Back from Bali

This is a monkey on my shoulder in Ubud.

So, for whoever is still reading this (i.e. me and occasionally Nate and Melissa), I’m going to try and get these updates up in a timely manner.  My goal is to make a post for each day of the trip so I can display more of the photos on here.  I’ll backdate the posts to the calendar days on which the events actually occurred, then I’ll backdate this one maybe.  Anyway, don’t expect anything tonight.  I’ve got to go through 300+ photos tonight, sort them out and crop some of them and what-not, and maybe start putting those on facebook.

There will also be one or two posts that are password protected.  I have recently gone back and password protected a few other older posts.  I have considered being more ambitious with the blog, and if I do attempt anything bigger, I will need to keep a few things just between friends.  Email me and I’ll send people I know the password for any of the protected posts.  Love you all and hopefully I get this trip documented quicker than the last one.

EDIT:  Three months… wtf is wrong with me?

Bali Trip Day 9

My delicious friend.

I woke up relatively early on my final day, given my early bed time the previous evening.  I woke so early, in fact, that I did not miss the continental breakfast!  This is a feat for me.

Afterward, I went for a morning walk along the beach at Kuta.  Never in my life have I seen such a depressing sight.  The shore was littered with garbage and dead fish for as far as I walked.  Many of them looked similar to the beautiful fish that I saw in Gili T, which made it even sadder.

I then returned to my hotel, where I bumped into the Sailor.  Normally, I would not just walk up to a stranger and start talking to them randomly, but he had mentioned the previous day that he had been living and sailing in the South Pacific and Australia for years, and that he had not lived in the States for nearly 30 years.  My curiosity was beyond piqued.

Every part of a pig is delicious... sort of.

So I approached him and we got to talking.  This old Sailor is the coolest guy I have ever met.  He owns his own boat down in Australia, and when he is not working as a captain or chief engineer on other boats, he just sails around.  We talked especially about the Philippines for a while, as he has spent a lot of time sailing through the hundreds of islands that make up the country.  The man was just infinitely fascinating to me, in part because I think I would very much like to be in his shoes in 30 years.

After chatting with him for an hour or so, I went on a mission to achieve one last goal that I had thus far failed on the trip.  I had to eat Babi Guling (that just means roast suckling pig, but apparently it is a big deal on the island).  I had already checked out, so I lugged my big ass bag around Kuta asking strangers about Babi Guling until I finally found a place serving it.  My God, it was everything I hoped for and more.  Every part of the pig is magically turned into something delicious!  The meat, the skin, some sort of sausage, something that resembled pork rinds, and a soup that (I think) involved more of the pig… all of this and a pile of rice with some hot green salsa stuff on the side.  It was divine, and one of the few meals I had that was too big to finish.

Kuta Beach at sunset.

After finishing it off, I got an hour long foot massage for something like $5, and then snapped a few sunset pics at the slightly cleaner Kuta Beach.  I then returned to Poppy Lane to catch a ride to the airport, where I reconvened with the illustrious Trevor.  We checked in, re-visited the Duty Free Store, and then boarded for Seoul.

The End!  Oh, and then Monday was a snow day, so we still got a two day weekend after arriving back on Sunday morning.  Win.

Bali Trip Day 8

Tanah Lot Water Temple

I woke up on the first at around 9am, packed up, and split from the group for an early return to the main island.  I arrived at the Blue Water Express office only to find out that I had been scammed by a “sales rep” back on Lombok (the same guy that managed to get us to Gili Trawangan in the middle of the night after all the boats had stopped running… a true fucking saint).  After paying an extra 100,000 rupiah, I was “fortunate” enough to be bumped to the second fast boat of the day.  I ended up paying nearly $80 for a $50 boat ride.  AWESOME.

The boat ride was quick though.  Much nicer than the ferry ride, and my taxi to Kuta was included in the price.  I was back in Kuta and settled into the Hotel Bali Dwipa by about 3pm.

After a quick shower (and the first warm one in days), I went to the front counter and arranged transport to go see Tanah Lot at sunset.  Just as I was leaving, I had my first encounter with the Sailor, but more about that in the next post.

Tide is coming in and forcing everyone back to shore.

I rode on the back of a scooter to the water temple with my driver and pseudo-guide, Made (pronounced Ma-dee).  When we got to the temple, it was PACKED.  It looked like half of the Javanese population was at the temple that day.  It was quite difficult to get a good picture without the entire crowd in the shot.

None the less, it looked fantastic.  Tanah Lot is on a rock cropping up out of the ocean about 50 meters from the cliff along the coast.  When the tide is out, it is possible to walk across to the temple on land.  When the tide comes in, water floods the gap and separates the temple from the mainland.  The temple also happens to be on a west-facing coast, so it is perfect for sunsets.

Just before the legendary sunset.

After wandering about and taking pictures from every possible angle, Made and I went up to the cliff where I could get some good pictures of the sunset behind the temple.  Thankfully, at this point the tide was driving the crowd back up to the main island, so there were not so many bodies crowded into the photos.

After the sunset, we rode back to the hotel.  I laid down for a quick nap before going out for a Friday night on the town… and slept for 10 hours instead.  It was much needed, however, after the last few nights of poor sleep.

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Bali Trip Day 7

The water is so clear... this is the most beautiful water I've ever seen.

We woke up quite early, or rather we were woken up quite early.  Apparently the room we were in was supposed to be vacated at 9:30am, regardless of hangovers.  It was lovely to wake up to a strung out island dude tapping on the window and staring in at me.  Not that I’m judging him for being strung out.

We then wandered around the island trying to find an overpriced room for our second night.  Everyone was price gouging because it was New Year’s Eve on a backpacker’s paradise party island.  We eventually found a place (after being way too picky), and I immediately dropped everything and went into the water.

Trevor and I then spent part of the afternoon snorkeling.  It was amazing to just rent a mask, snorkel, and flippers for $2, and then swim right out to the coral from the beach.  No boat required.  The reef was cool, but the fish were the really amazing part.

I really just love the way these boats look...

Sadly, Trev’s camera couldn’t capture all the splendid colors from within the waterproof bag (nor from without).  The only thing I’ve seen close to this was in Puerto Rico at la Mata de la Gata, but that was ages ago and I didn’t have contacts at the time so I just snorkeled about aimlessly without fully appreciating it.  However, the fish around Gili Trawangan were really breathtaking and the experience helped to move SCUBA certification near the top of my list.

Snorkeling less than 20 yards from the beach... you just rent a snorkel, mask and flippers for about $2 and then walk out into the ocean anywhere.

Afterward, we met up for some hookah followed by dinner and a movie (Inglorious Bastards).  After dinner we stopped by Rudy’s bar before heading down to a reggae bar at the other end of the strip to bring in the New Year.  At this point I was pretty tired from the long day and I actually, believe it or not, turned in before 1am on New Year’s Eve.  I know, I know… this sounds like nonsense, but I assure that I absolutely had to return to my room.

Also, here are some more pictures below, because there were just so many pictures this day.

Glad we saw these guys that were being saved or rescued or something. Sadly, we didn't see any out in the reef.

Lulu is a sea monkey...

The sun sets...

Bali Trip Day 6

One last look at the volcano.

Day six was a bit bumpy.  The original plan:  wake up early, return the scooters to Ubud, hire a taxi to Padangbai, catch a boat to Gili Trawangan, and be there before sun down.  This did not happen.

We woke up late and took forever to get out of town.  We said good bye to Zoe, then Ben led us back to Ubud.  Our rental returns were a day late (oops) but we somehow managed to drop them off with no hassle and without paying anything extra.  We then hired a taxi to Padangbai.  At this point it should have been sometime before noon on the original schedule.  Instead, it was nearly 2pm when we arrived at Padangbai.

I'm riding a scooter thingy!

We were immediately accosted by men trying to sell us boat transport and hotel rooms.  No matter who we talked to, they said there was no way to get to Gili Trawangan that day.  The plan seemed to be screwed, all hope lost, etc.  Then someone said we could get to the island that night, before midnight.  He tried to take us for something ridiculous, but we haggled it down to about $25 a head.  Sadly, it wouldn’t be aboard the fast boat.

We had to take the main ferry to Lombok, then take an hour long bus ride, then take another boat over to Gili T.  We agreed, and they rushed us to the ferry like we would be throwing our bags onto the boat and jumping from the dock at the last minute.  We then sat on the ferry for an hour… not sure what the rush was about.

On board, we met a couple of really great guys, one of which was on the same package deal as we were.  Turns out the poor guy was hustled for about $75 — the combined total for all three of us.

On the ferry, looking back at Bali... or ahead to Lombok. One of those two things.

Anyway, we arrived at Lombok late, found our ride and started heading up to the next stop.  We were very excited until our guide mentioned the evening’s accommodations.  He was very surprised to find out that the “sales reps” back in Bali had promised to have us on the island that night.  We all made it pretty clear that we WERE going to the island that night, and “no” was not an option.  So, after a big run around town and a midnight restaurant stop, we arrived at the next port.  We walked out to the boat… and it looked like a smaller version of the outriggers in Boracay.

A quick shower and a beer at our new friend's room before going out drinking.

We boarded and made the forty minute crossing to Gili T.  After a very full day of travel, we finally set foot on the island sometime after midnight.  Naturally, we ditched our bags and immediately started drinking.  We were, after all, on an spectacular party island.

While I did some heavy drinking, Trevor and Kristen decided to go looking for a room to sleep in that night.  They were very concerned with this.  Apparently my lack of a plan and general intention to just sleep where ever I landed was not a good idea.  Fortunately, they found us some lodging for that night, and after several more drinks and some other shenanigans, we returned to our room and passed out.

Bali Trip Day 5

The view from the house we stayed at.

The morning of the epic hike!  Our guide, Peter, came around pretty early and started knocking on the door.  We woke up a bit later than intended, but the sun did not have too much of a head start on us.  After packing up for the day (at a painfully slow pace), we hopped on the scooters, grabbed a quick breakfast, and then drove down a very steep winding road.  This is when I realized just exactly where we were…  The village sits up on the top of a very steep hill/cliff.  Once we got down the hill a bit and started off towards the volcano, I could look back at the village and see that it was sitting on the rim of a GIANT crater.  Apparently Mount Batur is just a shadow of the super volcano that erupted there 30,000 years ago.  The crater is HUGE.  Mount Batur sits in the middle of the crater, along with a lake and a few smaller mountains that may or may not be active volcanoes as well.

Black sand and some volcanic rock in the distance.

The entire time, my mouth was agape.  Everything was beautiful.  Everywhere I looked was amazing, and my damned camera just could not capture all of the beauty set forth before me.

The hike happened in a few stages.  After parking the bikes down at Peter’s house, we walked out across the old lava flows to the base of the mountain.  All throughout the lava flows you could see huge trucks picking up black sand and volcanic rock.  It all goes to other points on the island, mostly for construction purposes according to Peter.

That is sulfur gas coming out of the mountain in the background.

We then arrived at the base and began our ascent.  The mountain is really not that big, and after a relatively short hike, we were up to the first stop.  Peter is a private guide, and he does not work with the main company that bought the non-existent fake rights to control hiking tours of the volcano (or something political like that), so he took us up to a prohibited area first.  Sadly, it’s not like a movie volcano with the lava bubbling just a few meters below you.  Instead, sulfur gas just leaks out of the rock all around you.  There are few concentrated spots where the sulfur clouds come up quite visibly.  On either side of the little ridge where we saw this, there are two small craters.  These seemed steep, but otherwise uninteresting, until Peter explained that these were the points of origin for the last several eruptions.  Apparently that’s why the area is prohibited.  There have been several small lava flows in the last 20-30 years, and they’re expecting another soon.  AWESOME!

Our breakfast, cooking in a hole in the ground.

Next, we went further up the mountain.  We came to a shallow ravine where we climbed up nearly to the top.  Here, Peter stopped and cooked breakfast, and I swear it was the coolest breakfast in the world.  He grabbed a random stick from the ground and dug a hole into the hillside.  He called me over and told me to put my hand into the whole, and it was hot.  Like, painfully hot.  I pulled my hand out and Peter tried to convince me to touch the side of the hole before he cooked our meal inside.  No way was I going to touch the inside of nature’s oven.

Peter proceeded to put several eggs and bananas into this hole in the ground and cover the hole with a plastic bag.  When he eventually removed it all from the hole, we had the.  best.  breakfast.  ever.  It was literally the most simple meal I’ve ever eaten.  Eggs, bananas, and white bread.  However, sitting on the side of an active volcano eating food that was just cooked by the volcano itself was pretty fantastic.

Lake Batur and another mountain in the distance. The view from this spot was outstanding.

After breakfast, Trevor and I finished a short climb up to the plateau where the two peaks sit (I only saw two peaks on Batur, there could have been more).  Unfortunately, we did not go up the main peak, but I did sprint up the lower peak while Peter was preoccupied down below, and I got some of my favorite pictures of the lake and the other mountains in the crater.

Finally, the descent.  We came down the same way we came up, until a point.  Then we broke away to the right.  The whole slope was nothing but black sand with no rocks or footholds.  We were not going to climb down, we were going to slide down.  The sand was fine enough and the hill was steep enough that if you squatted down on your heels just right, you could ride down the hill like you would on a tobaggan.  This was awesome.

Trevor, Kristen, and Peter sliding down the sand.

We then made a brief stop at a haunted cave down in the lava flats, where Peter gave an offering and lit some incense to ward off anything evil in the cave.  Supposedly there’s a ghost, but all I saw was a few bats flitting about.

We then trekked back through the woods to the main road, picking up some trash along the way to help out mother nature.  Once we hit the road, we had to walk back to Peter’s house.  The walk up the road was a bit long, and not nearly as scenic as the hike on the volcano, so we hitched a ride on one of the big trucks leaving the crater.  Now, by “hitched a ride”  I do not mean that we sat comfortably within the vehicle, or in the truck bed with the sand and rocks.  We hung onto the outside of the vehicle like garbage men with much weaker hand and footholds.  Most excellent.

Volcanic rocks from one of the more recent lava flows.

We picked up the bikes, drove back up the crater, and met up with Ben and Zoe in the afternoon.  We grabbed dinner at a fantastic restaurant that serves nothing but fish from the volcanic lake.  We (only Trevor and I, really) then went swimming in the aforementioned lake before going home to prepare for Quipp’s wedding!

Oh yeah, the day before this, we met Quipp.  He was getting married, and he got totally wasted and invited us all to a little reception.  Unfortunately and fortunately, we did not get to see an entire Balinese wedding.  Unfortunate because that would be an amazing cultural experience.  Fortunate because, from what I hear, it involves 3 days of kneeling, which is a bit hard on the knees.

Hitching a ride on a big green truck full of black sand.

Anyway, we went to a little reception in the evening with Quipp and his wife and family.  It was a good time, eating some real homemade Balinese snacks and drinking some arrack with the locals.  They were a lot of fun and it was a great night.  Then it was back to the house for some sleep before our early return to Ubud the next day.

Bali Trip Day 4

Sweet hogs.

Today was the day of the much anticipated Sacred Monkey Forest.  Trevor and I met up with Ben and Zoe late in the morning.  Before going to play with what I hoped would be cute, adorable monkeys, we decided to arrange our scooter rentals.  Mind you, the closest I’ve ever come to driving a scooter was a 15-speed bike that I probably borrowed at some point in junior high school.  This fact, however, did not daunt me as we negotiated the price and answered questions such as, “Have you ever driven one of these before?”  I gave the correct answer, which was not necessarily true, and then finalized the transaction with cash and a mostly legitimate passport number (I think it still works if a few numbers a wrong).

This is the cutest.

After a 60 second tutorial from the rental guy on how to start up this particular scooter, I backed her into the street and immediately forgot how to turn it on.  One of the kind rental gentlemen loitering nearby came over to remind me once again how to start the bike.  Now, if you thought that forgetting how to start the scooter was where my pro-scooter-driver facade broke down, imagine the looks on everyone’s faces when I gave the bike a “little bit” of gas and rode the front fender right up under the back bumper of SUV parked directly in front of me.  And then forgot everything for a second and gave it more gas instead of hitting the brakes.  The rental guy ran up and helped me back the scooter away from the SUV while Ben sat behind me laughing hysterically on his own ride.  With much less concern than I had anticipated, the rental guy looked at me and asked if I was sure I knew how to drive a scooter.  Quickly, I leaned forward, wiped off part of the scuff on the front fender, glanced at the ‘sort of’ unscathed SUV, and gave a dismissive affirmative before easing out into to traffic to try and get a better feel for the gas.

Oh my god, monkeys are so cool.

Thank the Lord that it wasn’t a manual scooter.

We then did a lap around town so that I could get a feel for driving a scooter while my travel companions continued to laugh at me from the seats of their own bikes.  We pulled up to the entrance of the Sacred Monkey Forest, parked our newly acquired scooters, and bought our tickets and bananas before entering.

I want this as a pet.

Good Lord, monkeys are really not as nice as you expect them to be.  They are tons of fun – don’t get me wrong – but you just can’t turn your back on a monkey for even a second.  Anyway, there were two kinds of monkeys here.  I can’t remember the specific types, but I think it was something like “mean monkeys” and “chaotic neutral monkeys”.  The smaller ones were nice.  Unpredictable, but nice.  At least they didn’t have the fangs.  They were definitely my favorites.

Anyway, I fed monkeys, and it was awesome, as is evidenced by the pictures.  The monkeys seemed to like me a bit, but not nearly as much as they liked Ben.  The guy is a monkey-whisperer.  I have video of a monkey just sitting in his lap going through his pockets looking for bananas.  After taking out a half dozen bananas or so, the monkey went for the zipper on his shorts.  They really liked Ben.

I feel like a photographer on rare occasions.

After hanging out with monkeys for a while, we left the forest and packed for departure.  We did some quick market shopping, grabbed a late lunch on the way out of town, and started heading north for Kintamani and Mount Batur.  It started raining halfway there, which made the scooter ride quite interesting, especially in shorts and a sleeveless shirt.

We finally arrived, settled in, and warmed up from the cold with some fire and some arrack.  And this time, the arrack was real.  Zoe and Ben knew a bunch of the locals up there (like half the town I’m guessing), and they got a bunch of the home-brewed stuff.  I have got to say, I liked it a lot better than the arrack from the bar or the liquor store.

So yeah, we drank around the fire with some really cool Balinese folks, and then tried to get a little sleep before waking up bright and early the next day to climb Mount Batur.  Incidentally, it’s more of an “Active Volcano Batur” than a “Mount Batur”.

Bali Trip Day 3

Why yes, that is a fresh mango shake.

Again, with the waking up late and partly hungover.  I packed up as soon as I woke up, abandoning my Santa suit to room service on the way out.  After a dispute about the payment of my room, I begrudgingly paid for a night for which I had already paid (oh noez, you hustled me for $9 you fiends!).  Ben and Zoe were going to go ahead on their scooter rental and meet us in Ubud.  Trevor, Kristen and I then hired an SUV to drive us to Ubud, and paid something to the tune of $15 for a 2-3 hour taxi ride.  On the way, we stopped at a roadside restaurant for more cheap, delicious Balinese food.

We arrived in Ubud in the late afternoon and immediately began the laborious task of wandering about aimlessly and haggling for cheap accommodations.  We found a nice little bungalow duplex thingy that wasn’t too far off the main road.  They said $10 per room, then when we started to pay it became $10 per person.  I had already put down my pack and started to settle… so of course I got all my shit together and we started to walk away before he went back down to $20 total for the 3 of us.  Haggling is fun sometimes.

Everything here is delicious and I miss it all.

We then only briefly met up with Ben and Zoe and made plans to reconvene the following day at the Sacred Monkey Forest.  We got dinner, wandered a bit, and took a quick peek in at the monkeys in the evening.  We then wandered a bit more heavily before turning in for the evening.  Back in my room I did a bit of reading while I tried to figure out what tropical fauna was hitting my windows and scurrying about on the roof.  With an open air bathroom, these are the types of things you think about at night when you have to pee and you can see the edge of the roof just a couple of meters above the toilet.

Our room in Ubud.

Bali Trip Day 2

Day-drinking in the pool! Paradise!

The second day of the trip was purely relaxation.  Wholly unproductive.  I woke up sometime after noon and was feeling the effects of the previous evening’s revelries.  So of course, we cured this by spending the entire day in the pool drinking the rum that I purchased at the Duty Free store.

That evening, we went out for dinner, which I quite honestly have trouble recalling.  After the meal, Trevor, Zoe and myself decided that an entire afternoon drunk in the pool was not enough.  Being the troopers that we are, we decided to go out on the town AGAIN.  My recollections are vague, but I know that fairly early in this adventure, all three of us got on a scooter (at the same time, mind you) with an Aussie that we had just met on the street.  We then drank on the sidewalk in front of a convenience store with that fine gentleman.  Someone kept passing around the worst drink ever, too… beer, arrack, and coke.  It was vile.  Naturally, I drank a great deal of that horrible concoction.

The bottle cap is part of a drinking game. No excuse for the expression on my face though.

We then, fortunately or unfortunately, wound up back at the Bounty Discotheque.  I’ll be honest.  I don’t remember much, as I had been imbibing since I woke up.  However, Trevor tells me that when we left, I directed us back to the hotel with nearly flawless accuracy; I do not remember this at all.  Apparently I’m good with directions when I’m blacked out.

So yeah, short post for day 2.  I promise, there are days on this trip that contain more sightseeing and culture and less drunkenness and debauchery.