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Stefanie's Travel Journal
Well having a driver was great! I actually made it to all the destinations I wanted to see plus an extra one and I had great conversation and learned a lot from my driver, Jusin. Below are a short and long version of my day.
Wednesday and Thursday will be more relaxing days of walking around town, reading, writing, and laying around in the sun so don't expect another journal entry from me until Friday when I travel to Bangkok (via Kuala Lumpur). TTFN (ta ta for now, as Dan and Tigger like to say).
SHORT VERSION:
Today I explored a little bit of central and eastern Bali. I started by heading to Ubud which is in central Bali and is known as the art and cultural center of Bali. The city has been an artists' town for years and is home to many galleries and schools. It has the typical tourist traps but also has some very interesting art, festivals, temples, etc. Because the town is financially well off, relatively, there was also a little less hawking and more regular shopping. I had lunch at Cafe Wayan as my guidebook suggested. I let my server pick my lunch from the list of specials (they were all vegetarian or chicken dishes so I was very safe) and I enjoyed the crunchy garlic chicken with saffron rice.
After Ubud we headed toward Tenganan but Jusin suggested we stop in Klunkung since we were passing by and that was a great idea. Klungkung was previously the capital of the regency and was the scene of a famous mass suicide during the battle against the Dutch colonization. And this site has beautiful art work (story telling actually) on the ceilings of the Hall of Justice. A 'Sistene Chapel" of Bali.
Then we went to Tenganan which is one of only two places in the world (the other is in India) where a difficult double-ikat cloth is woven. This cloth takes months or years to complete and is considered sacred by the Balinese. I was interested in seeing the process as well as purchasing some cloth and I got to do both!
Then I was off to the luxury resort of Amankila overlooking Amuk Bay where I had made dinner reservations. As you can see in my album the view was gorgeous and the food was excellent (I had an amazing salad and then a traditional Indonesian meal of chicken curry and spicy tempeh, which I loved. tempeh is excellent when done well). A great way to end my day exploring Bali's central and eastern regions.
LONG VERSION (really really long!)
Ubud (pronounced oo-bood) There's not too much more to tell you about my day in Ubud that's not in the short version. Its really a town that you need to just walk around and enjoy the art galleries. It was nice to get hassled a little less and see children at school or walking home from school in uniforms rather than selling things. One thing I chose not to do in Ubud is go to the Monkey Forest. There is a temple inside the forest (which the monkeys 'protect') and it would have been interesting but I heard the monkeys are quite bold and almost always try to run off with something (camera, sunglasses, etc) and so since I had limited time I chose to see art and skip the monkeys. I went to two galleries, one of which only displays and sells art made by Balinese women. In all of Indonesia, such a progressive concept seems best in place in Ubud. Oh, another thing I didn't get to see because I didn't stay long enough in Ubud were any of the traditional ceremonies. Whenever one needs to be preformed (cremation or tooth filing or dedication to the gods) the public is invited to watch so Ubud is a great place to see traditional dances and ceremonies for which Bali is famous. This Friday (8/25) there will be a cremation in Ubud. The Balinese believe in reincarnation and see the elaborate cremation ceremonies as a way of freeing the soul from this physical body. Very interesting ceremony.
Klungkung (pronounced kloong-koong). The story on the ceiling of the large structure at Klungkung (the Hall of Justice, where disputes were worked out if they couldn't be handled by the parties themselves) tells the tale of Bima who went looking for his parents in heaven and hell. Balinese, by my understanding, believe in the balance of good and evil in everything. For every good god there is an evil god to go along. So the Balinese need to make offerings for well wishes from the good gods and offerings to keep the bad gods from doing bad things. The Balinese also believe in 'karma phala" or the concept that if you do something good in this life you'll be rewarded in another life or conversely if you are evil you will pay the consequences later. The stories here reflect those concepts.
Tenganan (pronounced tang-on-on) is a Bali Aga village or a traditional village. All Bali Aga villages are arranged in the same compound format and they follow more ancient Balinese religious principals from before Hindu concepts were incorporated with the community and ancestor focused traditions. Community is still a strong concept in Bali and every person belongs to a community (sometimes a subset of a village) and is obligated to help with communal events and also benefits from assistance from the community. Tenganan is not unique in that idea but it is more closed off from other cities and so the concept is a little more directly apparent. I was fascinated by the geringsing (which translates essentially to 'without sickness') cloth both because of how difficult it is to make and because of how the Balinese consider it. The cloth is thought to ward off earthly and supernatural evil (which Balinese are very wary of, remember) and therefore is used to carry babies around during the first 3 months of life (a very sacred time for Balinese children) and worn during ceremonies such as traditional tooth filing ceremonies. The Balinese believe that prior to birth children were in the spiritual realm (or their souls were anyway) and so infants are as close to heaven as possible. So children are not allowed to touch the earth until they are three months old and the geringsing cloth is used to carry and protect them during this important phase of their new life. Toothfiling is an important ceremony which is traditionaly done to mark the onset of puberty but due to expenses is often postponed to just before marriage. The objective of the ceremony is to make all the teeth flat on the bottom so that no teeth are left pointed or uneven. Uneven teeth, and especially the pointy canine teeth, are considered too much like demons and so the ritual is supposed to suppress the six evil qualities of human nature (passion, greed, anger, intoxication, stupidity, and jealousy - I'm not making this up). The geringsing cloth is put over the subject's heart to protect him/her from harm during the ceremony. In Tenganan I also got to see how traditional Balinese books, lontar, are created. The text is carved into palm leaves with a knife and then die from a macadamia nut is rubbed on. The excess is wiped off and the color remains in the cut permanently. The result is very beautiful; kind of like scrimshaw but in a palm leaf instead of a tusk.
Amankila is part of a small chain of luxury resorts around the world. The food and atmosphere were amazing. The company was a little lacking =) (athough my waiter was very nice and did talk to me about the hotel, his job, and local politics such as offshore oil drilling which is currently allowed by the government but strongly protested against by the community and busineses) but the food was among the best I've ever had. To rank among my favorite dinners would need to combine the food and atmosphere with great company so meals I've had in Sienna, San Francisco, and Sacramento still outshine this dinner but on food, atmosphere, and price (very reasonable) alone this was pretty close to the top of my list. So if you're ever in Bali....
In between these places I got to see a lot of Bali as we drove. I saw so many temples, rice farms, and sounvenir stands that I could never keep track of how many. The scenary was beautiful. Bali is very lush and green with lots of volcanoes, rivers, and ravines. There are palm trees everywhere and there is a law in place that a building can not be taller than the palm tree so even in the cities the stores and temples are no more than three stories usually. This allows the landscape to remain the focus and keeps the island more beautiful I think.
Sightseeing was great but I think my conversations with Jusin (pronounced juice-in) really made my day enjoyable. I spent nearly 10 hours with Jusin, minus some time by myself sightseeing or eating, and we had a lot of time to talk. Luckily for me Jusin was friendly and his English skills, although still rough, are far above the average Balinese (Jusin worked in Australia for awhile so I think that helped his English skills, plus his natural desire to improve them and communicate with visitors). Here are some of the things Jusin and I talked about:
- Jusin explained that the traditional flags (mentioned in a previous album) symbolize the volcano and the lake. The long curved part is the volcano (like its erupting I think) and at the end there is a little ball that represents the lake. The Balinese believe that the good gods live in the mountains and volcanoes are their thrones. They believe the evil gods live in the ocean. So the Balinese have an interesting fear of/dislike for the ocean for an island nation.
- Jusin frequently commented that most of the crime in Bali was committed by people who came over from Java. And he talked fairly negatively about the attitudes of the people from Java. The Balinese culture is full of music and art and religion and magic and community. the rest of Indonesia is primarily Muslim now and Jusin perceives the Muslims in the rest of Indonesia (not all Muslims but those in Indonesia as a general rule) as stern and serious and aggressive (an idea I'd concur with based on my little time in Surabaya). Bali's relationship with the rest of Indonesia is interesting. Jakarta (on Java) is the capital but Bali is more appealing to anyone outside Indonesia so Jusin said whenever there is a significant political event like a conference or a foreign dignitary comes to visit, like Bush or Reagan, they come to Bali and the Indonesian president comes to Bali to meet them. Jusin said that if any crime happened in Bali it was someone from Java (which I'm sure is not an absolute truth but may be statistically more likely). Although Balinese do not seem financially well off by any means, tourism is strong here and many out of work people from the rest of Indonesia come here looking for work and if they can't find work they turn to crime. Jusin says it is easy, for him, to tell the difference between a Balinese and another Indonesian and when two Balinese see each other they always speak in Balinese instead of the official language of Indonesian. They will get more respect from Balinese that way. The Balinese seem to have some disdain for the rest of Indonesia but according to Jusin there are no movements for independence.
- Another thing Jusin saw as a big difference between Bali and the rest of the country was the view of America. Jusin does not understand why so many of the other Indonesians dislike America and like Osama bin Laden. He said "I don't see any products from Osama bin Laden sold here". Essentially he was saying that American products, such as the Hyatt and McDonalds (called McD by everyone here - but not really very popular and kind of too expensive) and KFC (called Kentucky by everyone and oddly popular here) provide jobs for Indonesians and improves their quality of life whereas Osama Bin Ladin provides no jobs, just complaints.
- Jusin also likes having foreign businesses like the large hotel chains come to Bali because he says they bring some good customs to teach the Balinese, like cleanliness. In Surabaya the gutters are all full of trash and I mentioned the difference in Bali and he said that naturally the Balinese, like all Indonesians, are inclined to throw their trash anywhere but since more foreign companies came in over the years the Balinese have learned to be neater, which he likes better. I still saw some litter when I ran along the beach past the town and into the local villages but even there it was nothing like in Surabaya
- I asked if Jusin had siblings and he said he is one of 8 kids and all his siblings and their spouses live at his father's place to save money. He said that is hard because the women fight sometimes (this is what he said =) ) but it was necessary. He'd prefer to get his own place but I don't think that will happen.
- Jusin really got excited when he started talking about his youngest daughter, Debbie (he only has two children which is more common these days as everywhere with the cost of large families). Debbie is the only Balinese woman picked to play soccer/football for the Indonesian team (In a largely Muslim country women's football is not hugely popular so its impressive they field a team at all. I looked it up and they are ranked 64th in the world and don't even have a regular coach or much of a status in their own country but stil they are out there!). Debbie has gotten to live and play in Jakarta for four months and travel for tournaments to Thailand and Vietnam among other places. Jusin emphasized how great it was that he didn't have to pay for these trips =) And Debbie is also an award winning discus thrower and won awards for guitar playing and drum playing. She regularly plays in restaurants and bars on the island when she is home from her travels. And her new interest is motorbike racing. Jusin was very proud of Debbie and talked about how the locals say she takes after her dad with her love of traveling. I liked how proud he was of her and how supportive he was of the things she did even though they were very unconvential - like she is the only female player of a traditional Balinese musical instrument that is historically only played by men.
- Jusin used to work in Australia when he was younger. He would like to still be working there but he is not a citizen and so could only get so many work visas. He said the money was much better there and he enjoyed seeing Australia.
- Jusin did a great impression of Australians talking. It is hard to explain in text but it was quite funny because he has such a heavy accent and it is difficult to understand and follow his English as it was but somehow he was easily able to do an Australian accent on top of all that when he wanted to. It made me laugh out loud it was so accurate. He was talking about how he likes speaking English with Americans better because they speak clearly. Australians were hard to understand because, as he says, they are lazy and talk as short as possible and run all their words together (his view, not mine). He does like Australians a lot but he says they are hard to understand and confuse the Balinese with the way they talk. (Australia is a very short flight from Bali and so there are a lot of Australian tourists in Bali)
- There are a ton of Italian restaurants in Bali which surprised me (probably the most common after Indonesian and Indian restaurants) so I asked Jusin if the Balinese really like Italian food. He said no, not at all but they are for the tourists. Apparently there are a lot of European tourists I guess. (Incidentally, I tried a pizza one day and you should definitely skip the Italian food in Bali)
- We talked about the Balinese love of kites but Jusin said its so easy to fly a kite here because its so windy that they just put the kite up, tie it to a tree, and leave it all day. He liked better to watch the Americans who come to the kite competitions (held regularly on Bali - these sound reallly fun) because they bring more elaborate kites and fly them with two hands and it is much more active.
- And I was fascinated to learn that Jusin had to bribe two police officers while we were out. He said that this is very common. In his words when he drives someone like me (a white woman, obviously a tourist) he is an easy target. The police assume he is flush with money (which of course he's not - he works for an agency and so does not keep what I paid him) and so after he parks and I leave they approach him and require a bribe. He said they never do it when I'm with him because they don't want to have it written up in the paper and discourage tourism (obviously I was just too easy of a target to resist the day before!) but its very commonplace and just easier to pay them.
- Jusin asked me lots of questions too and we talked about how it was unusual for a woman to be traveling alone and why was I doing that and did I enjoy it. We agreed there are some conveniences to traveling alone (like doing what you want when you want) but that its more fun to travel with someone you like. And we talked a little about my life at home, what I might do for a career next, etc. Jusin had questions about America and was shocked to learn it takes nearly 5 hours to fly from New York to California (that was hard for him to imagine since he could fly to Australia in 3 hours). And at the end of the day Jusin gave me some fatherly advice about not walking around in certain places at night (which I agreed was a good idea and promised to follow).
So I had a great day and learned alot about the culture, geography, and everyday life in Bali.
PS - sorry there is no picture of Jusin in today's album. That is a huge oversight since he played a huge part in my enjoyment with today. I'll take one on Friday when he takes me to the airport!
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