Welcome to paradise, darling

A few weeks before I headed to Indonesia, I watched Eat Pray Love. It’s an annoying movie at best, but I have to admit that watching Julia Roberts peddle around Bali had me counting down the days to when I’d have a chance to explore the island.

Bali is (very conveniently) the next-door neighbour to East Java but it’s almost another world. The rice paddies, volcanoes and palm trees are all the same but Bali is home to a Hindu society and instead of mosques and calls to prayer, it’s filled with beautiful altars, temples and flower offerings at every doorstep and entranceway. Along with its amazing culture and history, Bali is also very much a tourist destination, with beer and Western food on the menu at nearly every restaurant in the major centres and blond, tanned vacationers lining the coast.

We spent 8 days in Bali and Lombok, arriving in Bali’s capital of Denpasar after another white-knuckle, overnight drive from Malang last Friday. We explored the south of the island and then caught a ferry to Lombok. After two amazing days on Gili Trawangan, we circled back to visit Lovina on Bali’s north coast before hitting the road back to Malang.

Sunrise on Bali

The time we spent on Bali was nowhere near enough to see the island but we all had an amazing time, going from temples, to the jungle, to the beaches, to the bars in Kuta and back. I have a fear of monkeys now thanks to the evil little creatures that live at Ulu Watu, a temple on the very southern tip of Bali. They warned us before entering, after wrapping purple sarongs and bright yellow sashes around our waists, to take off our glasses, jewelry and keep a tight grip on anything else. The view from around the grounds was stunning – it reminded me of the coast scenes in Lost – but I spent the majority of the time absolutely paranoid of the monkeys. Dean, our Indonesian friend from Surabaya, had both his glasses and a flip flop jacked and I had my water bottle snatched from my hands. Annoying, yes, but I was actually kind of impressed by the flip flop theft: Dean was taking a photo when the monkey snuck up and kind of touched his toes. Of course, Dean yelled and jumped backwards, and just as he lifted up his foot the monkey grabbed his flip flop and ran off. It took two fruit sellers and multiple bags of fruit (which you’re supposed to buy to feed the little monsters) until we finally got it back. Poor Dean.

Denpasar is about half an hour from Bali’s party capital, Kuta. It’s by the beach, packed with Westerns, bars and shops, and was absolutely insane after dark. The crowds of intoxicated and rowdy tourists mixed with the motorcycles and general chaos almost puts Las Vegas to shame.

Kuta was also a fabulous place to learn how to surf. While the beach is sub par compared others, the waves were a perfect height (big enough to ride but not to drown me). Matej and I rented boards from a surfer on the beach (for $2.50/hour each), and paddled out into the ocean to teach ourselves. After the first twenty minutes, I thought I was going to die. My arms were exhausted, my eyes were burning from the salt and I was a little worried about what diseases I could contract from all of the seawater I had swallowed. But after I finally slowed down my pace, waiting for the good waves rather than scrambling around trying to catch every single one I could, I started to get the hang of things and managed to stand up for a few (brief) seconds more than once. It was an incredible feeling and despite the injuries on my feet, knees and being hit in the head by my board while trying to tackle a wave much larger than my skills, I loved it.

The highlight of the trip, though, was probably the two days we spent on Gili Trawangan. The three Gilis are amazing little islands just between Bali and Lombok. There are no cars or motorcycles – the dirt road that runs along the perimeter of the island has ocean on one side and little beach restaurants, bars, and hotels on the other. We spent most of the time on the beach with a cold beverage in hand, soaking up the sun and ridiculously warm seawater, and the nights with another cold beverage in hand, listening to reggae (the official soundtrack of the island I think) and savouring Western fare.

On day two, Margit, Elvis, Vinicus and I went snorkelling off the shores of each of the three islands – amazing. We were thoroughly taken advantage of by thousands of tiny jellyfish on the first stop - apparentlythey weren’t dangerous but they still burned and stung like hell. At first I tried to fight the pain because the coral and sea life underneath were so beautiful but within fifteen minutes we were all out of the water and swearing. The second stop was much better and I got a chance to snorkel behind two sea turtles! One was swimming against the current and I tried so hard to keep up but got no where, while he just kept swimming along like it was nothing.

Our last stop in Bali before going back to Malang took us through the amazing mountains of central Bali (with monkeys sitting along the guard rails; I had an urge to lock the doors) to Lovina. The town is really cute and its main attraction is the dolphins that like to hang out along the coast. We got up at 5:30am and loaded into a few canoe-looking boats. I felt bad for the dolphins since they were being followed by about 25 boats of tourists but they came so close to us that I’m hoping they found it amusing (stupid tourists).

It was the first time I’d ever seen wild dolphins but I my most amazing experience came a few days later when we went to a safari park a couple hours from Malang. Just as the park was closing, we went down to the dolphin tank and found it completely empty of any visitors or workers. As soon as we stood alongside the tank, the two dolphins were right there trying to get attention. We petted them, played games so they could jump up and touch our hands... I’d never even touched a dolphin before that and I’m pretty sure we were all in love (and trying really hard not to think of the documentary The Cove). After twenty minutes with these dolphins, we had to tear ourselves away before the parked closed on us. It was incredible.

I feel like I’ve barely been home in the last two weeks (I guess because I haven’t). I still have half-written post cards from almost three weeks ago sitting on my desk in my room. Within a couple days of being back from Bali, Margit, Vinicius and I were back on the road to Pasuruan (a couple hours north of Malang) to volunteer with a junior high school. More on that insane but awesome experience to follow.

By the way - one of the best parts of living in Indonesia is the cost of living. Eight days in Bali and Lombok, transport, eating, drinking, surfing, snorkelling and everything else that we got up to... all for around CDN$350. How is that even possible?