Bali, South of the Equator!

Monuments, Motorbikes and Magic Mushrooms

KUTA

I’d written eight paragraphs trying to explain what it was like in Kuta. It is impossible to describe. Basically we shouldn’t like it, it shouldn’t work but it does and we loved it. I am glad I hadn’t read about it before we booked a few nights there. I had said to Glen (my booking agent – wink) that I just wanted something ‘near the airport’ (as we were landing in the dark) before we moved on to explore the island. It is not the drunken bikini place I have since read about….well not in the hours that we were awake. The whole place had a wonderful aroma of incense and everyone had a Frangipani flower behind their ear and on statues and shrines.

As we walked around Kuta over the next two days there were always women sat on pavements, in shops, down alley ways (called gangs) weaving palm leaves into little flat square ‘baskets’ ready to be filled with petals, frangipani flowers, tiny biscuits and food offerings etc and always topped with an incense stick. Other women walk around with large flat woven baskets on their head filling each little basket with fresh offerings each day. They put one in front of each shop and on the shrines, sprinkling holy water as they go. The calm religious gentleness amongst the mayhem of the motorbikes was weird but good some how. Tourists, locals, whole family’s including babies on one bike, whole little shops set up on a motorbike! We were never more than a metre away from one at any time, often only a few millimetres!!

He had everything but the kitchen sink (and a white bowl) on the back of his bike!

Magic mushroom signs are on every corner. Strange because you are met in the airport with a huge sign saying that drugs dealers, or the like, will receive the death penalty. So we were surprised that Magic Mushrooms (apparently they serve them as a drink) are as freely available as Durian fruit was in Malaysia. I know it is far from a hard drug but still. I have refused to try it so far, I am not apprehensive of the hallucinogenic effects…. it is because who would I go to to complain if all they sold me was an overpriced cup of cold Heinz mushroom soup! (Wink)

So as we walked around Kuta dodging the motorbikes and offerings and minding where we stepped on the broken pavements we were also being ‘shouted’ at…”taxi?” “Viagra?” and even “Valium?” Having answered politely “no thanks” at every other step you also had girls offering “massage” it was a full assault on our senses, the aroma of incense, the sights and the sounds….. Ah yes the sounds at night were great. We couldn’t (and didn’t want) to afford the high prices of the beer and cocktails in the bars and clubs but as they are all open sided we could enjoy the music. Although as we walked around we would sing along to one song and then have to change and pick up on the song playing in the next bar. (smile)

In the day girls are stood outside of each bar or club handing out leaflets advertising the venue for later that evening (or early hours of the morning!) As we walked along the streets on our last morning in Kuta one of the girls let us walk by without handing us a leaflet!!! (sad face) hurtful! just a little hurtful! I think we were looking tired that day as the cockerel was crowing all night (thought they only did that at dawn!!) anyway it kept us awake and therefore I must have looked old that day, well too old to be night clubbing! Actually the sound of the cockerels are more of a problem here than the noise from the bars and nightclubs. There is a strange (but great) mix of countryside and town alternately next to each other in 40 metre blocks.

I think we fitted in OK, we were not the oldest by any means, the oldest acting our age mind you. I’ll say no more about that. But it all added to the relaxed carefree ‘vibe’ as Glen described it, it is not a word I would usually use of think of but here there is no other word for it, Bali so far has a good ‘vibe’

Oh I mustn’t forget the hundreds of surfers, they were great to watch on the beach. There were a lot of local women on the beach selling their bangles and clothes etc from woven baskets balanced on their head. It can’t be good for their spines! (We have since seen a lady with a bag of cement on her head!!) They may be small but they are strong! We were so hot (as you would expect) as we walked along the beach in the midday sun but some of the locals had jumpers on and woollen fingerless gloves!…….. on the beach mind you!! One women had a child who had a huge woollen hat on and it was all I could do to stop from shouting ‘that’s child cruelty!’

Kuta should have been a nightmare but somehow it was relaxing even though it was so busy. Not sure how it works but it does, mainly I think because of the Balinese people’s gentle demeanour and the air is thick with faith and maybe Magic Mushroom aroma incense sticks? (Wink)

Oh I have just thought…..this is our first time south of the equator and we have yet to watch the water go down the plug hole. (wink)

Hec now I have written eleven paragraphs! And I haven’t even mentioned the hundreds of wooden ….phallic symbols on sale!!! Or the food! Or our two wonderful hotels yet……there is so much to write about.

Putting out the offerings on a shrine outside of a hotel

Gorgeous sunsets on Kuta beach

watching the surfers and thinking of Jack and Lauren bodyboarding in Cornwall (smile)

We travelled inland, on a rickety bus with double seats that were half the size if not less than single seats on previous coaches! The journey took just over an hour. It was an interesting, if uncomfortable, journey. One village joined to the next in a constant flow of industrious farmers and craftsman, there was so much to see (and no space for my ipad on my lap or movement of arms!) so I didn’t write anything. (apologies to those who have been chasing me for this update since)

Ubud is cute, it is very cute, picturesque and much more. There are expensive little boutique shops, tasteful designs and is much more upmarket than Kuta. There are lovely jewellery shops, art galleries and shops, beautiful batik clothes and lots of art and crafts to fill your home….we could spend a fortune here. There are Spas and Yoga retreats in beautiful surroundings. (We know a lot of people who would love it here) I think a massage here actually means a massage too!

We have walked through the countryside alongside paddy rice fields. We have seen Cockerels in wicker domed cages, (below) presumably ready for the next Cock fight. (apparently it is a male pass time)

In our first hotel here we had a ground floor room with a veranda looking out on a lovely garden (they spent more time manicuring the gardens than cleaning the room!)

It was beautiful and peaceful…….but the staff used to sweep outside of our door from about 7.30am. We moved to a first floor room in another part of town where we were woke at 6.30am to the chink chink of the staff leaving cups and a flask of coffee on our balcony. Bless the guys here for leaving coffee an hour before breakfast even begins, however they then proceeded to mop the balcony! It was a beautiful day and so we decided to get up and sit on the balcony……..which overlooks a rice paddy field. (Photo below) you couldn’t be cross with them especially as they brought our breakfast to us shortly afterwards. (Smile) oh and did I mention we have a four poster bed, with mozzi nets. (grin)

I’ve had a mild head cold for the last week and it has left me with an annoying cough and an itch ….sort of inside my head! Now I thought it was some sort of ear infection or wax that was tickling my inner ear but I am sat here wondering if it is my brain itching!! We have seen and learnt so much and have been looking up and reading about things as we go along and I think I have woken my brain up after of these years and it is just stretching and scratching like a waking animal. (Smile)

We thought that every family must have their own monument/shrine area here as there are soooo many and it’s true apparently. Every household has a temple or ‘holy place’…. a Sanggah/Merajan erected in every family compound. It seems a full time job for the women who, like in Kuta, continually weave the little baskets out of leaves and put the flowers and food offerings and incense outside of their houses and on the shrines.

We visited the Sacred Monkey Forest, it was not only a place to see temples and monkeys but somewhere to learn about the trees in the rain forest…..for instance we have learnt that the ARA tree (Ficis Sillase Blume) from the Moracea family has a root that is used for treating toothache. I had better put a bit of that in my backpack what with the amount of sweets I have been eating when i had a sore throat and now to stop the cough! Not sure about carrying around the ANDONG plant whose root is supposed to be good for treating diarrhea.

Hold on to your hat! And everything else! It is not like a zoo… the Monkeys are watching you not the other way around!! People did not heed the warnings and the Monkeys were running off with their drinks etc. they could be aggressive (the Monkeys not the people) and so the favourite part of the visit for me were the trees and plants.

A monkey made a little noise as Glen walked past, not sure if he was trying to communicate with Glen or if he just parped (wink!) The males genitals were plain to see, mainly because they sat playing with them….or putting them to good use! The females were everywhere, breast feeding their young, so we were surprised to hear two twenty somethings ask their female guide, who they were with, how you could tell whether they were male or female!! …..