Happy Chinese New Year! In Bali!

After spending almost 7 months in Indonesia, I've had dozens of people ask me if I've been to Bali or tell me about their trips to Bali. Some of my colleagues even went with the year 12 students for an end-of-year trip. So when I remembered that we had a long weekend for Chinese New Year, I thought Bali might be fun because it's not too far away. (Interesting but brief sidenote: Chinese New Year has only been publicly celebrated in Indonesia for about 10 years since the end of Suharto's presidency.) Tim thought about joining me, but I ended up going by myself. And I had a great time.

The whole thing was a little spontaneous. I only bought tickets Thursday night to leave on Saturday morning, and I didn't really know where I was going to stay until I got there. It went like this.

Saturday: I met a young American woman at the airport. She works in Beijing, and she was extending a business trip in Jakarta into a vacation in Bali. Because we were headed for the same area, we exchanged phone numbers, and tentatively agreed to meet in a couple of days. When we got to Bali, I took a taxi to Sanur, which has a lovely stretch of beach, but it's a little less commercialized than its near neighbor, Kuta. Since I didn't know where I wanted to stay, I had the taxi driver let me out when I saw a vacancy sign, and so I stumbled onto a lovely little homestay (a small private accommodation somewhere between a motel and a hostel) where I got a cute little room for less that $9 for the night. The homestay was called "Little Pond," so here's its namesake.

Later on Saturday, I found my way to Bali Orchid Garden, which featured orchids from all over the world, which were lovely in the late afternoon light. I took lots of pictures, and here's one of the best.

Since I could only get one night at Little Pond, I decided to get in as much beach time as possible before I left for another part of the island, so I took a sunset walk on the beach at Sanur, which has a nice walkway along the beach that takes you by restaurants and vendors selling sunglasses, clothing, fruit, art, and other trinkets. It's a calm beach, partly because it's not as touristy as Kuta, partly because a reef keeps the surf pretty far away.


Bali has a very different cultural feel from Jakarta. For starters, Bali is predominantly Hindu in contrast to Jakarta's Muslim majority. It's impossible not to notice these little woven baskets which hold sacrifices because they're everywhere. In doorways, in shrines, in taxis, on sidewalks, even at the desk of the man who collected my airport tax. Incense wafts up from some of them, especially ones in shrines.


Sunday morning I got up early and took a walk/wade on the beach. If Sanur's beach is international later in the day, sunrise is Bali's turn to enjoy the beach. Vendors, fishermen, and other local residents were enjoying the water and the sun coming up over the water. I sat on the rocks for a while, watching the sun, the tide coming in, crabs skittering between the rocks, a heron wading, a fisherman out on the reef, a man doing his morning calisthenics facing the water, a dog scratching for crabs, kids playing in the water. I was enjoying myself so much that I was a little disappointed when a Balinese student sat down and started talking to me. We chatted for a bit before I finished my walk.
I had lunch at a seaside restaurant (this was the view) where I tasted black rice pudding with coconut milk, a local delicacy that I enjoyed very much. After I checked out of Little Pond, I walked around Sanur a bit before taking a shuttle bus to Ubud, a group of villages north of Sanur and further inland.

I loved Ubud. It's more of a artistic and cultural center, and there was lots to do there. When I got there it was raining (and I forgot to bring an umbrella, which was dumb), but there was an Indian restaurant nearby. Since I can't resist Indian food, I ate an early dinner then walked to an art museum set in a beautiful garden.
I should have asked why they put skirts and flowers on some of the statues, but instead I just took a picture.

Maybe the climate is a little wetter in Ubud (it rained both afternoons), but I saw lots of moss in gardens and on statues, which made the place feel settled and ancient.

After the museum, I headed toward the homestay where I was staying that night, and I walked a long way to get there. It was a lot further than I had anticipated, but one benefit was that I happened on a woman selling tickets to a dance performance at the palace in Ubud. After I settled into my homestay, I walked back the palace and enjoyed a front row seat at the performance. In comparison to the demure Javanese gamelan music, Balinese gamelan music is a lot more energetic. It was hard to get good pictures or videos of the dancing, but here's a picture of the "stage."

And then back to my homestay, which was gorgeous. I picked it out of my guidebook because it said that it was in the middle of a rice paddy, and I ended up with a great view out my balcony.

Here's my room, complete with mosquito netting.
Along the walk to my homestay.

On the spur of the moment Monday morning, as I was eating the delicious homemade breakfast provided by my homestay on the balcony of my room, I decided to take a bike tour. They picked me up a little before 9 o'clock, and we drove to the top of a mountain and rode down. My tour group included a American couple living in Singapore and an Australian family, and I had a great time getting to know them.
Here's the view from the top: volcanic Mount Batur and its neighboring Lake Batur. Unfortunately, my camera was starting to run out of battery in the afternoon, so I don't have a lot of good pictures, but we went through a bunch of interesting little villages.
We also stopped at the home compound of a local Balinese family where we learned a little about their way of life and met the family pig. We ended up at a restaurant where they stuffed us with great Indonesian food before dropping us off in Ubud again. From there I walked down to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary where you can get very personal with the monkeys.

Some of them are big and scary, but I coaxed this cute little one onto my lap. And then it started to rain again, and I got stuck under a shelter thing with both monkeys and humans until I decided waiting was more painful than getting wet, so I shop-hopped for a while, had some tea at a cafe, meandered into the local art center where you can take art lessons, explored the library, struck up a conversation with a French woman (en francais, bien sur). Then I met my American friend from the airport for dinner before heading back to my homestay for bed. One thing I never thought about was that rice paddies are perfect havens for frogs, I loved hearing their nighttime croakings.

Tuesday morning, I didn't have time to do a lot before I had to catch the shuttle to the airport, but I wandered around the local market and bought a couple of souvenirs. After one more serving of black rice pudding, I headed for home, by shuttle bus, plane, and taxi. Really good trip.