Where to go on the recess week, that was the question? After the Bangkok I was asked by my french friend to accompany her also over the recess week. In the end there was a group of five girls and of course yours truly planning the trip. The first destination was to go to Philippines, but that was turned down later on by the fact that there is a typhoon season and one couldn't move or see much for that reason. Still I would have liked to go and see the typhoons, just loving big waves and strong winds!
The final group of us consisted six girls and two guys. Two girls from france, another two from Finland (although swedish-finns), one pakistani from Canada and one from Italia, then another one of my roommates from Spain and me. A solid group with only half of the trip planned, actually only four of the ten upcoming days, but thats the way I like it. It allows you freedom to choose what to do and where to go or just stay and chill out, maybe just inhale the culture. Main part of the group left already on wednesday 14th and rest of us, me and the french girl on friday after our lessons.
When going through the boarding I got picked from the line, maybe because of my long hair tied up loosely and shady "getting there" beard and my Indian style reggae clothes with saggy bag and a travelers backpack. The security guard wiped my whole backpack with clean tissue and then put it through some machine to test it for residues... but I was clear and allowed to board. After the boarding gate we watched some freakish Singaporean quiz show until we were allowed to board the plane, hrrr... just gives me chills.
The things that I can recall from the airplane was that I dozed before take off and woke up all high. On the air - I decided to start gathering the story for this trip, mainly because I had a feeling that it's going to be long one. We arrived to Depensar airport at Bali after 9pm, the sun was set already, as it was back in Singapore too. When you took your first step out of the airport and to the street, you could really feel it... the weather at Bali is colder and less moist than in Singapore, but the 26 degree night was still nice. To add, I actually like it here too, because you really can wear long reggae pants and long sleeve shirt.
KutaWe met around 11pm in the Poppies lane I close to Kuta beach. From there some of the group continued to sleep while rest of us headed to the beach to enjoy some Bintang and just chill by the beach to gaze the scenery of people sending away beautiful lanterns over to the opening sea. At that night we also met my finnish friend studying here in Bali who arrived to the shore to greet us. Around 2pm we called it for the night. Sponsored by Bintang beer...
So we hit the first waves with my finnish swedish friend. I think she was a bit smarter, because I just paddled to the big waves and wasted my time while she tried to ride the whitewash waves closer to the shore. After one hour of consistent trying my friend found us and we headed to "their usual place" to meet the others and to chill out. There we enjoyed some good fruit plates and continued back to the ocean. With my friend I was actually able to catch some waves properly.
You could actually conclude the whole day by the words of Kaija Koo: "Kantakaa sitä kaljaa pöytään taas / vaahtoharjan aalloilla surffaillaan". And the same in english: "Just keep the beer coming / we'll be surfing on the whitewash waves"
On sunday, after the breakfast we headed out to the beach to gather a group together. From there I continued walking by the shore again to the Padma beach to see my friend.
That beach had a bit more dangerous reef seabed but it was high tide so we didn't worry. It was also my friends first time at that beach and on reefs too, but another guy told us where to surf a bit more safely. I rented a surfboard for one session, the price I paid in the end was only 35k IDR. The waves looked really good but they lacked the power and you really had to paddle to even try to catch the biggest waves. By that day we also organized ourselves (a group of four with variety of finns and swedish) a four wheel ride with a driver from Kuta to Ubud for 110 000 IDR per head.
Trip to lake Batur and Ubud
From there we started to head back towards Ubud to settle for the night, but we still wanted to see other stuff. On the way to a certain temple we first stopped to a natural coffee shop of Luwak coffee. It sells 60 000 IDR per mug, so quite expensive. It's actually a product of an animal called luwak (like a small weazel/dog animal) eating red coffee cherries. After that the seeds are collected from the pile of poo, washed and roasted to coffee beans. From there we continued to the Temple with sacred water ponds of replenishing power. Inside the temple you had to wear respective clothes to cover your legs and a yellow sash over your hip. I found the temple a bit too touristic and the feeling just got stronger in the end. They had made the exit route to go through a maze of shopping stalls and you were forced to walk through it.
Around 5-6pm we arrived to Ubud. There we just booked an accommodation before heading out for a walk around the Ubud's Monkey Street area. Even though the sun was already set we had a nice walk with some shopping by the side. When the night was closing in we headed for a lunch as a group.
Tuesday was spend around the Ubud tourist market, though I have to admit that I just walked it through for couple of times. I didn't feel like buying anything, even though my friend got a whole set of silver jewelry for under 300 000 IDR: earrings, ring, wristband, necklace and a pure silver chain. Tip: bargain, the first price for the wristband was 350 000 IDR, she got it for 60 000 IDR.
From there I continued my day just by myself walking around the city for an hour taking picture and visiting side streets for sightseeing. I ended up to the gates of the sacred temple area of monkey forest. To admit, it was a bit touristic place but quite nice. I actually got away from the main tracks and found a three-four story bamboo cafe treetop house that had been previously abandoned. I defied my fate by going in and climbing all the way to the top floor of the squeaky shack reaching over an opening gorge underneath. In the monkey forest there was also a temple, a tiny riverside road going inside of one gorge and lots of monkeys doing all kinds of stuff. At on place the wild monkeys were playing a game resembling the king of the hill. There was a small branch of old tree hanging over a shallow pond. There were around five monkeys trying their turn to be the last one hanging, the king of the branch pond. The monkeys were pushing and showing each other into the watery pond below.And again I was able to delete all the photos I had taken. Luckily the town of Ubud is now days so civilized that they had an music shop that could sell memory card readers and a interned coffee to borrow one. I was able to recover my photos again with the PhotoRec software.
By the night we headed out for a drink or two. We ended up buying a jug (1.5liters) of beer by four of us: meaning me, one finnish girl, one italian girl and one french girl. I also bought a mixed olives tapas, just had to buy some tapas when I saw them been sold. Although it wasn't free and as good as in Spain, and the olives did cost as much as a proper meal I was still satisfied with my decision. We listened some live cover music for a while, after that we headed back to the apartment to chill and to enjoy a last beer of the day.
On the way back we also planned and booked a trip for us for the next day towards Lovina on the northern side of the island.
