The Long Way Home: Bali

We spent 5 days in Bali, one of our longest stops on the trip. Bali, a relatively small volcanic island in the Indonesian archipelago with 6 million inhabitants, has become a pretty standard vacation destination for Australians and South-East Asians, and has become known for it’s white sand beaches, ornate and enormous temple complexes, and yoga retreats. We did almost none of those things, and fled the touristy southern part of the island almost immediately to a 12-room beach hotel on the north side of the island.

We were treated to a 3.5 hour drive over bumpy winding roads crossing the central spine of the island, and got some amazing views of one of the two main volcanoes on the island. We eventually arrived at our nearly-deserted resort after dark with hungry kids. Whoops!

The next day we got our bearings, and Michael made inquiries about local scuba diving options. After breakfast and some decompression time we hiked up the black sand beach to explore! Google showed a couple of other small resorts and retreat centers along this strip of shoreline, but they all appeared to be either closed up for the season or booked for private events. A ways down the beach we found a religious ritual in progress, and one of the men at the back minding children chatted with us a bit. This was the Balinese version of a christening, blessing a new baby.

Sadly, no boat ride for us.

Although Indonesia is predominantly a Muslim country, each island was allowed to choose it’s own “official” religion. Bali voted for Hindu, however it is a Hinduism heavily flavored with elements of Chinese ancestor worship, and native animism that places special emphasis on the spirits of the volcanoes and the ocean. Statues and pedestals are wrapped in a black and white plaid cloth to represent the “duality” and many of the ornately carved pedestals are left empty as a reminder that spirits are everywhere.

Family shrines and temples are everywhere.

Literally everywhere.

We hiked up the street that led to the oceanfront worship area and into the town of Bondalem, where we grabbed some water from a shop and met Potok, who spoke a fair amount of English and was a bit of a local tour guide and booster. He walked with us up to the intersection with the main road and pointed out the market (closed now, only open from 4 til 8 AM), the local football field (He was the coach of the team, and they had a match against the neighboring town the next day), and invited us to a wedding (a local boy was marrying a girl from a few towns over and the big ceremony was the next morning). He also introduced us to the owner of a “warung”, a sort of Indonesian fast-food stall where they have prepared food that they serve over rice. We all got some delicious lunch (though we all avoided the chicken blood this time) and some locally-produced sodas out of a refrigerator.

Not even a little lost.

Potok's workout routine got a little tougher

Later that evening we strolled along the beach to watch the sunset and caught another (much larger) religious ritual at the small temple near the resort. This was part of the wedding, the groom’s family had removed their idols from the family temple and brought it down to the sea god shrine to be purified before the wedding ceremony the next day.

Sea God temple on the left, sea on the right.

Day 2 we split up in the morning, Michael went diving to explore a shipwreck and Elizabeth took the kids to a Balinese wedding!

Michael’s dive guide was Adhi, a local who had grown up in Bondalem but then spent 9 years in the USA working on various cruise lines. In addition to dive-related activities (he guides but also volunteers with local conservation efforts planting and maintaining coral gardens) he was also connected to the local archeology and anthropology scene, and while we were driving back from the dive he got a call from a Canadian grad student asking if he could help her with a project to catalog local indigenous architecture. He also explained that although there is some farming on this side of the island (Bali, incidentally, is one of the first places where oranges were cultivated outside of China) most of the economy is based on fishing, with tourism and cock-fighting bookkeeping (this may have been a communication problem) as secondary industries.

Michael dove at the reef that was once the US Army Transport Liberty, a cargo ship in World War 2 that was torpedoed off the coast of Bali in 1942. The crew ran it aground to evacuate, and the ship stayed there until 1967 when a volcanic eruption and subsequent earthquake caused it to slide into the ocean, where it now lies on its side in about 25 meters of water. The ship itself was 150 meters long and 20 meters wide, and turned out to be a great structure for coral to grow on! Michael and his guide were able to explore the length of the wreck, swim through the cargo compartment, and even see a sea turtle!

Meanwhile, Potok took Elizabeth and the kids to a local wedding. They gave a small gift, and were welcomed with local treats and very sweet tea, then squeezed ourselves in wherever we could find space - right next to the high priest. Apparently it is not unusual for tourists to join in these events, and on their way in they waved to the other westerners, who they had seen around the resort earlier that morning.

While the bridal couple prepared themselves in a private room, the high priest chanted and blessed everything and was handed innumerable objects by his helpers. At the same time Potok's uncle sang/chanted into a microphone (with a megaphone for back-up in case of power outage), and the rest of the guests chatted and ate. Eventually the priests blessed the compound with fruit, and grain, and a sacred chicken and duck, and the couple emerged to sit in front of the priest. Potok explained that the bride is usually expecting and the priest blessed the man to help him transition from wild bachelor to responsible family provider.

At some point, the signal went out that it was time to eat "lunch" (this was 9:30 AM) - which was a great buffet spread of what we can only assume are Balinese local dishes. By this time, Middle child and Danger Monkey had wandered off with Potok to play with the baby chickens being raised behind the kitchen building. By the time lunch was finished, the ceremony seemed to be concluding, and we all walked back to the resort to meet up with Michael.

That afternoon Michael taught the kids how to snorkel in the pool, and then most of us (Her Pineapple Majesty chose to remain back in the room) went to the Bondalem United FC soccer match! It cost 10,000 Indonesian Rupiah for the four of us to attend (about 80 US cents), we picked up some sodas from a woman selling them out of a cooler, and found a place to sit on the edge of the flood prevention gutter behind the away team goal. The home team won, and there was much rejoicing.

This end stays in the air.  If it goes in the water you are going to have a bad time.

A lovely day for football

Afterwards we chatted with a policeman who tried to convince Michael to buy some land up the hill (“Prices are really cheap now because corruption is down... no more money laundering!”) and then strolled back along the beach. Back at the resort, we ate almost an entire barracuda.

Do the sunset dance!

This sunset was below average, according to the locals.

Not so scary now!

On day 3, Michael and the big kids got out early before breakfast while the tide was still up but before the surf got heavy to go snorkeling. They saw angelfish, sea stars, and butterfly fish right off the beach in front of the resort’s restaurant.

After breakfast, Elizabeth, Michael and Danger Monkey hiked the other way on the beach to see what they could see. This direction there were a couple of fishing villages with fishermen coming in from their night’s work. They used lights attached to their outrigger boats to attract fish and catch them with nets. These were the guys who had caught our barracuda dinner from the day before, and Danger Monkey attracted a lot of attention from the village children. We eventually cut inland and wound our way through the foot-and-motorbike tracks back towards the main part of town. Each household had a walled compound that included their family shrine. Although they practice cremation and then bury the ashes (we declined an invitation to a funeral, but the process was explained to us by Potok), they believe the spirits of their ancestors reside in the statues placed in their shrine.

Beautiful!  And so is the weather!

Only a little bit lost.

We eventually found our way back to the resort and had a relaxing afternoon and evening. After dinner and packing, we launched (biodegradable!) sky lanterns over the ocean as part of the resort’s “last night” ritual. It was a great way to cap off an amazing stay.

Make a wish!

The next day we had another 3.5 hour bumpy car ride (this time with a child throwing up!) back to the airport for our flight to Kota Kinabalu, on Malaysian Borneo!