Destination Bali, Part I

Here is a link to my photos of the first part of the recess week trip to Bali on facebook I, facebook I½,  and picasa! These pictures cover the Kuta, trip to volcanic lake Batur and finally to the cultural village of Ubud.


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.

Kuta

We 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...

First night was spent in a premium hotel, the costs was around 550 000 indonesian rupees which equals to amount of proximately 50euros. It was not bad for huge triple (family room), with inclusive buffet breakfast, air-con, hot shower and bathtub, balcony, two swimming pools etc. In the morning we headed for the breakfast and chilled a while by the poolside. By then I noticed that I had forgot my swimming pants to Singapore, but naah, what to do, it just life. We headed out to do some shopping, I found a pair of swim trunks for the price of 75 000 IDR from which I only paid 50 000 in the end. When I asked my friend to estimate the prize of my surfing trunks he estimated 700 000-800 000 IDR which equals to 70-80euros, bua-ha-haa I said! Ps. you can really calculate it by yourself too later on, just take off four zeros from the price and you'll be good. Actually at the moment it's divisible with 12 000 but that's just minor pricking.

By noon we headed to the Padma beach which is a part of the huge Kuta beach, of course to hit the best waves. When arriving I messaged my friend, but he was surfing. So we decided to get our own surfboards and hit the waves too. The salesman trie to lure me with his beach prices, 100 000 for one hour. I knew that from the shops that were not on the beach you could get board for a whole day by just 50 000 IDR. In the end we ended up paying 50 000 IDR for two hours upfront. Just to say that in the end I surfed almost three hours, they really don't care that much.

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.

After the sunset we headed to meet my other finnish friend studying here at the Bali as an exchange student. They had a housewarming party at their new Villa. It was nice, actually felt a bit like back home in finland because there were around 20 finns there. We partied until the morning hitting at least five different clubs around Kuta close by to the Poppies Lane I, II and also Legion road. From the last club we decided to take a taxi to the Villa to have after party. I think around one third of the way to the Villa I came to my senses and jumped out of the cap. From there I got a scooter ride from local for a small fee back to Poppis I directly to my hotel. I was home around 6-7am.

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.

The waves were far too direct and rough to be surfed on the Padma beach, so we decided to jump on some scooters. There were five guys of us on three scooters heading towards another beach closer to their Villa but a bit further away from Legion. We didn't have an extra helmet so I had to ride without one. The road from my friends Villa to the beach was amazing, a narrow road covered hardly with any cement snaking trough beautiful rice terraces.

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

The trip started around 9am from the swedish girls accommodation that was located on the same Poppies Lane I. First we visited some Balinese cultural craftsmanship boutiques where you could see the manufacturing process of handmade textiles, carving of stone statues and figurines and assembly of silver jewelry. From there we continued towards one of the active volcanos in Bali and to the crater lake Batur beside it. We had a good view of the scenery from a buffet restaurant where we enjoyed our meal.

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.