After wonderful two (two too short!) weeks travelling with my brother , a bali newbie, around the island we had some interesting adventures. We did (Jubawa Homestay - Pemarutan) Menjangan Island (wonderful snorkelling and bailing the boat as fast as the waves were awashing into the boat) , (Villa Agung at Anturan (Lovina) full moon ceremony, Mengwi temple still had large spectacular colourful rice offerings on show, Ubud (Sama's Cottages and a 35 km bike ride to the beach and back - coming up on the gradual gradiant to Ubud requires mostly low gear!), Padang Bai beachfront has been 'cleaned up' and now has 3 hotels with swimming pools and newly built warungs at Blue Lagoon - getting rescued from underneath a balinese 'scrum' when a man went into a trance at a community street dance performance and landed on top of me) and a pub crawl in Padang Bai, sailing at Candi Dasa, surviving a return visit to Besakih Mother Temple - last visit was in 1980, seeing the spectacular scenery of the Sideman area - a real must for those who want to see what I consider one the best rice terracing areas in Bali, Sanur (Besakih Hotel and sailing in Sanur) and seeing the reaction of my brother when we finally got to Kuta, made for a very varied and interesting trip. We ate at warungs that specialised in different types of dishes en route with our driver Nyoman (Alex) Oka and also revisited a few favourite restaurants as well as experiencing 'new' ones I hadn't been to before. At S & S on Friday night met Whoopee, Anniswan, Chris and Bali Bob and Smudge, and Sammy and Suzie are well. Please ask any questions and I'll try to answer them as soon as I can (or email me) ... Saw 15 tourists at Menjangan, none at Singaraja until we got to Ubud, quite a few there, mainly european/asian tourists, 20 on white beach at Padang Bai, 18 at Blue Lagoon at Padang Bai, quite a lot at Sanur and Kuta saw the most I have seen since Jan 2003. Hardly any rain, other than on the 31st December when some rain (nowhere near a tropical downpour) and very windy for 2 days, only a few drops yesterday, not humid at all. Jetstar plane was basically full capacity on way over and also coming back.
JBR 1 - Melbourne - Pemuteran/Menjangan Island
Saturday 30 December 2006 - Delayed Flight
Woke at 7 am to the telephone ringing - it was Jetstar calling to say that 'due to technical difficulties' our flight had been rescheduled to now depart at 8.10 am the next day instead of 6.35 pm tonight. What a disappointment! And no compensation was being offered such as extra time in Bali.
I made some quick phone calls to Bali, to our driver friend Nyoman Oka (Alex) who was expecting to pick us up at the airport and to the Suji Bungalows in Kuta where I had pre-booked a room for a quick one night stay before heading up to Pemuteran in the north. I transfered the deposit paid on the accommodation to a day use for our last day in Bali, and hoped that we could keep to the rest of our itinerary that I had carefully put together to show my brother Doug the best of Bali over 2 weeks.
My husband suggested I take Doug for a bicycle ride for the day as a consolation, and as we peddled through the wetlands just past Williamstown (we rode from the city to Altona - approximately 35 km ride in all) I thought ah well this is not Bali but still pretty good). Besides it had given me extra time to finish packing (and unpacking) and my bag was now 17 kg - full of gifts of barbie dolls, Frisbees to give out over there. Bed at 9.30 pm for an early start the next day.
Sunday 31 December 2006 Melbourne to Pemuteran
The last day of 2006, maybe we'll be in Bali today I thought. Slept well and woke at 4.15 am, 15 minutes before the alarm, finished packing and heck by now the bag weighs 20 kg! At 6.10 am there was already a long queue at Jetstar check-in, but there were many other travellers still behind us. The departure time had now been set back 30 minutes to 8.40 am! I took a photo of Doug in front of the large metal doors - a must as it is the first time he has left Australia, although he is not a stranger to adventure - in 1992 he solo circumnavigated Australia in his small yacht although he had not technically left Australian waters.
We flew in an Airbus A330-2-2 seated 2 - 4 - 2 in seats 39 A & B. Unfortunately it is over the wing but Doug managed to see his hometown of Port Augusta in South Australia on the way. We hadn't booked any of the 'extras' such as meals or DVD's on the flight but are given a small 250 ml bottle of water and headsets. We opened up our grain bread egg sandwiches (what else do you take for breakfast?) when the other passengers were being served their pre-ordered plastic airline food, hoping that the smell would blend in with the other food smells emanating throughout the plane.
Landing at 11.40 am (an hour earlier than expected), it took us about 40 minutes to get through VOA and immigrasi queues, even though we had our US$25 in hand. Doug had sufficient time to absorb the different smells, humidity levels in the air and the quaintness of the arrivals area of the airport - in my mind a kick back of the old dutch colonial days with wood paneling and partitioned little offices signed with foreign language. The customs people didn't want to look in our bags, just made a quick inquiry about how much grog we had with us.
Out into what appeared to be very mild weather and Alex (Nyoman Oka) was there to meet us and after changing some money (A$1 to 6950 rp.) we decided to forgo the planned longer scenic route to Pemuteran via Blimbing to head straight up through the middle via Pacung as it would be quicker. Doug's head is spinning like Linda Blair's in the exorcist, he can't believe what he is seeing around him, the people carrying huge loads on their heads, riding motorbikes without helmets (we were brought up in a very safety conscious family, our father's car had seatbelts before they were compulsory), the dogs and chooks on the roads. It's quite enjoyable watching his reaction to all this and I'm pleased we are heading straight into rural Bali for his first taste of Bali. A light rain is falling. Little did we know that this was going to be almost all of the rain we would experience in Bali over the next two weeks.
I asked Alex if we can eat at local rungs when we are out and about with him, not tourist restaurants, and he makes our lunch stop at a warung serving spicy sucking pig. You like? he asks, and Doug who at this stage is too polite to disagree, has his first taste of babi guling which he declares is good. Babi Guling lunch and aqua for 3 of us was 35,000 rp $5.
Off we go again through Bedugal and I point out Lake Bratan where we will stop another day to look at the temple, and making a turn to the west Doug is delighted to see the friendly monkeys on the side of the road. We pass by the twin lakes, Lakes Buyan and Tamblingan. This is one of the very nice areas of Bali with locals growing fruit, vegetables and the many colourful flowers used in the daily shrine and temple offerings. We wound down the windows of the car (the type of air con I like in Bali) and smelt the fresh mountain air, and winding our way around the mountains we stopped briefing at the lookout area next to the Ngiring Nweding Restaurant perched high up on a U bend, and the panoramic view of west Bali laid out before us.
The rest of the trip is all downhill and we pass by the seaside temple of Pura Agung Pulaki (friendly monkeys inhabit the temple area) where a lady kindly gives me a bunch of red grapes (the area produces grapes for local wine) and Alex phones ahead to locate our pre-booked accommodation.
We arrive at Jubawa Home Stay http://www.geocities.com/mbalipic3/jubawa.html mobile phone: 081 246 52542 located on the southern side of the road, just past the Matahari Beach Resort, around 4.30 pm so Alex has made excellent time. We are shown to our deluxe rooms, mine is No. 72 (I can never figure out the numbering in Bali as they only have about 8 bungalows) and Doug's, No.99 is right at the back of the property. The deluxe bungalows are very clean and new, have hot and cold showers in a large well ventilated bathroom, and diamond shaped black and white tiles ... I think my husband being a Collingwood supporter would have fallen in love with the bathroom! The rest of the bungalow is nicely furnished with a desk, lockable cupboard with glass panels (no safety deposit available here), bedside tables with lamps, a big comfy queen side bed (fresh jepun (frangipani's) left on the pillows each night), plenty of windows. The outside patio has a table and two chairs. The two front windows are cute and have wooden shutters that you can open providing extra light and a sea breeze even though there is good air conditioning. Putu shows us around and we pay him in advance for 2 nights accommodation at 180,000 rp. Per night per bungalow including breakfast and tax.
After saying our goodbyes to Alex, he will come back and pick us up in two days, Doug and I go for a walk to familiarise with the area and we walk 5 minutes to the small seaside village where I locate people who I had taken their photograph in March last year and they are very pleased to receive copies of the photographs. We walked west along the beach past the larger hotels that affront the beach, the Taman Selini, Ponkdok Sari and stop at the Taman Sari which has nice tables and chairs set up under trees next the the beach where Doug samples his Bintang, which he declares although a light beer - 5% - it is still good as long as it is dingin (cold). I stayed at the Taman Sari last year and found it to be a good hotel but as the cost for a room this year was going to be about A$80 I decided on the cheaper option of Jubawa. The staff were busy setting out tables and chairs on the lawn area for a special New Year's Eve dinner, cost of 150,000 rp per person included a dance performance - we decided not to bother as it wasn't due to start until 8.30 pm. On our way back to Jubawa we dropped in at a small warung called the Purnama Sari where Kadek Sanna was pleased to receive a photograph I had taken of him last year when he was my host introduction to a family who were having a naming ceremony which I had attended. We said we would be back at some stage during our visit.
We had dinner at Jubawa, I had a watermelon juice 6,000, thai salad 12,000, and pepes ikan (grilled fish in banana leaf) 20,000. I gave out some glow bracelets to the staff and their families for New Year's.
As the local store did not have any Diet Coke, we walked back the 1 km to central Pemuteran along the side of the road in the dark to get some. It was amusing to see the locals, some riding their motorbikes with just their indicators flashing (evidently they didn't have working headlights), slowing down to see two tourists (Doug quickly picked up on the 'bali walk' - one behind the other ) walking along wearing foil Happy New Year hats (they looked a bit like the crown the Statute of Liberty lady wears) and blowing roll out party whistles. Families would blow their paper trumpets and sing out Happy New Year to us. I think Doug was initially horrified that we were exposing ourselves to a terrible risk walking along in the dark even though we had a little torch we shone as our 'headlight'.
At the small store I bought some Diet Coke and 6 firework rockets, they had all sorts of fireworks for sale. At Kadek's warung Doug enjoyed fried banana and I had a papaya juice with a yummy banana pancake - my first one this trip. Kadek and his friend Wayan provided an entertaining fireworks display in the front garden for us while we sat there in our flash party hats - it was a lot of fun - rockets were shooting across the road into the sky - we hoped that they wouldn't cause a fire anywhere! Feeling weary we walked back to Jubawa and decided that after our very long day we couldn't really see the New Year in, so I wrote up my diary and went to bed at 10.30 pm listening to the loud music and party noise from the two family compounds next to Jubawa - I hadn't realised that the balinese celebrated the western New Year as well! We should have realised by the number of colourfully decorated cardboard horns that we saw for sale in all the little shops as we drove up north during the day.
Monday 1 January 2007 - Menjangan Island - fine, windy
Woke up at 5.30 am feeling sorry for Doug who had been in the bungalow at the back of the property where a local family had well and truly celebrated New Year's Eve with lots of noise - ah well we do the same at home I suppose. Doug was awake so we caught a bemo (5,000 rp each) to the early morning market (pasar pagee) at the next village of Sumberkerta? It was about 10 km towards the west. Doug was amazed to see the variety of fish, meat and vegetables, as well as rice and spices being sold at the market and I found the old ibu I had taken a photo of last year and she was very happy to receive her photo. I think it means a lot to the balinese to take them a photo you have taken on a previous visit. We enjoyed a bali kopi at the market warung 1,000 rp each., Doug declaring that he did indeed like bali kopi - it certainly helped wake you up for the day!
We arrived back at Jubawa at 8 am for included in tariff breakfast - Doug had the indonesian breakfast - mie goreng and I had scrambled eggs and was pleased to see that they hadn't been cooked to death. I put away my bacon to feed a hungry angin (dog) later on. We had pre-booked with Herman through Jubawa for a snorkeling trip to Menjangan and at 9.45 am Dion eventually turned up and drove us in a van to our launching spot which wasn't the usual place at Labuan Lalang jetty, but a mangrove lined bay near the Mimpi Resort. We shared the boat with three other tourists and luckily we put our bags in meshing suspended under the roof of the boat as we were pummeled by water spray on the trip over, the wind had whipped up the waves and although I felt confident that we were safe during the 40 minute trip, we got a thorough drenching before we had even gone snorkeling! The crew were using a bilge pump and then when that proved ineffective had to resort to bailing the water from the boat.
The boat dropped us off at our first snorkeling spot, known as the Ledge and this is the best coral and fish in Bali of the places I have been to. The coral was so colourful and alive, brimming with all varieties of fish. Doug pointed out a pole fish to me and apparently they are related to sea horses. We drifted along with the current along the shoreline back to where the boats anchor on the island and enjoyed our provided lunch boxes of mie goreng or nasi goreng, a banana and aqua. I don't find my guide from last year, Putu Wijana to give him photos of his family, so give to Dion with a note to pass on. After lunch I decide to go out for another snorkel over the Ledge until Doug finds me to say that as the waves are getting bigger the boat wants to quickly move off to the second snorkeling area. In my hurry to get into the boat I stub a toe on my L foot on an underwater rock and it really hurts and comes up bruised and swollen. Back at shore I bind my toes together and subsequently back in Australia am awaiting results of an X ray to see if it has been fractured.
The second snorkeling area is quite spectacular for different reasons, although the coral is not so bright, most of it is huge plate coral, very interesting to see. We arrive back at our launching spot around 2 pm and see other tourists departing for the island. Doug and I shared a large bintang to wash down the salt water taste and I got out a couple of Frisbees and show the young children at the warung how to play with them. When we go their mum tries to give them back - no, I said they are presents for them to keep.
Back at Jubawa I saw the room had been made up with clean towels and jepuns (frangipanis) had been thoughtfully placed on each pillow, a nice touch. I had a shower and decided to head down to Taman Sari to see if I can have a manicure. As there doesn't appear to be any bemos around and my toe is paining a bit, a young 15 year old Ari happily gives me a ride down there on his motorbike - I give him 4,000 rp to say thanks and he is very happy to get some pocket money. In reception they remembered me from last year and they ring down to the Spa, and Swati does a lovely manicure for me. There are no beach hawkers at Pemuteran, no manicure ladies on the beach so you pay quite a bit more for a manicure through the hotels but Taman Sari pass on ¾ of the price to manicurist so I don't mind paying 100,000 rp for a nice manicure with polish and flowers. I get a ride back with Made on his motorbike, the locals are very friendly in Pemuteran.
When I arrive back I find at least 10 tourists clustered around in the restaurant - wow, what a goldmine for Jubawa - apparently they are not staying there but they have been organising a diving trip, as Jubawa is a dive centre as well and ordering up on cold drinks. Doug and I get out the Bintang dingin and Duty Free Bacardi and Diet Coke and have a few quiet drinks on his patio and digest what a wonderful day we have had. He tells me about his first 'solo' - he has ventured out for a walk along the beach and also made his first by himself purchase - a postcard of Tanah Lot from the fixed price souvenir shop across the road.
After walking east and not finding a warung that we want to eat at, we walk past the Matahari Resort (it has nice tiled pavement on it's perimeter) and then decide to eat at Jubawa where the soft gamelan music is delightful and the food is delicious; fish kare (fish curry) with tofu, nice and tender served with white steamed rice along with a ginger tea. For dessert Doug has fried pineapple - pineapples cooked in batter and topped with firm yellow custard with a bright red cherry on top of each pineapple - very unique presentation. By now Doug had caught onto my habit of taking a photo of my meals - sometimes we find we have to explain ourselves to amused serving staff. I had a banana pancake and it comes very neat and round all puffed up like a pikelet with neatly placed banana pieces cooked in it and served with an individual serve of honey. I finish with a bali kopi and after much discussion/deliberation Doug decides to sample his first glass of arak, which after the initial shock, declares it 'quite drinkable'. At 10 pm we decide not to hold up Enik, the waitress any longer and we pay our food and drink bill for the past two days. Mine comes to 95,450 rp. (A$13.80) what value and delicious food we have enjoyed at Jubawa - I'd certainly recommend it as an economical,clean, friendly place to stay even though it hasn't got a pool, the beach is close by and if you were desperate for a swim in a pool, I'm sure the Taman Sari allowed non guests to swim there if you paid a casual fee.
I pack my bag, as I have seemed to 'scattered' everything everywhere and fall asleep to the sound of the strong wind blowing the bamboo chimes which were on each bungalow patio.
We are off to Villa Agung at Anturan, a village in Lovina tomorrow. We'll be doing a scenic tour on the way to show Doug some of the countryside he missed on the way north.