En route to Bali we transited through Kuala Lumpur where we spent a night with some German travel friends who work and live in the Malaysian capital. I met one of the girls while I was in the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia and purely by coincidence Dylan and I met her friend and neighbour while diving in Sipadan, Borneo. As any backpacker will confirm, free accommodation rarely appears especially in a relatively expensive city such as KL, so we didn't look a gift horse in the mouth and took the girls up on their offer. Dylan and I found ourselves staying in plush serviced apartments with a buffet breakfast and leisure facilities including a pool. The girls were kind enough to show us the local nightlife and although we were recovering from our last Borneo rock star party, Dylan never turns down the chance for a beer, and I…well I am very easily influenced. As quick as you could watch the GB pound slip away from the Euro and every other global currency we were sipping on very expensive beer (the price was expensive, the beer very ordinary) taking in the KL sky line. The Luna Bar commands a superb view of the city with the twin towers, once the world's tallest buildings, seen in clear reflection by the bar's gleaming pool. Although the girls lived in a splendid complex with a plentiful of night time entertainment at their doorstep, the thought of working 50 hour weeks and being called on all times of day really wasn’t appealing. The encounter brought back the reality of travelling and reminded us how fortunate we were to be exploring this amazing part of the world. Our trip to KL was short lived and we were soon headed to the airport by one of the girls’ drivers and slipping back in to our backpacker lifestyles.
I must admit I had always been dubious about travelling to Indonesia. In my former life as a semi-intelligent geek I had come across undesirable groups whom resided in Indonesia, mainly of the Islamic extremist nature, such as those responsible for the Bali bombings. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of any country across the world but it also has the world's fourth largest population so there are bound to be some disagreeable characters amongst its residents. Incidentally, three of those believed to be responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings were executed by firing squad two days before our arrival to Bali. Due to the perceived reprisal by the extremist grouping the individuals were linked to, the threat level for Australians, which Bali is plagued with, and US citizens was thought too much for their relative governments and travel warnings were issued.
We touched down at Denpasar around 2200 hours and Dylan was soon reunited with his Koh Tao sweetheart, which I will refer to as the Frenchy (for hopefully obvious reasons). In celebration of...well what ever we wanted, we immediately hit the nightlife of Kuta, Bali's main and busiest tourist area. Immediately I was thrown back by Indonesians, their friendliness and warmth was overwhelming. It was in our first watering hole (which nervously overlooks the monument for the 2002 Bali bombings, the deadliest act of terrorism in Indonesian history killing 202 people) that three waitresses gave me their phone numbers, email addresses, pagers, faxes and whatever else they had, all eager to befriend me and show me around Bali. The following morning, Dylan and Frenchy hired a scooter and I found myself hitching a ride with my new Balinese friend, Vera, on the way to her village. Somehow the night before we had been offered to accompany Vera to her village, so here we were straight in to the Balinese experience. On the way we stopped off at Tanah Lot Temple or Land in the Middle Sea. Tanah Lot is one of the seven sea temples around the Balinese coast. It sits atop a huge offshore rock not more than fifty metres from the coast but accessible during low tide. A beautiful place to wish away hours staring out at the ocean, something I would do for hours on end while in Indonesia. From here we carried on up the west coast of the island to the coastal village of our guide (the village is part of Tabanan yet it’s 50 minutes from the town so I feel reluctant to call it so) where we were invited in to her family home. By Balinese standards her family are well heeled, with a car and several motorbikes parked in the garage. The Balinese style of home reflects their culture and way of life; Vera's family home was no exception. A central courtyard adjoins three family homes and plays as the hub for communal activity. The family compound is walled with a small gateway. Inside the compound there is a small temple for praying to the gods and for placing offerings. There are normally several smaller shrines adored throughout the compound. Once inside, her home appeared no different from what you'd expect in the west with furnishings such as sofa and TVs. Our first day in Bali couldn't have gone any better.
After our short road trip I decided to leave Frenchy and Dylan to their own plans rather than play the awkward role of the single friend. So as they hired a jeep and explored the island I took to surfing and booked myself some lessons. Obviously after all the paddling and hard work involved I felt the desire to pamper myself with the odd Balinese massage. Luckily there was a massage parlour in my hotel so I didn’t have to stray too far for a massage. I was able to spend an hour a day getting the best massages of my life with 17 to 23 year old Balinese girls for a mere £3. The girls really were amazing, so strong for their size and really down to earth. They are just normal Balinese people, which mean they are the friendliest happiest people you will ever meet and every day I entered or left my hotel I could sit with them for an hour or so just talking about nothing or everything.
It is easy to say that I fell in love with Bali or more so with its people. They are by far the most happy, friendliest, genuine, loving people I have ever encountered. By the time Dylan and Frenchy were back from their trip I had befriended dozens of locals.
The vast majority of Balinese conform to Balinese Hinduism. Hinduism came to the archipelago through East Indian traders and soon spread to be the dominant religion in the region. When Islam spread throughout the Indonesian archipelago Bali was the only island to remain Hindu. The Balinese form of Hinduism varies from that seen in India. It is extremely hard to describe the Balinese people and do them the justice they deserve to those who haven't met them and experienced their culture. It took me a while to distinguish the difference between the Balinese and the Indonesians whom live in Bali. Being Indonesia's main tourist centre, Bali gets its fair share of immigrant Indonesians migrating to its shores to profit from tourism and also tourists from other parts of Indonesia, the majority of both are form Java, Indonesia's most heavily populated island. The Indonesians are also lovely people and I befriended many of them yet I can't help but hold greater respect for the Balinese. They are such an honourable unique race of people. When the Dutch attempted to expand its Indonesian empire and include Bali, the Royal Family and their followers, about 4,000 of them, dressed in their finest attire, marched head on to face the numerous forces of the Dutch. Before going in to battle they burnt all of their palaces to ensure the Dutch would not profit from their coming victory. As opposed to surrendering to the superior force, they marched head on in to the Dutch guns in a suicidal pututan defensive assault. The pututan is a mass ritual suicide rather than face the humiliation of surrender and becoming colonial subjects to the Dutch. The Balinese still retain a heavy degree of pride yet they are completely underwhelming with it. They are ever so confident in themselves and their cultural and religious beliefs they do not feel the need to push it upon anyone. They are who they are, life is what it is, get on with life, be happy and enjoy it. I became obsessed with Balinese culture and their people. I soon became aware that the Balinese wanted for nothing. All they required was a roof over their head and to be fed. They generally do not go out or drink especially not the girls. They would not lower themselves to prostitution that is left to the other Indonesians. The majority of bar and restaurant workers are not Balinese as they would rather not work at night, in favour of spending time with their family. If I tipped a Balinese for their services they would be ever so grateful. On several occasions I asked for a mixture of change so I could tip and I was just given a single note followed by a big smile, which in Asia is as rare as seeing a black person. That is how proud the Balinese are. On our road trip with Vera, she had filled her scooter up before collecting me and filled it up to return to Kuta. I had offered to pay for the fuel, a messily couple of pounds, but she had refused so much I was beginning to think I was insulting her. I paid for her lunch, fried rice, which again was nothing and I could see she was slightly offended that I had done so. Yet she earns around 800,000 Rupiah per month, roughly £44.
Once the love birds returned from their road trip they ventured to Lombok destined for the Gili Islands, three sand swept islands off Lombok’s west coast. I decided to leave a day later so I could surf the world renowned Ulu Watu. For my first big surf trip Ulu Watu was a real challenge. It took 20 minutes to actually paddle out to the line up, by which point I could barely move my arms anymore. The waves were pretty big and very fast; needless to say they were hard to catch. Ulu Watu is a reef break so if you aren’t at the top of your game and come off, something which seems to come naturally to me, then you do have the danger of smashing your head open on the reef below. It was a tiring day but I had learnt that I couldn’t master surfing in the same speed I had scuba diving and I would actually have to work very hard at this one…hmmm. On returning to the surf club my worst nightmare had come true, I had been followed to Bali by the girl I was with, kind of seeing or how ever you put it, while I was in Koh Tao. Without droning on about women, she did ask me several times if she could come travelling with me and several times I had politely declined the offer yet here she was standing in front of me clear as day explaining how she hadn’t followed me here yet she had emailed me many messages on face book asking where I was and if she could join me. In the usual polite English manner I excused myself after stating how crazy it was that we were both there together in Bali. The next day I delightfully headed to Gili, fortunately avoiding my friend. I met a lovely young Dutch girl on the boat to Lombok, Janneke, who helped kill time on possibly the slowest boat in the history of maritime. We had departed Kuta at 1100 hours and arrived in Senggigi at 2330 hours. Considering the islands are about 50 kms away, it was a long time. Janneke had been working in Java as part of her degree and was travelling around Indonesia for a few weeks before heading home in time for Christmas. One night in Senggigi and a few beers later and Janneke was joining us to Gili Trawangan, relieving the burden of travelling with a couple.
The Gili Islands are truly spectacular, tiny coral fringed islands covered in pure white sandy beaches. The islands are a peaceful getaway, no motorised vehicles are allowed. Bikes and cars are replaced by horse driven carts for transporting people, food, dive gear and pretty much everything around the small islands. We spent a total of five days on Gili Trawangan, the largest and liveliest of the three islands. Although we had intentions of diving daily, attempting to surf the coral break at the south west tip we actually managed one dive and not a lot else. The surf was far too rough and dangerous for amateurs like us and when you’ve been diving pretty much for free for two months the thought of paying for diving didn’t really appeal. When you can step off the beach and in to the water place your head under and see turtles and giant puffer’s right in front of you there really isn’t any great need to dive. We spent our days relaxing, swinging in hammocks, chilling on beaches, chatting and just chilling out and taking in the tranquil surroundings. The Gilis could really be a place time has forgotten and I could imagine being swallowed up there for several weeks not doing very much at all.
Time in paradise is normally short lived and it wasn’t long before Frenchy became a woman possessed, turning Gili in to a living prison for Dylan. He did manage to see the funny side and he did have a very valid comment; “I now know why they always name tornados after women.” My friend from Thailand who I gratefully left behind in Kuta had managed to follow me to Gili. I couldn’t hide from her in Kuta but I somehow managed to hide from her on an island barely one by one and a half kilometres.
Our speedboat ride back to Bali was much quicker than the Spanish Galleon Janneke and I had endured to Lombok. Although we were racing across the Bali Sea doing what felt like mach ten with water nearly drowning half the passengers, someone did manage to spot a giant school of spinner dolphins. I have never seen spinners in real life before, only on David Attenborough programmes where they jump four to five metres out of the water, spin around and land back in to the ocean causing a huge splash. The school was enormous and must have stretched out for five hundred metres across the water, with dolphins continuously spinning in the air. The scene was mesmerising and I found my eyes glued to the horizon long after the school had left our sight. I adore nature and especially wild animals playing and enjoying themselves in their natural playground.
When we arrived back in Kuta I received a call from a good friend from my time in the Army, Mo. He and his girlfriend had planned to go to Thailand but two days before their flight was due to arrive it was cancelled due to the riots and airport closer in Bangkok. I had planned to meet them during their time in Thailand. Instead they came to Bali, which was a great excuse for me to extend my stay in Bali from the original two weeks to one month.
The night before I collected Mo and Hannah from the airport I was watching dvds with two Indonesian girls I knew. I had fallen asleep and stayed the night. The next morning to my surprise I was short of around £35 in Rupiah and Thai Baht. The girls obviously denied taking my money and I had learnt once again not to trust anyone while travelling. I had left my wallet in so many places in Bali, on bars while going to the bathroom, on a bed while having a shower in a massage parlour yet every single time I trusted that no one would steal from me and no one did until this point.
With Mo and Hannah in Bali we managed to catch up and spend some time surfing and chilling together before they went off on recommendation to the Gilis. I attempted one more surf trip after my abysmal performance at Ulu Watu. This time the surf school took us to Canggu up the west coast on the way to Tanah Lot. The spot was much nicer, the waves still very big yet a lot slower and easier to catch. I was pretty happy with the day and it was nice to catch up with 2 Swedish girls I’d surfed with before and spent time with in Gili.
Just as I was considering my next move, Janneke returned from her ventures to Komodo and other islands to the east. We teamed up with a Norwegian guy and gal and decided to hire a jeep and do a Bali road trip. It is so cheap to hire vehicles in Bali, 120,000 Rupiah (£6.50) per day for a seven seat 4x4, it’s actually stupid to get buses and other transport around. We pushed ourselves in the four days of travelling and didn’t leave much room to relax. We explored the deserted eastern coast where we witnessed farmers walking their cattle and chickens across the beach. We spent a night in the cultural centre of Bali, Ubud a beautiful peaceful place. We watched a traditional show which starred the famous chak-a-chak-a-chak-choir, not one to be missed. Ubud is also famed for its Monkey Forest, where our Norwegian friend got well acquainted with some of its residents. No road trip is complete without getting utterly lost, not finding any signs and instead stopping to take pictures of local kids playing. Eventually we found Tulamben on the northern coast. There was only one of us who didn’t scuba dive but the rest of us took the opportunity to dive the USAT Liberty wreck. The wreck is a former US supply ship which was sank in WWII by the Japanese and sat twenty metres away from our hotel. A short paddle at dawn and we were down on one of the best dives I have done. The wreck was spectacular and adorned with various marine life from a huge school of Jacks, Lionfish, Scorpion fish, Stone fish, Giant puffers, Giant groupers, Giant parrotfish, Trumpet fish and numerous Nimo families.
The next stop was Lovina also on the northern coast and famed for its dolphins. We spent a few hours in some local hot springs while I was the only one to actually go in to the water. Everyone else thought that maybe the Indonesians were too dirty, who knows. The next morning we arose early again, this time before sunrise in hope of seeing the dolphins. We headed out to sea on the narrowest sea vessel I have seen, not as narrow as the canoes in Chitwan, Nepal though. As advertised we saw numerous dolphins swimming and playing around us. It was a game, when ever we saw them the boats would head for them and as soon as we got near they would disappear for a few minutes and then it would start again. I must say after my spinner encounter I find common dolphins, well, common and dull. But I must pinch myself and remember I was in the Bali Sea watching schools of dolphins play around us. From Lovina we headed down through the mountains to the Munduk Waterfall and past the Danan Buyan and Danan Bratan Lakes where the weather and rain closed in and it was the first time I’d been cold since arriving in Bali. I found Bali much more humid than the rest of South East Asia so to be cold here was novel to say the least. We made it back to Kuta with car and passengers all intact, although I admit we did have so close calls with the more junior drivers amongst us.
My time in Bali was coming to an end and I was deeply saddened. The remaining days I tried to stay happy yet I knew I didn’t want to leave Bali. The day I left I received nice messages off my new found friends and even the massage girls cried and told me they didn’t want me to go. I got to the airport and Air Asia didn’t want me to go. They said I hadn’t changed my flight and had missed it several days ago. Regrettably I booked another flight. I was amazed that Air Asia actually let my bag onboard as it weighed seventeen kilograms. Their limit is fifteen kilograms and they are ruthless. In all of my previous Air Asia flights I have held passengers up while I stuff my flight bag full of dead weight from my back pack to please the check in Nazis and here was my seventeen kilograms bag thrown on the belt. “Ahhh the check in staff are Balinese”, I smiled and wandered to customs where I discovered I had overstayed by a day and had to pay a $20 fine. The Hindu gods didn’t want me to leave and now they are making me pay for leaving their beloved land.
I am travelling the world, how is it that I could become so attached to a single place when I still have so much more I want to see. Bali really has more appeal than all other places I have been to in Asia. The landscape is beautiful with all shades of rich greens littering the countryside blended in with the stepped rice fields, turquoise lakes and icy lush waterfalls. The coast can be rugged and harsh, steep cliffs drop down in to huge swells of giant waves creating some of the best surf spots in the world. On other shores the water is so calm it looks more like a lake on a summer’s day, creating the perfect conditions for diving. Bali’s location in the centre of a 13,000 island archipelago means the underwater life is so vast and varied it would be nearly impossible to fish out. It is an island paradise with beautiful amazing people, a strong inviting culture with shrines and temples abound with smells of Balinese incense, food offerings sat in fresh hand made baskets waiting to feed the Gods. The Balinese girls enhance their natural beauty and draw attention to their long flowing hair by adorning themselves with a fresh frangipani placed behind their ear.
I knew it would not be the last time I set foot on this blissful island.
