forgotten to post it? JBR 1 Pemuteran/Menjangan Island is Archive No. 200702, and JBR Anturan/Lovina is Archive No. 200702, JBR 4 Kintamani, Besakih, Sideman, P.Bai is on current forum.
Anyway, here tis, and there will be a final, no. 5 Sanur/Kuta when I get to write it up. Enjoy...
JBR 3 - Bedugal, Ubud and a cycling trip to the beach
Thursday 4 January - Anturan to Ubud
Alex arrived having driven from Kuta and we set off around 10.30 am winding our way into the mountains behind Anturan and onto the road behind the twin lakes, Lakes Buyan and Tamblingan.
We stopped where the monkeys gathered on the roadway and Doug took some video of the monkeys. We bought some fruit to feed them and found that these monkeys are much nicer and friendlier than at the Monkey Forest in Ubud, so I'm pleased to have this exchange with them. A mother had a tiny baby monkey clutched to her chest, it was very sweet to see them together.
Shortly we arrived at Lake Bratan and Doug and I walked around the picturesque lakeside grounds surrounding Pura Ulun Danu Bratan (entrance cost 10,000 rp each). One of the waterside shrines has eleven meru and Pura Ulun Danu Bratan is one of the nine directional temples in Bali. The temple is dedicated to Dewi Danu, the goddess of water. We also took photos of the statues of buddhas wrapped in brightly coloured cloth in the stupa shaped shrine in the gardens. I saw that the same Princess Dianna cardboard 'models' are still in the same shop window in the car park area, I'm pleased that some things don't change in Bali! Doug was learning how to bargain and took an interest when I bought a kaftan top in one of the market stalls.
While in the area we took the opportunity to visit Crackers Bar & Grill and Deluxe Western Toilets at the Candikunning Market as I hadn't been there before. It was just a quick stop so I 'shouted' Nyoman Oka (Alex) a pee (or whatever) for 5,000 rp. - well, I was very impressed with the facilities, and so was Alex - he declared it very handy indeed to know where to bring his customers for a deluxe toilet stop. Certainly 10/10++ on the Filo Toilet Scale! The Adopta Shop is right next door, so I bought a pack of stubby holders to support this very worth while cause (it provides employment for the balinese widows and families, victims of the Bali Bombings, who make and manage the goods sold in the shop).
For lunch we stopped a little further on down the track at a warung Kalasan Baru to have ayam dada? with gado gado. The ayam dish turned out to be something like fried chicken, with it's skin still on, so I asked Alex to order something extra, more attune to my eating habits, so he ordered a delicious alternative for me, pepes ikan (fish in banana leaf).
Feeling well replenished, we headed off again, and Alex asked 'what about stopping off at Mengwi', knowing that I have been there previously. As we had plenty of time left in the day I told Alex that would be good, as Pura Taman Ayun is a large temple, with two moats, an inner and outer moat, so quite different from the temples Doug had seen so far in Bali.
Well, I was so pleased we had stopped there. There had been a recent important ceremony at the temple and still on display were all special offerings that comprised bright colourful models of figures and symbolic shapes made from rice dough. Most of these models were huge structures known as sarad. Some of the offerings I recognised depicted Wisnu on a garuda, Rangda and a Barong as well as many others. There was even a pig's head incorporated in one of the large offerings - all incredibly fascinating and a photographer's dream! Apparently specialist offering makers known as tukang banten organise groups of helpers as well as making some of the very special offerings themselves, as apparently decreed by a social hierarchy in Bali. I have a book bought on Ebay, published by Image Network Indonesia (1992) called Offerings The Ritual Art of Bali, written by Francine Brinkgreve, and many of the sarad offerings at Mengwi were similar. I felt very lucky indeed to have the opportunity to see these type of offerings.
Even without the special offerings Mengwi is still an impressive temple to visit with many meru towers in the inner courtyard and the traditional decorated walls made without mortar.
We arrived in Ubud around 4.30 pm and found our pre-booked accommodation at Sama's Cottages in Bisma Street Phone: 0361 973481 (just off the main road running through Ubud and a 10 minute walk from the Ubud market).
We had booked cottages no. 5 & 6 which were the very end two cottages on the property, down some manageable steps and surrounded by beautiful lush gardens. As we enjoyed drinks of duty free bacardi and diet coke and bintang dingin, we could hear the water rushing along the river below. Old Mr. Sama wandered down to say hello and tell us about a dance performance that evening, he was a lovely friendly chap. It was very peaceful and as our cottages faced each other Doug and I would sit on our respective patios out the front of each cottage and write up our diaries. Although Sama's has been there for at least 20 years, it is a family run property, and perhaps the bathrooms could have done with some renovation, the hot water was good, the ceiling fan worked well and I found the cottages clean and comfortable, with colourful quilts and cute black and white checked curtains (they made me feel quite safe, black and white balancing out good vs. evil).
It felt very homely and good value for 150,000 rp per night per cottage, with an ample cooked breakfast of eggs, toast, generous fruit platter, kopi or tea included in the tariff. Each morning a thermos of tea would be left on your patio table. I liked sharing my bathroom with a gecko and once I got used to him/her scurrying back into the thatched roof whenever I walked into my bathroom, we just got on fine!
I took Doug on a quick orientation walk of Ubud and he bought a colourful bird kite from a shop in Hanoman Street. We settled on the Wahyu Restaurant (next to the footy field) for tea and watched the kids doing soccer practice and the sunset in the west was nice. We had a pleasant meal of nasi goreng ayam, kare seafood, payaya juice, bintang and 2 aquas, 62,000 rp (A$8.87). The staff were very helpful and made menu suggestions when we told them we had limited time for dining as we had tickets to go to a dance performance at the Ubud Palace.
Doug really enjoyed the performance which was the Legong Trance and Paradise Dance (the eye/hand/feet movements were fascinating) and he was quite busy capturing it all on video to take home. On the way back to Sama's we stopped at the Casa Luna for kopi and I found something on the menu I had never seen before - black rice ice-cream (17,000 rp) - had to try that - I must email Janet De Neefe for the recipe, it was so nice and I'd love to make it at home in Australia. The Roda Internet Cafe in Jalan Bisma was open till 10 pm so we just had time to do a quick email home. A small warung nearly opposite Sama's also stayed open till 10 pm so it was handy to pick up cold drinks to take back to our rooms.
It is amazing how much you can fit into a day in Bali if you want to.
Friday 5 January - Yeh Pulu and Sebatu Spring Temple, Ubud Market & Babi Guling
After a nice breakfast on Doug's patio served at their earliest time 7.30 am, we headed up the main street after deciding that our day's activities would be to hire a local driver to take us to a few places in the morning, then have babi guling lunch at Ibu Oka and finally the Ubud Market for a spot of shopping, with the rest of the day then left to go our own ways. I wanted to make sure that Doug had time to do some 'exploring' on his own as he had settled into Bali really well for a first-timer.
In the main street we found a very good driver/guide, I Wayan Nawa phone 081 337 214142 or 0361 954971. He spoke English very well and was a careful considerate driver.
We first stopped at the Ubud Botanical Gardens as I had seen an advertisement for them in a local guide. What I hadn't realised is that the gardens are a commercial venture, I had mistakenly thought it was a government run place, and with an asking price of 50,000 rp each we decided that we could most likely see plenty of beautiful plants in the local surrounds anyway, so we apologised to Wayan, and said we didn't want to go in after all. Then we headed off to Sebatu, and on the way stopped at the very scenic rice terracing area just north of Tegalalang - I have an amusing photo of Doug being pursued across the road by sarong bearing hawker ladies - if you look at his feet in the photo they are just a blurr! as he was making his way back to the car (this was one of the most enjoyable things about travelling with a first-timer - been there/done that scenarios).
Arriving at the spring temple at Sebatu we were pleased that we had the place to ourselves, other than a few balinese families doing temple maintenance duty, we were the only visitors. We decided to use the temple's sarongs (entry price 6,000 rp) as you get nice matching sarongs - bright orange - good for photos. I bought some small round dry biscuits from a nearby shop to feed the carp in the temple ponds, and found they were packaged in little individual packages, a little bit inconvenient, as it involved heaps of nuisance excess packaging (later when munching away on some left over biscuits I was told by an amused balinese person that these biscuits were to put in the little banten offerings - oops! - hopefully they were OK for human consumption as well as for appeasing deities).
It was very peaceful walking around the ponds, one of them was a traditional bathing pond with water flowing into it from ornate stone spouts, covered with moss, and pale pink water lillies, and another was very large pond with large carp and an ornate statue centrepiece. Just as we were leaving a busload of japanese tourists arrived and I was glad we had arrived early to enjoy the tranquility of Pura Gunung Kawi, one of the first temples in Bali I had visited with Nyoman Oka (Alex) in 2003.
On the way back through Tegalalang I saw a shop that sold some interesting models of banten, made by tiering fake fruit (but quite realistic looking). They are apparently used for decoration in the home. If they had made smaller ones I would have considered taking one home.
We next headed over to Yeh Pulu, about 5 km from Ubud. Yeh Pulu (entry 6,000 includes sarong) has a pretty walk past rice fields and ends up at a series of 14th century carvings along a rock wall. There is a statue of Ganesh, the elephant god and a holy spring and this is where I always look forward to seeing the lady who is a spring guardian. She is a lively chatty lady who talks a million miles per hour (in balinese) when I ask her where is her husband who has always been with her whenever I have visited Yeh Pulu in the past. After a lot of chatter I still don't get an answer, oh well, sing can can I thought. We each received a blessing with holy water and with flowers on our heads we set off back along the pathway and at this stageit had become fairly hot so we decided to sit down at Made's Cafe/Warung - it has now re-opened (opposite the entrance to Yeh Pulu) and had some cold drinks - they brought a straw with Doug's bintang, so I insisted on a photo of Doug sipping his bottle of bintang through a straw. It's a pleasant spot to look out over the rice field and Wayan tells us they are growing the traditional balinese rice, I think he said a sticky rice variety.
Wayan dropped us back at central Ubud. We paid (about 1,000 rp) for a visit to the toilets at the back of the banjar hall - boy, what a smell, I think we were incredibly brave - minus 5 on the Filo Scale for sure!
Ibu Oka Warung is fairly full when we arrived, it's quite a popular eating place in Ubud for lunch but found some room on bench seats in the front area, and the tables were shaded by large umbrellas - this is a bit different for Doug - no menu - they only have babi guling as their speciality, (suckling pig, complete with crackling pieces, served with steamed rice and a piece of black sausage that not many people eat) so we ordered a couple of bintangs and enjoyed a delicious meal served on wicker baskets with disposable waxed paper, eating with our fingers and a water bowl to wash our fingers in afterwards. A Japanese couple sat down next to us and we took their photo for them and toasted each other with our bottles of bintang - what a happy lunch it was.
After lunch I took Doug to the Ubud market and he found some interesting bottle openers with carved wooden handles shaped like penises. After much deliberation on shape and size, and with me checking it was all 'clean' wood, he selected a few and made a purchase. Then as the shopping habit captured him, he found a nice pair of sandals with shells, just right for his wife, with me as his foot model to check for the right size. I've forgotten what else he bought but he thoroughly enjoyed his shopping outing and for once has out shopped me! I did find some small models of umbul umbul flags (complete with fold up support sticks) so bought three to put in my pot plants at home and they do look colourful and something different for the garden.
As is my usual routine in Ubud I headed off to Milano Salon and had a relaxing pedicure and manicure with pretty flowers (100,000 rp) - the gamelan was practising next door - I think this is the only beauty salon in Bali where you can get live entertainment.
Back at Sama's I met up with Doug and he had organised the hire of two bicycles for us for the next day, we kept them overnight so we could have an early start. The hire place was in Jalan Bisma, just next to Sama's which was very convenient. The bikes came with a bike lock but no bicycle helmets.
For tea we headed off to Murni's Warung in Campuan, somewhere I hadn't been to before, and even though it was dark and we missed any view, it was a very nice restaurant. Doug had Chicken Mushroom and I had Tuti's Tutu Ayam. For dessert Doug had the banana fritter and I had black rice pudding, but oh dear, it wasn't quite right - it was too salty - so for the first time ever I sent black rice pudding back to a kitchen. Oh yes, they agreed with me, certainly too much salt in the coconut milk topping, so they remade it and yes, it was a lot better when another lot came out. At 180,758 rp (A$25.82) it was our most expensive meal we had had in Bali this trip. The toilets were very good and at their gift shop I saw a very nice pair of dolls, a man and woman dressed up in traditional marriage outfits, and Doug still being in the earlier years of marriage to his lovely wife, bought them as a gift to take home to her.
On the way back to Sama's in Jalan Bisma we found a squashed frog on the road, it was completely flat, so much so that even ants couldn't find any moisture to get any enjoyment out of it.
Straight to bed because we planned an early start for our bike ride the next day I was looking forward to bike riding again but not sure how we'd manage in Bali - it was going to be a bit of a challenge.
Saturday 6 June - Fine, Hot - Ubud to the sea and back on our bicycles via the Sukiwati Market
I had bought a map from the Ubud Tourist Information Centre - it was called the Bali Pathfinder and it had quite a lot of detail on it as well as nice coloured illustrations of different birds to be found in Bali.
From what we could gather the roads marked in red indicated they were busy roads and best avoided on a bicycle and the roads marked in yellow were recommended as a better option, along with various warnings like 'WARNING! Cyclists have to be EXTRA CAREFUL Steep U-turns, narrow bridge, and road often in bad condition' (we certainly made sure we weren't going to travel on that road! And we also wanted to avoid the 'WARNING Cyclists have to shoulder the bikes through steps' if we possibly could...
I said to Doug, as we set off around 6.30 am, do you mind if we stop for a minute at the Pasar Pagee (early morning market) first. Well, making our way down there with the congested traffic situations was the first interesting situation of the day. We couldn't have found a more busier place if we had tried ... what a traffic jam.
I left Doug with the bikes and bought two small offerings 'bantens' with brightly coloured flowers which I stuck in the bikes' brake and gear cables at the front of the handlebars, carefully putting a 1,000 rp note in mine and a cigarette in Doug's as the additional 'gifts' to appease the highway gods, and hopefully keep us safe for the day. Doug must have thought I was nuts but anyway I believed we needed all the help we could get that day! and made sure we each had our travel insurance details in our daypacks, just in case.
We peddled south through Pengosekan (with a stop at a local warung for our early morning bali kopi), past Lodtunduh, and it was a nice easy ride. I realise now it was relatively downhill. When we got to Silungan we stopped to check which village we were in. A local suggested a detour along a side road to the village of Sakah, then Batuan and onto Sukawati. I must say the locals liked looking at our map and to make his point of his suggestion, our helpful Samaritan got out his biro and traced the route on my map, maybe just to make sure we didn't get lost .... oh dear .... I didn't have the heart to say no, no, don't draw on my map, so now in perpetuity on my lovely trail map of Bali is his mark .... sing can can ........
The side road from Silungan to Sakah wove it's way around rice fields and we stopped to have a look at some men working with alang alang grass, binding it around bamboo, making roof thatching just like I had in my bali bale at home - before the possums ate most of it Doug took a photo and gave the worker a cigarette, and was amazed when the worker in between puffs would rest it on the thatching he was working on, regardless that it was starting to smoulder the grass. The route was very scenic and rice drying out next to large rice barns made for interesting stops along the way. When I saw the large buddha baby statue I knew we had arrived at Batuan.
We headed down a long straight well made road, and the traffic levels had increased so I knew we must have reached Sukawati. Unfortunately we rode straight past the street where the main market was (it had been my intention to stop there for another kopi and breakfast) so we when the road turned to the west, we headed off on a minor road, heading south again, glad to be getting out of the busy traffic.
By this time I was starting to get fairly hungry and we stopped in the village of Guang at a warung for breakfast, the only tourists in the place of course. Ah, what's for breakfast I thought looking to see what the warung was selling - it's ayum satay, looked good, so we had that with some rice and fruit tea for breakfast and it was very nice, I think it cost us around 10,000 rp (A$1.42). A young couple eating at the warung told us they are on their way to Bangli to visit family.
Looking at the map we estimated we only had about another 2 km to the main highway near the beach, so we headed off, but my rice farmer hat kept on blowing off and I think it was nearly collected under Doug's bicycle wheel. A stonemason kindly came to our aid with some string to keep my hat under control and we set off again, reaching the main highway that joins the south with Kusamba in East Bali.
Riding along the highway wasn't too bad, there was a lane for motorbikes, but of course they didn't travel in it, so we must have looked a sight, a couple of tourists pedalling bicycles along the biggest highway that I know of in Bali. The only scary bit was when there was a bridge and the motorbike lane ended momentarily. I think Doug took the safe option and walked across the pedestrian pathway on the bridges but I decided that since I stuck out like a sore thumb with my rice farmer hat on I managed to avoid being run down by the traffic.
After about 2 ½ kilometres we came to the turnoff to the Purnama Beach and it was a gentle ride down to the black sand beach. At the side of the road a tree had been made into a shrine and to my delight there was a beautifully plumedged cock standing amongst the offerings just waiting for his photo to be taken. We bought a couple of bottles of cold tea from a small warung and sat in a bale next to the beach with a group of locals where we could see across the water to the west the multi storey Grand Bali Beach Hotel. There was a lengthy sign at the beach, apparently with instructions for what to do if a tsunami occurs - we couldn't understand it as it was written all in indonesian, but I picked up a tsunami warning pamphlet later in our trip at Sanur and it advised 'run right away from the beach and the river area if you hear a blast or thundering sound accompanied by the wind with strong salt aroma from the sea direction'.
It felt quite an achievement to have pedalled to the sea from Ubud, but little did I know that the real achievement was going to be peddling back!
We found the road back to Sukawati easy to find as it was the road north directly across from the intersection where we had turned off to go down to the beach.
Rice farmers would stop their work and wave to us, singing out hello as we rode past, it felt good to be made welcome in Bali. Not wishing to miss a photo opportunity I saw an old man riding his bike up ahead of us, with coconuts balanced on each side, so with one hand I managed to upzip my camera bag, get my camera out, catch up behind him and take a photo without falling off my bike. I think Doug also has a photo of me taking the photo!
At Sukawati I still had trouble locating the market (unfortunately the trailmap does not have a detailed map of Sukawati), so we pedalled into the main police station to ask for directions. There was one policeman in the group of ten of them, who really wanted to ask us a question, don't know what it was, but unfortunately we couldn't understand him .... I think Doug told me they were quite interested in the australian cigarette in the banten on his bike.
Eventually we found the Sukawati market and a lady who was shopping there helped us select a place to put our bikes so they wouldn't be a hindrance to the multitudes of shoppers. We shopped for traditional ceremonial items; Doug got a man's ceremonial hat and I bought a embossed foil temple jug and other bits and pieces. It's an interesting market and well worth a visit as you can buy items for cheaper prices than at tourist markets. When we left the market I had a 1,000 rp note tucked in my top in case we had to pay the parking attendants, but they weren't taking any notice of us, so we had been able to park our bikes for free. Just as we were leaving the market we saw a large multi tiered cage with brightly coloured chickens for sale - I wonder how they dye them and if it does them any harm?
Around the corner from the market in Jl. Raua Sukawati we found a really good place to stop for a bintang - from the receipt it says the Tali Wang? Warung - it was set up like a little juice bar with two wooden round tables and chairs under umbrellas - an ideal spot for watching the street activity - Doug was fascinated to watch the man organising parking of the traffic, and collecting his fee, and locals on bikes doing their shopping. I got a photo of a family of four on a bike - and as the kids were extremely 'well nourished' - also the parents - I suggested to Doug that I should perhaps win our 5 on a bike competition as the kids were almost double the size of usual balinese kids - but no, five was five, so the competition was still running. We must have spent at least an hour and a half there (5 bintangs plus 2 excellent nasi goreng and 2 aquas for lunch, with free toilet use, 94,600 rp A$13.51, it was very pleasant and good value). I went across the road to a shop called Anaya Bali Fashion and bought 4 really great summer short dresses, with interesting hand painted patterning, in cool cheesecloth fabric, each with a matching headscarf. The shop girl Komang was absolutely beside herself to have such a large sale, and a happy customer, and at 180,000 rp. ($A25.71) I was very pleased to find some things I really liked. Back in Melbourne I have had lots of compliments about my bali dresses.
Our backpacks were now well and truly full, so thinking oh boy I may regret having had those bintang we climbed on our bikes again and headed back to Ubud as the afternoon sun got hotter. Well, we missed our turnoff at Sakan and after using low gear most of the way I realised we had reached the town of Mas, as the traffic had built up well and truly and we were now on a 'red' road! Not enjoying this one little bit I convinced Doug that we should turn back and find our way across to Lodtunduh to continue our journey on a 'yellow' road - at this stage I was wondering whether our bike 'bantens' would continue to keep us safe. Along the way we stopped to look at a workshop where they carved full size wooden bicycles and made ¾ size Harley motorbikes from weaving cane - amazing.
We rode through villages where small children stared at us - I don't think they see many tourists up close on bicycles - or at least not riding around in the hot sun. In one village a family had just finished a tooth filing ceremony. We stopped at a small stall set up outside a temple to buy a fruit tea , nearby there were two statues of large boars/pigs and the girls staffing the stall giggled when I put my rice farmer hat on the statue and took a photo. At Nyunkunning we had a funny experience, we had stopped to ask directions and when I got back on my bike it felt quite odd, the seat was too high for me. Doug was having a similar unique experience with his bike seat too - I had accidentally ridden off on Doug's bike - both hire bikes looked quite the same - what a laugh we had!
I think I had given Doug quite an exaggerated picture of how terrible the monkeys were in the Monkey Forest (my previous experiences hadn't been the best), so before we went through the forest I made sure we had put everything securely in our backpacks and off I went, pedalling like mad, determined not to stop till I got to the other end safely. Well, I waited and waited for Doug who had been behind me. I went to one entrance and then the other looking for him, thinking to myself that I hoped he was OK. Out he eventually pedalled and I had to catch up to him in Monkey Forest Road - he'd had a wonderful time videoing the monkeys with the large group of tourists providing a distraction for the monkeys.
On our way down the main street we pedalled past our local driver Wayan, from yesterday's outing ... 'transport' we offered to him. He greeted us like old friends and was very surprised to hear the extent of our travels on our bikes during the day - probably about 35 km in all. The lady at the bike hire was also pleased to hear her bikes had been well traveled, and as Doug had paid her 15,000 rp each (for ½ day hire), I paid her an extra 10,000 rp each for the additional time we had used the bikes. 25,000 rp A$3.57 - pretty good value I thought for a full day's 'transport'.
The swim in the pool at Sama's felt pretty good and for our last night in Ubud we went to one of my favourites, Cafe Wayan in Monkey Forest Road for tea. I had my usual order, delicious Tasmanian salmon (70,500 rp) and Doug had Wayan's Chicken Curry (43,000 rp), Fresh Fruit Salad, and Banana Pancake with Ice-cream. Doug tried his first ever drink of Brem which he announced tasted 'like a flat lemonade, very sweet, with a little bit of lemon juice squeezed in it'.
Back at Sama's I packed my bags again, ready to move onto Padang Bai tomorrow, via Besakih Mother Temple, which I hadn't visited since 1980 - I wondered what changes there would be?
Ubud had been an enjoyable, and there seemed to be quite a few more tourists than my last visit in 2005.