Bali Batik

In Bali, we got sucked into exactly the kind of look-and-buy “workshop” tour that we hoped to avoid.  We had rented a tiny villa outside Ubud—8 minutes outside, by car, but about 45 minutes on foot.  We had prearranged a transfer from the airport to the villa through the owner, and the driver lived nearby, and was available for day trips, or just a drive into town.  The driver seemed great, and after he dropped us off, we arranged a day trip for the next day, to see some of the sights around Ubud.  We had an idea of what that was going to be like; it did not overlap much with his idea of what it would be like, and his fluency in English seemed to decline whenever we were trying to communicate that we weren’t interested in buying paintings, sculptures, furniture, etc.  Our first stop was at a painting factory, where the demonstration portion was essentially paint by the number.  After walking around the gallery in horrified stupor, we tried again to explain what we wanted to do.  Our next stop was at a bird and reptile park, which sounded good, but wasn’t—imagine a petting zoo from the early 70s.  We won’t dignify it with any more description.  We had a quick conference together on how we’d turn the day around, and went back to the driver, resolute.  David has since ridden on a donkey, and the struggle for directional control is not that dissimilar—if you are persistent, vigilant, and quick to react, you can mostly go where you want, at the speed you want.  Tour guides don’t have ears that rotate towards the tasty greens—or passing donkey flesh--they want to chew on, so that makes them a little harder to anticipate than donkeys.

However, we did get to see a batik fabric workshop that we really were interested in.  Aside from our stop at a grocery store, it was the only redeeming factor in his tour. 

Handmade batik is beautiful; it was neat to see the process in person:

Bali: Snapshots

Meals of Asia

The next installment in our meals around the world includes: Bali, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.  We had some amazing meals, in Hong Kong and Vietnam in particular.  We were no strangers to Asian cuisine, but were surprised by the difference that local ingredients and regional variations made.  We were also surprised by the variety of delicious, cheap fruit smoothies, and you'll see we had them with most meals.  That may be what we miss most!

Here is the slideshow version:

Bali Eco Cycle Tour:

In Bali, we signed up for a bicycle day tour that sounded like it was right up our alley: breakfast at a volcano, cycling, touring spice and fruit plantations, seeing coffee made, riding through rice fields, and seeing life inside one of the family compounds.  Several companies offered similar tours, but the original, and best reviewed was Bali Budaya’s Eco Cycling tour.  We had a great time with them!

Bali Dancing

If you ever end up in Ubud, Bali, you won't get more than three steps down the street before someone asks you if you want to "see the dancing?"  What they're referring to is the variety Balinese dances that are performed at the palace in Ubud every night of the week. Each night a different troupe of dancers performs somewhere around 5 dances in front of the beautiful backdrop of the Palace doors in the courtyard.

Bali: East Coast Discovery

One of our days we stayed in Sanur we took a day drip of Eastern Bali that included snorkeling, a water palace and a bat temple.  We had the tour guide to ourselves, as nobody else had booked the same tour, which allowed us some flexibility on skipping things we weren't as interested in.

Bali: Sacred Monkey Forest

The Sacred Monkey Forest at the edge of town in Ubud can be a dangerous place. Many of the macaques are so habituated to people feeding them that they get somewhat aggressive in trying to get it from tourists (women sell bananas and other fruits and vegetables at the entrances). But mostly once they have something to eat (and they are fed by the staff) they’re happy to hang out, munch on some cucumbers or taro, and groom each other. In many ways, any trouble in the forest is just what you brought with you.  Namely food or water.  If the macaques can see either, they’ll try to get it, and chances are good they’ll succeed.  We didn’t have any problems; we simply kept our water hidden in our bags, and didn’t bring any food in.

Postcard: Bali

Remnants of an offering, Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, Ubud Bali.

Goodbye Bali, Hello Singapore

While Singapore appears to have plumeria too, we’ll miss finding blossoms on the sidewalk everywhere as we walk.  We’ll miss the beautiful, friendly locals, and the ornate and ancient feeling buildings on every street.  But we’re excited to explore Singapore now.  It’s just waking up.