hello malaysia! what have you been up to while i was away?
i was in bali, indonesia for the last four days. no reason. just to chill out and soak up the culture.
my flight was at 9am, which meant that i needed check into the terminal by 7am, which meant that someone needed to send me to the airport at 6am, which meant that i needed to wake up by 5am. note: everything moves slow motion in the mornings so don’t mind the one hour intervals. this arrangement naturally sounded daunting.
i was kindly offered a ride to klia at 1am. apa lagi? i hoped in the van and hence, the adventure began, eight hours before takeoff.
klia is actually not that bad a place to spend the night, since they do have those odd flights in the graveyard hours of the morning. at least they were kind enough to halt the announcements between 2am and 6am. the bright lights stayed on, for better or worse. the benches allowed the occasional doze, and if you really can’t sleep, there was plenty of company even at those forsaken hours.
garuda indonesia has what on the exterior looks like a rather sad boeing 737-400. as i was waiting to board, i was looking at my plane, and the magnificent mas boeing 747 with a spanking new coat of paint beside it.
at least we were not squashed and cramped like the airasia flights. for breakfast, i was given the option of chicken with noodles or fish with rice. i choose the chicken which came with a bundle of very dry flat noodles and some boiled kailan, i think. my best guess was that the chicken was stir fried in oyster sauce. the meal was so-so. best onboard food award still points towards mas. duh!
i arrived at the ngurah rai airport, located at bali’s capital town, denpasar, at 11.40am. a dude from the travel agency was suppose to pick me up and bring me to the hotel. i was on the four days – three nights free and easy package with a complementary half day tour on the 2nd day.
anyway, the tour guide turned out to be a balinese local whose look uncannily resembled a non-naked gollum, spoke with the accent of the karate kid’s mr miyagi and with the fevour of a delirious yankee tv shopping channel host.
really, i’m not trying to be mean, but he really did bear vivid similarities to a smeagol, especially the eyes… and the talking, it sounded like he was a smartshop pusher. but really, he turns out to be a disturbingly over-friendly guy whose obvious interest is the depths of his pockets. he frequently volunteered extended elaborations on the places we passed by and visited.
i stayed at sanur paradise plaze hotel. sanur is located at the south east of bali island, about half an hour from denpasar.
the hotel was a five-minute walk from a public beach, which i personally don’t recommend swimming in. the waves are calm and its not that the water was particularly dirty. its just that the beach was, er, not very conducive for these sorta activities. sanur paradise makes up for this with a rather elaborate swimming pool though.
eating around the sanur area was easy. there are ample stalls along the beach stretch and the road leading to the beach. the price of food, i realised, is pretty standard around the whole island so i was not eactly getting ripped off near hotels.
one cafe i personally recommend would be the agung & sue watering hole, along jalan hangtuah at sanur. ask for the ayam bumbu bawang putih and get a nice glass of pineapple juice. mmm…
the complementary half day tour started with a wild goose ride across several places which i’m quite sure the guide was getting commissions for. we visited a batik craft shop, a gold and silver shop, a wooden carving gallery and an art gallery.
i did not buy anything. i’ve experienced the same comission gig when i was in bangkok and learnt a good lesson not to argue with the guide or driver about being taken on these sorta time wasting trips. so i simply walked in, looked around and walked out.
eventually, i was brought to the bali bird park. i admit, on the outside, the place really looked lame-assed. on the inside was different tho. there are a number of interesting bird species worth a photo or two. an interesting feature of the park was a walk-in section, where you literally get into the cage with the birds. it was alright.
our final destination on the half day tour was to ubud market where there located a rather sizeable sorta flee market selling things from groceries to sarongs and t-shirts and other touristy stuff. i discovered that this happened to be the haggle central for bali and true enough, i was able to haggle t-shirts which started at 50,000 rupiahs [rm18.65] a piece to 20,000 rupiahs [rm7.46] each [i hear it could even go down to 15,000 rupiahs [rm5.60] if you pushed harder].
one thing i realised was that the indonesian currency is difficult to count. 1,000 rupiahs is roughly equivalent to 0.37 sen which makes currency conversion a total nightmare. i solved this that night by calculating the value of each thousand rupiahs to the ringgit and compiling them on a neat little list to carry around.
another thing about the currency is that because it exist in the berpuluh-puluh ribu, coins are scarce. throughout my entire trip there, i’ve collected a totaly of three coins, two 200 rupiah coins and one 500 rupiah coins. and another thing, the ratus-ratus rupiah has such small values that it is often substituted with sweets when returning change.
there were two girls that whom were also part of the package tour but stayed at a different hotel. they came to this island for one sole mission only: shopping. i had to endure them pestering for it throughout the goose trips and the bird park visit. their prayers were answered in ubud.
on with my trip. the next day, i visited the infamous tanah lot temple, built in the 16th century by a majapahit priest.
this temple is particularly interesting because of its history: possibly the first temple on the island, and because of its location: on a giant piece of outcrop rock. when the tide comes up in the evening, the temple looks like it is floating in the indian ocean.
i admit not to be a very temple sighting person but i am interested in the history of the place. oh, and the view from the rocks are spectacular.
next, i visited the monkey forest. don’t ask me why i came here. i just did. the guide brought us in, i purchased a packet of peanuts, then all hell broke loose.
the monkey forest is home to over 500 monkeys and a rather substantial number of bats. the monkeys belong to three flocks, each school headed by a monkey king. according to the guide, monkeys are territorial and aside from the king monkey which is free to roam as he pleases, all other monkeys need to stay withing their boundaries.
a monkey tugged on my pants and refused to release it. i gave it a nut, but it still held on to me. another monkey started to climb up my shoulder and i swear i would ave swung the fellow over the fence if the guide had not shooed it off me. no, having a monkey scramble up you is not funny.
an hour’s drive later, i arrived at the legendary temple by the lake bratan. this lake is particularly beautiful because it is located half way up the second highest mountain in bali and overlooks a massive lake. it was a pity that it rained that afternoon or else the sightseeing would have been nicer.
this temple is of historic interest because although it claims to be hindu, there are what looks to be buddhist influences in the forms of statues and carvings around the temple. bratan lake also appears to be the most populous muslim area, though they comprise of a very small minority on this island.
all along the journey on this central region of the island, i noticed terraced rice fields which is interesting to point out. a large portion of the rice grown in bali is black rice with few areas producing white and red rice.
another thing i can’t help noticing everywhere in bali is the ‘canang sari’ or religious offerings that the balinese place outside their houses, shops, temples, everywhere. they comprise of flowers and food and joss sticks in leaves.
the streets are full of these things and it is very easy to accidentally kick on these things so watch your steps. according to the guide, the people put fresh canangs in front of their shops and houses and temples three times a day.
finally, there was the taman ayun temple @ the royal family temple which i stopped by on the way back to sanur. one thing i can say about this temple is that it is nicely well maintained. the temple is surrounded by a small moat full of lotus leaves and flowers. the statues are kept in wooden boxes which are inaccesible to the public.
what is interesting to see are the different sections of the temple which were meant for prayers, offerings and restings. the temple also appears to have buddhist influences.
several things i observed throughout my trip here. importantly, although i truly do appreciate the cultural experince of bali, i sincerely feel that the island is becoming too comercialised. it is, however, interesting to realise how this developed to be.
according to the guide, balinese people cherish, above all others the communal island culture. he points out that although life here is humble and income is modest, not many balinese people seek employment outside the island. they would rather be here with their family and join in the effort in preserving their cultural heritage.
this, i agree. on my trips, i saw streets after streets selling crafts and paintings and statues of their gods and godesses. i figure, they are definately over stocked with all these same things one shop after another. they do keep their temples and other cultural locations in good conditions and actively practice their culture such as dances and craft-making.
but, like i said, it all seems too comercialised. in all the temples i have visited, i was required to pay an entrance fee. even local tourists needed to pay this fee. not that i am complaining, but if it is a place of worship and if it remains an active part of culture, should it not then be free for all? and even if i were to consider the fee a sorta maintanance donation, the rows and rows of stalls along all the locations make it difficult for me to think that the people are not simply capitalizing on the cultural spots for profit making purposes.
doesn’t this happen everywhere? does not all cultural attractions get flocked by hawkers selling souviners? come to think of it, no. and somehow, the idea of selling pieces of a culture seems to disturb me. the thing the guide said about communal priority remains true. but taking a step backward makes the place feel like a big conspiracy: the comissions, the entrance fees, even the currency denomination. like a giant tourist trap.
it’s not that i would not recommend bali island. it really depends on how you view these places. the way i see it, too many people are simply taking advantage of the rich culture of bali. it is not my place to say if this is right or wrong. people do need to make a living, and people do want to learn about the balinese culture. a rather shrewed win-win situation, if you ask me.
thus are among the highlights of my trip to bali island. i’m happy to report, no food or water poisoning. but then again, i was careful not to drink the local water. seeing statues everywhere does leave one dazed sometimes, tho. but recovery is quick.
meeting up with the shopping girls on the way to the airport, i saw that they now carried four extra luggages between them. i’m glad to see that their trip was fruitful.
on my flight back, i was offered fish because they ran out of chicken. i was rather apprehensive because fish just gives me the creeps with all the little bones and all. but the fish texture and taste was suspiciously similar to chicken. it came with what looked like plain maggi goreng with carrots and a jagung cake.
there was this dude on the plane which started talking at the top of hs voice about how helluva great a man he is: how he weaselled his was out of a speeding ticket, how he schemed his bosses and ntah apa lagi la. he’s a loud speaker and happily announces that he is a typical malaysian. really, if someone had not restrained me throughout the flight, i would have thrown him offboard.
i arrived at klia at 9.45pm.
be ever so humble, there’s no place like home.
