Day 9 Beach Day & Final Post

We left our condo in Candidasi for our last night in Sanur, a small town closer to the airport.  We have finally found the tourists!  Where we have spent the week was definitely off the track.  Where we are now is not.  Many hotels and resorts from guest houses to 5-star’s.  Gusto, our driver, was pointing to one resort across the bay calling it the “Red Skeleton”.  We thought he as pointing to a burial ground for locals.  He finally had to write in the sand - Ritz Carlton.

The girls decided we would visit three beaches today based on recommendations in the guide book.  The first was by the airport, so Tom and I could watch planes land while the girls shelled.  The second was more of a resort beach;  lots of people walking on the sand and playing in the water.  At the end of the beach was a rock outcropping where we watched the biggest waves ever crash, probably 50-60 feet high.  (People were standing on the rock, too small to see!)

So, we couldn’t resist, we went over to the outcropping to watch these waves up close.

This was like being in the middle of a washing machine, quite dramatic.  Here is Gusto, our guide.

Some of you may wonder; what’s this with a driver for a week.  Indeed, this is the ONLY way to get around Bali.  As I mentioned before, traffic is horrible, motorbikes are everywhere and there are no street signs.  No foreigner could ever get around this island on there own.  Plus Gusto does know the better restaurants and sights to see.  And, he always has a “tip” to push out the window to the parking attendants so that we get a good parking place.  And to top it off, it costs no more than if you were to rent a car in Hawaii or Cancun!  Quite a deal.

Also, this is the first time we have seen Muslims.  Indonesia, it is reported, has the most Muslims of any country in the world!  Although Bali is almost 100% Hindu, the rest of Indonesia is almost all Muslim.  Go figure.  But, this is a great place to holiday for all Indonesians.  Here , Tom took a picture of two gals posing for me for their picture.

Our last beach was the “sunset beach”.  Each night, probably 20 restaurants set all their tables on the beach for a seafood dinner.  We just walked the beach but couldn’t resist buying ears of corn from one of the local vendors.  They cook it right there for you; you can choose between spicy or sweet butter.

This week has been quite an experience.  This is the first time Gloria and I have been immersed in the Hindu culture.  We spent 2 weeks in India a couple of years ago, but the part of the country where we worked was primarily Christian.  Also, this form of Hinduism isn’t about Saris and red dots on your forehead, rather it is all about ceremony and offerings.

Wherever you walk, there are the small offerings.  Sidewalks, public temples, home temples, porches, on statues, window sills, etc. And, one doesn’t avoid them, their significance ends after they are placed.  Indeed, during the night, people sweep them all up into piles and the trash men come by in the early morning to take them all away.

We saw endless processions for life; for death.  People are all solemn but very happy.  As I mentioned earlier these people are defined by their actions.  They are what they do.  Their identity is in their performance. 

What a contrast the Gospel is.  All the world’s religions are based on performance.  Judaism is keeping the law.  Islam is obeying the Koran, Buddhism is all about preparation and Karma, Hinduism is ceremony and offerings.  Indeed, much of Christianity is acting right way, believing the right thing.  Or, you are forgiven based on your performance.  The Gospel is the only faith that has this reversed.  You are forgiven first and your performance results.  This is called the Great Reversal, or the Third Way. 

My prayer is that Peace and Grace are yours.

Day 8 Shopping and Eating

People always ask about the food we eat when we travel.  Balinese food can best be described as rice with curry, spices and, depending on your choice, either tofu or meat, frequently wrapped in or on a banana leaf.  Cocoanut and peanut sauces predominate.  We never saw any chopsticks, they eat with spoon and fork. 

Typically, we ate one meal out, usually around 2-3PM, breakfast in the condo, and snacks for dinner.  For breakfast, our focus was on fruit.  We discovered five new ones:  mangostein, rombatune, palmello, water fruit, a new type of cocoanut, and our favorite – snake skin fruit.  Below are pictures of our culinary adventures.

This cocoanut was soft and creamy, not the hard flaky type we are used to.

Gloria and Kathy negotiating for fruit.  Everything demands negotiating!

Our daily morning platter of fruit.

Here I am buying our morning eggs, they come in sacks.

Here is our morning fruit before they are pealed.

Gloria is holding our biggest surprise.  This is an avocado and chocolate smoothie!  Had to try this one, not bad. (They grow on you)

This was a medley I ordered for lunch.   I could ID about half the items.  All good though.

Day 7 Monkey Park

The highlight of the day was the visit to the Monkey Park.  Here amongst three Hindu Temples are around 300 monkeys swinging around.  All very friendly and feedable.  We couldn’t stop taking pictures of them, here are a few.

 

 

This little guy hopped on board with two of his buddies.  His friends hopped off, he stayed for a bit, I took our picture and was showing it to him, when Gloria had us look at her camera for our portrait.

Day 6 Scuba Diving

Bali’s most popular dive is the USS Liberty.  This was a freighter that the Japanese torpedoed in 1942.  Attempts to tow it to a port failed and after it was beached for 20 years, it eventually it sank in 1963 due to earth tremors following a volcanic eruption on Bali.

Tom and Kathy took this picture, they were snorkeling in the area.

Actually is was one of our bests dives ever!  (Alex and Greg – missed you guys!!)  Unfortunately our underwater camera ceased to work when preparing it for this dive, so all we have are memories.  Although visibility was only fair, once we were on and in the wreck the water was very clear.  The type and amount of fish and invertebrates on and around the wreck was staggering.  We saw more new species then on any other dive.  Two highlights:  A 5 ft. Barracuda calls the wreck home.  Due to the number of divers on the Liberty, is is quite comfortable with you swimming to within 2 feet of him.  I have never seen Barracuda’s  2 inch sharp teeth that close before!

Gloria with our guide, (he needed one weight to keep him down, I needed five!)

Also, above the wreck was a school of hundreds of 8-10 inch silver fish schooling.  If you saw Finding Nemo, you remember the fish schools shifting size and direction.  This was that!  We were able to swim up into the school as they moved around us.  Awesome.  Also, many new soft corals, gorgonians, and hydrozoans.  An excellent dive.

These gals were the “porters” for all our equipment. She had a tank and all our weights! Others take two tanks, one on their head another on their shoulder.

Day 5 River Rafting

We are finding that to do anything in Bali requires a one to two hour drive.  Today is no exception.  Our guide has suggested a particular river for rafting, but Gloria and Kathy, after scouring our guide book, felt another option was better and cheaper.  This was a bit of a mistake.  Indeed, what they had found was cheaper, but he was quick to remind us that he had gotten a “special price” for us with his choice.

So, after stopping along the way, turning around, stopping again, then continuing on our route, we went with his choice.  This made him very happy.  Two hours later, we arrive at the put-in point. 

Tom and Kathy have rafted/kayaked for over 30 years.  Indeed, they have even done the Grand Canyon on their own.  And Gloria and I have done our fair share of rafting as well, frequently going with Tom and Kathy.  But, this was a new experience!

Our guide was friendly, but knew little English.  We usually orient about right, left, forward-paddle, back-paddle, holding on, dropping, what to do if you are ejected, etc.  Nothing was discussed.  We walk down to the river and push off.  Boys in the front, (seems a bit bow heavy), girls in the middle and our guide in the back.

I would say this was cross between Disneyland’s Flume ride and the Matterhorn!  The “river” is usually about 10-15 feet wide, and frequently only as wide as the boat!  It looks like it was cut with a backhoe!  If you have every gone down stairs, as a kid, on your bum, that is what it felt like.

We pinballed down the river spinning off the sides, plus we kept going over 5-8 foot drops.  Sometimes forward, others backward.  Tom kept trying to guide the boat from the front, the guide had different ideas.  We were never ejected, but those drops were always a thrill.

Little waterfalls were coming into the river on both sides; our guide was sure to direct the boat under each one.  We spent more time laughing then seriously trying to navigate this E-ticket ride!  This continued for about an hour and a half, we got our money’s worth.

Day 4 Bat Caves to Snorkeling

Our driver appears at 9AM ready for another day of exploring.  This will be our last day for him to make all the decisions as to where we go and what we see.  He seems to have a certain agenda, which is fine, but we sense that wherever we go he always “gets something”, either a free meal or some sort of  a kickback.  That’s OK, except now that we know the lay of the land a bit more, there are certain things we want to see and it is up to him to take us their.

We start our day with a temple close to the ocean, nice as far a temples go, and indeed, many people are marching there for ceremony, but the most interesting part is the 1000’s of bats that congregate on the back cliff of the monastery.  Interesting to watch, but we guess, because they are “holy bats”, no one disturbs them, and they are a mess!

One of the many processions of people going into the temple for ceremony.  They are very happy but take this very seriously.

Next on our itinerary is  a “local village”, interpret that to mean “place to buy overpriced souvenirs”. 

Our driver keeps wanting to take us to cock fights.  We have resisted so far, don’t know if we will succumb.  We see baskets over roosters all around the countryside.  Someone decided to dye these poor guys.

There were numerous homemade Ferris wheels in the village.  These are kid size and  bit rickety, but good for a picture.

Our next stop was a “water park”.  His choice, again.  Nice to walk around here, but not worth the long drive. We are ready to take command of our daily outings.

We end our day with a late lunch and snorkeling at the hotel that our guide is staying at.  I do believe we were the only ones eating there, and he was the only one staying there.  Beautiful location, but very quite.  The recession and political winds have hurt Bali badly.  Extremists have suicide bombed  Bali 5-star hotels a couple of times in the last few years and tourists have stayed away.  (No worries at our hotel.)

Snorkeling was OK.  Warm water, probably 85 degrees, but most of the coral was dead.  As we were leaving, the whole village was coming down to the beach.  We found out that every 30 days local Hindus go through a cleansing ceremony in the ocean.  Great fun for families.  A good reason to go swimming with all your clothes on!

Day 3 On the Road in Bali

Day 2 was actually crossing the International Date Line.  Today is Sunday, and a busy day it was.  Our driver picked us up at 8:30 and we are off to the closest Hindu Temple.  One gets around Bali with a hired driver and minivan. Several reasons; you drive on the British side of the road, with the steering wheel on the right, the multitude of motorcycles everywhere, and there are no good maps or signs. A driver is essential.

We found that sarongs were mandatory at all Hindu Temples unless you have long pants on.  They are always available for loan.

 

In the picture is Gloria and me and Kathy, Gloria’s sister and her husband Tom.  They are teachers on Orcas Island, Washington.  The temples are primarily Hindu with a little Buddhism thrown in.  Our driver is a devote Hindu and enjoys taking about his religion.  We have heard a lot, but haven’t really learned a lot.

Hindu ceremonies are very important to the Balinese people.  If we heard him right, 75% of there time is spent in ceremony.  Curiously we saw no one “worshipping” at the temples we visited. Although everyone has home temples and idols.

He wanted to take us to his village to meet his parents.  On the way we came upon a cremation ceremony so he invited us to join in the procession.  Quite an experience.

Very elaborate, and they did not mind our presence.  That is me on the right!  Everyone was quite happy and friendly, we took lots of pictures.  One reason for their happiness is that Hindu’s believe that one is reincarnated to a better life at death.  Hmm, don’t we Christians believe the same thing?  We can learn from their celebration.

We did visit two large “factories”, one with elaborate wood carvings, another – fabric.  Many, many laborers working, very expensive. 

Finally, we ended up at our driver’s house.  Actually two compounds.  First was very large and elaborate where 8 different families lived, cousins, uncles, etc.  With multiple buildings and Hindu shrines.  Then he took us a couple of blocks away where is parents live.  Not sure why they don’t live on the ancestral compound. 

This was much smaller and less elaborate.  There they served us fruit, Balinese pastry, cocoanut and some kick-ass coffee.  We met both his mom and dad.  Dad was hit by a car 15 years ago and sported pins and an external wood splint.  He got around slowly; what I wondered is if he should have gone back for his post op visit and had the pins removed??

We upgraded to a two bedroom condo tonight.  More room, gives me space to read and write the blog in the early morning.  Very nice.

Day 1 San Francisco to Bali

These adventures always start the same way.  A long plane flight.  This time our flight left SFO at 1:30AM.  14 hours later we arrive in Hong Kong at 6:30AM the following day.  A three hour layover in the lounge, then our connecting flight to Bali where we will meet up with Tom and Kathy. 

Due to work, I haven’t had the time to investigate what lies ahead, Gloria is the tour director.  I do know it is warm with lots to do, or not to do.  Either way, a welcome respite from our busy lives. 

Note: as these adventures begin, I do my maintenance on my blogspot  account.  Right now all of my choices are in Chinese, so if anything looks out of order, I hope to toggle into English soon!

Day 21 The Day in Ha Noi

Our overnight sleeper train arrived at Ha Noi station at 4:30 this morning.  Dark and raining.  Slogged our way to the station, but no taxi to pick us up.  We had thought the travel agent was to arrange this.  We were wrong.  Long story-short, we had a “private” taxi take us to the hotel, and when we arrived were presented a charge of $20.  It should have been $5, the hotel concierge negotiated it down to $10.  We know we should negotiate before the ride, but with the rain and frustration, we didn’t.  Another travelling lesson learned.

Spent the morning cleaning up and waking up then decided to head out into Ha Noi for the day.  What an experience.  We in the US don’t use our sidewalks nearly enough.  They are great for eating, playing, sleeping, working, and driving on.  This is a full-blown machine shop.

We are also quite comfortable crossing the street now even in a hailstorm of motorbikes.  Just keep moving at the same pace, as they go whizzing by, no sudden moves or starts or stops.  Stay composed, (at least inside).  This is a great example of what these people carry on a motorbike, this is an I-beam, must weight hundred pounds!

Another great picture of their electrical/phone system.

It all works, I have a better internet connection in our hotel room then I do at home!

Then it started to rain again, and very hard, doesn’t slow the motorbikes down, they just cover up.  Note the passenger.

Final packing for our flight out tomorrow morning. 

We have had a great time in a culture that seems quite comfortable with itself.  We have travelled from the smallest villages to the largest city in the region. People everywhere have been friendly and warm.  We have many good memories.  Thanks for following our experiences.

Day 20 Trekking the Hill Villages

This is our view to Sa Pa as we descend down to the villages.

 

Kinda a cross between the Alps and Kauai!  The valley is full of terraces for planting mostly rice.

This is how we travelled.  Tang, our guide, and two “personal shoppers”.  These are H’mong ladies that follow you all the way down the trial, being friendly, making you little flower hearts, learning your name, telling you about themselves, then at the bottom, they hope you will buy something from them.  Kind of a “pity purchase”.  It worked, but Gloria only bought a $2.50 bracelet.  We assumed they hiked all the way back up to town, but Tang told us they hitched rides on motorbikes.  All in a day’s work. (Oh, in this picture, Tang is texting his wife, remember, they have been married only a month)  Also—their cell phone service in this hilly country is way better then it is in Tuolumne County!!!

We stopped at a school in one of the villages, where we had Tang give away some of our left-over “Bouncy Balls” from our mission….bedlam.  He finally told the kids that only the ones with the best grades got balls.  He give balls to just girls!  At least they are honest.

They have a nice medical clinic as well at the school, below is the poster about H1N1; washing hands and sneezing properly.

We also met an Army colonel .  He and his retinue were making an inspection visit of the clinic and school.  Tang introduced us to him; he asked where we were from, and I told him America.  I would have gotten a smile if I would have said Russia or Cuba.  (see below)

We did get to talk to Tang about his family a bit.  He is one of 12 children, his parents are in their late 70’s, only he and his younger brother went to university, (his brother is a doctor), the rest are farmers.  His mom had her last child when she was 50.  I asked Tang if his father was involved in the “American War”, he said that his dad was a Viet Cong.,and spent his time in the tunnels outside of Saigon.

He told one story of where his dad and 11 other VC were in the tunnels and each day one of them was sent out to get vegetables for the group to eat.  The day his dad was sent out, the tunnel was hit by a bomb and all 11 of his comrades were killed.

Tang did say that his dad was poisoned by Agent Orange, lost all of his hair and it hasn’t grown any since.  I asked him what his dad thought of Americans, he admitted that his dad and many of that generation still hate Americans.

On to lunch.  Spring rolls, stir fry noodles, and french fries.  This is how you eat french fries in Vietnam.

Finally, before we leave for the sleeping train back to Ha Noi, we walk through the neighborhoods giving more balls out.  We have to bounce them first so the kids know they aren’t candy.

Day 19 Coc Ly Market and Chay River Cruise

Our morning started with a drive to the town of Coc Ly.  Each Tuesday they have their weekly market.  Unfortunately, prior to market opening, they had a downpour, and the water was still flowing through the market area.  Mud was deep and slippery.

This “Little Water Buffalo Went to Market”.  We were told he is probably worth around $500.  Good for farming and someday, eating. 

Everyone was in their colorful native wear.  This market is primarily for the locals, they have to buy all of their fancy dresses as well.  Tang told us that much of it is made in China!

Gloria is easy to spot in a crowded market!  We are around a foot taller then everyone.

Working our way through the mud and streams.

Next, we cruised down the Chay River.  The Chinese will have the river dammed by 2011 just downriver from this marketplace.  This will submerge this area and 100’s if not 1000’s of people will need to be relocated.  Vietnam needs the hydroelectric power.

This is Tang, the captain and a gal we thought would be our stewardess.  She just sat there the whole time.

Due to the rains, there were waterfalls everywhere.  Like Yosemite in the spring.

Here we are at the border with China.