Snorkelling the Japanese shipwreck.

12.11.11

Today we hired mopeds and went off up the coast to try and find

the site of the Japanese shipwreck. We buzzed over the

hilly terrain with terrific views over each little black

sanded cove lined with smiling water-boatman fishing boats.

We took a wrong turning in land and wound through a tropical

feeling valley, the road shadowed by tall palm trees. Coming

reound a corner at one point was a swarm of school children all

piling out of school, driving like lunatics on both sides of the

road. We had quite a hairy experience when one boy came

tearing towards us on the wrong side of the roads turning around

chatting to his passengers, after several beeps on the horn he

realised he was heading straight for us and at the last second

swerved to avoid us and then continued laughing with his friends.

We didn't find it quite so funny!! We stopped for petrol from a

man at the side of the road, sat on his veranda, he kindly told us

we were going the wrong way and were headed straight for the police!

So we back tracked and found the turning he had directed us to. This

continued up and down hill aong the coast passed numerous small

resorts and diving schools, until we came across a sign for parking

for the Japanese wreck.

The wreck was off a stony beach, only about 5 metres off shore.

However it still took a little time to find as the tide kept taking

us off in the wrong direction. Snorkelling around this wreck was

another magical experience. We had been disappointed that we couldn't

afford to scub around this and the Liberty wreck but in actual fact

you couldn't have seen a huge amount more around this wreck as it was

in such shallow water.

It's really quite eery under water, I'm always a little afraid, especially

when you are swimming over the skeleton of a near complete hull and you

can imagine what the ship must have looked like. On the ships carcass

was all different types of coral. Barin matter was being nibbled on by

tiny electric blue fish. I swam through huge sholes of silver fish

flashing in and out the autumn forest growing off the main hull. Below

on the sea floor was huge blue starfish and larger fish lurking in the

shadows. Just behind the main bulk of the ship the sea bed suddenly got

a lot deeper. There was little coral from this point and the water seemed

a lot cloudier. I was too scared to venture beyond this point, my

imagination going in to over drive!

Afterwards we went for lunch a short walk in to a resort up a hill with

great views overlooking the bay, before we had to nip back for a taxi to

take us to Kuta.

On the 3 hour drive back to Kuta, we passed Tirta Ganga again and the

beautiful views of the rice terraces in the valley below. Our driver

kindly stopped for me to take snaps. The journey was relatively swift

all the way to Sanur, as there is a dual carriage way that is partly

open. Then at Sanur you hit traffic and Kuta is a maze of one way

systems with hundreds of taxis sat at a stand still.

Our driver 'missed' the turning for the one way road we needed to get to so

dropped us off in Poppies II and we began the arduous prcess of room hunting

in our budget. We ended up choosing somewhere slightly over our budget

because it was just so much nicer and cleaner than the places we had

found at the top end of our budget, which were just really grotty!

To be honest neither Martin nor I had been looking forward to coming to

Kuta, with it's reputation for being the 'party capital' of Kuta but

we thought we should probably do some partying at some point on our

travels. I particularly had to coax Martin in to coming somewhere

where the main purpose was to go out for beer!!

Anyway on first impressions, Kuta lived up to our expectations. Poppies

I and II are full off tacky souvenir stalls and trinket shops interspersed

with cafes and bars. The place is full of skimpily dressed Aussies/Brits in

obscene T-shirts! But we found a a warong that was in lonely planet that

had a huge menu of Indonesian food and for really cheap.

Snorkelling in Amed.

11.11.11

We had arranged for Ari to pick us up and take us to Amed

about 3 hours away. About 3/4's of the way there we stopped

at Tirta Gangga, a beautiful water palace built for the

regional sultan to relax in. It is set amongst green

rice fields and on the site is a small temple at the base

of a 200 year old Baboban tree and the source of the spring.

There are beautiful pools with fountains and carp. We had a very

amusing guide who crammed in as much Australian 'lingo' as he could

and asked if we were clear after every sentence!

Half an hour of driving later we were on the stetch of coast known

as Amed, which is a 15-20km stretch of villages, one of which

is called Amed. Ari took us to a few different guesthouses/

homestays before we found one in our price range that was

located away from the beach but only a 3 minute walk and right

near the coral reef.

Again the black stone beach was deserted apart from fishing boats

and local people, with the odd tourist snorkelling. We had a

really good fresh fish lunch in a warung on the beach and

then hired some snorkelling sets.

I hadn't snorkelled for about 10 years and at first I felt a

little bit panicky until I got used to just breathing through

my mouth. But I soon forgot all about this when I got to

reef which was only a few metres off shore. The sheer numbers

and different type of fish was amazing and there were so many

different varieties of coral. I saw 'nemo' type fish, sholes

of tiny electric blue fish, stiped yellow and blue fish, large

fish that looked like a huge razor, giant blue star fish and

fish that were about 1 foot in length and different shades of

pale reds, blues and yellows. It was definately a highlight

of our time in Indonesia so far.

This evening we went to a different warung. I had fish in

Balinese sauce (lemon grass, ginger and chillies) steamed in

banana leaves with rice. I'd had chicken like this before,

and both time it was delicious. We decided to try Arak, the

palm wine for the first time, so ordered 3 shots. The shots were

huge - 2/3s of a wine glass. First taste, it was disgusting!

So we piled in fresh lime and topped it up with sprite. It got

a bit more bearable! By the end of the glass Martin was quite

enjoying it - I still wasn't convinced!! But we kept the

warung owner entertained watching us trying to drink it!

As we were sat having our meal there was a huge storm, which

was amazing to watch. Each time the thunder made us jump

and it was frightening watching the fork lightening strike.

It's not something you really experience very often in the UK.

I couldn't believe how loud the thunder was.

Arie Smit and smoked duck.

10.11.11

Today the boys decided thay couldn't hack our busy pace (?!!)

so wanted a lazy day which I conceded to (but of course got my

own way in the end!). So we had breakfast then lounged around

the pool for the morning.

We then went to a restaurant called Deli Cat, which was

recommended in the book for Bobby to have lunch and us

a drink. We can recommend the German sausages and chips.

They do a whole range of sausages and cheese, which you

can select from their shop and have as a ploughmans.

Very tempting! That's one of the things I miss-cheese!!

From there we walked up Monkey Forest road up to the main

Ubud Road and then turned left, to walk out of town. It was

a longer walk than we though. WE wound over a bridge and

up hill passed plenty of spa resorts. Half way up the hill

we came to a big artists studio with loads of pop art

style pictures of the Mono Lisa and decided to go in and

have a look. It was a lovely huge light studio space,

covered in large canvases. All very uninspiring, unoriginal

brightly coloured portraits or Warhol style prints...blah

blah. But we were were welcomed by camp, drunk American

guy louging in a hammock, who when we told him where we were

from started telling us how ridiculous the English were, which

was quite funny!!

Anyway we continued on our mission to find an Art Museum, I wanted

to go and had told the boys it wasn't very far. It did turn out

to be alot farther away than I'd though aswell. But we eventually

got there and the boys were rewarded with a beer (or 3) while I

went in to have a look.

Neka Art Museum is well worth a look. It has a fairly large collection

of Balinese art and foreign artists works that are inspired by

Bali. The first 3 or 4 galleries take you through the historial

progression on Balinese art. From very busy canvasses similar om

style to the traditional wayung (puppets) telling traditional folk

or Hindu stories all the way up to western influenced painting from

the 1930's onwards. The most interesting pieces for me were telling

stories or depicting elements of black magic. There were very good

descriptions of each piece.

There was also a collection of photographs taken by a dutch/american

man Robert A. Koke who set up one of the first hotels in Bali in the

1930's. His photos were taken between 1937 and 1941 and he photographed

some of the different traditional dances, some which took place to

ward of evil spirits.

There were also a whole gallery of paintings by Arie Smit, whose

work I love. His paintings really capture the colours and

vibrancy of the culture in Bali. It is such a sistint culture

even compared to their neighbouring islands, from what we have

seen and been told by locals. They are fiercely proud of their

culture and say if you are born in a village, you will die there too.

Anyway, getting side tracked! I collected the men and we walked

back in to Ubud. We were soon back out again as we had a table booked

at the highly recommended Dirty Duck where we had ordered a day in

advance a whole smoked (yes you guessed it) duck. It was delicious,

and came with satay chicken, prawn crackers, veg and rice. The setting

of the restaurant was also very beautiful. We sat on cushions on the

floor, in our own little pagoda with fountains and little ponds around

us lit by lanterns. Very romantic!

Temples around Ubud

09.11.11

So far in Indonesia we had spent a lot of time on beaches

and had noticed alot about the differences in culture.

But hadn't actually found out a lot about life in Bali,

paricularly about their version of Hinduism, which plays

such a huge part in life here. So we'd decided to

invest in a driver, who was highly recommended online, to take us

around Ubud and the surrounding temples and rice

terraces to try and find out more! It was way out of our

budget but I had far too many questions!

So Ari arrived at 9am this morning. From the word go,

Ari was very friendly and courteous and is eager to

answer any questions about his life and culture. He told

us about his life. He lives in a village with his family,

including his brothers's families and his mother and father,

who all share a compound. Each family of 4/5 has their own

house. Within his village there are 26 compounds and 700

people total living there.

Ari's father was a builder by trade originally, then recently

he was made 'head' of the village, which he did for 5 years and

now he does neither, but manages his livestock and helps to

look after his grandchildren. Ari explained that anybody in

the village can be the 'head', unless they have children as

they will have too many responsibilities and will not be able

to support them properly. They must be nominated by others in

the village and after 5 years someone else will take the

position. It is a lot of responsibility.

The first temple that Ari took us to is called Goa Gajah (Elephant

Caves) because when it was first rediscovered it was thought the

cave entrance was a carving of an elephant, but actually it is

a demon. On this site there is a Hindu temple and also a Buddhist

temple, which was destroyed during an earthquake.

To enter the sight you walk down a long flight of steps. Below you,

you can see a bathing pool and to the left of it the mouth of a

small cave. To get to the bathing pool you have to go down a few

steep steps and opposite you are a row 6 female figures with what was

the 'male' figure in the middle. Ari explained that Balinese Hindu's also

worship Shiva, Krishna and Brahma who are all mainfestations of the same spirit Sanghyang Widhi.

But Balienese HIndu's also believe in native/local spirits and demons and

alot of the rituals revolve around maintaining balance.

Particular colours are very symbolic.

White and Gold are often seen within the temple, and

all worshippers wear these colours, these are holy colours. Black and

white represent good and evil and red represents power.

We went through the mouth of the Demon down a narrow passage way with

some alcoves, used for meditation in to a wide and shallow chamber,

where offering were laid out. Everywhere on Bali you come across

little baskets of offerings; on the pavement, outside every shop,

on the beach. The offerings are in coconut leaf baskets. You can

put in anything from rice, flowers, incense, cigarrettes- whatever

you have. Whatever you can give. If you have a bigger wish you may

want to give a bigger offering consisting of rice, then a coconut,

on top a lotus flower. The rice represents that earth/ground, the coconut the

world and the flower the universe.

We had noticed that down every street there were several temples. Ari

explained that each family had a small temple. Then in each village

there would be several different temples for different purposes/times.

He showed us a small garden temple with a small shrine on a little

island with a 'moat' surrounding it.All around the coast of Bali there are temples to

protect the island. Ari said the Balinese people joke that is there

is a tsunami the Gods will die first!

Once we had walked through the Hindu temple we followed a maze of steps

downwards in to a small valley where the ruins of a huge statue of

Buddha lay, it had once sat at the top of the hill. We followed the steps

up and past the original sight of the Buddha and wound through the rice

fields back to the Hindu temple.

Next we got back in the car to continue on to Yeh Pulu, which I was

excited about because it was supposed to be really peaceful and off

the tourist trail. I wasn't disappointed. To get to the temple we had

to walk through some picturesque rice terraces, apparently about a month

off harvesting. This temple is on the sight of a natural spring where there

is a small bathing pool. It dates from the 14th and 15th century and

is one of the oldest holy places in Bali. Before you reach the carvings

you stepped through a stone entrance way that is symmetrical. It represents

splitting yourself in two, leaving the bad behind at the gate and entering

with the good. Ari explained inner 'gates' within temples represent

then unifying yourself, channelling your energies to God. There isn't

a inner gateway on this site however. There is 20 metres of stone carvings

of Hindu and Balinese Gods. An old lady looks after the shrine to Ganesh.

The next temple is called Gunung Kawi, the 'Mountain of the Poets'. This

complex dates from the 11th century. It is a very impressive, atmospheric

setting. You have to descend down 300 odd steps in to a humid, ravine

lined with trees. It was thought to have been created as the burial

place for King Anuk Wungsu and his wives. On either side of the ravine,

through which flows the Pakerisan River, are the 9 tombs, said to have been

carved out of rock by fingernails. As you peer in to the ravine you can

see a huge rock which has the imprint of a giant 'hand' pressed in to it!

On the other side of the river is the temple and burial sight of the King.

The walk back up was tiring but we were rewarded with lush views across the

rice fields and in to the ravine. The next stop on our trip was Tirta

Empal, which is one of the holiest sites on Bali as it is the site of a

holy spring. We were really fortunate as today is a full moon, so a holy day

and there was a ceremony going on when we arrived. The Balinese calendar is

based on the lunar calendar.

Before you enter the temple, you should wash at the holy springs. You can

bath in the 2 pools which are fed by 10 fountains, each representing

something different. The worshippers enter the pool and move from left to right

washing under each fountain. Some people also collect the holy water to take

back to their homes.

Walking on towards the temple entrance there were many women carrying large baskets

on their heads, full of fruit and flowers to leave at the temples as offerings.

The baskets are then taken home, after receiving a blessing. On our left as we

entered the temple is a large pagoda with people playing colourful instuments.

Placed all over the floor were small offerings. The temple is open air with 3 or

4 other large pagodas where basket upon basket had been left. Then there was the

inner temple and the site of the natural hole spring.

Within a separate courtyard was a large congregation, again all dressed in white,

sat on the floor. First they faced the 2 priests sat on a pacoda at one end.

Then at the other was lots of baskets of offerings in front of the springs, which

at the appropriate point the congregation all turned to face.

We were so lucky to be able to experience this even though we didn't fully

understand what was going on!

Our next stop, was lunch overlooking rice terraces, near the famous Tegallangtang

terraces, which we stopped at last of all. The rice fields are stepped down

the hill. Ari explained that Balinese farmers use a famous irrigation system,

where water is channelled from the top layer down through the fields to the bottom.

The first month the fields are almost flooded and need increasingly less water

throughout the process. When the rice is ready, you can tell this when the top

of the crop is a brown colour, the field needs to be dry so that the crop can be harvested.

This is of course increasingly done with machinery but in some places is still done by

hand. The rice is cut and then beaten by hand to release the part that contains

the rice. This is then left to dry out in the sun. I was suprised how hard the rice

grain actually is before the outer coating is peeled away to reveal the white grain.

The views were beautiful, so many bright greens and tall palm trees. The view was

only spoilt by the odd farmer loitering hoping to get you to photograph them

'farming'!

We had such a good day with Ari, it was well worth the extra money for us. And

actually Ari's price is very reasonable, but we are just on a very tight budget!

He was very informative, friendly and helpful. He even provided bottles of water,

large umbrellas (which he carried for us) and lent us sarongs. He did however

draw the line at carrying Martin back up the steps from Gunung Kawi!! He took us

around each temple explaining what we saw and has good knowledge of the history

of each sight. Thanks very much Ari!

Circumnavigating Nusa Lembongan

07.11.11

So far Nusa Lembongan wasn't quite what I hoped, so we thought

we'd hire mopeds today to try and get away from the Tourists

and see some 'real Bali'.

Now, Bobby hadn't ridden a moped before and in order to get from

our guesthouse, off the beach and on to the main road, behind, you

had to ride along a really narrow path, with a 3 foot drop on

to the beach. So Martin offered to ride both bikes (one at a time!)

on to the main road and there Bobby was able to practise and suss

out how to ride the bike before we set off. We were less worried

about being pulled over, as we were told there were no traffic

police on the island. A majority of the bikes don't have license

plates here and their not concerned with whether you have a drivers

license.

Anyway Bobby was fine driving the bike so we set off to circumnavigate

the island. We were hoping the weather would clear up (still drizzly

and overcast) so we could do some snorkelling. So we headed north towards

Mangrove Point. The roads were pretty bad in places with lots of

pot holes and were all single lane. It was nice to get away from

the tourist areas and just drive through the villages. On the way

to mangrove Point we couldn't really see very much other than the trees

that lined the road and the odd house on the road.

As we got towards Mangrove Point there were several small restuarants,

renting snorkle gear and selling boat trips. We stopped to buy

some petrol, which is twice the price here on the island, or, if you're Bobby,

20 times the price, as he got confused and paid the (it turns out not so

honest) man with 2 x 100,000 notes instead of 2 x 10,000. We didnt realise this

until later in the day, and needless to say Martin found it very amusing and it

resulted in HILARIOUS jokes all day...

Then we stopped to determine the snorkleing situation. The tide was out

(we weren't sure how you would navigate between the seaweed fields!) and

it started to rain so we decided against. Instead we had a cold drink by

the sea, then set off across the island to where we knew there was a bridge

to the neighbouring, smaller island of Cennigan. On the ride across

Lembongan we passed through 'mangrove forrest' along the winding small

road past a few houses and groups of children who shouted in

chorus at us trying to sell shells. Lembongan is small and it didnt

take long to get across to the other side and reach the 'bridge'. We pulled

over and got off the bikes to take a qucik look around at the view between

the islands and check the condition of the bridge. It was old and yellow,

very narrow, cars couldnt cross, just pedestrians and the odd motorbike,

the floor was horizontal wooden slats, some flush with each other as

you would hope, some further apart than you would hope and some neither close

to the next nor fully attched to the bridge itself, tied on by suspect looking

blue rope. As we had seen a couple of bikes make it across we decided it was safe

to go (also we couldnt see the afformentioned, less than safe looking wooden slats

from the side when se walked up to look).

On the other side we didnt travel far but did get to the far west of the island

where people were farming seaweed, a young boy saw us and came running up to

me asking for a pen! It was a nice change from constantly being asked for money

and a much more innocent and sincere (and sweet) seeming request. I didnt

have a pen on me but found a pencil in my bag which he seemed more than happy

with as he went off to test it on a exposed bit of bark on a palm tree.

We passed quite a few small temple looking places with locals pottering

around throughout the day, it definatley felt like we saw more of the

'real Bali' and it was nice to have the freedom to ride around, stop to take

photos and just enjoy the peace of the coutryside and coast.

We headed back to our hotel via the popular 'Mushroom Beach' named this because

of the shape oof the bay. It was a nice beach with very fine sand and a few

expensive looking hotels but was busy with people getting on and off boats, arriving

and leaving from hotels and day trips. We had a nice lunch (Martin didnt order anything

as he was still suffering a bit with a bad stomach he tried both mine and Bobbys food,

but still had a little moan about not getting to eat) on the beach then headed

back to our hotel, not before getting some beautiful views as we had to ride up and

over a big hill to get back.

Seaweed farming on Nusa Lembongan

06.11.11

Today we came to an island called Nusa Lembongan, where I was

hoping for a more authentic Balinese experience!

The walk to the boat took a little longer than we had anticpated,

it didn't seem quite so long when we were strolling around

last night! Thankfully we arrived in time. It was only a small

boat, with wooden benches and 'stablisers'. We watched as 3/4

people carried several mopeds through the water and on to the boat.

We then had to wade and climb up on to the boat with our packs,

avoiding the crates of soft drinks and barrells of petrol they

were taking across.

An hour and a half later we arrived, and were accosted by 'porters'

and people wanting to show us to guesthouses. We found a very

simple room, virtually on the beach and Bobby had the first floor

of a 2 storey beach hut. Again there were lots of fishing boats

on this beach.

We decided to get acquainted with the area and walked south along

the beach. Along the beach are peoples houses and then patches

of guesthouse after guesthouse. We got to the end of the cove and

sat on the wall watching some seaweed farmers collect their boat

load of seaweed in to large baskets. They then carry them 2 baskets

at a time hanging from a bar they lift and carry across their shoulders.

Behind the row of building along the beach, aswell as on the beach,

the seaweed is laid out to dry on large tarpaulins. It had quite a

distinctive smell. We then followed a path up some steps and continued

it around the headland. Along this path were lots of upmarket bugalows,

with great views over the bay and the grids of submerged seaweed fields.

This path led us down some steps to Song Lambung beach, another small

golden beach, full of small fishing boats. We had a snooze for an

hour or so before making our way back to our guesthouse.

This evening we walked north of our guesthouse as there was a large

choice of restaurants to choose from. WE eventually decided on

a romantic candlelit table for three and the Star Two Thousand

restaurant, right by the beach. It had been overcast and

drizzly all day, and as we had our meal and it got dark the wind

got up and we could hear heavy rain on the sea some distance

away. It never quite reached us, well not until during the

night anyway.

Sanur

05.11.11

We had quite a leisurely start as Bobby arrived quite late

and then headed down to the beach. We hired a sunbed each

as there is no shade otherwise. It was exciting for Martin

and I as so far on the trip we had only been swimming together

once before as usually we play ti safe and one of us stays with

the bags. Very boring!

The water here is very shallow and there is loads of seaweed so

we just bobbed around in the shallows, picking up shells etc.

Again there is so much coral washed up on the beach, it's really

sad to see.

As we were leaving the beach, we noticed worshippers all dressed

in white sarongs, with gold underneath, gold sashes and white

sashes walking enmasse towards the beach. Some were carrying baskets

on their heads and colourful umbrellas. On the beach a

teepee types structure had already been built and some offerings

left. We decided to stay and see the ceremony. A large congregation

arrived and seated themselves in rows facing out to sea. Umbrellas

were closed and lent up against the 'tee-pee'. They all sat

quietly waiting while the odd couple of worshippers took small

baskets of offerings to the shore and laid them down. After about

15 minutes a gentle murmur of song began. There didn't seem to

be anyone leading the ceremony. We were sat a fair distand away

on the pier and already felt a little intrusive, especially as

we didn't know what the ceremony was about. But other tourists

were walking straight in to the corregation and snapping away with

no respect. We decided we didn't want to be associated with this

kind of behaviour so continued out walk along the beach!!

When we came back 30 minutes or so later the ceremony was still

going on. I keep meaning to find out more about this religion,

I've only read a little in a Lonely PLanet guide that we borrowed.

I'll update the blog once I have more info!

This evening we headed to a sports bar for happy hour and something

to eat. I had my first cocktail of the trip! There were about 8

people in the bar when a 6 piece band came on and began

playing western 'hits', they were suprisingly good. But not

really what you want when you're in a sports bar trying to watch

the football!