Bali is a hedonistic, sun blessed paradise of extremes, or at least that is what Bali has been for me. We arrived into Benoa harbour on the southeast side of Bali early on Wednesday morning. The marina is dirty, very small and overcrowded and looks as though it will fall apart at any minute. However as always the yacht club houses a very nice restaurant and the staff are absolutely lovely. We spent the rest of the day cleaning up after our short passage and clearing into Bali with customs, immigration and the harbour master.
The next day I relaxed around the boat until the afternoon when I decided to head into Kuta and check out a bit of the scenery. Kuta was not what I expected. The touts are not so bad and generally once you say ‘no’ they back off with their cries of ‘transport?’ Kuta is about a 50,000 rupiah taxi from the marina which is roughly 5 euros. I got dropped off in Kuta square which is at the southern end of the beach and is where all the normal shops are including Volcom, Billabong, Quicksilver, Nike, Prada, Polo Ralph Lauren and you get the picture. From here I wandered towards the beach down the narrow maze of alleyways which gets very disorientating. There are numerous shops all selling fake brand clothes, cds, dvds and shoddy jewellery but they provide colour and character for the walkways.
Kuta beach was impressive, wide and long – the white sand stretched into the sun which sets straight off the beach. The surf rolls in perfectly and although the beach is crowded with locals and tourists alike there seems to be enough room for everyone. I sat in a restaurant and had a cocktail watching the famous ‘Kuta Sunset’ and then headed back towards the main street for some more shopping and a search for somewhere to eat. The main street was crowded with tourist restaurants so on the search for something more traditional I headed in to one of the alleyways and soon found a low key warung. I walked in and must have looked a bit lost as a young bloke sitting at the entrance asked if I wanted to sit with him - he was alone too. This is how I met ‘Chance’ a 23yo surfer from Florida who had been working in a surf camp in Sumatra and had a few nights in Bali on his way back to Spain.
We had a nice dinner (Nasi Goreng as always) and then he showed me around a few sights. We went to a big skate park where I met Christian somebody (pro surfer apparently?!) and then we snuck into a nice hotel for a swim. I wasn’t keen to head out drinking so he drove me home on the back of his bike. Halfway home a police motorbike pulled us over. Turns out that unlike the local population who refuse to wear helmets it is necessary for tourists… We tried to talk our way out insisting that Chance was just giving me a lift home but he wanted us to follow him back to the station. In the end we made a deal with him – 50,000 rupiah and he gave me a lift home instead. After the bribe had switched hands I went to get on the policeman’s bike and he said
‘No No – your friend can drive you’
I said ‘my friend only has one helmet and you said we couldn’t drive without a helmet!’
‘NO NO its ok you can drive without a helmet, you don’t need one’
‘WHAT! you just fined us for not wearing a helmet – what if we get fifty metres down the road and another cop pulls us over wanting more money’
‘No no no more cops this way – youll be fine’
So the cop waved us off happily slipping the 50,000 into his pocket and watching us illegally head off… Just another example of Indonesian corruption!
Chance dropped me at the marina and headed back to town to go out with some friends promising he would return the next day around 12 to give me another tour of the island. So the next day I helped out around the boat in the morning and then got ready to spend the afternoon away from the boat. At 12 I took the kids to the yacht club for some lunch while Alfred repaired the toilet pump (he always gets the shit jobs – no pun intended). So we enjoyed a nice lunch and next thing I knew it was 1pm and a nice sailor called William Turner from the boat ‘Quickstep’ came over to buy me a beer and have a chat and time passed. 2pm, 3pm, 4pm and no sign of Chance! I got stood up!!! I think having resisted the moves the night before he gave up in search of easier pickings! My suspicions were confirmed when I spotted him with another blonde at the bar the next night – but that’s a whole other story!!
So we had dinner at the yacht club and I downed a few Bintangs meeting some of the other yachties. Most notably my fellow Australians, John, John and Aaron from ‘Grizzly Adams’, South African Rick and English Simon from the Bavaria 40 and Jim and Ged from ‘Albert II’ The night progressed and as the bar began to close around us Jim and Ged a lovely English couple asked us back to Albert II to continue the drinks. At about 1:30am when the vodka was flowing freely and the jokes were becoming very sexual and politically incorrect I decided to call it a night but not without making big plans for the final of the World Cup Rugby the next night.
The next morning we rose at six to the sounds of the mainsail being taken down from the mast to rectify the recent rigging problems we had. Alfred had decided we all needed a break from the boat so Steffie and I spent a few hours researching some hotels in Ubud in Central Bali and we managed to book four nights in a 2bdrm villa at a five star resort called Puri Wulandari. At lunchtime I headed into Kuta again for another wander around and to pick up some clothes for our holiday at the resort – not having stayed in a 5 star hotel before I was a little apprehensive!.
I came back about seven to the boat and unpacked my purchases and packed my bag for the next day. Then I attempted to get some rest before meeting the rest of the crew at midnight for our taxi into Kuta to watch the World Cup at 3am. Attempted to rest being the operative statement as the boat next to us had a big disco on board and it was hot, hot, hot. I rose at 7:30 and retreated to the bar where I met Simon and the Grizzly Adams crew for a few too many gin and tonics and the next thing we knew it was ten thirty and far too late for a nap – it was going to have to be an all nighter!
Jim and Ged who had managed to get some sleep in came up to the bar at 11:30pm and we ordered a taxi into Kuta. We had drinks at three bars before finishing up at the Secret Garden at 2:45am just before the big game started at 3am. There was a good but small crowd of keen rugby fans and as the morning wore on the South African minority became more and more vocal. We stumbled out into daylight after a well earned South African victory for some greasy breakfast before venturing back to the marina. Unfortunately I had promised Steffie and Alfred I would look after the kids while they went shopping the next morning so I was able to nab all of one hour of sleep before sitting the kids in front of a dvd and moaning ‘please don’t talk to me… my head hurts…’ At 2:30 a car came to pick us up to take us to Ubud for our mini-break.
Puri Wulandari – there are not enough nice words to describe it. We had our own villa with a private 6m pool and the weather was surprisingly pleasant as it was slightly cooler. Over the next four days we relaxed, swam, ate beautiful food in the restaurant, ordered amazing room service to our villa and relaxed some more. Ubud is the cultural centre of Bali and on the second night we headed into town to look around some of the art shops, have dinner in a restaurant at the back of the Lotus temple and catch the Kecak fire dance. This dance was a traditional Bali performance and was a combination of rhythmic chanting and dancing which displayed a story. The last act of the performance involved a man falling into a trance and dancing on burning coconut husks.
Two days later we took a half day tour further into the centre of Bali to see two temples, one of which had holy springs and another which was beside a volcanic lake. Hinduism is a beautiful religion. Hindus are generally very sharing of their religion and open to other cultures and religious views. At the lakeside temple Alfred and I met a group of holy men who are members of the highest caste and when we gave them a donation they blessed us – hopefully that means no more repairs!! Then we had a buffet lunch in a restaurant high up on the side of the volcano overlooking the lake.
Other than these two excursions nothing could tear us away from the beauty of our resort and upon returning to the boat it was a dramatic tearing back down to earth as the full heat and dirtiness of Indonesia hit us once again.
The last two days have been busy once again with provisioning and cleaning the boat ready for our passage to Singapore. We have decided to head straight through to make up time so it will be about a 6 day passage. We plan to spend 2 weeks in Singapore at Raffles marina. The word on the water is that Raffles is apparently a world class marina with swimming pools, fitness clubs and room service! They even deliver a newspaper directly to your cockpit each morning. The kids will love the pool and it will be interesting to see environmentally friendly and expensive Singapore after environmentally disastrous but cheap Indonesia.
