Bali, Indonesia

After Kuala Lumpur the three of us took another short flight to the island of Bali, in Indonesia, for many days of relaxing beach vacation. Our flight over was uneventful except for Thom, the aerospace engineer who used to work on jet engines for Rolls Royce, informing us that some of Air Asia flights were on the no fly list, and it all depended on whether the planes were registered in Malaysia or Indonesia because each country had different maintenance regulations. Luckily, he deemed our flight to be safe.

When we arrived in Bali we needed cash to buy our arrival visa, but they only accepted payment in either US dollars or Indonesian rupiah. The only ATM was located on the opposite side of passport control, so in order to get the cash we leave our passports sitting on top of a counter in front of an immigration officer. After we got our cash and then passed backwards through the immigration desk to retrieve our passports, we discovered that they were still sitting on top of the counter but had been left by unattended, as the controller had disappeared to do something else. To highlight even more the inefficiencies that are abundant in Indonesia, we stood in line for immigration for more than 30 min when there were only 8 people in front of us.
The good news of our arrival in Bali was that Thom got his suitcase back, the one that had been mistagged in Geneva and had flown to The Dominican Republic instead of to Singapore. To Singapore Airline's credit, they managed to get it all the way from DR to Bali, where it was waiting for him to pick up. We found our hotel, got checked in, and then hunted for dinner and drinks in town, but called it an early night.

The next morning, a Tuesday, we were up at 9, had a leisurely breakfast, and were at the beach by 11, which was a 5 minutes walk away. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I read my book, swam, and had an hour-long massage for something like $10, right on the beach. The whole day was spent relaxing and trying to forget the stress that had consumed us during the first six months of our MBA program. That night we had a fancy dinner at what must be the prettiest outdoor restaurant I've ever seen, with wooden tables and chairs set on a tree-covered wooden terrace overlooking the beach, with the only light coming from red glowing lanterns hanging in the braches above us.

On the third day, a Wednesday, we rented a car with a driver for a 12 hour day, at a cost of only $50 total, so $18 each, and created our own package trip, telling our driver the places we wanted to see all over the island. We piled into our car at 8:30 in the morning and I tried to put on my seatbelt but realized I couldn't because the backseat simply didnt have any seatbelts.

Roads in Indonesia were one big madhouse, like being in the middle of a continuous derby race while playing chicken with the oncoming cars at the same time. The motorbikes do whatever they want, weaving their way through and among cars in both lanes of traffic as if they regarded the road as a free-for-all for their own pleasure. It was unbelievable to see that many motorbikes were tranporting entire families, with literally mother, father, and 2 or 3 children all lined up in a row. Thankfully most of the adults wore helmets, but most of the children did not. Driving on the left side of the road added to my consternation.

During our day trip with the driver we drove to north through Denpasar and on to Gianyar to see the Barong and Kris dance, then went to the Pusa Desa temple, where we had to wear sarongs around our waists to respect the cultural traditions. We then drove through Ubud and quickly stopped at a silver smiths shop and an art gallery, but didn't see anything we liked. We then stopped to see old traditional Balinese homes, and I was delighted to see that they kept a pet porcupine.

The best part of the day was in the afternoon, when we went to the Kecak temple out in the farmland of Indonesia. We hiked down into the forest among huge coconut trees and went stomping through the muddy rice terraces in our sarongs, balancing precariously on the thin ledge between 6 inches of murky irrigation and rain water on the left and a 6ft dropoff on the right. The people working in the rice fields actually wore those thatched upside down bowl hats like you see in National Geographic.

On the way down we browsed the local artists' stalls for souvenirs. As we had learned all too well in the first two days we had to bargain for absolutely everything. The sellers would name a price and your counter offer should be less than half of what they offered. Usually you settled on something around half of their first offer. We even had to bargain for a bottle of coke because their first asking price was obviously way too high. It was a very tedious task for Thom and I, but Roberto loved it immensely and took pride in not being taken for a fool.

As we left Kecak the beautiful hot sunny day suddenly turned into a violent rainstorm and flash flood. The drops slammed into the windshield and within 15 min we were skidding through enormous pools of water in the road. Visibility reduced to one mile which made navigating the motorbikes and overtaking cars safely quite difficult. I was blown away when I saw people on the rural roads using giant palm leaves as umbrellas and rainjackets while they walked between destinations. The women carried everything on their heads: big woven baskets full of fruit, buckets of water, goods to be sold later . .

Our next stop was the monkey forest, where we got to see hundreds of monkeys up close. They were extremely accustomed to tourists, and knew that many people carried food in their bags. One even climbed up Thom's leg trying to scout for something good.

After a very tiring day driving around, the next day we got up late and again went to the beach for the full day.  That evening we arranged for the same driver to take us to Uliawatu to see the Kecak and Fire Dance. Afterwards we had dinner at a table in the sand on the beach, then spread out a blanket and looked at the stars. I was startled to realize that I didn't recognize any of the constellations, because it was a side of the sky I'd never seen, but after I few minutes I noticed Scorpio because I recognized it from the pictures I'd seen for so many years. That night there were many shooting stars and we and even had the honor of seeing a satellite change position.

The next few days were full of more beach time, getting massages, reading for pleasure (I was reading the autobiography of Nelson Mandela), eating and drinking local favorites, and shopping for dresses and jewelry in the many boutique shops. IMD and even Singapore felt like centuries ago. It was exactly the kind of leisurely, beach, extended, no-plan vacation I had been meaning to take for years, and finally had.

The hotel where we stayed.

This was the lock on our doors. We had to padlock the door when we left.

These beautiful plumeria flowers were everywhere.

Our favorite spot on the beach 5 minutes walk from the hotel.

Thom and Roberto in the waves.

Happy to be on the beach.

Enjoying some refreshments.

The most beautifl outdoor restaurant I've ever seen.

Enjoying a nice dinner.

Hundreds and thousands of motorbikes.

They put everyone on the bikes.

And everything!

It's like a traveling shop.

The Barong and Kris dance.

The pet porcupine.

At the Pusa Desa temple.

 

Pusa Desa.

On the way to the Kecak temple.

Rice terraces!

Balancing precariously between muddy water and a 6ft dropoff.

Hiking into the forest.

The temple.

Monkeys are cute.

The monkey liked Thom.

The view from the Kecak and Fire Dance.

Monkey staring off into the sunset. My favorite photo of the entire trip.

Getting ready to watch the performance.

This dance is famous because the male performers, using only their voices, convey the tone of the story in an extremely complicated, highly intricate rhythm. 

Posing afterwards!

Love the plumeria flowers.

Dinner on the beach.