Feb 2008

Ubud
Our next stop was Ubud. This is away from the beach, towards the center of the island.

On the way from Seminyak to Ubud, we made a few stops at touristy silver, wood working businesses. The stuff that tour buses want you to believe is a vacation. Since we were on our own, we looked quickly and forged ahead. We did make a good stop at the Bali Bird Park. Patty was swarmed. Evita would be jealous.

And eventually we arrived in Ubud.

Little did we know this would be our favorite location in Bali. Ubud is towards the center of the island. Far from the intense tourism of Juta and Seminyak. There one can unwind in rice paddy walks, visit temples, eat well and make a good, relaxing vacation of it all.

During our 4.5 days (4 nights) there, we accomplished most of that, but certainly not the relaxing. We've yet to master how to squeeze in time to relax.

Here's the view from our hotel window. The dark volcanic looking thing is the volcano in Bali.

We visited the local palace and template during our first evening. Here's Patty desecrating something likely highly religious.

We took the time to try out a Balinese cooking school. We tried the LakaLeke cooking school close to the Alam Shanti hotel. This was one of the highlights of the trip.

Our instructor was, of course, Balinese. And he took Balinese gastronomical traditions to heart. We started everything with fresh ingredients from the garden. Everything was ground by hand using a mortar and pestle. The kitchen was open-air and we were the only students. The pictures will hopefully convey how wonderful everything smelled and tasted. In particular, for Renato, the chef made several of the dishes firey hot. It was kind of a religious experience for him. And for Patty the equivalent epiphany was the banana desert. Small banana dipped in simple batter. Boiled with a vanilla bean and then coconut shavings on top. It was divine.

Otherwise, food in general hasn't been particularly remarkable. Its good. Its fresh. Its cheap. That's about it. Both of us have really like the $1 fruit smoothies. Banana and pineapple in particular. Ren's enjoying spicy food, though Balinese food certainly isn't spicey and more than a few waiters have been surprised with how much chili he's consumed. Patty's favorites so far, beyond the banana desert, have been a few of the Western food restaurants we tried. Her staple was Mie Goreng (fried rice with stuff). We developed the Mie Goreng index in Bali – a quick way to see how expensive or cheap a new restaurant was.

Among the many highlights was our walk through the rice paddy. The falling rain added to the mystical quality of the morning

Ran into a few monkeys in town.

This one was swinging around wildly.

And joined in a hindu festival celebrating the approach of Nepi - Hindu new year.

Panestanan:
Patty and I ventured into two small towns after enjoying Ubud. One was Panastenan --a short day trip from Ubub -- the other a new destination on the other side of the volcano's mountain. More about that later.

Panastenan was our effort to go "real" Bali... a little further away from congestion. It was just that. Gorgeous rice paddies. Beautiful scenery. Just over all wonderful. At least, it would have been if we had rented a scooter. :-) Rice paddies are terraced. They feature intricate irrigation systems that depend on gravity. That means hills. That means our choice of locomotion -- the bicycle -- was our undoing. Luckily, we did survive the trip.

Patty during happier times :-)

Besakih
Leaving Ubud, we visited what's probably the largest and most significant temple area in Bali, Besakih. It was much grander than we anticipated -- we were impressed by the size of the temple area. And it was quite interesting to learn that they used some of the stones that came from the volcano explosions on the island.

Singapore was nice, but it was cheating. Staying with family, being ferried around in a convertible Audi and feeling like special guests at a local sat night party/gathering... that's cheating. And that's over now.

We've arrived in Bali where we know no one nor anything. Its all up to us.

Our hotel.

We were immediately struck by endless buzz, smoke and "beep-beep" horns along the moped-filled streets. You hear mopeds and scooters honking everywhere in Bali. Patty and I weren't ready for it. We had idyllic visions of pretty, serene beaches, temples and forests. Rice farming, right? Seems like the Balinese have other plans. They've moved on and are working hard to advance their lives. So this is the "real" Bali -- scooters, congestion, trash on the streets, as well as beautiful ceremonies, people with great smiles, amazing history and everything in between. Its life moving forwards here.

Settled-in, we began the tourism by visiting Tanah Lot. Patty will tell us about it later. I'm just adding some cool pictures.

On the same day, we continued to Nusa Dua where we beached a bit

Then lunch at Jimbaran, a fishing village. A great place to eat.

then sunset and a cacophonous holy ritual. That's probably the one and only we'll attend.

Some hungry little monkeys around us.

Hi-a folks. We were on-board and ready to go, but the pilot announced a short delay. Nothing to worry about. Naturally, the flight was canceled about 2 hrs later. Thanks United. Good work.

Patty and I made it to Singapore relatively unscathed 24 hours later. We used the extra time in California to complete a few more mundane travel prep tasks. And then we were off.

First stop in Asia was Singapore! As land came into sight, I pulled down hard on the bus-stop signal cord and shortly after we touched ground. Singapore was a quick visit for us. We hung out with Marc Naidu and girlfriend Vanda. Marc was nice to host us at his swanky flat. We also saw Diann, boyfriend Andy and Mr. & Mrs. Naidu.

We did the standard touristy stuff one does in Singapore. Arab street, China town, Little India. And a Singapore Sling at the Raffles.

Breakfast at Botanical Garden

Patty enjoying some dumplings

Ren at the Raffles