Goboogo

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Reef diving off shore and a nervous massage (Pemuteran, Bali)

We had a pretty slow day today. We met a nice turtle, went diving, and had a massage. The massage happened to be the first of my life, and it was strange having some random Balinese lady rubbing my buns. I left feeling a little beaten, perhaps a little scarred even, but I guess it was a hell of a $15 massage. Kristin enjoyed her third massage of the journey and was quick to book a facial for both while she had me at the spa. Can't wait to have my lobes rubbed on tomorrow by indonesian man-servants.

The dive shop we booked our dive through runs a breeding and rescue program for leather back sea turtles. This is how we met Boomer. Boomer was born in the mid nineties, raised by the dive shop, and later released into the wild. The day he was released, he returned later in the evening for a snack. Since this day, he comes and goes as he pleases, stopping by for free room and board whenever he can. Our encounter with Boomer was a pleasanet one. He likes to have his fins and head rubbed, and lucky for Boomer, Kristin likes to rub the fins and head of sea turltes. He amused us by making strange turtle noises and blowing water out of his little snout.

Our dive was sort of a failure. Kristin could not equalize her ears due to sinus troubles, so she had to surface when we got down to about 40 feet. I enjoyed the sights at the bottom of the North Bali Sea, and we found out later upon surfacing that a shark was even in our midst, watching us throughout the dive. Unfortunately, our dive group missed his cameo appearance, though the other group got some great pictures of the beast. I did see a gigantic sea slug the size of a fat man's arm, and it hung just so. We saw lots of strange sights, and it is too bad that Kristin was too congested to share the experience. It is a serioius matter diving with sinus problems, so I canceled our dive tomorrow for Menjangen Island. We are going to snorkel instead, which will still be great.

We had a great dinner a few hours after our dive. We both ordered asian chicken dishes, and mine was steamed in a banana leaf stuffed with Balinese herbs and spices. It was really delicious. Kristin had a grilled chicken breast with steamed rice and vegetables. After our meal, it was time for my fate at the spa. We had a tradional Balinese massage, and I was very apprehensive about the procession of events leading up to and including the point when the masseuese demanded I remove my clothes. No turning back now I thought, and moved to embrace the massage whole-heartedly. Once you are making a messy pile of your own clothes on a teak floor, the time has come to remove any cognitive dissonance. I have never had someone invade my personal space more vigilantly and completey. It was a weird experience to have a first massage, enjoyable, frightening, and a little on the strange side. I would totally do it again.

Well, we are calling it a day. I just took a shower in our open air real planetarium shower, still can't believe the visibility of stars here. What follows is a collection of photos from our day, lots of pictures from the offshore reef.

A snaky fellow in the shallows

Some sea urchins

Hustle and Bustle of rush hour traffic

Multiple family housing

Kristin just saw one of the arms, and I saw her take off towards the

shore, not stopping until she was on dry land. She thought it was a

blue snake.

This fish was pretty curious, kept following us around

Not a bad sight to surface to

The outskirts of the reef

Some more Pemuteran residents

Pretty fish that failed to accommodate me with a good angle

Yellow and Blue

More fishies

From our comf pool

The Notorious N.A.P.

On our way to dive

Boomer

Boomer was such a friendly turtle

Likes to have his head scrubbed

Enjoying a Mocktail

My dinner, chicken steamed in a banana leaf

Hyperventilating with nervousness before the massage

Friday, July 17, 2009

The Road to West Bali

One of the things that is immediately evident in Bali is the thickness of their culture. It is everywhere. Beyond the rolling beaches, great surf, towering mountains, and luscious rice fields is a culture so intricate and rich with detail that it is impossible not to admire.

Our driver for the day, Gusti, was waiting for us outside of our villa at 8am. Gusti has 3 kids aged 22, 17, and 11, and is full of life. He would be giving us a crash course in Balienese language and culture as well as driving us through a great deal of Bali. Our destination was Pemuteran in the west, a less populated area of Bali about 4 hours from the nearest airport. We decided to spend some time in west Bali because it is far from civilization and seemed very laid back. It also has soft black sand beaches, world class diving, and Bali's national park. On our way to the first temple of the day, we witnessed a public funeral procession and it seemed like the whole village had shown up. Those in attendance must wear black, and I even saw a hipster Balinese young man wearing a black vintage Guns and Roses shirt. We arrived at our first temple Pura Taman Ayun, which means interesting garden. The temple was filled with tiered buildings, and like much of the Balinese culture, the tiers are filled with meaning. The buildings have 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, or 2 tiers. 5 through 11 all represent mountains in Bali that are connected to their religion. 3 tiers stand for the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, and 2 tiers stand for good and evil. Gusti was telling Kristin and I about all of these details regarding the Balinese Hindu faith when he realized that we are not married. He told me that I am lucky, need to marry Kristin, and have 2 kids. Talk about forward.

I could go on with a ton of symbols and gestures that make up the Bali faith, but such a treatment would need to be bound and covered as it would be quite the lengthy tome. At this point, I want to talk about Balinese cock fighting. Cockfighting in Bali takes place at the temple complexes. The fights are generally village versus village, with the hosting temple, owners of the participants, and villages all sharing in the profits of the winner. The hosting temple gets 10% of the pot, and the owner and owner's village share in the remaining 90% of the winnings.

After pondering what seemed like an honorable way to pit rabid and very mean birds against each other, we ascended into the mountains. Our next stop, Ulu Danu Bratan Temple, is a very picturesque temple that is partially on Lake Bratan. I asked Gusti about the huge Banyan trees that seem to grow on all of the temple grounds, and he told me that they just grow there. All the temples have one huge banyan tree and they just sort of sprout up at holy sites. No one plants them, and when one dies, another sprouts. We were able to witness a family prayer procession at Ulu Danu and it was really interesting. Kristin and I both have very close families, so we really like the notion of an entire extended family all getting together to pray at their mother temple. Gusti told us that ever family has a mother temple. In addition to this, each village possesses a big temple and each home has a smaller one.

At this point, Kristin and I have begun to pick up a few pieces of Bhasa Indonesian and Balinese, which are both spoken in Bali. We realized early in our trip that we are sort of informal ambassadors for America, so we try and be as cordial and kind as possible to every person that we meet. This includes learning some of the language basics because people really appreciate the gesture of taking an interest in their language and culture. Gusti was giving us a huge run through and making us test it out on chance wayfarers. We had some successful exchanges, but when the conversations became a little too ambitious, we would wilt a little in the face of the pressure.

We stopped off at a huge waterfall, and luckily, we had it all to ourselves. Since it was too cold to swim, we let the falls just sort of douse us in mist. We had a very relaxing time at the waterfall, and waited a bit to make the arduous climb back up to our car.

Our hotel in West Bali, The Amertha Villas, is a place of perfection. It is as if someone climbed into our heads and built the best possible place for us. It is in the middle of nowhere on the North Bali Sea with mountains dramatically rising up behind the resort. We are located right on the beach, which has an offshore reef about 20 feet into the water.

After checking in and snorkeling for an hour, we decided to celebrate our year and a half anniversary with dinner on the beach. The stars were out in the Bali sky tonight, and they set the perfect backdrop for our dinner, with the soundtrack of waves gently lapping the shores. For desert, we ordered an ice cream sandwich, and they gave it a rather literal treatment. They served us 3 scoops of ice cream, 1 chocolate, 1 strawberry, and 1 vanilla, all nestled between two toasted pieces of whole wheat bread. Yea, it was not any good.