Bali. What can I say about Bali?

Here is a location reference for you:

We docked at Benoa on the south side of the island. Benoa is the only major working port on Bali since the last of nature’s upheavals over the past decade. Benoa is typical of most of Bali’s cities. It is exotic, dense, loud, chaotic, traffic-jammed, perfumed by its own unique essence, and utterly fascinating. I realize that some who are reading this have been here before, but we are Bali virgins. This is our first time in this part of the world and Bali is one of those exotic places that we have talked about, but never thought we would experience first-hand.

Bali is a Hindu island in the midst of the largest Muslim country in the world. Indonesia has a population of over 220 million (the fourth largest in the world) and is predominately Muslim (about 90%). Bali is about 95% Hindu. It works – somehow. And we are very thankful about the Balinese heritage because our first impression was that they are, generally, one of the most beautiful people in the world. Here is one of the dancers that greeted us at the pier.

Balinese women are, in general, quite striking - even without the makeup.

More dancers at landing:

Bali assaults all of your senses, especially your hearing. If you have never heard of or experienced Gamelan “music”, then you are in for a special treat – for about the first fifteen minutes. Gamelan consists of a mixture of bells, gongs, and drums – while pleasing to the Indonesian and Malaysian ear – it is quite atonal to the western ear. I also realized that I made my first mistake of the day when our driver/guide asked us if we minded him playing some music on the car’s radio. We said, “Sure, go ahead.” Well, fifteen minutes or so into it, we realized that it was not going to get better and he was so nice that I didn't have the heart to ask him to turn it off or to try for some “western-style” music.

But, I am ahead of myself. We were met at the pier by our driver/guide for the day, Wayan Tawan and his wife. Wayan was recommended to us by a friend and we opted to go the private route rather than be bussed around by the ship’s tour people. It was a very wise decision. Waysan brought along his wife, who spoke little English, nut who has a 100-watt smile, both for company, for her comfort (it was immediately evident that she was with child), and to help open and close Bonnie’s car door.

Wayan and I Bu

We began our day by wending our way out of Benoa and heading north toward Ubud (oo-bood), the second largest city on Bali. On the way our first stop was at the silver workshop of Angel to Angel Silversmiths (AAS). We were shown into the workshop where we saw several jewelers handcrafting individual pieces – all silver. In Bali it seems that the artisans specialize in one medium: silver; gold; wood; stone; batik.

AAS was huge! As you can see from the picture of the building, it was quite striking architecturally on the outside and was even more striking on the inside. I managed to get one picture before I was told “No pictures inside!” Each piece, and there were thousands of pieces, was individually displayed on a glass podium or base designed to show off the entire piece. We looked, drooled, and decided that we were not in Bali to buy stuff – especially jewelry. We thanked them and off we went continuing our journey to Ubud.

Angel to Angel - note the orangish facade. It consists of individual tiles about 3" x 3" in random outline, hand-placed.

Bonnie looking for a Prince Charming - and she already has me!

The next stop was at Ngurah Gallery. Mr. Ngurah is a woodcarver. Not just any woodcarver, but one who has people come to him from all over the world for woodcarving lessons. His gallery is not the largest in Bali, but he is one of the most renowned on the island, and possibly in the world. He, as were all the Balinese we met, was a very gracious host. He showed us one of his apprentices carving as grand piece depicting one of the Balinese Hindu legends. The man had been working on it for about nine months and he still had several months to go. Mr. Ngurah took us through his gallery and we saw pieces ranging from small animals about the size of a fist to larger pieces over six feet tall depicting other stories from Hindu legend.

An apprentice working on a legend piece. This is about nine months work. He is individually carving the veins in the leaves of the tree that is depicted.

This is the full piece shown being worked on above. It stands about four feet tall and has another four or five months work left to do.

Of course, since this was not a shopping trip, we only bought a small remembrance: a mask measuring about 2’ by about 1.5’ for a wall-hanging. We have been collecting masks during our travels and this was a fine addition. Mr. Ngurah signed and dated the piece and explained that the mask would bless the house and protect our family. We will mount it prominently once we get home.

Mr. Ngurah adding up our bill. Note the mask over his left shoulder on the wall. That is about the size of our mask which is on the desk in front of him.

Bonnie and Mr. Ngurah. He is showing her a pair of horses that he carved recently.

Mr. Ngurah and me. I am standing next to a dragon that took over a year to fully finish.

After we left Mr. Ngumah, we went through Ubud to Tegalalang (teg-ALA-lang). Tegalalang showcases the Balinese rice paddies and local villages just about perfectly. We stopped at the Dewi Café to use their lookout and sample the local beer – and to take a few pictures. Breathtaking!

We were ready for lunch by that time and Wayan took us to a local place known for its crispy duck and pork. I was thinking suckling pig, but it turned out to be ribs. Bonnie had the duck, one of her favorites, and I had the ribs, one of mine. I would like to tell you that they were heart-thumping good, but that would not be true…sadly, they were OK, but not what we really were expecting. The restaurant was more for tourists, Asian, European, and American, and therefore, had “dumbed down” some of the spicier and flavorful aspects of their Balinese cooking. Bonnie’s duck was deep-fried and not the Chinese-style crispy duck we are familiar with. My ribs were lean and had a nice sauce, but nothing out of the ordinary. Actually, the best thing about the meal was one of the side dishes, the pickled snake-skin fruit. The next time we are in Bali (I can dream, can’t I), we will go to some little out of the way Mom and Pop dive and get real.

After lunch we stopped at the Lotus Palace in Ubud. We had wanted to see the Batuan Temple in Batuan, but it was overrun with tourists in the morning and on the way back to the pier in the afternoon, we were subject to one of Bali’s famous “rain showers.” The heavens opened up and in a matter of minutes there was almost 6” of water in the streets. The Lotus Palace was interesting, but the Batuan Temple would have been spectacular based on the little we could see from the car windows. Oh well, another one for next time…

Here is a look at typical Bali traffic that was taken near the Lotus Palace. It makes Naples look positively deserted at this time of year:

We made one last stop at a batik factory/shop and did some window shopping. We found a few absolutely gorgeous shirts – men’s and women’s – but since these were basically handmade artisan’s cloth material, they were much more expensive than we felt warranted at that point. So we went to a tourist shop and bought a bunch of shirts and a couple of tee shirts that will serve to last the rest of the trip and possibly when we get home – depending on how the laundry treats them.

Exhausted, we made it back to the ship by about 5:00 and called it a day. One other bonus from the day and our visit to Mr. Ngumah was that we learned to say “Thank you” in Bahasa (“Terima kasi”) and Balinese (“Suksema”). Bahasa is the “official language of Indonesia, while Bali, as most of the Indonesian islands and villages, has its own language.

Tomorrow another sea day and then a loooong day from Semarang (sem-ARE-ang) on the island of Java to Borobodur, the largest Buddhist monument (and a UNESCO World Heritage site) in Indonesia. We are told that Borobodur rivals Angkor Wat. We shall see since we are going to visit both.

Bali is also the last stop on the third leg of this World Cruise and the embarkation point for the next leg. We are told we will be losing about 40 guests and gaining about 40 guests. Here is a look at what’s to come in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned…

 

This is the leg of the cruise we are currently on.