Bali - Day 2

Perhaps I was a bit overly enthralled yesterday in my blog. Perhaps not...I still love it here.
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We decided to hire a guide for the day who would take us wherever we wanted to go and also recommend some sights to experience around Bali. Our guide, Made (pronounce ma-day) picked us up after breakfast and first took us into Ubud to see a short program/play of Balinesian dancing that told one of the two Hindu epic religious stories. Even with a sheet of paper that described what was going on, we still had to use our imagination to guess at what was happening. The show featured perhaps 25 actors/dancers and was accompanied by a fantastic 22 piece orchestra. It was quite entertaining, and the performers seemed to do a lot of detailed hand wriggling and finger splaying while decked out in highly ornate costumes and face paints. But I still had no idea what the story was all about. Afterwards, Made told us what it was about, but I still didn't get it.

Following the show we set out on a road trip to the volcano. Normally, I'd say the name of the volcano, I'd say the city it was near, I might mention the road we travelled and perhaps use a bunch of other proper nouns. But the sparse road signage, the unusual combination of letters, and the somewhat cryptic "English" that Made used made it difficult to pinpoint where we were. So I can only say stuff like: we went on a two lane road through a bunch of villages toward a volcano near a big lake.

Yesterday, From the airport in Denpasar we came North to Ubud, and the entire terrain was predominantly flat. But as we struck out further North after the show, we began a 2 hour journey that had us rising in elevation nearly the whole way. About half way to the volcano, we pulled to the side of the road to view some of the beautiful tiered rice paddies that are seen in many of the postcards of Bali. They were quite striking, but it is difficult to conceive of the hard lifestyle the farmers have to raise their crops and eek out a living.

During this stop, we encountered for the first time the small crowds of villagers that surround you trying desperately to sell tourists their handmade wares. As soon as we stepped out of the car, small boys to elderly women confront you with items the most common of which were sarongs (delicate woven dyed fabrics), wooden teak baskets that could hold fruits, carved teak masks of their gods, and brilliant white carved things that we weren't sure what they were, but perhaps they were supposed to be made of elephant tusks. The sellers only words were the prices in dollars or rupiahs they wanted for them. We were in need of some sarongs for our next destination at a temple, so we picked up 8 of them for an average price around $5 (50,000 rupiah) each. After enjoying the scenery, and as we were opening the car doors to resume the trip, the prices plummeted and the vendors were offering the same objects for about 90% less than their first stated price. We would run into many of these hordes for the rest of the day and it becomes quickly tiresome to repeatedly turn them down...though I might pick up a teak fruit basket for a buck or two next time we are approached, and just before closing the car door.

Before we got to the temple, we stopped for a buffet lunch where the food was good, but the view was what we were paying for. The tourist trap eatery was perched on a mountain rim with an inspiring view of the volcano. The volcano is an active volcano (any volcano is deemed active if it erupted withing the last 15,000 years) and it had large eruption in 1918 and 1923, and most recently blew off steam in 1997. While I've spent some time around volcano calderas like Yellowstone and the one in Big Bend, this volcano has the shape that most would imagine a volcano to look like such as the one in Joe Verses the Volcano. In fact, we were told that Julia Roberts was recently here filming for an upcoming movie release.

The next stop was the aforementioned temple, the volcano's temple, which is the second largest temple in Bali. After donning our sarongs, pushing through the vendors, and paying our donation fee, we entered the temple. It was ok. A temple here consists of 3 concentric courtyards, separated by low walls with some worshiping altars in the innermost courtyard. It's primarily an outdoor place and we never had a roof over our heads. We took our photos, strolled around the grounds and exited into the same throng of vendors we had repeatedly rejected on the way in.

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Then we drove down to the base of the volcano. An hour and a half uphill hike would have had us peering into the volcano, and I surely would have done this if I were alone. But the younguns (ReMax) were a bit testy and we decided to begin the return journey back to Ubud.

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Besides enjoying the scenery, and it is all enjoyable because it is so different than anything in the U.S., we made only one stop at a Bali coffee plantation and shop. After sampling various strongly caffeinated beverages, the tastiest of which was the ginseng coffee, Dix pick up a stash of the Bali coffee that is now prized by the celebs in L.A. What makes this coffee unique and expensive is that the coffee beans have been ingested by a ferocious ferret like animal and pooped out whole. They are then washed and packaged for sale. I really can't think of another consumable product that has been pooped...though I'm not sure how the honey from bees is created.

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The day's road trip ended around 4PM, we sent our hosts at the Villa into town to pick us up some to go food and we all lazily swam around in the pool for a while to counter the heat and humidity of the afternoon.

A surreal day of pleasure, though I am not sure whether we will be venturing out for another road trip. There seems to be quite enough around the Ubud area to entertain us. Tomorrow I may venture out for a hike, they call it a trek here, though as yet none in our entourage has signaled an interest in accompanying me. They want to go shopping, so I may be trekking solo again.