Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Bali

Bali Hai

Wow, I have so much to say, not sure where to begin the journal of my fantastic travels in the beautiful country of Indonesia, specifically on the island of Bali.

I left KL on 22AUG and had my first experience with AirAsia, the discount airline in SE Asia. It was fine, particulary since I had the good sense to pay a bit extra for express boarding. One thing I don't understand about the discount carriers now is that they charge you extra for everything. I could care less about the food or drinks part, but the charges for bags is pretty crazy. I was charged extra both ways for a bag that weighed 19kg where Malaysia airlines allowed me a bag up to 32kg for free simply by being a member of their FF programme. At any rate, the flight did leave timely and arrived timely.

I have to say the approach to the landing strip in Denpasar is certainly one of the more dramatic I have seen and I've seen a lot of them. I believe the flight pattern from KL included flying over Borneo and certainly the turbulence and clouds would support that. Anyway, we finally emerged into clear skies and it is truly magical. Many, many islands all over the place and sparkling sea all around. The landing pattern took us right over the waves and sand to the airport.

So I splurged a bit on my room in Legian. Kuta is just as I thought it would be, very built up and very touristy. I stayed further down the beach in Legian at a lovely hotel called the Padma. I was lucky enough to have my room upgraded to a suite and it was HUGE!!! On my birthday I had a fab day of walking on the beach, playing in the waves, and hanging out under the umbrella enjoying the sound of the waves. The waves were perfect for body surfing and I managed to tire myself out quite well. I had intended to rent a boogie board but the waves were so fun for body surfing, I didn't. The Padma had an enormous pool which was very nice as well. I had planned to dress up and go out on the town for my birthday but as it ended up I just wandered not far from hotel and had some delicious Indonesian food which is quite similar to Malaysian food but the sambal is less spicy. Bintang beer is everywhere and is quite refreshing and tasty. My first night I had amazing garlic crab which was a big mud crab (similar to a Dungeness) and was spicy and delicious with lots of garlic to keep the mosquitoes away. A glass of wine, salad, and the big mud crab (about 0.75 kg) was a total of about $7 USD. Food is incredibly cheap and unlike Malaysia, beer is very inexpensive as well.

On Sunday morning I was picked up to go to Ubud and driven up into to hills of Bali. The drive up was really interesting where you pass all these different villages that do all kinds of handiwork including stone carving, wood carving, furniture making, silver works, and even kite making. I really wanted to stop and each one and see all the cool stuff they were working on. Arrived at Kumara Sakti, the location of my yoga and meditation retreat in the early afternoon. This place is really special! It is built down a slope with lots and lots of steps. My room was simply lovely and the grounds were really gorgeous. See pics as I will soon run out of adjectives to describe Bali.

The retreat week was really good with excellent meditation instruction. The yoga classes were OK, I would say our teacher's strength was her knowledge of meditation and chakras. We had a 100% silent day, no words spoken for a full 24 hours and also had a yoga class at the lookout to the two big volcanoes at sunrise. That was truly inspiring and special as the sun came out and you could actually see the volcanoes, a rare thing that they peek out from behind the clouds.

Bali has some typical 3rd world feel with lots of mangy dogs, trash, and things that are half built and/or half falling down. I suppose the tourist trade has brought certain things to the island but it seems it may have benefitted only a few. The shrines and temples are everywhere and I was in Bali during Galungan. Galungan is as the commemoration of the victory of "Dharma" (virtue) upon "Adharma" (evil) derived from the mythology "mayadewa" the demon king, when involved in a war against God Indra's troops. During the 10 day festival, penjors, tall bamboo-pole decorated with coconut's leaves and flowers, fruit, cakes etc, are on every house entrance and make a marvelous sight along the village roads throughout Bali.

We also went mountain biking, hiking, and had a wine tasting. See pics of penjors and the placenta cemetary. Most Balinese have unique ways of honouring the placenta and one village buries all the placentas in a special cemetary with the ashes inside a coconut. If the baby dies before it is one year old, the baby is also buried in this special cemetary. Some other villages keep the placenta ashes at their house for their entire life so that they can reunitied with it when they die. On the final day we had a cooking class by one of the chef's from a fancy restaurant in Ubud. We made VERY healthy food which was delicious but perhaps a bit complex and time consuming. My favourite was the starter made with jicama. I didn't think jicama was used outside of central American but there it was in Ubud. The vinegarette was so light and delicious...YUM! The chef said something really interesting that stuck with me: "I really prefer my dishes to have varied tastes while eating, I am bored if each bite of a dish tastes the same." I thought that was a very interesting sentiment for food and one which we honoured in the dishes we made.

I spent the last 2 days just chilling on the rural east coast of Bali and was enjoy to enjoy the lovely sound of the sea for a bit longer. The spectacle of the many jukungs out in the sea in the morning for catching fish is quite lovely. A jukung is a canoe with a sail and bamboo poles on either side for stability. See pics.

Back to KL just in time for the start of Ramadan. Can't wait to see all the special foods available for break-fast time. Should be a yummy month!

http://picasaweb.google.com/hellokittyinlondon/BaliAug08

No comments: