3. Bali
I had seen terraced rice paddies before, in Southern China, not the really famous spots, but pretty nonetheless. I had seen temples and shrines, erected in the names of different religions and beliefs, some of them still being worshipped, some in ruins. I had seen classically cone shaped volcanos, over a flight above Central America, looking both dangerous and alluring. I had seen coral and fish of many colors and shapes, in many tropical seas.
Bali has all of these thing, some more stunning than any I had seen before. It also has a unique culture, its own version of Hidduism, practiced visibly daily by the people. It must be some of the most picturesque culture I have seen. There’s art in their rituals, and way of life.
On the other hand, there are tourists everywhere, and many places seemed to be categorically devoted to them: entire beaches and coastline blocked by tourist hotels; venders lining all the way up to a temple, selling the same trinkets for a song; streets after streets of boutiques displaying artfully designed things that only a rich tourist can afford … I know these are common scenes from many a tourist place, but somehow here they seemed more overwhelming. Maybe I just found it a little too much contrast between the frenzied commercialism and the serene beauty, both natural and man-made. What’s more worrying is the infrastructure, which does not seem to keep in pace with all the development: the narrow roads that are often congested, swarming with cars and scooters, and almost no sidewalk for pedestrians; street gutters full of trash, and piles of garbage on the roadside, next to tranquil rice fields. Without proper infrastructure and planning, are the influx of tourists turning paradise into hell?
I left Bali wishing we had more time – while it was by no means the only time I felt this way in my travels, Bali has really brought my approach to travel planning into question. Being greedy, we had always tried to jam in as much onto our itinerary as possible. Now that I think about it, it’s not dissimilar to the strategies of those Chinese tour groups that I snigger at: while we don’t zip through the sights with a group on a bus and spend only enough time at a place for a picture, the principle of seeing more!more!more! is the same. In some places this strategy had worked well, others no so much. Bali is a prime example of the latter group. Lessons learned: 1. distances are deceiving; 2. we need more time to relax.
In contrast my approach to Jeju, before coming to Bali I did some research, though apparently not good enough for my purposes. Fact I learned before going: Bali is an island approximately half the size of Hawaii. Great, I thought. We circled the island of Hawaii in a week, stopping at a few places along the way. While it wasn’t exactly leisurely it certainly was not overly tiring and we had some relaxing time too. Circling Bali in a week should be a piece of cake! I picked a few places I wanted to visit and checked out Google maps, which showed me travelling time between to be no more than 3 hours per leg. But Google maps had no idea how bad the traffic in south Bali is, or how narrow and bumpy the roads could be elsewhere on the island. We circled Bali all right in 8 days, but felt like we spent 3 entire days on the road. Even with a driver doing the hard work, it was still very tiring. Apparently I was not the first one fooled by the maps – many a tourist saw their preconceived travel times shattered on the roads of Bali.
And there were so much to see! Sitting in a car traversing the island was an experience of sensory overload. If not for our tight schedule I would have wanted to stop all the time to explore. Imagine if the roads are nice and smooth like on Hawaii, or Jeju, and we could drive ourselves. This trip would have taken quite a while, for there are many beautiful spots, many exotic and interesting scenes. But, we had to move on, and let the scenes just flash by our window.
But we did circle the island, as I had intended, we had a sampler that gave us some idea what we might want to see or do when we revisit someday. Here are the places we briefly alighted and the sights that flashed by us:
Jimbaran and the south
Our first sight of the ubiquitous offerings
Just south of the airport lies the resort area/fishing village of Jimbaran. We found a great B&B tucked in a residential street. Though not close to the beach, it was a lovely Balinese style house run by a couple of genial and informative hosts, who went out of their way to help their guests. A team of an American husband and an Indonesian wife, Lydia and Bob helped us with everything from getting a local sim card, ordering restaurant takeout, to arranging drivers and making reservations in the local salon, plus providing phone support while we were touring the island.
Jimbaran beach itself was a 10 minute bike ride away from the B&B. Biking here was quite unlike biking anywhere else. For one thing, they drive on the left side of the road here. Why? Nobody seemed to know. Finally I found this on google:
When the Dutch arrived in Indonesia in 1596, they brought along their habit of driving on the left. It wasn’t until Napoleon conquered the Netherlands that the Dutch started driving on the right. Most of their colonies, however, remained on the left as did Indonesia and Suriname
That was just confusing. What’s a little scary was to share the road with a constant stream of scooters and cars, on a road with no shoulders, and for the most part, no sidewalk. For a while we followed some local children around – they seemed to know what they’re doing. Not a very relaxing ride, under the hot sun and breathing in the exhaust, but certainly interesting. However biking the streets here seemed a lot safer compared to walking, as they don’t believe in sidewalks here. Walking does not seem to be considered a proper transportation method, everyone owns a scooter, or has a seat on someone else’s scooter. Even when there are sidewalks around, walking was not that pleasant, next to streets with the constant traffic and its noise and exhaust fumes, we quickly got tired after just a few blocks in Semiyak, and those were streets lined with really nice boutiques!
The beach itself was a wide swatch of sand lined by big expensive resorts, punctuated by blocks of seafood restaurants and a patch of sand lined with fishing boats. In the morning it seemed laid back enough, with just a few tourists body surfing, or sunning on the beach, a small group of local boys frolicking in the sand. But when we returned at night, the beach was transformed into a completely different scene, rows and rows of tables were laid out on the sand, almost all the way to the water. Illuminated by flicking candlelight, hundreds of tourist were enjoying platefuls of seafood grilled on coconut husks, and bottles of Bintang. There were roving mariachi bands, and BBQ corn stands. It was like an Oktoberfest on the beach! The scene seemed rather cheesy – you can’t get any more touristy than this. But presiding over my overpriced (but yummy) plate of shellfish, sipping beer, hearing the sound of lapping waves, mixed with voices speaking many different tongues, watching the lights from airplanes across the bay landing at the airport, I had to admit it was a fun experience. Not a bad way to celebrate my membership in the new age group at all!
On our last day we checked out Padang Padang beach south of Jimbaran, on the Bukit peninsula. Just a few miles away, the beaches here had a different vibe, more backpacker then resort like. With rocky cliffs and surfers and lovely waters. Looks like a place well worth exploring some more.
More to come…