Adventures in Bali

Sorry I’ve been so bad at updating lately! I’ve been terrible at getting myself to sit down and do this right away, and then it starts to seem like too much to write about. I don’t even know where to start…I guess I’ll skip the boring stuff and give you an update on Bali, which is definitely the most exciting thing I’ve done lately.

I absolutely LOVED Bali. The whole trip was amazing, and because I’ve only been to the U.S. and Australia before it was great getting to experience such a different place! I’m used to all of the different things in Australia now, and things aren’t even that drastically different anyway. Thing’s have been getting kind of cold here in the Autumn (and by cold I mean low 70s, my sense of temperature is completely messed up now) so it was nice to step off the plane to heat and palm trees. But it was SO humid. We took a taxi straight to our hotel, the Jayakarta, and arrived at about 6am- everything seemed deserted. We couldn’t check in til 2pm, so we (Me, Emily, Thuy, and Janina) left our stuff and decided to go find a place to eat. Our two other friends, Anita and Katie, were already at the hotel so we met up with them later. The hotel was so nice, and we hopped in the pool for a few hours. They had a swim-up bar and the beach was right outside, so it was awesome. I’ve never really been to a resort like hotel before- it was great to just hang out and relax for a bit!

A view of the hotel from the back, near the beach end.

The waves at the beach were huge! The biggest I've seen in my life. The photos really don't do them justice. They looked about 15 feet high.

The hotel was in Legian, right next to Kuta. Kuta is an extremely busy, crowded and touristy place. We pretty much spent our two days there shopping, hanging out at the hotel, and going out to eat. Did I mention that in Bali I was a millionaire? Not really, but all of their bills are in the ten thousands or thousands…a 100,000 rupiah note is about $12. I arrived in Bali with 2.5 million which just seemed funny- the only time I’ll ever be a millionaire! Ha. The food was really good and cheap- something I am not used to in WA, where there aren’t too many good experiences eating out. The average meal out here costs about $20- and that’s for a meal that’s usually just ok, with barely any service because they don’t have tips here. So eating out in Australia is usually disappointing, just because it’s so expensive. Also, because it’s so isolated in WA even buying your own food is super expensive- I haven’t eaten bananas in three months because it’s $13/kg here! Needless to say, I had heaps of banana smoothies in Bali.

Ok, now after that tangent about food, where was I…shopping. Shopping was really fun because you have to barter, and I definitely learned a lot while I was there. When you first start out you can get ripped off because you don’t know how much everything is, but you can get things for really cheap. You learn to walk by and look at things out of the corner of your eye because if they catch you even glancing at something they start in on you to buy it. And I’m the type of person who can’t make a decision to buy something to save my life, so it was a little intense when if you looked at a shirt, they immediately took out all sizes and colours and asked you to give them a price. And if you act like you don’t want something and try to leave, they’ll just assume you are haggling and give it to you for a lower price, even if you actually just don’t want it! But the people were all really friendly there, and even when getting heckled walking through the markets it wasn’t uncomfortable. Everyone was so nice and had good senses of humour. All the Balinese people just assumed we were Australian, and if we told them we were from America they would immediately shout “barackobama! barackobama!” and make jokes about how he was their brother. I’m not quite sure why…maybe because he was raised for a bit in Indonesia? Who knows. I wish Bali was closer to the States because I would love to go back there.

On the third day there, we got picked up early in the morning to go on a bike tour. We were also changing hotels to stay in Ubud, so the bike people were kind enough to take all of our luggage with them. This was hands down one of the best days there. It was so amazing to bike through the countryside, and I got a ton of cool pictures! Our first stop was in a jungle, to sample a bunch of delicious teas and coffees, taste some Balinese chocolate, and see traditional coffee making. I even tried Civet coffee, which is the world’s most expensive coffee. They only sell a few hundred kg of it a year around the world- it sounds gross because it’s made by feeding coffee berries to a civet, then collecting the pits after it has eaten them…I didn’t think it was that great.

Sampling the different coffees and teas.

We also stopped for brunch in front of Mount Batur, a cluster of 3 volcanoes that last erupted in the 60s. You can still see the ash from that eruption.

After that, we got to bike through a bunch of villages. The people were SO friendly. Especially the kids. As we rode by every single kid would constantly be waving and shouting “hi! hello!” over and over. It was so cute. A lot of the houses had tarps with rice drying on them laid out in front. Houses are also like compounds of multiple families, because all of the sons stay in the family home. You can wind up with 35 people in one house! The houses are more like multiple dwellings though with the paths between buildings outside.

After the tour we got to eat a 9-course meal inside the “Bali Bike Baik Tours” owner’s house. Because of the tours he is a wealthy man, so his house was pretty big. His name was Wayan, which we learned is extremely common because in one of the castes, all firstborn sons are named Wayan. There is actually a set name for the first four kids, then it cycles back around again or you can name them something different. We also learned that 85% of Bali is Hindu. There are thousands of temples in Bali, and statues are everywhere. Also, tiny little offerings with incense are EVERYWHERE. On the sidewalks, on statues, in stores, even on driver’s dashboards. They were really pretty and are attended to twice each day.

One of the beautiful offerings.

Our awesome tour guide, the one in the blue helmet. The other tour guide, Suriah, was great as well.

One of the houses in a village.

Harvesting the rice- the women's job. The men prepare the field and plant it.

Eating at Wayan's house.

After that we checked into our hotel, the Panorama. It was ok, but really dirty. Our room looked like it had been boarded up for a month. But it had an incredible view of rice paddies so that was alright.

View from the Panorama.

Ubud was so much different- less touristy and not as many markets. It was less of a resort feel. On the fourth day we hired two drivers to take us around to different temples and to a monkey forest. We stopped at the royal temple, which was beautiful. We also went to the floating temple and a Balinese buffet overlooking a mountain.

A look inside the Royal Temple- we were only able to walk around the outside of this part.

In front of the temple's entrance.

A rice paddy along the way.

We went to a monkey forest which was actually a little scary, because the monkeys (macaques) are so reliant on you for food that they are vicious! We had to walk around with a tour guide carrying a stick. It was also bad because they came out and dumped boxes of crackers wrapped in plastic that the monkeys just tore apart everywhere. But it was fun to feed them when they were calmer. We also got to hold a cool fruit bat named Becky- all of the bats had collars and could fly away, and the guy would yell for them by name. After that we went to the Tanah Lot temple, which I think is one of the biggest ones in Bali. We had to cross some water to get to it, and washed our faces in a sacred fountain. Then the monks stuck some rice to our foreheads and gave us a flower for our ear. It was really cool. One sad thing though was that there were bunches of little kids going around and hawking pencils, and it is really hard to say no to them…so I got roped into buying a bunch of pencils. The bad part was when we went into a restaurant and the kids were allowed in and kept coming around to the tables and would not leave people alone, and it was really hard to tell them no- but I think their parents were the restaurants owners or something. So that was sad and frustrating too. We stayed to watch the sunset at Tanah Lot then went back to our hotels. Overall it was a great day.

Tanah Lot.

Emily and I after visiting the Sacred Fountain.

Feeding Becky the fruit bat.

The next day Thuy and I went to another monkey forest that was just a short walk away from our hotel, and it was awesome! So much better than the other one. The monkeys were much more calm and we fed them bunches of bananas. It’s really cute when they grab hold of your shorts to make you give them a banana, and they hold on until they get as much as they want. But when you didn’t have food they just left you alone. There were a TON of little babies in this one. They are so human-like too! It was really weird to see them swimming in a pool underwater like a human! We spent 2 hours just walking around there, because it was a peaceful park in the jungle.

Katie and I by the bridge in the monkey forest.

Really cute mother and baby cuddling.

However, the last day we went back with everyone really early, before the monkeys had been fed anything. That definitely made them more aggressive. I bought the first bunch of bananas and a monkey jumped on my head, and I quickly handed him a banana. But he still wouldn’t get off! I was trying to get the woman who sold me the bananas to distract him with the banana bunch and lure him off, but all she did was stand there and say “relax, relax”…and then the monkey flipped out and bit me in the head! It hurt so badly but luckily it didn’t break the skin- it was a big monkey and they have pretty large fangs.

Don't be fooled by their cuteness...

After he jumped off and left a nice clump of mashed banana in my hair I wasn’t really in the mood to continue exploring the monkey forest, lol. I was more mad at the woman though for not doing something! After some more shopping, we headed back to Perth that night. I absolutely loved Bali and the people there, and I hope to go back someday!

Aussie Slang- just for you Katie HG :)

Keen-interested/enthusiastic. Are you keen on going out?

Heaps- said all the time instead of “tons.” Win heaps free stuff! I got heaps of coins.

Ta- thank you

Hectic- awesome. That party sounds hectic (not in the sense Americans mean)

Zed- the letter Z is called zed, never knew that before.

Hache- also, the letter H is pronounced with an exaggerated h sound at the beginning- which actually sounds kind of annoying. In an OSHC health care video we had to watch, they referred to it as OS HACHE C

One Month?!

The last time I posted was about going to an outdoor cinema showing in King's Park. We went to go see the movie Somewhere, which was actually laughably terrible. We all pretty much were waiting for the plot or moral of the story to appear right up until the credits rolled...but other than that it was a fun night! It was on the complete opposite side of King's Park that we hadn't seen before, and the whole setting was cool. On the way there we got to take some night shots of Perth and watch the sunset in a small cafe; there were also a lot of prom pictures going on too. We also saw a lot of parrots flying around- all different kinds and colors. There are a lot of them on campus too- definitely strange to have cockatoos and parrots as common birds!

Rainbow Lorikeets in King's Park

On Sunday the student village sponsored a trip to Woodman’s Point. We all loaded into a bus at 2:30, cranked the music, and set off for a fun afternoon at the beach. One thing I love about all of the beaches here are how they always go hand in hand with parks. So far every beach I’ve been to has had a really nice park right behind it, with people picnicking and resting in the shade, and a playground or a café. It’s really nice, especially when you want to lay out without being covered in sand. Which usually happens, because Perth is incredibly windy every afternoon…which means sand is inevitable stuck in your ears and hair. But hey, I guess its great for the windsurfers and kite surfers. You always see heaps of them in the afternoon. Kite surfing is a very expensive sport, but maybe I’ll try windsurfing while I’m here.

Picture off the dock of Woodman's Point.

So anyway, we had a picnic and went to the beach, where there was a huge dock. The water was really clear and apparently a good fishing spot, as a lot of people were set up with poles along the dock. It seemed like a much more local place. The beach wasn’t that full and most of the people were fishing off the dock. We saw a huge Australian Pelican there…it seemed like it was half the size of me! I don’t know how it could get off the ground. Really enjoyed this beach and hopefully I’ll be back!

The Thursday before that I went to this place called Mojo’s where there was awesome live music. Definitely a different crowd, all ages mixed. A lot of dreadlocked, hippy people there- it was awesome. We saw the Rosie Burgess Trio, and afterwards I bought their CD and am now a big fan. We also saw this popular Aboriginal band called Oka- the best part was the electric didgeridoo! So cool sounding. Here’s a youtube clip, and I'll try to put up my own clips later:

On Monday after my Nature-Based Tourism lecture, our class had a field trip to Penguin Island, which is just off the coast of Rockingham. It was absolutely gorgeous there- I took WAY too many pictures! Penguin Island is just one of many small islands in the Shoalwater Atoll, and the only one that people are allowed to step foot on. It’s a conservation park within a marine park. There are several nesting bird species there, and colonies all over the other islands, including Little Penguins and seals. The Little Penguins have a colony of about 2,000, the biggest one in WA. Unfortunately you can’t see the wild ones because they only come on land after sunset unless they’re breeding or molting, so they have a few rehabilitated penguins that can’t be released in the “Penguin Experience Center” to educate visitors. We walked around the island, saw the penguins, and took a boat tour around some small neighboring islands. The views were gorgeous and the water was so clear- there were a lot of outdoor sports going on in the surrounding water. Before the semester ends I hope to go back and do a kayak tour there.

My favorite picture from Penguin Island.

Just one of many windsurfers.

Kitesurfer getting some air!

I can't believe I've been here for one month already! It feels like I've been here forever and yet not at all, at the same time. I almost forgot to mention: I got a job at a cafe on campus as a barista/server. I've only been to work once, but I'll be working about 10 hours this week.

Oh, and here's a picture of my room if anyone's interested in seeing it...it looks more spartan than it actually feels. :)

Aussie Slang:

Shrapnel = loose change

Tomato Sauce = ketchup

Sultanas = raisins

Till = cash register