Beach Days

The past two days have been spent at the beach (an appropriate way to end our stay in Bali.

Yesterday, we went to two beaches. Our first stop was Padangbai. We were supposed to go snorkeling there at Blue Lagoon, a place we could walk to. Well, our driver had trouble finding it and the locals said that it was too far to walk AND that there were strong currents there and that we shouldn’t go snorkeling. Of course, they could take us by boat to a much better snorkel place. Well, unplanned, we negotiated a price (too high) and went down to the beach to get on the boat. The boat was really old and beat up. So, we get in and as soon as we get out of the cove, the motor stops. He gets it restarted, but it dies five times on the way to the snorkel spot (I violated a travel rule – always look at the transportation before paying!).

We get there and get off the boat and start snorkeling. It is pretty good, but not great and we are ready to go to another spot. We go back to the boat and I see that he has the engine torn apart and is cleaning what looks to be the carburetor! He tells us that there is better snorkeling on the other side of the boat and to go over there. We do, and it isn’t any better. We come back and he has put the engine back together and we go to another spot: Blue Lagoon!

We snorkel in the Blue Lagoon (which doesn’t have that much current at all). It was much better and we were happy with our snorkel trip.

From there, we got back in the car and went to a beach that our Lonely Planet guidebook said was one of the best in Bali. The only trouble is that no one has heard of it (it is called Pasir Putih). So, our driver tries to find it and we look for the road sign. We drive to where it should be and don’t find it. Made’ then asks for directions – three times! Finally, we find the turnoff and go down to the beach. And it is as wonderful at it was described. Not a big beach, but very beautiful water and sand. As a bonus, there were maybe six other people on the beach besides ourselves. If it wasn’t 2.5 hours away, we would have gone back the next day.

The waves were nice and we had a great time bodysurfing. The waves were almost a little "too" good. I had one wave go WWF on me and I did a full piledriver move straight on top of my head. I had to sit down for a little while to get my bearings - my neck hurt a little the next day. No pain, no gain! All in all, a great day.


Today, we did another beach tour – this time, close to the villa. We started at Ulu Watu beach, which is known for surfing. It was a tiny little beach with no sand, so we sat there and watched the surfers for a while. The entire time, we were constantly asked if we wanted a sarong or a massage. Finally, I told them no in a very firm voice. They kept pestering Rachael however. They left us and went to other folks. Rachael went to take some pictures and I was just sitting there. One of the ladies came by and called me what I have to assume was a nasty name in Indonesian!


From there, we went to Padang Padang, which is where they held a surf championship a week ago. The beach is a little better there, but not good for swimming. Not many surfers either. Funny story there: we went down to the beach and someone offered us an umbrella to keep the sun off of us. They offered it to us for 30,000 rupiah and I offered the 10,000 because we were only going to be there for an hour or so. She called me a crook and walked away!

The water wasn’t that great there, so we left after about an hour and ate.













Our final beach was called Dreamlands and it was a great beach. We stayed there the rest of the day. The waves were huge and there were a ton of surfers. The waves in towards shore were big to. I rented a boogie board and tried to learn, but the waves kept crushing me. Later on, we both went body surfing in the huge waves (see the pictures – we were actually body surfing in the ones close to shore – great fun).

We met a couple from Austin at the beach (very small world). They said we were the first Americans they had seen!

Two great days of beach fun – great way to end!

North Bali

Today we went to North Bali. We changed our original plans and it is going to work out much better.

We started by visiting a garden temple that we hadn’t planned on. It was truly in a garden setting and quite nice.

After that, we visited the Bali Botanical Gardens. They have hundreds of acres set aside for this garden and our driver was telling us that he brings his family there on Sundays to visit and they have soccer games, tennis, ping-pong, etc for people to do. It was a pretty impressive setup.

After that, we went to Danau Bratan, which is a large lake. At that lake was another temple and it was probably the most impressive temple yet. It is set literally on the lake and has a great view. There were some added bonuses to it:

They had a Hindu ceremony going on while we were there. Per usual, everyone brought a gift / sacrifice. Well, in addition to the usual fruit and flowers, we had animals this time! They had two chickens and a duck. Rachael went to the other side because she didn’t want to see the animals get sacrificed. Of course, I stayed to watch. I thought at one point they had killed the chicken, but they were just tying it up. They took all of the animals and the fruit / flowers into a boat and were taking them to the middle of the lake to drop them in the water.

One of the shrines had a number of frog statues that we had to get a picture of for Brandy. Apparently, frogs have some significance in their religion. Who knew?

They had other animals there for the tourists to take pictures with (for a fee of course). They had a huge python (no desire to get close to it) and a mongoose. Rachael wanted a picture with the mongoose, so we paid to get a picture. The mongoose looks remarkably like a ferret, especially the younger ones. Of course, all day long after that, Rachael kept saying that she “smelled like a mongoose” from holding it!

They had a garden / park for the temple that was also very nice.

After that, we drove (for what seemed like forever) to a waterfall called Gitgit (got to love the names). All day we were driving through the mountains and, frankly, getting a little carsick all day from the twists and turns. Not that fun in the car, but the sights were great!

The waterfall was very cool. It was quite the hike there – about a quarter of a mile. It was all downhill going to the waterfall, which meant all uphill on the way back.

The last area we saw was a holy hot springs. They had a number of folks that were swimming in it. We switched our plans and weren’t expecting to be there that day, so we weren’t prepared and had to settle for wading in it.

We then had a three hour drive back to the villa (more turning). We passed some absolutely incredible scenery on the way back that made it a good trip and a great day.

They have more mopeds here than I have seen in a long while. One thing that I find incredibly funny is that many of the people riding on the mopeds will have jackets and gloves on – not just windbreakers, but full blown down jackets! Keep in mind that it is 85 degrees everyday! Our drive says that some of them get cold driving for long distances.

That’s it for today.

"My House will be a House of prayer; you have turned it into a den of thieves"

I was reminded of these words from the Bible as we made a visit to a temple today. I have a better sense for what they meant after our visit. We went to visit the most sacred temple in Bali today, Pura Besikah. From the guidebook, I knew that there would be a bunch of folks that would try to give us "guided tours" and tell us that you HAD to use their services. Well, you don't have to.

I did not know how persistent and how many they would be. We made it past many of them on the walk up to the temple. Most of them left once we told them "no, we don't need a guide because we are not going into the temple". However, at the top, they became more aggressive and told us we could not pass. We still pressed on. We got to the top and were about to go on the path on the side of the temple and one fellow would not let us pass. He gave us a line of bull about being a "Temple Guardian" and that he only needed 30,000 rupiah to guide us through.

We got some great shots in spite of this constant harassment. In the end, we didn't give in and give him any money; however, we didn't go up the stairs either. Thinking back on it, we should have because every other time we pressed forward and ignored their "offers", they would simply move on to their next prey. Well, hindsight is 20/20 after all.

It was so frustrating to me as a non-Hindu. I wonder what Hindu's must think of the rampant lying and cheating going on on the grounds of such a sacred place. It really was amazing there today - they were having a lot of ceremonies there and people were all dressed up in ritual clothing and brought sacrifices (including one duck!). I just think it is a shame to have people pushing other things on you there. (As an added bonus, throughout all of this, I had to wear the Sarong again...joy).

Speaking of rituals and ceremonies, our driver was telling us that yesterday was one of the four main worship days - they had special worship for the Trees. The other worship days are for:
Animals, Land and, of all things, machines (mainly cars!).

That was our first stop of the day. From the temple debacle, we went to see an overlook of one of their lakes, Lake Batur. It was a great view, even though it was a little cloudy at the top. Per usual, everywhere we stopped, there were more souvenirs that we could buy. One guy was particularly funny. He kept trying to sell me a chess set (or what I thought was a chess set). He came down to 5000 Rupiah (about 50 cents US). I offered him 2000 rupiah (because that is what I had in my pocket - he acted very offended because I went so low! Come to find out, he was offering only ONE of the chess pieces for 5000 rupiah, not the entire set. Furthermore, our driver, Made, said that the wood was "young wood" and wasn't any good. Later on, we were driving past some woodcarvers and he pointed out that they were using "young wood" - basically, small trees that they would cut, carve and then stain to make them look like older, more expensive wood.

Our driver (Made' - pronounced Mah-day) is pretty funny. He tries really hard to understand us. He speaks pretty good english, but not all the time. For instance, Rach asked him if they had many Americans come down to visit and he proceeded to answer her by saying that no, he didn't eat in restaurants because they cost too much. He tries...that is all you can ask for.



He is a wealth of information. Today, on our way to the aforementioned temple, we had to stop at one point. We didn't know why. There was a procession of people walking across the road with food and other items. He said it was a funeral and that the entire village comes out in celebration of their life. It was really need to see that and have the entire group come together. They were all dressed up in their finest and brought gifts.

After we were done with the lake, that was all we had planned to do. Made' suggested two more places to go. One was another temple that had a "holy water" spring. It was a beautiful temple and there were a lot of people washing themselves in the holy water. I have to say, they are a very devoted people from a religion standpoint.

The second was a Buddhist cave. Not a whole lot to see there (got to wear that Sarong again - three times in a day.)

Oh, forgot to mention how we started the day. I found a station on the internet that had the Ohio State / Texas game today, so we listened to that this morning. Very frustrating ending to the game. Who only gets 9 points out of three turnovers? Who turns the ball over with two minutes to go - TWICE? We so should have won that game. Now, I have to pay for Brad William's freaking dinner and wear something UT related. Well, Brad, now I owe you, but I have to tell you, I already have the UT related gear and will wear it to dinner, per our bet.

That's it for today.

Day 2 - Saturday (Rach comments in italics)

Well, another great day. No rain today. (Beautiful, beautiful day)

We tried to find a church to go to today, but to no avail. They actually had a Yellow Pages and White Pages phone directory (surprised), but nothing for churches. I couldn't find anything on the internet either...Strange.

So, we did other things today. We started off with another native dance. This time, it was the Barong dance. I didn't like it as well as the one last night (probably because it didn't have fire). However, it was still interesting. They had a Gamelan orchestra playing the music - that was interesting. (Costumes were extravagant, energy high, no fire--so sad.)

We then went to see a river valley. We saw it from a few vantage points and it is very impressive. They had a lot of groups doing white water rafting where we were at. The bad thing about that is you would have to walk down a long way to get to the river and then when you are done, you have to walk back up! I went down to the river (almost slipped and hurt myself!) and came back up and it was no picnic - and I hadn't been rafting.

At the place where you started rafting, they had elephant rides down to the river. You would sit on a basket on top of the elephant and ride down. Looked a little sketchy to me.... (What looked a little sketchy to me was walking into the ladies bathroom after the walk to the river and guess who I saw......GREG! I guess wearing the sarong yesterday...well, let's just say it has impaired his ability to read the word 'LADIES':) (Greg Comment - in my defense, I really didn't see the Ladies sign AND yesterday, there was a unisex bathroom, so I figured it must be normal. Still, I felt very silly....) (Rach comment AGAIN - this is his story...but I didn't use the "unisex" so I can't vouch for its accuracy...whatever)

We did see some beautiful scenery on the drive today. Rice paddies seem like such a normal thing, but when they are all green and terraced, they really are something.

We came back and ate lunch and then went to a nearby beach - Jimbaran beach. It was not crowded (at least when we got there). The water was pretty nice (cold at first) and had some good waves. We tried using a boogie board, but it seemed to be in pretty bad shape and about to break in half, so we decided to return it (in one piece) and just body surf. That was good fun.

We went back to lay on the beach and decided to come back and body surf some more about an hour later. Well, we were rudely greeted by a flotilla of nasty plastic pieces - they looked like torn up bits of garbage bags. Very disconcerting. I, of course, immediately thought it was a swarm of jellyfish. I am not sure which is really worse - jellyfish or old garbage bags. We are still wondering where they came from, and worse, what was in them at one point. Gross. (DO NOT BE ALARMED Greg was not hurt, I repeat, not hurt by the phantom jelly fish garbage bag! I tell you, it was touch and go there for a minute, but when he realized that it was just a bag....needless, to say the stinging subsided.)

(This is for Brad Williams) as we were getting ready to leave the beach, a brawl broke out (or was that just a soccer game?). Seriously though, they had two soccer games going on the beach by the time we left. It was interesting. (GOALLLLLLLLLL!)

Well, that is pretty much it for the day. More to come later (with pictures soon, we promise).

Greetings from Bali

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Rachael and I have been fortunate to travel to a lot of places. What is interesting, is that some things are the same in Peru as they are in the Dominican as they are in Bali. For instance, today is our first day in Bali (the travel day - literally 24 hours in a plane and airports - doesn't count). In it, we saw the same crazy driving, the same thousands of mopeds / motorcycles, the same people trying to sell us items while we are at stoplights and the same shop vendors that we have seen in countless other countries (Brandy, you would be proud of the bargaining job we did yesterday!).

That is not to say that Bali is like everywhere else - it is just interesting that no matter where you go, some things are universal.

So, what did we do today? We were supposed to have a relaxed first day - go to the beach, eat lunch and then go to a temple at sunset and see a Balinese dance. Well, just our luck: Friday was the first day in a long time that it rained! While we were eating breakfast, it was raining. So, we changed the plans. Today we:

• Went to the Bali Bird park. It was very cool - we are not bird people by nature, but the types and number of birds there was incredible. As an added bonus, a loud Macaw bird tried to bite Rachael on the foot! It bit her sandal.
• After that, we went to visit a Hindu shrine, Gunung Kawi. It was a very old monument carved into a cliff. I wasn't aware that I had to have pants for this shrine, so, I got to wear a Sarong (basically a skirt) much to the delight of Rachael. We have pictures of it that we will post later. We also didn't realize how beautiful the walk would be on the way down to the shrine - it was basically through rice paddies and a wonderful river canyon.
  It was quite the hike there - however it was downhill. We realized this when we had to come back up the hill and many steps.
• We then went to a vegetarian restaurant in Ubud for lunch - great food.
• Down the street in Ubud was a local market. We went there and bargained for a few items and then went back to the villa to change to go to the temple (didn't want to wear a Sarong again).
• The temple (Ulu Watu) was in an incredible setting - basically, on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The other interesting thing about the temple is that it is basically overrun with Monkeys. The monkeys have an annoying habit of stealing tourists' items, such as sunglasses, scarves, etc. We saw a pair of sunglasses and a pen swiped by monkeys while we were there.
• The dance we saw (the Kecak, or Fire, dance) was impressive. It was a chorus of about 40 men chanting and singing while other dancers acted out a story. There was fire involved - any dance (or basically any activity) that involves fire is immediately five times cooler than if it didn't have fire, so this was very impressive.

I would say it was a great first day - we were a little pooped at the end of the day because we are still adjusting to being 13 hours ahead of Houston time. I think we will be better tomorrow.

More to come later!