Sailing into Benoa Harbor was our first
time in Asia, and different than anything either of us had every
experienced. From the boats to the architecture to the food smells,
everything was new. Benoa Harbor is far from the peaceful and serene
harbors of the Pacific. Loud boats go in and out and the water looks
like a trash soup. Nonetheless, we were excited to be on solid
ground, as Bali is a fantastic place to end our sailing adventure and
begin our land journey into South East Asia.
Escaping Benoa Harbor to Kuta, we spent
three days getting re-oriented with sleeping through the night, long
hot water showers, walking, and other land life luxuries. Since
massages are $5 for an hour, we obviously pampered ourselves. Our
friends Cathy and Charlie (S/V Celebrate) hosted a party at one of
Bali's top resorts, the Rimba by Ayana in Jimberan. There must have
been more than twenty pools surrounded by lush gardens. It was nice
to say a final goodbye to all of the friends we have made traveling
with the ARC.
From Kuta, we shuttled north to Ubud.
The villiage is filled with family run homestays that are overflowing
with beautiful architecture and small family temples. Brian chose a
really nice little homestay, complete with breakfast, pool, hot
water, balcony, and nice room for $15/night. Every morning at first
light, there was a loud monkey call (from our balcony, of course) and
all of the monkeys in town would come running. At first this was
terrifying, but we became accustomed to the monkey routine. During
the nights we frequently woke to hear movement in parts of our room,
which we determined was outside of the thin thatch walls. At one
point, I debated whether or not our room was haunted. Monkeys were
constantly trying to get through the screens and run like crazy
through our room. When our little bag of snacks started to disappear,
first suspect was Brian, second the monkeys, but the real culprit was
a little, not so little, mouse. The next night the mouse was no where
to be seen, but a half tailed cat was passed out on our balcony. What
a zoo...
The village of Ubud is the center of
arts and culture in Bali and it seems as though everyone is an artist
whether it be painter, woodcarver, weaver, or stone architect. We
took several long walks in the rice patty countryside and enjoyed
exploring local cuisine at roadside stands. Nasi campur (rice with
vegetables) and Bokso (soup with bean noodles and dumplings) are our
favorite local dishes, both $1/ meal. Temples line the streets and
the architecture is outstanding all around. Monkeys were everywhere,
no joke everywhere. While they are very suspicious creatures, we had
some good laughs watching their odd behaviors, some of which are too
graphic for this email. Our hotel had a guy with a slingshot
constantly patrolling the grounds. On our last morning in Ubud an
undeterred monkey stole Lauren's banana pancakes... which Brian
describes as a first world problem. Debatable. The entire monkey situation was just comical on many levels.
We hired a driver to take us up to
Lovina, a quieter village in North Bali. Along the way, went made
several stops in Central Bali. We stopped at an area home to
lewaks... the rodent creators of kopi lewak coffee . For those of you
not familiar with this delicacy, these cat/rodent-like creatures eat
cherry like fruits and their poo is collected, roasted, and ground
into lewak coffee. Since the lewaks are very selective and only eat
the very best of the cherries, their pebbly poo is very valuable. At
the lewak forest, we also sampled local teas which was a lot of fun.
We also stopped at Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, a very important water
temple on a volcanic lake. Ceremonies asking the gods to water the
rice patties are held here. Approaching Lovina, we drove through
mountain lakes and the clove fields of Munduk. Fine tuning our
negotiating skills has been a task. Nothing has a fixed price and
most people are willing to reduce asking price to a 1/3...
Regardless, we've had victories and defeats in our bartering, but
feel ok about it, especially when everyone walks away thinking they
got a good deal.
Bali is super affordable and we are
excited to be able to spend time here decompressing after our long
sailing journey. We plan to spend another week or two exploring North
and East Bali (and maybe getting more $5 massages) before venturing
to Thailand.
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