Bali Day 2-4

Our second day in Ubud, Bali we signed up for a "Cultural Biking Tour." We were picked up from our hotel at 8 and shortly joined by several other people. Among the group was a pair of Dutchies, John and Silver who were traveling around SE Asia together. We quickly befriended them and ended up doing some traveling with them around Bali. Reason 30085435089 why traveling is so great, meeting and traveling with strangers from all over the world.

After driving up mountains and around windy bends, we stopped at a gorgeous valley of rice fields, surrounded by terraces layered up the hills, a view reminiscent of Machu Picchu (which I have actually never seen in real life). After the Machu Picchu of Bali rice fields, we kept going upwards, through small villages until we reached a coffee and tea plantation. We sampled a number of different coffees and hot chocolates, including the honeymooner (coffee and ginseng said to give you a lot of energy) and the plantation specialty, shitty Bali coffee, which actually isn't shitty at all. The coffee beans are consumed by mongooses, which they can't actually digest. They end up pooping the coffee out, which is collected by people and then processed into coffee and served for something ridiculous like $25 per cup. How's that for a moneymaker? Even for someone who doesn't like coffee, I thoroughly enjoyed drinking this blend.

After the coffee plantation, it was up the mountain again. Our next stop was at a restaurant for brekky (Aussie lingo for breakfast)where we ate on a terrace looking out over Mt. Batur, a volcano outside of Ubud. We only got a small glimpse of the mountain through the fog, but I assume, like all things we encountered on the trip it was pretty sweet. After fueling up, we hopped on bikes at the top of the mountain and started on the two and a half hour trip down to lunch. Not 5 minutes into our biking, it started pouring down rain. We biked, in the pouring rain, down dirt roads long overgrown by plants, past farms, through towns, stopping at several temples and a traditional Balinese family compound, getting insight on Balinese culture and life from our guide. It was really interesting to see the villages in action, everyone going about their business, everyone busy making things or cleaning. As we neared our lunch destination, we got a special treat. It was the anniversary of one of the temples and there was a long procession of women, dressed in traditional outfits, carrying baskets of fruits and flowers (offerings) stacked delicately on their heads.

Offerings are a huuuuuge part of Balinese culture, and there are heaps of offering everywhere you go... in the street, on cars, in temples, in restaurants, on food carts... basically everywhere.

We reached another traditional living compound where we ate a delicious spread of local food... and of course once we were under cover it stopped raining. This trip was definitely the better half of the day. At night, after roaming the streets for literally hours, we settled on eating at a very local warung for dinner. Dewa Warung featured delicious food for suuuuuper cheap prices. Unfortunately I also got food poisoning and spent the entire night throwing up in the bathroom. In case you are wondering, the food didn't taste as good the second time.

Day 3:

We woke up day 3 having planned to share a taxi with our new Dutchie friends to a coastal town. I felt awful after the rough night, but decided that since we only had 6 days in Bali we should check out a new place. I'm not sure exactly how, but after making some calls to accommodation that led to not much information, we somehow decided we should go to Bingin Beach.

We left Ubud at noon, making it to the Bingin Beach car park a few hours later. The car park was actually just a mud lot that doubled as a gathering place for locals. We were now definitely off the beaten path, and after following a some hand made signs and asking a few people for help we made it through the labyrinth of muddy paths to Chocky's place. I had talked to one of the Chocky owners, who was not at Chocky's and really couldn't guarantee anything, but set up a backup place for us to stay if we arrived and it was booked. As it turned out, Chocky's was actually closed completely and Chocky nowhere to be found. Our backup also proved to be not to the liking of our new travel buddies, who were now looking at me like I was crazy and probably thinking "why did we follow these stupid yanks." John, Silver, and Rachel went to check out accommodations around the beach and I stayed with the bags. They found Leggies, a villa a little farther up the hill to their liking and we locked up the rooms for a super cheap price.

We spent the day exploring the area, walking to Dreamland beach, which was actually more of a nightmare beach with trash everywhere. We decided to come back via the ridge on the top of the cliff lining the beach. We worked are way through cow territory along the ridge, and through not much more than pure luck found Leggies. On the way, we saw a massive python, probably over 6 feet long, dead on one of the paths. When we got back, we ate dinner, listened to music, played yhatzee, hung out, watched the lizards eat insects and fight with rats and talked to the only other people staying at the compound, a group of Brazilian surfers. Jay, one of the guys put us in touch with Ketut, a local guy who would take us out surfing the next day.

Day 4:

We met up with Ketut the next morning down at the beach, got set up with our boards and headed out to catch some waves. Despite still feeling a little uneasy because of the food poisoning and getting smashed in the back of the head with Johns surfboard on a wipe out, and poor wave sets, the Bali surfing was awesome. We caught waves for a few hours, while Ketut gave us tips and played around like a big kid in the water. A few things I picked up... 1. Surfing is really tiring 2. I am not good enough for a short board (which I used half of the time) 3. My balance is pretty terrible 4. Rachel is a surfing natural

We left Bingin later that night, heading to the more touristy area of Legian, close to Kuta. We walked around Legian and Kuta by night, soaking in some of the craziness. Another good day in the books.