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I went to Bali almost by accident. I had been planning to go to Irian Jaya for a long time and my "home base" was on Guam, so I started looking at how to go between Guam and Irian Jaya. Well, the only airline that had a direct flight from Guam to Indonesia was Continental Micronesia, or "Air Mike". The other airlines went on round-about routes through Taiwan, Hongkong or whatever, and the other airlines cost hundreds of dollars more than Air Mike. Air Mike had a direct flight to Indonesia, landing at Denpasar, Bali.
I started to research Bali. The more I looked into Bali, the more I liked it. The place is just cool. As an example, the people are Hindu and for the most part would never dream of stealing, even from a rich tourist. That would be bad karma, right? But they seem to love cockfights and eat meat, including beef and pork. They have a special season for flying kites. These guys are master surfers, too. They're just fun-loving people.
And in this corner... A rooster awaits his turn in the cockfight
Bali is a pretty country with mountians and lakes, terraced rice fields, painting and sculpture, plus interesting traditional dance. Colors are bright and gaudy, and stonework is highly detailed. One morning I went to breakfast early and there were guys climbing trees all around me. I guess they get up early to gather brightly-colored blossoms from the trees for temple offerings and whatnot. Every day, there were fresh flowers on the centerpiece of the table on my patio. The place is quite a sight.
There are temples everywhere. Every house has a temple, as far as I could see, and neighborhoods have community temples, as well. There are important temples in every region. Temples are highly decorated and tradition requires special dress and protocol for entrance to temple compounds. I was politely asked to leave an alley behind a temple because I was wearing shorts. Offerings are food items, flowers and other things such as incense. At daybreak, you see people going from place to place with little baskets that have a few grains of rice, maybe a slice of fruit, a flower or two and a few sticks of incense. These baskets are placed on altars and even in front of doorsteps as gifts to the gods. It's hard to explain, really, because it's so different from western experience. I respect them for their devotion, and it was good to see people who can worship in their own way without trying to convert the pagans or pass the plate.
My first stop was in the seaside village of Sanur. I stayed at a place called, and I'm not making this up, the Swastica Bungalows. Apparently, the swastica is an important symbol to the Balinese that pre-dates the Third Reich. The hotel is close to the sea and very nice. It's cheap, too, and has a nice pool. While I was in Sanur I went diving with Crystal Divers.
A pair of Moorish Idols
The diving was very nice. We had to wade out to the boat, with no dock or pier. When the tide's in the boat anchors about fifty yards offshore. The boats are odd, too. They're typically wooden affairs with outriggers on both sides. We went out to a couple of islands off to the east of Bali, called Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan. The diving can be called "Indonesian average", which is quite good. The water was comfortably warm and there was lots of colorful marine life. It was a good day of diving.
On the way back, the crew caught a Mahi-mahi on a handline. That provided some excitement for a while. The tide was out when we came back to Sanur and we had to weave between all the fishermen standing out in the shallows, then we dropped anchor a long way from shore and waded in. I was ready for a cold Bintang beer and a bite to eat by the time I got back to the hotel.
The next day I left for Ubud, a town up in the hills to the north-east of Sanur. Ubud is called Bali's center for "cultural tourism", if you can believe that. Ubud has long been an art colony and there are traditional dances and shadow-pupet plays going on fairly regularly. I had wanted to see a dance but never got the chance. I stayed at a hotel called the Tegal Sari at the outskirts of town above the Monkey Forest.
The Tegal Sari wasn't a great experience for me, although it did have a nice pool surrounded by rice fields. There were a bunch of little problems, like getting out of the shower to find that the staff had taken all the towels away for some unexplained reason. I had arranged for a car and driver to see the sights around Bali but he never showed up. I found out after I got back to the USA that the driver had called the hotel and was told that nobody was registered under my name, although the tour company that booked me into the hotel had no trouble getting through.
I should probably take the time explain what the Monkey Forest is. The Monkey Forest is kind of a cross between a city park and a forest preserve. Bali is densely populated and most of the land that is unoccupied by humans is under cultivation. But there are a few spots that have been set aside as open space and the Monkey Forest is one of those spots. There are a few temples in the Monkey Forest and there are troops of monkeys living around there, as well. The monkeys are well fed by the tourists, and they're tricksters, too. Monkeys are known to swipe food and purses from passers by. I saw an American girl running around in a panic because a monkey had scampered off with her camera. There is lots of stonework in the park, with sculptures everywhere and functional structures like bridges that are ornately carved from stone.
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