Basically Curtin (the school I'm at) gave us 2 whole weeks back to back for Easter break which = travel time for international students. Since I don't have class on Fridays, my friend Kristen and I left Thursday afternoon after our class for our 1st trip. Kristen is my sorority sister that is also studying here in Australia, and she is the one that I've been traveling with for the past two weeks just for the reference because I'm sure I'll use her name. So we took off and had a few adventures and I'll do my best to be inclusive but concise... however I tend to get long winded so sorry if the posts are super long!
First up... Bali, Indonesia
Week 1
Well Kristen and I caught a taxi to the airport and we were off to Bali. It was about a 4.5-5 hour flight and luckily we got exit row seats and were set to go. We got to our hotel a little after midnight and pretty much went to sleep right after that.
Day 1 in Bali.
We booked a fairly cheap hotel and it was nice enough for the two of us, and all that mattered was that it had air conditioning. The only downfall was that the shower was not air conditioned and the water also tasted salty if you got it in your mouth. We did have to drink all bottled water, and you didn't really want to drink anything else besides water because it was so hot. Not just hot, but humid. It was ridiculous even trying to put makeup on or brush your hair, because as soon as you stepped outside your hair was up in a ponytail and your face was dripping (and I mean literally dripping) with sweat. So that was kind of gross, but you do what you can to forget about it.
View of the driveway to the beach from our hotel!
The first day we went shopping and exploring around the town that we were staying in, Kuta. There are tons of shops and a good couple blocks that reminded me of the silk alley in China and I think Diagon Alley if I remember correctly from when I went there... But there were tons of little cut out spaces that were all open with tons of shirts, dresses, shoes, sandals, touristy junk, towels, sarongs, and everything else that can be made really, really cheap. And each shop basically had the same thing. It was structured like a bunch of storage units back in the states (of course a lot more run down and muddy and dirty) that would all just open their doors around 8am until they had made enough sales for the day (which usually wasn't until 9 at night when they stopped haggling people).
When we first started walking around the streets, there was quite a strong odor of "port-a-poddy". It smelled like pee everywhere, and you couldn't get away from it. On some streets they have indoor shops like Polo, D&G, Prada etc. but what we soon learned is that these are just the Chinese made versions of everything, and while prices are still sky high, the quality should be sold for dirt cheap. So we avoided those shops because they had fixed prices, and stuck to the street shops where you could bargain for good prices. It took us a good day to figure out the money though because their currency uses such high numbers. Thankfully I brought a calculator with me, because otherwise who knows how much I would have been paying for things. What they call 10,000 Rupiah is actually like 8.50 in US dollars, so we got good at estimating things by the end of the trip. So after our morning walk Kristen was exhausted and she likes to sleep a lot, so she took a nap and I ventured out a little more on the streets beside our hotel.
I took a walk down by the beach too. There are even people selling stuff on the beach trying to get you to buy stuff, which is extremely annoying. The water was kind of cloudy and luke warm, again making me think of pee. The sand was pretty dark in most locations, not black, but definitely not your pretty white sandy beaches. So I stayed out of the water and went back up to shopping. It started to rain while I was out which I welcomed without an umbrella because I was so hot, even though again, the water felt luke warm like, well yeh you get it by now... The streets were hardly big enough for cars to fit through, but you betcha, cars and vans drove passed pushing people out of the way. But what was really interesting was that when it rained, the shop keepers would come out of their shops with hand made brooms or whatever they could find to sweep the water out of the uneven streets. They didn't want the water in front of their shops because it would keep people away and also invite pesky insects, but if they didn't sweep the water there definitely was no one else to do it. And when it was raining, it just gave the shop keepers more excuses to keep people in their stores longer, pester them more to buy things, and offer them umbrellas to buy at really high prices.
getting the water out of the streets in front of the shopsWhat I learned while I was avoiding a heavy downpour in one of the shops was that many of these people live right behind where their shops are. You wouldn't think that there was any room for people to live behind these buildings, but there was. One shop that I walked into had a backdoor open and outside you could see a small patch of grass and 3 young boys showering outside in the rain with a little bit of soap with some sort of woman watching over them and herding them back into their home. Their home had to be about the size of my dorm room, which I compare to a jail cell. The level of poverty is absolutely unreal until you are standing there staring it right in the face, but as I toured around over the next couple days I realized I had only seen a small glimpse of the realistic levels of poverty in Bali.
That night we had dinner, actually at the Hard Rock Cafe which was right next to our hotel. I realize this wasn't branching out much, but it was closest to our hotel and we didn't exactly feel completely safe the first night we were there and didn't want to walk far.
Day 2, Touring all day long.
To book a tour you basically pick up any sort of pamphlet and call the cell phone number that they publish and then someone comes to pick you up the next morning. These aren't like group tours either, you get them all to yourself.... which scared the begeebees out of me and Kristen. But, none the less the next morning we got in a van with 2 men we didn't know who said they'd take us on our tour, and off we went. Again, their saving grace was the air conditioned van.
We started off the tour by driving through the city that we were staying in, Kuta and then stopped to see a traditional Balinese dance called the 'Barong' dance. The dance was interesting and was a story about evil spirits entering people's bodies and how to get the evil spirit out etc. At the end of the show Kristen and I got our picture with the traditional Barong that looked like a dragon/lion and we had our first run-in with the Asian tourists that loved us. We had a few different Asian ladies ask Kristen and I if we would be in their pictures with them, I guess because we were American. Very strange, but not we have crazy Asians in a ton of our pictures.
Picture with Barong and Asian Tourists
Next we visited a couple different towns and locations on the tour. We went to a gold/silver works, a fabric making store, a painters house, and also a wood carving shop. The silver store was great and I got some good gifts in there, and the fabric was really interesting because we saw how the large tapestries are handmade and hand painted. The paintings and wood carvings were interesting, but nothing too special.
Then we did some more driving up to the top of the mountain so we could eat lunch and look at the view of the volcano. Let me back up first... to comment on the driving and scenery. My pictures on photobucket will probably paint a better picture, but here is my effort at describing what we saw.
In the cities and towns there are small canal systems throughout the streets the run along side the roads. They are disgusting, and brown as dirt. What we learned later on is that they are so brown because they are filled with trash. There is no garbage disposal system in Bali. It is the 'woman's job' to take the trash outside everyday and burn it and then dump the remains and ashes into the water. I also witnessed many people using this same water to wash their clothes. Then after all of this, the water proceeds to be dumped out to sea. So all water, including the sea, is disgusting, brown, and disease ridden most likely. I'm not sure about bathroom waste being dumped into this water, but it honestly wouldn't surprise me if that was their form of 'plumbing' as well.
Water canals in the city - and the color of the water everywhere
The offerings outside the shop were like a 5 inch square green thing with some food, flowers, and crackers on it usually. We learned that this offering outside of shops and houses was to bless them with money and food and safety. Also outside of all of the houses there is a tall thing to represent a dragon at every house entry way. This is to protect the household and bring safety, food, and other good blessings to the residents. Our tour guide also made many references to religion and their spirituality. I was standing near a cliff looking out to the ocean and taking some pictures and our tour guide rushed up and told me to back away from the edge, that he was worried about me. I kind of laughed it off, but he was very serious and said that the 'bad spirits' had been out all evening and he was concerned for my safety. We also throughout the trip saw groups of people praying outside having their own private services, so it is quite obvious that religion is a huge part of life for this culture and it very much controls their daily actions.
One last comment about the driving - the roads are ridiculous and there are no rules to driving in Bali. It is like a free for all, and quite a few times I gasped and closed my eyes (and that is saying a lot being that I do a fair amount of dodging and fast driving myself back home, this driving made me look like a grandma). Most of the residents have motor bikes because it is more efficient and smarter because the roads are narrow and very crowded. Even if there are 2 lanes in the road, people will be driving 3 cars across or a million motorbikes will be swerving in and out. I don't know why they have mirrors on their cars because they don't use them, they just beep their horn and cut out in front of people. It's absolute madness.
So after a fair bit of driving, we were at the top of the mountain and had a clear view of the volcano on the island and the lake right below it, and I totally forget the name... The view was really nice though and we learned that the last eruption was in 1991 but it would no longer erupt because the temperatures had dropped so much and the temperature of the lake was too cool for the volcano to build up enough heat to erupt. You can still see the large black areas from the lava of the last eruption. The top of the mountain is also the first place we ran into the kid salesmen. They basically came up and tugged on your shirt asking for money and for you to buy little bracelets. As hard as it was to turn them away, well you have to. Because if you give money to one, then you feel like you need to give money to all, and that adds up being that there are herds of them. I was a lot better at dealing with this than Kristen was. She tends to have a pretty soft heart and her eyes pretty much teared up every time we got out of the car and kids were there. She had to stop bringing her wallet and backpack around with her because otherwise she would have given all her money away. Sadly, the kids don't get to keep the money anyway as our tour guide explained. He said that these kids are put up to this by their parents who would rather send their kids to beg than to work themselves. He said that Balinese people tend to highly dislike the beggars because the government gives people with no jobs money, but these people would rather beg than work 5 minutes to make the money themselves. So after this I convinced Kristen if we were going to give money it might as well be to our tour guide that was at least earning the money properly.
The black dark area is the lava from the last eruption in 1991, to the right you can see the edge of the lake at the foot of the volcano.Ok back to the sights...
The next place that we stopped was the waterfall. When you think waterfall you think green trees and plant life, clear water, a freshwater pool below, and rocks for a picture perfect view... well that doesn't exist in Bali. The water in this waterfall again was brown as dirt and is actually the run off from all of the rice fields. They drain the water here, so this is all the muddy water from the rice fields and when the water is all drained, the waterfall dries up until the next season.
Our next stop was one of my favorites, it was a spice garden. Our guide took us in and showed us all different plants and what their purposes were for like vanilla, tapioca, cocoa, ginseng, and tons of others. He also showed us a mongoose that was in a cage. When we enquired as to why the animal was caged we learned that it was because they feed the mongoose coffee beans, and only coffee beans. Then they collect the coffee bean mongoose poop and that is what is used to make their "highest quality" coffee. So if a+b=c... they drink poopy coffee, and so did I. It was delicious. We also tried ginseng, a hot cocoa and a coffee with ginseng in it and they were all delicious. We also got to try some new fruits, and news alert... I found TWO not just one, but 2 new fruits that I like which brings my total to about 6 all together. But we have been deprived in the states... there is a fruit called snakeskin fruit that is really good and kind of reminded me of apples (hence why I liked it) but it wasn't as juicy. Then there is one called 'hairy fruit' (I'm not completely sure this is the real name, but that is all I know) and it looked like a jelly fish but it was actually really good and sweet. So there, I do like fruit mom, just not what you fed me at home.
So after our spice garden learning expedition we took an hour long drive to get to 'Taneh Lot' Temple which is one of their main temples and it is on the water. It was really cool to see because there were services going on and you could see everyone wading through the water to get to the temple to pray. Of course we couldn't go in, but it was a beautiful sight and very festive because it was some sort of holiday or celebration while we were there. Then we had a nice dinner up on top of a cliff area, overlooking the sea and tried a couple different types of fish (all that made me want to vomit). But it was a nice view and when we were finished our guide found us and we headed in the van for another 30 minutes back to our hotel.
So after an exhausting, but exciting day we went to sleep and decided to shop and see the beach the next day.
Day 3
We definitely slept in after our adventures from the day before. We finally caught up with the friends that stayed in the hotel next door to us, and shopped with them a bit and did an afternoon swim in the pool after we figured out how much crap went into the ocean. I picked up a few goodies like sandals, a dress, some sunglasses, and a t-shirt in my shopping travels and could have bought a ton more because it was so cheap, but thinking realistically I know none of it is going to hold up very long, so I refrained from a total shopping spree :-)
That night we went out to get a taste of the night life. There were 3 boys that were in the group staying next to us and we felt a lot more comfortable going out to the bars with them around so we made our way to a pretty big club called Bounty. They had good drink specials, fun headbands, and lots of people so needless to say we had a good night.
Day 4
We had our 2nd tour this morning and we planned to go snorkeling, take a spin on a glass bottomed boat, and also see turtle island (an animal sanctuary type thing) as well as go to a monkey forest and another temple.
I'll just mention that going on a boat and snorkeling in choppy water is potentially the WORST thing that you could be doing when you have a hangover. But, since it was my own doing I enjoyed every second of my queasy-ness as I fed the fish and saw the turtles, I was not going to lose out on the money I paid haha so lesson learned.
Back to the tour.. we went out snorkeling - again the tour was just Kristen and me. We had our own personal boat and driver and he took us to a spot and gave us some bread to feed the fish. I'm still not entirely sure that the bread was good for all of the fish but they definitely know that snorkelers come with food because as soon as we jumped in the water we had fish surrounding us. The coral was cool, but not extremely bright. It was more depressing than anything because you could see where all the boats were just throwing down their anchors right on top of the coral and killing so much of it. The area is obviously not protected at all, and all I could think was that if they do not do something to save this coral there is going to be nothing to look at, which would then kill the tourism, and their main means of income in this part of Bali.
But after our swim around we went to the turtle sanctuary thing. (The glass bottomed boat was a joke and consisted of 2 panels about the size of a 2x4 board in the bottom of our boat that we couldn't see out of) Our boat stopped and we had to walk about 50 ft. in knee deep water to the island. There were turtles there, but they looked extremely poorly treated if you ask me. Again, the whole place was more depressing than anything. They would pick a turtle up for us to hold then just throw it back into a concrete pit with shallow water. They also had about 20 large turtles that they had in what looked like a swamp and they just threw food at them. I don't know how any of the turtles could survive in the hot and still water. Also on the island they had tons of birds, bats, and snakes. We held a few birds, and a bat (that was really weird feeling) and also had a python around our necks (which I cringed at, and it felt really really disgusting). They had a sea eagle, but again it just looked miserable and had chains around it's feet just so people could take pictures with it. Finally, the worst was the poor monkey they had on the island. It too, was chained up by its foot and had only one tree with no leaves or shade to get under. The poor thing looked miserable. And later I'll talk about the monkey forests that we went to and none of the animals were chained and they all stayed right there. It just seemed like more of torutre for these animals than it was saving them or protecting them, which was quite unfortunate.
So after our water excursion we headed back. On the water we also saw a ton of fisherman and some really old wooden boats that looked like they could have been in pirates of the caribbean, that are actually still functioning boats in Bali, although I have no idea how they weren't sunk already.
But back on land we got in our van with a really nice driver this day, his name was Johnny and he popped in a country music tape of Garth Brooks for us, haha he said he liked the tune but had no idea what he was signing about. So we listened to country music and then headed to the monkey forest. We spent a pretty long time at the monkey forest for the pure fact that Kristen is obsessed with monkeys. I don't know whether she thought that she could talk to them or what, but she would sit and stare at them for ages. We bought some bananas to feed them and they would hop up on your shoulder to get them if you didn't give them to them fast enough. They definitely know that tourists are there to feed them, and if you don't give them the food they steal things like sunglasses and water bottles. So while Kristen enjoyed the monkeys, I enjoyed the nice view of the water (pictures on photobucket) and also some more views of the temples. After that we headed back to the hotel to find something to eat for dinner and to go out for night #2.
The view while Kristen enjoyed the monkeys - this is from one of the temples near the water.
We had dinner at a nice restaurant with huge couch type things outside that you ate dinner on. I felt like I was in a living room eating at a coffee table, but it was a nice night and an enjoyable view. So we did that and then had another fun night out, which I held off on the alcohol being that I still wasn't quite up to par.
Day 5
This morning we had planned to finish up some last minute shopping of things that we wanted and to take a stroll on the beach then pack our bags because we were flying home. Unfortunately, I woke up not feeling good (this time not because of the alcohol). So we did our shopping then just came back and packed our bags. By the time we got to the airport I probably could have passed out and had a pretty high temperature. Somehow, Kristen got me through the airport and we had a lot of time left over so I laid out on the airport chairs despite their lack of comfort. By the time we landed and got an taxi home I felt so sick that I stopped at a pharmacy to get what I could because we had to leave the next morning to go on our second tour. I knew I was going to get tonsilitis or strep throat or some annoying throat problem... So I stocked up on what I could, took a hot shower, and passed out.
So that was Bali, and the next morning begins our tour up the west coast which will be in the next post. Hopefully I'll get it in tonight, but House is a very addicting show and I have 2 episodes loaded on my computer to watch. We'll see how far I get.
Sorry this is so lengthy, but I didn't want to leave anything out!
And if you want to see the pictures I uploaded a ton to my photobucket site.
http://s589.photobucket.com/albums/ss337/amelia_thomas/
No comments:
Post a Comment