what in the world…

Only the face, fingers and toes surface through the warm emerald water. Waves breaking behind me as I taste the salt of the sea. The heat of the sun, embrace my body as I float carelessly with the current. Soon I’ll feel the white sand under my feet as I submerge, look up on the palm trees and a cool drink waiting in the shade.

Vacation.

O’ boy I really need to hit the gym. After almost three weeks with very nice food, drinks and relaxing in the sun I feel like a whale – a tanned whale. The past 19 days on Bali have been very nice indeed.

Truth to be told I haven’t just been a slave to the deck chair. I can hardly muster two days in a row just reading and relaxing in the sun. Luckily on Bali there’s a lot to see. Right now I’m looking over the grass field outside my hotel and see Pura Tanah Lot rising up from the sea. (Pura = Temple). Around me is allegedly one if the best golf courses in Asia – not that I’ve been playing.  Knowing me I’ll spend too much money if I get hooked on that too… No, the place was chosen because it’s far away from the tourist machine and resort hotels. I needed to relax and staying in a place like Kuta with all its bells and whistles just don’t appeal to me. It was good with a quiet base camp with several options to adventure out.

After seeing the traffic with the plethora of scooters and cars seldom staying on one side of the road it was decided to get help from the locals and let them do the driving. Might have missed part of the adventure, but it was nice to chat and learn from the guys and find places I’d never find on a map.

Over centuries different villages have specialized their craft. From stone carving, traditional – and not so traditional painting, silverware and woodcraft to ornamental water gutters and kites. Between the villages are rice fields. Terraces flat or steep. Around 20% of Bali’s population of three million is farming the land and most of them are found bending their back in the fields. I was told it’s the only commodity with a fixed price on the island. The rest you have to haggle to get the right purchase price.  Bit of a pain if you ask me, but when in Rome…

Walking on the narrow paths in the terraced landscape is very peaceful. Watching the quiet beauty of the rice growing through different stages brought me back to the first images I saw of the South East as a kid. Farmers in round pointy hats made of palm leaves, knee deep in their hard work.  Surrounded by beautiful landscapes and a clear blue sky.  Every person you meet have a smile on their face wondering where you’re from and what you think of the land.

Ubud is known as the cultural center of Bali. The streets and back alleys are lined with art galleries, temples and shops selling the local craft. The main streets are very crowded and I’ve never seen so many available taxi drivers anywhere. For every ten meters there’s a guy asking if you need a ride. Take a few steps of the beaten track and you find some very nice, quite roads. If you’re interested in doing some shopping these are the places to go. There are also so good restaurants, some of the best dance and theatre performances, and myriad of spas. A few minutes west of the center, the Ayung River Gorge, you’ll find some of the most exclusive, intimate hotels and villas with amazing views over the landscape.

At the foot of Gunung Agung, a large volcano mountain is the Besakih Temple complex, also called the mother temple, the largest and most important on Bali. Tour operators stopped arranging trips to this temple a few years back due the aggressive tactics of the locals to force their quite meaningless guide services on visitors. We were told it could be a difficult place to visit, that there have been fights between visitors and locals, but of course the first we heard of this was as we drove up to the temple. I wouldn’t say it was unpleasant, but I must admit the guys who met us outside the gate to the temple were the only to greet us without a smile. After a bit of haggling to purchase sari’s – which must be worn entering a temple, and the price for our guide, we walked up to Besakih. Large portions of the temple complex were demolished in 1963 when molten lava trailed the mountain from the last big eruption. Gunung Agung is still active, but was very quiet when we walked up the road. It was also covered in low clouds, which stole one of the great photo opportunities I had envisioned. Around 70-80% of the complex has since then been rebuilt and I couldn’t really see a big difference between the new and old…

When first arriving on the island I asked the driver about his favorite place on the island. He answered Kintamani. From there you have a nice view another over large volcano mountain, Gunung Batur and the lake below, aptly named Lake Batur. Sitting on a hillside restaurant, eating a healthy portion of Nasi Goreng for lunch I was glad to see that the clouds had drifted to give a clear view of the mountain the scorched slopes below. I read in the guide book that the volcano still barked out loud puffs of smoke, but it was as quiet as Gunung Agung. There were an opportunity to walk up to the crater, but the five, six hour walk – one way – was a bit out of our schedule.

There are thousands of temples on Bali. Literally everywhere and not a day go by without some form of ceremony, so when driving around you’re bound to visit a few. In Manukaya we found Pura Tirta Empul, a scared spring temple with many bathing pools worshipers come to cleanse themselves. One of the pools, not permitting any bathers, had some of the clearest water I’ve ever seen.

Sanur is where it all started. In the forties, after the war, the first tourist started visiting the island. Restaurants and shops lining the roads down to the sea as hotels popped up along the white beaches.  Sadly, Sanur’s best days have past. Many visitors have moved to enjoy beach life in areas like Kuta, Seminyak, Jimbaran and Nusa Dua. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from a ghost ridden, the once main attraction is still home to many tourists. But the beach is not kept very well. Driftwood and garbage line the coastline, and quite few of the hotels could do with a coat of paint.

On the small peninsula to the south is Nusa Dua. Manicured lawns and sculpted hedges grace past as we drive out to the southern tip and only public beach amidst the five-star resorts. The beach is fantastic. Lonely, white and caressed by the emerald blue water waving in. Here is where I found the image of Bali I had brought with me. It did not disappoint.  In the distance, Gunung Agung’s silhouette against the deep blue sky, reminding the islands has so much more to share.

The sunsets of Jimbaran are famous, at least on the island, as the best there is. The beach it self not very interesting, it’s flat and shallow with a view of the airport in the distance. It could be that the afternoon colors of the sun would amend the impression, but before then we were far gone.

One sad thing about the hotel near Tanah Lot is that there nothing but rocky beach and very strong current. And you can’t go to Bali and not be on the beach so we took a short drive south, down to Seminyak. There the big resort hotels are lined above the long white beach. People gathering like ants, as far as the eye can see. Big waves make ideal conditions for surfers, braving the onslaught from the Ocean. I, of course, managed to drop my small compact camera in the wet sand, making it act weird for the next 24 hours. Ku De Ta is one of the hippest places along the shore. Part of the Oberoi hotel it’s where the posers and people watchers gather in harmony with chilled lounge music and long drinks. It was fun to hang out for a while. The drink list quite impressive and dinner was amazing.

When shopping for postcard there was one motif that kept returning to me when spinning the carousel with cards.  Pura Ulun Danu Bratan in Bedugul next to Lake Bratan. It was beautiful on the cards, and not too bad in real life either. Visiting one of the cloudy days during the stay, best to drive around then, so the light was a bit flat but it did not stop the swarming of shutterbugs all around me.

Talking about bugs, albeit different ones, mosquitoes did their best to ruin my evenings. The evening before leaving home I stood with a bottle of super mosquito repellent bought prior to the trip to Kenya last year. I held the bottle in my hand, but failed to pack it in my bag – many a night did I curse this sloppiness. The weak liquid I found on the island could as well have been water with very strong repellent odor – maybe it was…?

After slaloming over and down Gunung Catur we arrived at Gitgit, and the location of the highest waterfall on Bali. It’s not really that high to be honest, but it’s beautifully set in the rain forest and worth a quick stop if in the area. What felt long on the other hand was the paved road getting to the river. Wall to wall shops selling all spices, paintings, woodcarvings, clothes et cetera. I do appreciate the wish and need of the locals to make a buck or two on visiting tourists, but really… thirty, maybe fifty stores competing for the same Rupiah…

One of the best memories from my visit to Bali is the people. There are many beautiful places to see and visit, manmade or from nature, but when traveling it’s usually the people you meet who give you the lasting impressions. I had a few ideas in my head, preparing me for what Bali would be like, the good food, the great surf, the different sites, weather and the people. I hope that the recent bombings in Jakarta won’t scare people away from Indonesia. Around 60% of the population on Bali is living of tourism and the fate of the island is in our, the visitors hands. I for one am glad we traveled to Bali and hope you will too.