BALI

August 20, 2006

For the photo album go to:http://www.cometosea.us/albums/albums/BorneothroughSouthAfrica.pdf

Coming in to Bali, on August 4, I had a strong current and wind with me through the Lombok Strait. My G.P.S. showed upto 8 1/2 knots over the bottom.  I am moored in a berth at the Bali International Marina for 12 dollars a day. It has showers a nice bar and restaurant. Power and water at the dock. I bought a bicycle once again. Crossing the equator three times and three bicycles and three haul outs, pedal power for the course. The marina is a ways from the main activities on the island. The first Sunday  I took a long trek into Denpasar to go to mass. This was an unusual experience. The building looked very similar to one of the many Hindu temples even with some typical stone statues. Then I pedaled to the coast, through a low lying rice growing  area, back to Benoa. After church I had lunch for eighty cents at the Pasar (market) and then visited one of the major museums with an incredible collection of antiquities. These people were so far advanced when Europeans were still groping around in their caves.

Next to the museum is one of the main temples in Denpasar. Visitors are required to wear sarong and the men the head gear.

By chance I had just bought a Bali outfit at the market and it came in handy at subsequent temple visits.

Bali is much cleaner than Sulawesi and Sabah and the architecture of the red brick walls, red tiled roofs and carved sand stone is impressive. But the traveled part of Bali has all the annoying aspects of a major tourist destination. Hawkers who do not understand the word: "No".

The temperature and humidity is much lower here than in Sabah and quite pleasant. There is little need for the "klambou", mosquito net, here.

There are several boats here in the marina that I had seen last year further east in the South Pacific. The majority has spent the southern summer in New Zealand or Australia. "Lycia" the Italian boat with it's crew, Lucio, I had met in Ghizo. Pierre and Veronique, the French couple with their three children, also from a friendship made in Ghizo arrived here. The marina is quickly filling up with a large fleet of boats that come here, every year,  as a rally-race from Cairns, North Australia via Flores Island.

There is even a boat here from Tacoma, "Free Wind", with a retired teachers couple, the Balmers. Several boats are anchored out in front of the marina, including "Jolly Celeste" with Thede Doerscher. We befriended in Apia and met up again in Fiji. Thede celebrated his 51st birthday here on the 17th, which was also the 61st Indonesian Independence Day celebration.

"Jolly Celeste" and the majority of the boats here are heading for Phuket,  to sit out the southern hurricane season, via southern Kalimantan, Singapore and Langkawi. Very few are following my route to South Africa. One singlehander, Philippe, a 71 year old Breton, is sailing the 3500 miles from here straight to Reunion.

Last Sunday I attended mass once again at St.Joseph and then continued on, by bicycle, via Sanur to Ubud. This is an about 35 k.m. trip. The last part is a steady climb from sea level to about 450 meter altitude. I took some of the side roads and it was an enjoyable ride, apart from having to get used to the new saddle. The most interesting stop was at the town of Ketewel. The town is a well preserved traditional village, with the walled rows of houses and temples. The men and women wore the traditional dress.

There was a colorful activity of women weaving palm fonts and kneading delicate clay figures to be used for the frequent temple offerings at the Jagatnatha temple. Further down the road I came upon a roadside traditional "Laurel and Hardy" kind of show.

The players, costumed as an old man and woman, were producing great hilarity from the local crowd. The masks and costumes and gamelan orchestra were a wonderful site to watch. These events are the benefit of seeing the country on a slow moving bicycle.

Ubud is the center of Bali for museums, temples and traditional dance, music and wajang performances. I managed to take in a Kecak , fire dance, show on Sunday evening and a Legong dance on Monday. The city is surrounded by the famous terraced rice fields.

For 16 dollar a night, I stayed in a very nice family operated guest house/hotel. Be sure to see the album photos of the Cremation ceremonies that were held on that Monday. The bodies are set in a paper mache cow, on an elaborately decorated platform, with many offerings and then set on fire.

A visit to the Ubud monkey forest is a must. Here several troops of Macaque monkeys roam around in the forest and its monkey temples.

I was fortunate to be offered an opportunity to go on an introductory day trip tour of two ancient Bali villages. Megan, the proprietor of the "Kafe(e)", an Ubud coffee shop/restaurant, offered me the opportunity to go in her place. This was organized by a non profit group,

JED, Jaringan Ekowisata Desa (Villages Ecotourism Network) http://www.jed.or.id/

Gin, a young Australian lady was our guide. JED is a cooperative with 6 villages to promote eco tourism to their villages and treks in their surroundings. The revenues from the tourists are to be shared and used to benefit village projects.

The first village was Tenganan, on Bali's East side. One of the villagers, Lontoh, guided us through the ancient town, which is said to have been established as early as the 6th century. The strict traditions have kept much of it protected from outside influences.

Everyone lives in a nearly identical home, which consists of a square masonry walled structure with 4 areas, the living area on the East side, the kitchen on the South, an infirmary on the West and a storage area on the North. And in the center court is a wood post supported structure. This is where the inhabitants are supposed to take shelter during earthquake activity. The infirmary was used, prior to a local clinic, for the sick and for infant deliveries.

The village owns large tracts of forest land around it. Only selected live species can be cut, on town council approval, and only for ceremonial use and newly weds are allotted one live tree for their house construction. Marriage to a non Tenganan automatically expels you from the main village and many of it's privileges.  Dead forest wood is collected for firewood and carpentry and the forest yields a rich crop of wild fruits, herbal medicine and Macadamia nuts.

The main cottage industry of Tenganan is Gringsing, a form of double weaving. This is an ancient art that is only still practiced in Japan and India. The cotton threads are dyed in four basic colors, the dye is extracted mostly from forest products. A dark red-brown, a lighter red-brown, black and a beige color. The patterns are made by covering up the thread with plastic strips. This painstaking process takes as much as three years. The majority of the cloth is used as breast shawls for the ceremonial dancers.

The next stop was at Sibitang; closer to the North East tip of Bali. It is high up in the mountains. Sibitang started one of, or possibly the, oldest Salak plantations, 450 years ago. This is the fruit that I have only seen in Indonesia thus far; though they tell me that it also grows in Thailand. It looks like a small hand grenade or a large fig. When you peel its skin there are usually three parts, similar to a tulip bulb. The fruit is delicious. The community of Sibatang also produces a strong alcohol from the different varieties of Salak.

Sibitung sits on a high ridge with views of Lombok and several other directions from Bali; great hiking opportunities. Mount Tabur is close and one of its eruptions, many years ago, covered Sibitang.

It only took me 50 minutes to ride the 20 odd kilometers down hill from Ubud to Sanur, where I met Gin and her other guests. I left in the dark at 6 a.m., figuring that it would take me a lot longer. There is still a lot of Indonesia that I would have liked to see but my 30 day visa expired and it's time to push off on Monday the 21st. The voyage from Bitung, Sulawesi, took much longer than I had anticipated.