Bali - Taxi, massage, cheap-cheap
From Sydney we flew to Bali and landed straight into the busy, hot & sticky Kuta, a touristy place in the South of Bali. It took some adjustment, going from the relaxed go-wherever-we-like-with our-camper mode in Australia, to this hectic, hassle-about-everything mode in Indonesia. The narrow roads and alleys in Kuta are full with shops, spas, hotels, etc and everyone tries to get you attention to sell something to you. ‘Taxi, massage, cheap-cheap’ seems to be the first English sentence people learn here! After wandering the streets and trying to find our hotel back, we decided the best option was just to hang out at the beach, enjoy some Bintangs and give surfing a go.
In search of a bit more peace, we moved on to Ubud which lies a bit further North and is surrounded by rice paddies. Still a lot of ‘taxi, massage, cheap-cheap’, but by taking a walk you could quickly get out of that and just enjoy the views of the lovely green surroundings and village life. We visited a few temples, a monkey forest, and took a cooking class to learn more about the Balinese food. This started with a visit to the market where all fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices were pointed out. Then it was time to cook – we quickly learned that Balinese sauce is like the tomato sauce of Indonesia: it’s the base ingredient of most dishes. So it was essential to learn how to make it and all the chopping and grinding of the ingredients of the sauce took most of the time. After that, making the soup, fish wrapped in banana leave, chicken skewers and bean salad was easy. Just add a bit of Balinese sauce and it all tasted good!
Our next stop was further inland, in quiet Munduk, a small village on the ridge of a volcano with great views over the surrounding rice fields. It was a bit cooler here, so more comfortable for another nice walk through rice fields, small villages and to a waterfall. Our route continued North to Lovina, back to the coast as we thought it was about time for some snorkelling and relaxing on the beach. Unfortunately no nice white beaches here, but black volcanic sand instead. Snorkelling was good though!
We decided to leave busy Bali and head to quieter Lombok, so from Lovina we arranged for a driver to bring us to Pandangbai from where the ferries leave. On our way we stopped at another nice temple where we were dressed & blessed before we got a tour of the temple. We also stopped for more snorkelling, this time to a ship wreck close to the beach. This was great and we saw many small, colourful fish around the wreck. In Pandangbai we had another go and there was a lovely coral garden very close to the beach. It seems to get better and better, so we’re looking forward to snorkelling & diving on Lombok.
