13/5/2014

Beautiful Bali 

 

We departed from Dubai on the 12th of May to Bali – Indonesia, with a transit in Singapore.

Arriving in Bali on the 13th, we were greeted by the hot and humid weather similar to Thailand. The transportation and guide were organized from Dubai and they picked us up and headed towards Ubud – Gino Feruci hotel, a very nice villa hotel with an attractive pool.

 

The first day was spent walking around in Ubud and organizing our days by booking trips.

 

Day 2. We went with the tour guide to explore Ubud town, starting with the Balinese dance (which is not advisable to go to in our point of view). After that, we visited a Silver shop where everything is hand crafted - it was nice but expensive and the same could be found at cheaper prices in other places in Ubud.

Next, we visited a wood-crafting place. It was very interesting to observe how the statues and sculptures were made and how much time and effort it takes. Our next stop was a coffee plantation, where they made the most expensive coffee in the world. However, we realized that it is made of Mongoose poo. The Mongoose eat the coffee as a whole and their stomach has a strong acid that makes the coffee high in protein.

The last stop was a visit to a typical Balinese house. Interestingly, the entire family lives in the same house. The houses are divided into three sections – the first section is in the southeast direction, where the sun shines which is the start of life; and where the sun sets, which is end of life. Although Indonesia has 241 million people with 75% of them Muslims, Bali has 4.7 million Hindus. They believe in three things - Water, Fire and Air. Water, because most of the human body is made of it and cannot live without it, Fire which is heat and Air is what you breathe.

Twice a day they have offerings that consist of rice, water and an incense stick on a leaf that they put everywhere. Below the temple, on the right, is the room where they all stay. There is an outdoor kitchen here.  And on the left is where the bride and groom stay during their first days of marriage. In the middle of the area is where they keep their dead. The ceremonies could take days as they have good days and bad days for burial cremation. first they burry as for Hundus the cremation ceremony costs them a lot therefore they burry there loved ones for years until they have enough money or couple of families want to cremate as well, they put there money together dig out the bodies and have the cremation ceremony.

 

On the 15th, we went trekking for a couple of hours into Balies forest, bamboo forest and rice fields, which we didn’t want to end. We saw the locals planting and harvesting rice in the fields, which was so beautiful that we joined them too. We passed by a few local houses that live in the middle of the forest and off the ground. Later we rented dune buggies and went to the forest and river.

 

Day 3. We went for the Bali safari to see a rare Balinese bird, of which they have only 150 left. This can be found only in Bali. Unfortunately, when we got there, the cage was under maintenance. But we still went around and saw a few animals like white tigers which are originally from Indonesia, from an island called Sumatra where they still roam around freely, the Orangutan which is originally from Indonesia, from the biggest island there called Borneo, and the Komodo dragons which are originally from the Komodo Island in Indonesia.

On the way back, we passed by a pharmacy where they had no one speaking English. Luckily we met an American lady who assisted us in getting the medicine we wanted. We asked her how long she has been here and her reply really surprised us. She had been living there for 34 years and when we asked her what made her stay on this long, she replied that it was all because of love. She turned out to be a writer called Diana Darling. She visited Bali for a holiday and ended up falling in love with a Balanese gentleman.

 

The next day, we went rafting in Bali’s river, where nature in all its beauty and a sense of freedom captured our senses. The only unpleasant thing we faced was that we had to go down 600 steps, and after we finished rafting, we had to go up 300 steps. That was a bit exhausting. We met a friendly Canadian couple who we shared the raft with and later had lunch with them.

After lunch, we went the elephant conservatory, which is owned by an Australian who is trying to keep the Balanese Elephants from extinction. The elephant ride was an exciting experience.

We then headed to Ubud’s main street for dinner where a Danish man chatted up with us. He had left Denmark to live in Bali his reason being that the people here are nicer and different. In Denmark, everyone is caught up with their own lives and not friendly. Moreover, the weather is always cold and depressing with the sun making very rare appearances. That’s why they have so many suicide cases, he said.

 

We then moved from Ubud to Seminyak, a city on the beach where we stayed at the Arya hotel, a property with very nice pool villas. Seminyak was totally different from Ubud. Ubud is more cultural and religious while Seminyak is more open, with much more tourists and night life.

At Semenyak, we walked around from place to place most of the time and went to the beach. One day we went to the turtle conservatory. We hired a boat to where they breed turtles and save them from extinction. They had other animals there as well like huge bats, bird, etc. We followed the conservatory experience with some refreshing snorkeling.

 

Before we end this I would want to mention that the Dutch where in  Indonesia in 1945 and stayed for 3 / 4 years, till only couple of years ago they didn’t even have currency. 

 

A marvelous experience indeed.