Ubud it

My last day in Indonesia. It feels strange to be leaving. Especially now, when I feel I've really found my niche. About that:





I've been in Ubud, Bali for the last four days. Ubud is in the hilly central part of Bali, on the way to the mountainous interior of the island. It is definitely much quieter than Kuta. The landscape is dotted primarily with Balinese Hindu temples and rice paddies (above), and a long chain of hostels and restaurants in the center of town. It is the cheapest place I've been in Indonesia. I was stressed about not having a reservation when I arrived in town at 8 pm, but immediately upon stepping out of the shuttle I got hooked up with a clean, spacious single bedroom with hot shower and free breakfast for $6 USD/night (expensive by Ubud standards; there are more novelties than you might expect in that string of amenities).





Spent my first morning wandering around the "Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary." Chilled with the troupes and hung with these komodo guys carved out of tree roots.







Inside the park I checked this out, Pura Dalem Agung, "Temple of the Dead." Total Temple of Doom style. I guess it is called that because of the demon art and numerous statues of some bitter old woman eating babies. Also peeped this ill jaggertooth on the side of the building. Kind of a creepy place, but good hang spot.



Lunch pickup: nasi campur, Bali special rice with tempe, veggies, and some kind of salty paste thing. Also pictured: lemongrass ginger lemonade. Ubud has been the best food spot by far.








That night I went to a nearby temple to check out kecak, a Balinese traditional dance. The performance involved about 50 dudes sitting in a circle, rhythmically chanting and shaking their hands, while various elaborately bejeweled dancers went into some kind of fire trance. At the end this horse dude came out and started kicking around the embers, basically just getting in a fight with the fire. Weird. Think it had something to do with the Ramayana. I didn't have my audio recorder on me, my bad.







The next day I hit up some more requisite archaeological sites. If you know me you know I'm a sucker for creepy cave art, so Goa Gajah, or elephant cave (above) was highest on my list. I rented a bike from some sketchy dude outside my hostel and made the 2 mile trip, sweat about 15 lbs off. Once there I had to adopt a Hindu sarong and Buddha dot. The cave itself was sick, the whole entrance is carved to appear as the mouth of a demon. Inside is a lil Ganesha and some linga.





Then a hike through some more rice paddies and arty villages brought me here, Yeh Puluh, a cliffside with 13th-century Hindu narrative imagery carved into its face. Sick of ancient bas relief stone carving? I'm not (almost am).

I was thoroughly thrashed from the bike ride so I napped out hard when I got home. Then I woke up and wandered down the street from my hostel to a hippy macro/vegan spot with wifi and decent coffee. Creature comforts. Had to endure a fair number of spacey conversations in my periphery, New Age wonks and washed up salty dogs are the water jocks to Ubud's Gili. I hung out with an ancient Australian man who was working on his daily bottle of red wine, he was chill, that special type of ex-pat who ends up in SE Asia after Latin America becomes too expensive. We talked about the Inca for a bit, then I said goodbye and told him to enjoy the rest of his trip. He replied, "And you enjoy the rest of your life."







Later that night I rambled into a gamelan shop to catch some wayang kulit, a traditional Balinese shadow puppet show. At first it was cool, the music was really frantic and harsh and the singing was shrill and dense. Then after about an hour the puppeteers switched to wacky English dialogue in a vague attempt at humor, and I left. Videos to come if I can figure that out.


Small things:









Balinese offerings. I'm way into these little things. I think they have something to do with Hinduism, or represent some vestige of indigenous religion. They usually feature cooked rice, incense, banana leaf, a ritz cracker or two, sometimes some money. They are all over the streets, in front of every shop. Sometimes they are hung from power lines. Sometimes they are eaten by monkeys. A small, colorful part of Bali that will stick in my memory.







Caught Olympics opening ceremonies at a local bar, or what I could between annoying Indonesian commercials. Pretty standard "Chinese culture" fare but I thought it was pretty good, actually gave me chills at some points, at the risk of sounding ridiculous. And I'm quite impressed by China's ability to control weather.



"schemin with this keenen/aimin with this damon/i'm puttin that major pain in/my little man is on ya/marlon and shawn ya"



Now I'm in the Dewa Lounge of Denpasar International, waiting for a flight to Jakarta then connecting on to Bangkok. Spent my last rupiah to hang with some wifi, all you can eat nasi and an open bar (sorry dad, no Bali shirts; don't worry M, I'll sleep it off before I arrive). Ending my stay in Indonesia on the highest possible note. Sorry for the book, Ubud was that good. I hope to come back sometime. For now I'm headed north. I'm a bit anxious at the prospect of subsisting in a country in which I have absolutely NO language skills. I have to look up Thai for "thank you" and "excuse me." My plans are still thankfully unformed. I'll let you know what I'm up to when I do.


Josh

Bali pop b/w A Gili

I was going to cram the last seven days into one post but I'll break it up for dramatic effect. Not really, there's just a lot that's gone down and my e-endurance is limited.

I arrived in Bali at around 12 am on Saturday, August 2, officially kicking off the second, responsibility-free month of my Asian summer. I was traveling with a crew of 5 other volunteers and my Indonesian friend Bayu. After touching down in Denpasar and catching a cab to Kuta, Bali party capital, we arrived at our hotel and to our surprise found that our reservation for two triples was actually only for one double. Undaunted, we dropped our stuff in the room and headed out to experience Indonesia's premier first-world club scene.

I got my fill in the 10 hours I actually spent in Kuta. After meeting up the other volunteers (all but one made the sacred pilgrimage) we proceeded to celebrate the end of five weeks in a predominately Muslim, predominately dry (my host family's raging tendencies aside) environment. Spent a few hours "clubbing," something I wouldn't deign to do anywhere else, and a word I hope never to use again. Almost got in a fight with some drunk dude who tried to pull me off the stage I was dancing on with my inebriated peers. Headed to a nice beach at around 4 am and waited around for the sunrise, then, following the advice of friend and fellow former Jaguar Jeff Pickett, made a snap decision to leave Kuta as quickly as possible and take off for the next destination promptly that morning. No hotel room = NO SLEEP.



After some buses and a 6-hr boat ride I washed up on this shore of Gili Trawangan, one of three Gili islands off the northwest coast of the larger island of Lombok. Some lost days here.







On the first day I walked around the island and hung out with some local fauna. The crab was chill (shoot out to cancerians) but the majority of the population was surfing Australians and drunken Europeans, with whom I didn't engage much. Not in a debaucherous mood I guess. I was walking through the western, undeveloped side of the island during low tide so I was able to wade out about 50 yards from the shore in the shallows, through a garden of dead coral and very living starfish colonies. The next day I went snorkeling and generally sunning, and I spent every night laying on sand and looking at stars. There was a sufficient lack of light to see the Milky Way in crystal clarity each night, unfortunately my camera isn't capable of 20-minute star exposures or I'd show you.







The night views led to a subsequent lack of island partying, but beaches aren't my scene. So I decided to leave the Gilis on Tuesday. After a quick morning bite at the colorful Gili Deli (above, above), I lugged my bags on board a small ferry (above, middle), and embarked on a 12-hr trip back to Bali, spending more than a few meditative hours on open ocean (above, below). I ended up in Ubud, the inland, beachless cultural capital of Bali, which is most definitely my scene. But more on that next time.


"You surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally"

Josh