Saying goodbye to Bali

We had just taken off for about half hour. Must admit it that I'm sad to leave the island of the Gods. It had been a wonderful cultural experience. Ati & I promised each other to come back again. There was definitely so much to see and do. For the last 2 days, I tried to absorb as much as possible. It was quite tiring but we just have to keep on moving.

Bali has so much to offer. I don't know what appeals to others but for Ati & I, we were much into the cultural thingy. No reading or research could prepare us for the experience. I've been reading about Bali for the last 1 year but we were still awed by the experience.

I didn't even managed to hang out at the beach nor the spa (tho I had planned for it!). There wasn't enough time. The culture, art, architecture, religion, people, sight...they all blend into one lifestyle.

As Ati puts it, everything the Balinese do is their devotion to their faith. Comparing to Malaysian, we can't really point what's our identity...but for the Balinese, it's in everything they do, from offerings to their Gods to building their homes. It's in everything we see, hear, smell and touch. Every gate or door or roof has the same feature, no matter where. Their devotion is shown in everything they do...from their art, carvings, crafts, etc.

Everytime you turn, you'd pick up a new experience. If ever you're in Bali, take time to smell the rose or...ehem, take time to study the details on their doors.

I'm still perhaps in cloud nine and no word could ever trully describe how I feel at the moment.

Till my next Bali trip, all I can say for now is Matur Suksma (Thank you in Balinese).

Bali map

For the reference of the reader to this blog. Here's the map of Bali, indicating where we've been on this trip.

Day 4 - Last day (La Mayeur)

We'll be leaving Bali soon. The flight's later in the afternoon and we're on the way to the airport.

With heavy hearts, we managed to do last minute packing, had a good breakfast and checked out the La Mayeur Museum. The museum is about 10 minutes stroll from the hotel. It's located beach front.

La Mayeur was a Belgian artist who used to stay in Bali. Was married to a Balinese legong dancer. In fact, most of the paintings in the museum were of his wife. The museum is used to be La Mayeur's house, before it was handed over to the government.

We were amazed with the intricate carvings we found throughout the whole house, more than the paintings that was displayed. Must have been painstaking effort to build this house. I can't help but asked myself then, "Did people actually live in this house?" In Malaysia, it would have belonged to some royal families. I hope that in time, the museum can be preserved well.

For those interested to buy prints of La Mayeur's work, you can buy them at the souvenir shop next to the museum.

In the picture above, you can see the intricate carvings on the windows and the walls of the house.

Pura Tanah Lot & the wooden "ehem"

Pura Tanah Lot, temple of the earth (tanah) and sea (lot). This is one of the most spectacular temples in Bali and a perfect place to watch sunset.

When we visited Pura Tanah Lot, it was low tide, so we could walk all the way to the island’s rocky caves. We didn't go into the cave at the base of the island though. There were lots of people entering the cave, seeking blessing from the priests.

From the entrance to the Pura is approximately 2 kilometers, so be prepared to walk. However, there are a lots of things to see along the way…row after row of shop selling knick-knacks and other touristy stuffs. You could even get yourself temporary tattoo. Gee...It was tempting but I figured out that it wasn't a wise thing to do since I'll be attending my bestfriend's wedding in KK next week.

Did manage to get some stuff there, e.g. carved wooden flowers (normally used to decorate either sides of the door or gates) and few t-shirts with cool designs. Didn’t see them elsewhere before. Bought one with the naming convention of Balinese. The wood carvings were great...I wish I could bring back some for the feature wall but it'd be too heavy to carry.

Ati & I found something interesting though...quite in abundance at the souvenir shops…first in Sukawati and later in Tanah Lot. It’s actually “ehem”, the man’s private part. Well, we were amused at first. Okay, can’t blame us. People definitely do not sell that publicly in Malaysia.

It came in variety of forms e.g. table centerpiece, key chains and even, bottle openers. Imagine holding the penis of about more than 6 inches long while trying to open the bottle. Funny, huh. We thought of buying some for our male friends but later had a second thought. The guys would think of us as perverts!!! Hahahaha.

Since it was almost everywhere, we figured out that it was probably some kind of symbols of fertility for Balinese.

Pura Taman Ayun

Pura Taman Ayun (Temple of a beautiful garden) is the temple for the royal family in Mengwi. Brief overview : Pura Taman Ayun was built in 1634 by the Raja I Gusti Agong Anom.

It's surrounded by a massive moat. When we were there, the moat was being drained as part of its regular maintenance.

The inner courtyard of the Pura is complete with magnificent Merus, bales & shrines. The higher the meru, the more important it is. There are 3 very important Meru here,honoring the 3 important mountains in Bali i.e. Gunung Agung, Gunung Batukau & Gunung Batur.

Bali - Day 3 (Tour, shop & gamelan)

We took slightly a long time to get ready today. Enjoyed our breakfast at the restaurant, sipping our coffee, looking out to the sea & listening to the soothing gamelan music in the background. Suddenly a guy came & asked if we were Malaysian. Only when we identified ourselves did he introduced himself. Huzni Muit, the operations manager for the hotel...and he's Malaysian! We had a good conversation later. Having been living in Bali for the past 1 year, he gave us lots of info about going about there. He recommended a place to visit or more likely to shop...Geneva. Hey, if only we had met earlier.

Putu & Bpk Wayan were already waiting for us at the lobby at about 10am.

Today, we didn't have a proper agenda. We thought of covering the places that we didn't manage to visit for the past 2 days. Didn't know if we were going to have some time to visit Geneva. Not only that, was thinking about the things that we had bought...Not even sure if my bags could fit all of them...ehem.

The first to visit was Sukawati. Read so much about it & decided that we check it out. It's basically a small village with blocks of single storey, wooden shophouses. The locals were buzzing about, carrying out their daily business. The ladies donned in their kebayas were carrying trays of fruits, knick knacks, etc. Having had the terrifying experience with the street vendors in Kintamani, Ati was basically clinging to me or Putu...She was being paranoid! :P Actually, the street vendors in Sukawati were quite polite. We only needed to say "No" & they were okay with it instead of pestering us.

The market place was a 2 storey building (reminded me of Pasar Payang in Kuala Terengganu) and next to it was a small street, flanked by rows of wooden shophouses. There was so much things to see & buy there at fraction of the price we paid for elsewhere. Was so tempted to buy more paintings but had to resist it. There were lots of carvings, paintings, knick knacks, etc.

Bargaining was expected here. Ati had proven her skill in bargaining. She bargained for my white cotton blouse which we got for only Rp75K and tank tops for Rp25K! "Harga pas gitu"

Bought few other stuffs there...bought a salt & pepper shaker set, made from cinnamon that matched my cinnamon bowl that I bought earlier in Tampaksiring. By the way, the shakers cost me only Rp 10K (and that's like RM4 only!!!)...I couldn't resist buying a pareo that cost Rp10K only...and a great carved, wooden chess set for only Rp35K. Even Ati bought the chess set too. We thought it was a good buy & didnt want to bargain much. So kesian at that makcik...her stall was way at the back on the first floor of the market place.

Ati bought lots of t-shirts...So much so that her plastic bag looked like the santa's christmas bag. hahaha...Putu must have thought that we had lost our mind. Good of him to help carry Ati's shopping bags.

[It'll be good to check out Sukawati first if you intend to buy lots of stuffs. The price is so much cheaper than other touristy area.]

After Sukawati, we had lunch at a nice restaurant on the way to Pura Taman Ayun. Can't remember the name of the town. Well, each of us had a big portion of nasi & mee goreng and fruit juice...To our surprise, it cost us both slightly Rp100K. Cheap, huh.

Later in the day, we visited Pura Taman Ayun & Pura Tanah Lot. It's basically, crossing from East to West of Bali.

But before we ended the day, Putu & Bpk Wayan drove us to Denpasar since Ati wanted to get another travelling bag. Well, with all the shopping that she had made, she definitely needed another one. Denpasar seemed quiet but somewhat developed. We were admiring the kebayas on the mannequins in front of some of the shop. Made a mental note to ourselves to drop by in Denpasar, the next time we visit Bali.

While waiting for Ati to buy the bag at the departmental store, I checked out the music store. Hey! I found the gamelan CDs...tons of them...ohhh the passion of my life. Bought 4 of them at Rp40K each...and that's RM16 each. Putu & Bpk Wayan didn't understand why I went nuts at gamelan. To them, it's just some music in the background. I had always loved listening to gamelan...and these CDs add to my collection.

There's separate postings on both Pura Taman Ayun & Pura Tanah Lot.

Bali - Day 2 (The tour)

We got up early today, about 6am.

Didn't sleep well last nite. The mattress was a bit hard & I couldn't help feeling a bit spooked thru the nite. haha.

Since it was still too early, we decided to take pix in the garden (yup, we were still in our PJs). It was quiet and refreshing. In fact, it was a nice change to walk in the garden early in the morning before getting ready for the day.

We were already at the restaurant way before 8am. Surprise, surprise...There were lots of people on the beach. Kids played at the beach, people flew kites or swam in the sea, flocks of people going to the temple, carrying their baskets of offerings, etc...Gosh!...We should have brought our camera to breakfast. Didn't expect this...Hey, this is not even 8am. In Bintulu (my hometown), people don't really get up that early on a SUNDAY morning, let alone, going to the beach.

Later we met our guide for the day at the lobby. A young chap, in his 20s, dressed in a traditional balinese attire. He introduced himself as Putu. Our driver for the day was Bpk Wayan. As we drove off, Putu informed us about the unique names for Balinese where the children are named by their birth order. The oldest will be named Putu/Wayan, 2nd as Made, 3rd Nyoman/Komang and 4th Ketut. The names are then repeated for any more children. To differentiate further, the names are added "I" for male & "Ni" for female. Example, as for my case it would probably be Ni Wayan Elly. hehe.

The first program for the day was the Barong performance in Batubulan which were starting at 9.30am but since we were quite early, we were brought to the Batik gallery somewhere in Gianyar (can't remember the exact location)...spent about 40 mins there.

After the Barong performance, we went to Celuk, a village famous for it's silver. Alongside the road in the village was numerous silversmith. Wow! Some even make to order. Excellent designs too. We finally left this particular silver gallery, more than an hour later & having spent hundred of thousands Rupiah. Phew!

We didn't stopped at Mas for the woodcarving. Instead, we headed on to an art gallery somewhere .... We were introduced to varied style of Balinese painting. I could just spend the entire day there. The paintings were beautiful. Bought framed paintings of Rama & Sita (their version of Romeo & Juliet). The frames were beautifully carved. I thought it would be the perfect wedding gift for Dez. Other than that, I bought a modern painting of Balinese dancers and a painting of Balinese village in young artists' style.

(Note : if you were ever tempted to buy paintings at art galleries, hold on to the thought first until you get to smaller village where the same painting will cost only a fraction)

After the art gallery, we proceeded to Kintamani for lunch. We made a short stop at Tegalallang to take picture of the rice terrace. Cool!

The journey to Kintamani took us almost an hour to reach there. Kintamani is located more than 1000 metre above sea level, hence the cool air. The restaurant had a stunning view of Mount Batur (3rd tallest volcano) & Lake Batur (the largest lake). What better way to end the lunch but to sip the Bali coffee & looking at the mountain...ahhh....

(There are a number of street vendors outside the restaurant, calling for you to buy their stuffs. So, you tend to get distracted while enjoying your lunch. It's sad tho having to be selfish & ignoring them.)

Initially we were supposed to visit Pura Besakih (Mother Temple) but since we wanted to catch the 6.30pm cultural show in Batubulan, we visited Pura Batur instead. Pura Batur is the 2nd largest temple in Bali.

On our way back to Batubulan, we made a stop at a art market in Tampaksiring. Found nice souvenirs there. Since there was still time before the cultural performances, we took the opportunity to visit Pura Desa Batuan.

We then headed back to Batubulan for the Kecak & fire dances. The performance was about 1 hour. Later, we went back to Sanur for dinner at a restaurant where we were entertained by more dances e.g. bumble bee dance & Baris.

We finally got back to the hotel past 9pm. It has been a tiring but great day.

So for tomorrow, we had decided to charter the car with driver & guide for 7 hours. We had just made the call, requesting for both Putu & Bpk Wayan for our day trip tomorrow.

As for the plan, we're just going to cover some places that we had missed today.

Kecak and Fire Dances

Kecak
Perhaps one of the best known of the many Balinese dances. It is also unusual in that it isn't accompanied by Gamelan. Instead, the background is provided by a chanting 'choir' of men who provide the 'chak-a-chak-a-chak' noise. It's performed by a large group of chanting men, sitting in a circle, waving their arms and swaying to and fro, in times with the chant.

The dance is deeply rooted in local tradition and Indian mythology and is inspired by Ramayana, an epic poem written in Sanskrit. It brings to life the tale of King Rama & his wife, Dewi Sita.

The performance generally lasts one hour and takes place in the evening, around 7pm.

The trance dances - Sanghyang Dedari & Sanghyang Jaran
The sanghyang is a divine force that enters the bodies of the entranced dancers. The two common dances are Sanghyang Dedari & Sanghyang Jaran.

Sanghyang Dedari is performed by 2 pre-pubescent girls. The girls are supposedly untrained and can keep in perfect time with each other, even though their eyes are firmly shut.

Meanwhile, Sanghyang Jaran is performed by an entranced boy, riding a coconut palm hobby horse....something similar to Malaysian's Kuda Kepang. The boy would dance around and through the fire.

In both dances, a priest is always on hand to help bring the dancers out of their trance state at the end of the performance.

Pura Desa Batuan

Batuan, an old Buddhist-Brahman village located in the Southern Gianyar regency. It's main temple, Pura Desa Batuan was built in 1022 AD.

A striking feature of this Pura is the beautiful carvings in the entire temple.

The picture above is taken from outside the Pura. Just look at those carvings...marvellous!

Pura Danu Batur, Kintamani

A Balinese temple is divided into 3 parts. To enter the first courtyard, one passes the candi bentar (split gate). Then a 2nd gate rising high, with faces of guardian demon, leads to the 2nd courtyard. Inside would be numerous pavillions used for various purposes. In the final courtyard, one may find the meru pagoda, sanggah (spirit houses) and pedestrals for the offerings. Stones and wood carvings would be apparent here.

The first Pura (temple) we went to was Pura Batur in Kintamani.

Pura Batur, located on the cliff, overlooking the Mount Batur (1717 metre). It's the 2nd most important temple, after Besakih.

A word of caution, the street vendors can be quite agressive there. Ati & I had a terrifying experience outside the pura where the vendors followed us to our car & one of them almost got into the car with us. Was hard to ignore them.

Barong at Batubulan

Pictured here, the front view of Barong.

Most well known dance. A story telling dance, narrating the fight between the good and evil. The followings are the variation we watched in Batubulan.

Opening Act
The Barong, a symbol of good, elegance & simplicity is an illustration of the lion. It's danced by 2 people. In the opening act, the barong showed off it's elegance. The barong was later seen leisuring in the forest, with a monkey, which is a character of friendship to the barong. The monkey entertains and annoys the barong, and creates the atmosphere of entertainment to the audience.

3 masked men then appreared, representing men making palmwine in the forest, whose child was killed by the barong. The men got angry and attacked the barong, which is helped by the monkey. During the fight, one of the men's nose was chopped off by the monkey.

Act 1
2 girl dancers appeared, representing the servants of the Rangda, looking for the servants of Dewi Kunti who were on their way to meet the Patih (prime minister).

Act 2
Dewi Kunti controlled by her sadness was influenced by a witch and later ordered her Patih to take Sahadewa to jungle to be sacrificed to Rangda. The Patih was later controlled and influenced by the witch. He captured Sahadewa and tied him up to the tree, to be eaten by Rangda.

Act 3
Unknown to Rangda, the God Siwa appeared & gave Sahadewa immortality. Rangda appeared & was ready to kill Sahadewa.

Act 4
However, Sahadewa couldn't be killed. Rangda then surrendered and asked Sahadewa to redeem herself. He agreed and killed Rangda.

Act 5
One of Rangda's servant, called Kalika came up before Sahadewa & asked him to redeem her too but he refused. Kalika got angry, changed herself into a boar and fought Sahadewa but the boar was defeated. She then changed herself into a bird but got defeated too. She finally changed herself into Rangda.

Closing act
The eternal fight continues. Only the pure heart of Barong can overcome the bad spirited Rangda. The dance was later followed by "Kris dancers", men armed with kris daggers who had come to help Barong to fight the evil Rangda. The witch spell reversed their fury back to themselves & they plunged their kris against their own body. Barong, with it's powerful charm, protects the men against the self inflicting harm.

Bali, finally!

The day had finally arrived!!!!

Ati & I couldn't contain our excitement.

"Hey, Elly, we can finally strike off Bali from our wish list", she said as we settled in our seats.
"Hold on first, we haven't reached Bali yet." I commented with a grin.

There was a delay at KLIA due to the heavy traffic...We took off almost an hour later. Yikes! Imagine the restlessness being in the flight for a solid hour, waiting for our turn to take off. I tried to remain cheerful though, until I dozed off soon after.

It was about 2 & half hour later when we saw in a distance, a volcanic mount rose high above the clouds. We weren't sure of our exact location. Could be Java though.

All of a sudden, Ati nudged me. "Is that eruption?" There, I saw, a blow of dust out of the volcano. We were almost screaming & took lots of shots of it. We had never seen a volcano before. haha, so sakai.

"Hey, check that out!" As I peered though the window, I noticed that we were passing by another volcanic mount. It was so close that we managed to take the picture of the crater.

We arrived in Bali at about 2.35pm, at Bandar Udara Ngurah Rai. Bali...ahh, all green with blue sea & sky. We were greeted by the intricate wood carvings at the airport & soothing sound of traditional music that played in the background.

(Note : There'll be lots of tour brochures for grab on the way to the immigration. You can really get good deal there.)

There were hundreds of tourists arriving at about the same time. It took us almost an hour to clear the immigration. On contrary, baggage claim and customs check were a breeze. (Note : There's no electronic board indicating where to claim your luggage, so you may have to look a bit.)

I basically had an idea where to go for the taxi but I asked the guard anyway, before exiting the arrival hall.

"Pak, di mana ya kaunter taksi?"
"Keluar dari sini, langsung ke kanan."
"Ma Kasih, Pak"

Hehe...I'm definitely going to try to speak Bahasa Indonesia as much as possible.

There were swarms of people outside the arrival hall, a bit chaotic. Drivers, porters, tour operators, hotel operators, etc. You'd probably be asked if you are interested in about anything. Anyway, just to be safe, we decided on the airport taxi. Oh boy, another long queue..but we didn't really mind, as we were admiring the surrounding. The blue sky, the swaying coconut trees, etc. ooohhhh, we're holidaying at a tropical island.

Taxi was Rp 60,000 to Sanur and the journey took us about 40 minutes. There were lots of "oohh", "ahh" and "check this out" along the way. We felt dizzy later, trying to look at both sides of the road. haha, very funny. There was simply too much to see. (Note : Get your camera ready to snap some pictures along the way. We missed some good view then.)

We were feeling a bit worried when the driver told us that we were arriving at the hotel. The junction was small. We didn't see any signage that said 'Diwangkara Holiday Villa' (http://www.holidayvillabali.com/index.html ). The street leading to the hotel was so small that it could fit a car at a time. As we passed through the gate, we saw a 2 storey building with a small parking lot. The taxi then stopped in front of the small lobby. The reception counter was like 2 metre long and the hotel was really quiet...Gee...I prayed hard that we didn't make a mistake choosing the hotel.

After the speedy check in, we were then showed the way to the our room, passing through a beautiful garden. The building we saw earlier was only the admin block. In the garden, there are a temple, a big pond and few statues.

Our room is just next to the garden with a small pond in front of it. There are 2 chairs outside where we can sit and admire the garden. Stone carvings on the wall and above our door. The room is so cosy, with the warmth of the wooden furniture. Yes, there's the 4 poster bed. Another stone carving adorned the wall above the door to the bathroom.

After settling in, we took a walk in the garden. This is exactly what I had in mind if I ever own my own house...a Bali garden. The pool (deepest end is 2.5 metre) and the restaurant were located near the beach, after the garden.

We surveyed the beach. The sand isn't white but slightly brown. The sea is calm as the waves break at the reef about 50 metre out to the sea. There were a good mix of both locals and foreigners at the beach, doing various activities. Sanur is definitely a place to relax as it's quite laid back. The sea breeze is cooler than the one I'm so used to in Malaysia. There were a number of stalls selling knick knacks at the beach, and La Mayeur Museum is located about 20 metre from the hotel.

As for the first nite in Bali, we decided to stay in and had dinner in the room. While resting, we were busy looking through the pamphlets. It would be cheaper to charter the car with a driver if you know where do you want to go but because we didn't really have the sense of distance in Bali, we decided on for a full day tour of about 13 hours and later booked it. The tour that we chose cost USD35 per pax and it includes car, driver, guide, all entrance fees, performances, lunch, dinner and also sarongs for the temple.

Tour starts at 8.30am tomorrow, hence, we're retiring early.

Good nite.

Counting the hours...I'm dreaming away

This will be the view that I'll be seeing tomorrow. Can't wait. Candi Bentar (split gate) at the Ngurah Rai airport.

Anyway, I've done most of my preparation. Changed the currency this morning, with a minor change to the original plan. I felt that it's more practical to carry the money in 2 currencies i.e. Rupiah & US dollar as well. Well, at least enough Rupiah to last the weekend. For once, I felt like a millionaire. haha. The bank gave me a better rate than the commercial money changer but the Rupiah was not available in smaller notes. Ati made a frantic call this morning, telling me that she was unable to get hold of any Rupiah in Miri. She' s banking on changing the currency at the KLIA.

Talking bout Ati, there's another change to the plan too. She's only meeting me in KLIA instead of spending the nite at my place.

Other arrangements :

1. Map (done)
2. Luggage (bought it!)
3. Walking shoes (I decided to scrap off the idea & will just use a pair of sandals instead)
4. The cab (Cancelled. Mon will be driving me to the airport)
5. Camera (Ati's bringing the digital camera, with 1GB memory card. :p)

I've done some packing last nite. In fact, I just chunked stuffs into the bag. Will look at it again tonite.

Must sleep early tonite. Will be leaving for the airport at 7am. Yawn!

Details, details

I'm still overwhelmed by the detail planning. First thing first, I guess.

Some checklist for Bali :

1. Change currency (Will do on the last day. Hv finally found the idea of not having to carry all the rupiah. For once, feeling like a millionaire. hahaha.)
2. Luggage (Found the one I like. Maybe getting it today. Wasn't in time to repair my trolley bag that was broken during my last trip.)
3. Tour plan (Tentative plan done, including slots for spa.)
4. Medication & the likes (Done. Ati teased me about preparing the first aid kit. I think I'm just being paranoid.)
5. Map (To get one today. Saw a good one at Kino the other day. Else, I can still rely on the maps in the Discovery channel guide book to Bali)
6. Walking shoes (My saucorny pair seem too bulky. The hush puppies is oh so tempting.)
7. International roaming
8. Packing list (tentatively done.)

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Hey, I had just stumbled at this website called Bali Blog. Cool.

Countdown to Bali

It's 10 days to the Bali trip. Can't help feeling excited about it. My boss had just approved my leave yesterday.

I've made most of the arrangement. Paid up the package (hotel & flight), read the book on Bali & checked out the travel website, while jotting down all the to do & to see stuffs, among which will definitely be the Gamelan show. Ati had not done much homework & will rely on me. Yikes!

My cough is pretty bad. Blame it on the haze...I hope I'll be well enough for the trip.