Bali

Bali is probably better known by most than any other spot in the whole of Indonesia.  It's a very popular tourist destination with a host of five-star hotels and resorts and all the things that go along with a tropical island vacation.

The main tourist destinations on the island of Bali are actually along the southern coastline.  We stayed up in Lovina on the northern coast; not quite the same beautiful beaches and fancy resorts (sort of a poor man's budget hangout) but it was still very much a tourist mecca, full of resorts and shops and stalls selling all things Balinese; sarongs, fabrics, clothing of all descriptions, jewellery and a myriad of other souvenirs.

The Sail Indonesia Rally festivities were laid on in conjunction with the Lovina Beach annual arts festival and again, we were welcomed by the local dignitaries and watched some very professional dance performances with their incredible movements and costumes. This was, by far, the most elaborate of performances and costumes we have experienced to date.  Quite spectacular but, I have to admit, I think I preferred some of the smaller ones with the gorgeous children who had put so much time and effort into their entertainment all solely for us.  The joy on their faces while they performed is not easily forgotten.  In this instance as the photo shows, movement of hands, eyes and head are an integral part of the routine.

Once the opening ceremony was over, it was followed by a good and very spicy welcome dinner and then various bands playing  extraordinarily loud music.  All the boats were anchored just off the beach and the way sound carries over the water, it made it virtually impossible to sleep, we could actually feel the vibrations through the water.   We were subjected to this for five nights until at least two in the morning.  Bali was where we had to have our visas renewed but, if we hadn't had to wait for those to be processed, I think one night would have seen us on our way.  

Throughout our trip, we'd experienced very few other rally participants as they'd spread far and wide once we left the official check-in points.  However, here, it was a gathering of the masses with at least 75% of the rally boats together at the same time.  We met up with all the boats that had taken the northern route as well as a host of others who had darted ahead of the group.  It was great to see some of our old 'new' friends again.

Most of the cruisers booked onto tours of the island which meant several days staying in hotels, spas or resorts.  Such is definitely not in Calypso's budget and as we'd had a day tour around Lombok, we felt we'd experienced similar scenery so were quite content to stay put.

There were literally dozens and dozens of restaurants and all very reasonable indeed.  Here we found not only Indonesian food but Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Korean and the inevitable pizza and American-style food as well.  Our favourite was a bit of a walk away but served the most delicious Laksa and pad thai for unbelievably cheap prices.  

Our time in Indonesia has taught us how absolutely diverse this country is.  The difference between the various islands is quite marked, not only in culture, dress and food but in language, religion, architecture, music and dance as well.  But the thing that remains consistent throughout is the delightful people.  Always smiling, always welcoming and always seemingly so thrilled to meet you.  Some of them are so incredibly poor and yet there is always a ready smile to greet you.  I think if we had another lifetime to live, we'd be more than delighted to spend quite a few of those years around these parts.

PHOTO GALLERY:
  

At the entrance to the beach

Rally participants at festivities

The beach was lined with stalls

Beautiful girls and beautiful costumes

Abdul bringing us diesel

Lombok by car

Next on the agenda in Lombok was a day tour with a group of ten of us. We were met early by our guide, Ari (or was it 'arry?), a terrific local guide, who took us to a furniture factory, a couple of temples, a village dedicated to weaving and a pottery factory.  But first we stopped on a hillside to admire the view and get acquainted with a few monkeys.

As we drove through the countryside, he pointed out cashew trees and fields of peanuts, soy (they use a lot of tofu here, yuk) and chillis and, of course, the very prevalent rice paddies. In truth, there was very little open countryside along the road edges. There are just so many people here in Indonesia (2.4 million) that the villages run into one another but still they manage to plant in between all of this and up behind the villages out into the hills. Lombok is so very much greener than anything we saw on Flores where we saw little or no evidence of plantations of any description apart from rice paddies on our trip up to Kelimutu.

Inserting the shell inlays

All of the crafts we were shown were totally hand made. The intricacies of the elaborate furniture decorations; firstly drawing the designs onto the wood, then one chap carving them out to pass them on to the next one for the insertion of the shell inlays and all this to be followed by the high gloss lacquer. I must confess, I would prefer the items au natural but then I guess they wouldn't be truly Indonesian.

Before

After

 
 


The weaving was fascinating and the means of creating the patterns somewhat mind-boggling but we learned that, in this one particular village, girls are taught to weave from the age of 10 and cannot marry until such time as they are productive weavers. Bit of a roughy if you happen to be all thumbs and not prepared to sit flat on the hard floor for seven hours a day. Some of the finished products take literally months and months to produce and typically me, the one small wall hanging I really liked just happened to be the most expensive item on display. Needless to say, it's still hanging there.

This village was extremely poor and filthy. There appeared to be no effort to clear it of the tons of rubbish lying everywhere. One cruisier got quite upset with the chap showing us around and told our tour guide that he shouldn't take us to places like this unless they were prepared to do something to clean things up. His point was that perhaps if no tourists were taken there, they would realise that they'd have to improve both the village and the working conditions of those poor women who sat for hour after uncomfortable hour by themselves with no company to alleviate the long day of mindless weaving. This is a bit of a dilemma in my mind; do we interfere in another people's way of doing things or speak up and criticise? In the long term, I'm sure they would get more tourists if they made their village a pleasant experience which this most certainly was not. For this reason, I had to agree that such places should be given a miss.

The temples were interesting but very old and poorly maintained (but clean). Noteworthy was the fact that they were used by five different religions, not just Hindu or Buddist. They pride themselves that all the religions come together at times to celebrate and all is completely amicable.  Perhaps the world could take a lesson here.
 

The further west we're moving, the more predominately Muslim it becomes and we gave up counting after we'd reached 100 mosques – they are everywhere, almost cheek by jowl and the majority are either new ones being built (huge and elaborate) or older ones being revamped to make them huge and elaborate. Why they need so many is beyond me as we've really never seen one with more than a few solitary soles inside.

It's time to move on again as we have to be in Bali this weekend to have our visas extended. It's hard to believe that we've already been in Indonesia for two months with only one more to go. So far, it's been excellent but a bit of a rush trying to get to most of the venues. As Paul says, the organisers don't seem to be able to differentiate between travelling by sail or that by plane. One schedule we had indicated “rally boats will arrive at the anchorage at 11:00 a.m. for the start of the welcoming party.” Yeah sure.

PHOTO GALLERY:

  

Hey, hold still, there's another one in there!

Scene's around an old (1714) temple

Our temple guide

Lunch stop

Intricate patterns

The one I wanted

Temple in the rice paddies

Not even a foot operated wheel

The finished products

Best market produce we've seen to date

Rice – amazing stuff!

 

A trip to the market a few miles from Medana Bay with Kerstin from Lop To proved to be such an interesting experience.  En route as we were walking along the main road, we passed a sign indicating a welcome to Prawira Village so “why not” - we decided to investigate. Good choice.

 

We were greeted by one of the local chaps who showed us around, stopping at a couple of ladies weaving palms to make thatch roofing and more ladies grating coconut for cooking. He also showed us a toy that they make, a gasing, which is a carved wooden spinning top. As a child, I certainly remember spinning tops but these were quite amazing as one pull with the string and they spun for absolutely ages. I didn't time them but they seemed to go on impossibly long.

By this time we were joined by a couple of the ladies of the village who spoke fairly good English and were taken to the rice paddies where the harvesting of rice was in progress and the procedure explained. Now I don't know how I've got to this age and never really understood the process involved in the growing and harvesting of rice. I've simply gone into a supermarket and purchased it in a plastic bag and not given it too much thought. However, a month or so back with a group of cruisers, we got into a discussion on rice and we all had to admit that we knew nothing about it. Curiosity got to me so I then did a bit of research on internet. In truth, I came out none the wiser so this was just exactly what I needed – show and tell.

As luck would have it, the crop was being harvested while we were there so they showed us the first stages of cutting the plants followed by the interesting machine used to separate the grains from the stalks. The resultant grains were laid out to dry then bagged awaiting a special machine which visits all the nearby rice paddies to remove the chaff from the rice grain. The leftovers are fed to the cows who apparently love it and then the bi-annual procedure of planting again; all done by hand. The next time I cook rice, I'll certainly have a new respect for the amount of labour required to put it on my plate.

We still keep learning something new every day.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Door to 'guest' cottage

The community kitchen

Ready for harvesting

Rice kernels drying

Packing prior to the polishing

Removing kernels.....

and the machine that does it

The village well

Nursery school

Other scenes en route to the market:

Letter box??

Chinese influence

Elaborate architecture

A common means of transportation

The market