a traditional Balinese lulur (spice body scrub) followed by flower bath and a facial.

The website advertises lunch as a "light" snack at a nearby restaurant. I thought, good to have a light lunch if you're going back for more massagey goodness. A car comes to collect you to take you to the nearby lunch venue.

Hmmm... Some false advertising there. This was lunch, which was arranged at a gorgeous restaurant in Ubud:




Yes that is panfried barramundi with gnocchi. And it was delicious. And I couldn't finish it. Not even close. And yes, there was a first course of soup which I didn't think to photograph, mostly because I didn't expect more! And there was more. That's lemon curd tart with vanilla bean ice cream:




And coffee:





After lunch there was a two and a half-hour Aryuvedic massage with warm oils followed by a hair cremebath (conditioning treatment). I got back to the hotel at 5.45pm. I could barely walk by the end of it and sort of floated back to the room. Meanwhile Phil spent the day running around Ubud (literally) and taking photos. I think I made the better choice... Just heaven!

To all my friends of the Jewish persuasion - Shana tova. Wishing you a sweet and prosperous year.


- Posted using Aryuvedic techniques as first taught by the Hopi Indians

Location:Jalan Campuhan,Ubud,Indonesia

Lovina

In an hour's time, we will leave Lovina and head to Ubud for a five day stay in the middle of the rice paddies in Ubud. The last three days have passed so quickly, it's hard to believe it's already time to leave.

As I think I mentioned earlier, the Sananda Bungalows where we are staying was set up by a Swiss woman who conceived of this place after a vision in a meditation. And there are definitely some hippie aspects to it. Before building any of the villas, she constructed an obelisk in the garden to communicate with Switzerland. And as there was no telephone mounted in the obelisk, I can only conclude that she meant communicate spiritually.... But the place itself just felt calm and relaxed with a focus on nature and fresh, mainly vegetarian organic food from the garden, which was gorgeous. We were treated to a small dessert after each meal - delicious homemade Indonesian rice flour concoctions (except one lunchtime when there was a small piece of what tastes like Christmas cake. It turned out to be... Christmas cake. Slightly incongruous in september, in Bali).

Sheila, an Indonesian woman, was our hostess in Lovina. She took us to the neighboring village one morning to the home of all the staff so we could see where they lived. Phil and I drew water from the well and carried buckets of water on our head, local style (about 10 metres) much to the amusement of everyone watching. We must have seemed like such lightweights - These women carry water to use pretty much every single day of their lives.

It was sad to pack up. We met a lovely girl from Germany and one from Switzerland there. Sheila made us treats to go and packaged them up for us. So thoughtful. I really want to go back later in the trip. It's not that we did anything special there, more that it was a place of zero stress.





Actually, one thing did happen - I organized a massage with a woman from the local village who came over. All the girls had a massage and later when comparing notes, we discovered that we all found it "interesting". She walks all over your back in a sort of effective but painful way. I was thinking during the massage that I really should have learned the Indonesian word for "enough", although I got the distinct sense that the masseuse did not believe that massages should be an enjoyable experience. In addition to massaging the stomach, she also has a technique of aligning the inner organs by... Sticking her finger in your bellybutton and wriggling it until you are aligned. Eewwwwwww.... Really very unpleasant!! Afterwards I felt pretty good - my muscles were definitely more relaxed. But there was a feeling of violation that hung around for a bit. Ah well, just another experience to add to the pile.

- Posted using hippie vibes and Xmas cake

Location:Jalan Pancasari - Baturiti,Baturiti,Indonesia

Bedugal part #2

Ok, there is wifi in Lovina. Phew, right? So here is part #2 of the Bedugal mega-sightseeing day.

We were heading to the butterfly park in the last post. But I was so overwhelmed by the mega sightseeing day that I forgot we stopped at a temple on the way there. I partly forgot because we hadn't asked to go there and I still have no idea what temple it was. I think it's hardwired into every Balinese person that no sightseeing day is complete without a temple visit. My favorite part of the temple visit was seeing a guy washing his motorbike and then watching a bunch of ducks play in the water! Very cute.

And the butterfly park? Well, we got there. Woo hoo! And it was pretty good. Actually to be honest the butterfly park was somewhat undermined by the fact that there are the most beautiful butterflies all over Bali at any time of day, everywhere, so you've sort of been surrounded by them the whole time anyway. We did see a few varieties I hadn't seen before, which was nice. The staff at the park actually handled some of the largest butterflies and placed them on people for photos. They probably know what they're doing, but we opted out of that part of the experience. Our driver for the day, Dewa, was a lovely guy, but a little prone to poking things with sticks. He gave the civet a little poke with a stick to wake him up at the coffee plantation - It was kinda funny as Phil and I are whispering, no, no, don't wake up the civet!! And he really wanted the butterflies to be a bit more interesting by you guessed it, poking them. None were harmed, but mostly due to good luck and unexpected hardiness of the butterflies.

The highlight of the butterfly park was the leaf and stick insects they had. There are some awesome photos, but I still can't transfer them... Grrr. I think a visit to the official apple reseller store is in order when we're back in Legian. Here is a photo I have lifted from the Internet - although it looks exactly like what we saw. They even have brown curled up edges just like the surrounding leaves!





The next stop after the butterfly park was for... More Babi Guling. This one may have been the best yet. It had a garnish of these super flavoursome shallots with hot chillis, salt and garlic. Lip smackingly yum!




Our last destination of the day was the Angseri Hot Springs, near Jatiluwih. I couldn't find much information about the hot springs, but we thought it would be a nice end to the day... The only thing I had read that stood out was that they were in a very natural setting. After a fairly harrowing drive down some slopes so steep I thought we'd flip over (I nearly got out of the car and walked a couple of times), we arrived at the site. The hot springs had a series of private bathing pools for groups which you could use for half an hour as well as a main bathing pool. All the private bathing pools were occupied when we arrived, so we walked over to the main pool.

The main pool is indeed in a gorgeous setting with a waterfall behind it and surrounded on all sides by lush greenery:




The water is warm and soothing and we were the only ones there, so blissful, right? Except that where the umbrella is in the photo above, there was a functioning construction site! Like ten guys hauling cement and dirt and building about five metres from the pool. It was quite funny floating about in the pool, opening your eyes every few minutes and smiling at a bunch of guys in gumboots!

The private bathing pool was less exposed. There were little huts built over large baths filled with the spring water, but still open enough that you don't pass out from the heat. (Unlike the Mornington Peninsula hot springs where I nearly fainted in one of their private rooms and had to sound most of the half hour with my face crammed next to the tiny gap in the window sucking in the fresh air!!)

By the time we got back to the hotel, I had enough energy to eat, blog and sleep with the plan to arise at 7am today to visit the lake and take a boat to the nearby temple. Which didn't happen. I should just stop making plans pre-8am. Instead I woke up at 8.40 with a complete inability to breathe through my nose. Awesome.

We did make it to the lake, which is absolutely massive and stunning, but without enough time to go to the temple. Ach, I've seen a lot of temples. Lake Beratan was spectacular just to look at. It is impossible to find a photograph that would do it justice. Just imagine a huge, sparkling alpine lake.

And then it was time to move on to Lovina in the north coast of Bali, famous for it's volcanic black sand beaches and dolphins as well as low levels of tourism. It turns out that Lovina is not actually a place itself, but the name used to refer to about ten villages on a 10km stretch of coastline. We're staying in a bungalow about 5km inland from Lovina, higher up, so there are lovely views out to the ocean.

The place we're staying (called Sunanda Bungalows) was founded by a Swiss woman who had the idea "after a vision in a meditation". Which is not ordinarily something that would draw me in, but appeals to me at the moment. I think it was a good choice. There's beautiful, gardens, a yoga pavilion, organic home cooked meals from the garden and a lovely Balinese family. Everything is really relaxed, except for the dog, Pino, who decided my hand would make a good snack (no broken skin= no rabies). Here's the sunset and some of the lovely gardens (taken by the iPad):








We're here for the next three days to do not too much. A few walks, massage, reading... Today's walk already yielded a close encounter with a local pig, a cow and hundreds (literally) of chickens. Awesome!!

Enjoy the weekend!!

- Posted using good vibes, man.

Location:Google maps has no idea where we are...

A Bedugal hiccup and recovery

So tonight is our last night in Bedugal, but it has been a rather less eventful few days for me than planned... After the treacherous walk back to our hotel on Monday night in the dark, Tuesday started out well. It was a beautiful morning, and before breakfast I decided to try some of the home grown strawberries nestled in the patch behind our bungalow.

You may not know that Phil is not a huge fan of strawberries. When his parents moved to Melbourne circa 1982, they bought land on which to build their house in Park Orchards (aka North Ringwood) which used to be... A strawberry farm. So there was a lot of strawberry eating for a few years. And apparently he has not seen strawberries of suitable quality since... Or he o'd as a kid. Whatever - he doesn't like strawberries.

Which explains why I skipped over to the strawberry patch on my own. With the key to our room. Which I had locked from the inside. You see, in a fit of passion and excitement for the morning, the neighbouring mountains and the promise of strawberries, I had jumped over the low fence enclosing our balcony to reach the strawberry patch. I had thought Phil would follow suit and we'd skip along to breakfast together. But, Phil's shoes were outside the front door of the bungalow - meaning he would have to jump over the balcony shoeless. This would not do.

So I'm blissfully picking my first strawberry when I hear "Sus, have you got the key"? "yes, my dear", I say. "you've locked the door from the inside and my shoes are locked outside the front door" (thinking bubble - oh for god's sake just come out without your sho... Never mind) "I'm coming", i reply. At which point I turn and make haste with key in hand, slip over on a bunch of loose rocks about five metres from the door and twist my ankle.

GODDAMMIT. Stupid strawberries!!

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Bedugal, in bed with my leg elevated, doing not too much of anything. I hobbled out to look at the fishpond a few times. That was pretty much the highlight. I pushed Phil out the door on both days and he managed to run all over the hills and through jungle and went to the Botanical Gardens and walked to the Lakes here - sounded nice! Things to do on our next trip. For me, I was very relieved that we'd stayed somewhere with a really comfy bed, a beautiful little terrace to sit on and nice gardens to look at. Oh, and an on-site restaurant, so i could get a sandwich! At the end of the day, 2 days spent in bed over 6 months isn't a big deal and I enjoyed reading and snoozing and more reading and more - you get the point!

So today the ankle was much better and there was some sightseeing catching up to do. We very rarely hire a driver to take us around on a tour here. It's much more likely that we'd hire someone to drive us from A to B and then explore B on our own. But as I said, there was some catching up to do, so we arranged for a driver for the day to see the local sights and headed off.

First stop, a drive to the nearby World Heritage UNESCO site of Jatiluwih. Basically, it's an area of beautiful views of mountainous rice terraces. Beautiful is an understatement - it is really spectacular. A view that makes you stop and stare. And then you turn thirty degrees and repeat. It's like, wow, all over again.




Then onto a coffee plantation where they grow coffee, cocoa, pineapple, ginger, vanilla, lemongrass etc. The women who work there roast the coffee beans by hand over a wood fire. They stir those beans around constantly by hand for two hours - holy crap. And then pound them in a giant wooden mortar and pestle. We tried seven different coffee and tea brews including the famous kopi luwak, which is reportedly is the world's most expensive coffee. Apparently the civet (a cute raccoon-like animal)...




Ooh, there's one...

eats the cherry red coffee fruit, (ahem) passes the coffee bean whole and then the beans are collected from the forest floor** and acquire a special flavour once brewed up like regular coffee. So if you're thinking, did all that mean she drank coffee that civet thing crapped out???; the answer is "yes". Was it good? Yeah, it was okay. Different. Not convinced it was waaayyy better. We left with a big slab of dark chocolate from the shop and some ginseng tea which was yummier than the civet coffee anyway.

Next stop was the Taman kupu kupu - or butterfly park - yay! Who doesn't like butterflies??

You know what? This post is getting long. And I'm getting sleepy. And there's lots more to go. And I have to get up at 7 am to go to the lake and get a boat to a temple... How about we make this part #1 with part #2 to follow?? Huh, won't that be all... suspenseful?

Tomorrow we go north to Lovina. If part #2 takes a couple of days, it means there's no wifi. I'll leave you with a lovely butterfly picture:





Oh, hell no, that's not a picture of a butterfly, that's someone's poorly executed tattoo... With crack!!! Look away and I'll try again.





Holy crap on a cracker - that's a butterfly alright, but it's attached to, to, OMG that's Delta Goodrem.




Ok, ok, no more silliness. Here is your butterfly. I'm going to sleep.

** when I first heard about the civet coffee I really believed that people went around searching the forest floor for digested coffee beans a la civet... Duh. The civets are kept by the harvesters in (large and fairly humane) cages.

I don't want to spoil the suspense of part #2, but I also discovered today that there are chicken farms in Bali and those chickens didn't look very free range :(

- Posted using performing civets

Beautiful (Black) Bedugul

I think I underestimated the pervasiveness of wifi these days.

I remember on my first trips to Bali and Europe in the late 90s, internet was mostly a frustration while traveling. You had to find an Internet cafe. And then it took 15 minutes to download the yahoo page. Then there was no "e" or "t" key functioning. And you'd send a hurried two line group email and try and get out before 20 (expensive) minutes passed. And it is with these distant memories that I feared I would be wifi-less up in the mountains of Bedugul, especially as the plan was to go for budget accommodation, which we didn't bother booking in advance.

In fact, this little side trip was only dreamed up last night after beginning to feel a bit claustrophobic in over-crowded Legian. I thought we might end up on the neighboring island of Nusa Lembongan, which sounded lovely, but dry and hot. And we felt like being a bit cooler. So to the mountains!!

When looked at from some angles, it can be difficult to see what there is to like about Bali. It's crowded with some of the yobbiest (not bogan, I did NOT say bogan), loud, rude people; it's incredibly touristy-tacky (one restaurant advertises "f'ing good tucker and ice cold piss" - horrible); there are touts everywhere trying to sell you things ( and they're all the same things) you probably don't want, etc., etc. And it's all true. But on the other hand, there is another side to Bali. One thing I love about staying here is how incredibly easy everything is. Example on point, last night we decide to get out of the south for a few days. By 10am this morning, we'd packed. By midday, we had eaten breakfast and cleared out of our room. At 12.15pm we wandered down to the nearest tourist booth and askdd for a driver to take us to Bedugal. By 3.30pm we arrived. Impressive, no?

At breakfast, a little googling of Bedugal brought up wikitravel's excellent travel page - which brought us to the place we are now - Strawberry Hill, a gorgeous hillside, new-ish collection of mountain lodges just shy of Bedugal. There are amazing views, very pretty gardens, including a strawberry patch which you can help yourself to and excellent free wifi.





Pretty, huh?

Because it's in the mountains, it gets cool here in the evenings, so they also have Bali's only........ Fireplace. Yes, a fireplace. I've seen it. Hilarious. I mean, yeah it's cool, but we're still on a tropical island here.

It was a lovely drive up here. Nearby are the famous Jatiluwih rice terraces which are beautiful. This is the sort of views you get on the way here:




We also stopped for yet another variation of Babi Guling, or suckling pig at a roadside restaurant. Yumm... Soup, vegetables and lots of porky goodness. Two servings of this cost Rp 30,000, or about $3.35. Wow.




And now that we've settled in and walked down to Bedugal, it feels as though we have been lifted up off the planet and dropped down in a completely different country. For a start, the mountains and forest are a completely different landscape and very atmospheric and spooky, all cloaked with mist. Then on the way to Bedugal, we could hear the call to prayer from a mosque - first time I've heard it in Hindu Bali.

And there is something about Bedugal that is like arriving in a small country town after being in the big city. On our walk into town to find some dinner, a driver stopped his car on a tight bend in terrain reminiscent of the Dandenongs and got out of his car to ask us if we need a ride. If this happened to you in outback (or South Australia, home of the serial backpacker killers), you might justifiably freak out.

Here, there's no need to worry. "Where are you staying"?, he asks. "At strawberry hill". "Oh, my friend, he is there, I am the driver for there". Coincidence, or more? For a second I thought he might also tell us he was the sheriff! Once we'd assured him that we really had purposely set out to walk, he returned to his car, only to come back a moment later with his card - just in case we need it! As it turned out after a fantastic dinner at a little warung in Bedugal, the road which we needed to walk to get back to the hotel was dark. Like pitch black. Not all atmospherically dark and moody. Like it didn't matter if my eyes were open or shut dark. I was extremely grateful for a bus driver who saw us, took pity, pulled over to the side of the road and gave us a lift back!!

As it turned out when we returned after dinner, the manager of the hotel had indeed called his driver friend out to meet us and plan our next days of sightseeing. I have no idea how long the poor guy had been sitting there waiting for us. And no, it wasn't the same guy who stopped for us earlier. I guess Mr hotel manager has a few friends in this town!!

I should mention that my mum went home last night after her stay. She loved it, left with a goats skull ("I used to teach it you know, in science"), bed sheets and some great memories. On her last day, we went for a breakfast high tea at Biku, a gorgeous cafe filled to the brim with Indonesian antiques. If this doesn't make you want to head straight to the Windsor for some tea and scones, I don't know what will:















- Posted using the power of greyskull

Going on a trip... To the mountains

We have decided to drop off the face of the earth for a week or two - time to do so exploring around Bali and not sure if we'll have Internet access.

So for now:





- Posted using eighties technology