EASTERN BALI - OCT 26, 2012

EASTERN BALI Friday Oct 26, 2012

Today was another great day of touring Eastern Bali - we saw fewer tour buses and tourists than when we visited Kintimani volcanoes and the town of UBUD earlier in the week, so a little less busy and overwhelming today with the traffic.

Nick our guide, Wayan the bus driver, and Made his assistant arrived early at 745am so we left around 815 - a little earlier  than our planned 830am departure.  There were 10 of us today , with 4 staying behind for a relaxing day at the Aston Bali (Rob, Michelle, Suz and  Pete)

Close to // intersection we passed the Ananga batik shop (wonder if I can get back there later in the week?) and the striking and very large Bina Sena statue.  This statue represents the legend where the weapon of Bina Sena is his very strong nail and he is shown fighting and defeating a dragon with his nail - his neck is carved as a snake,  Bina Seng came from a family of 5 brothers and he was number 2 brother.  Then we entered the Pserangan area - known for beautiful teakwood furniture  (remember how each community or village is known for their prowess in one particular art or craft?) - Letros is a recommended store just before the exit for Benoa harbour where we had arrived 4 days at the end of our fabulous 10 day cruise to Camp Leakey Borneo aboard the ORION II. 

After passing the exit for the capital city of Denpasar we drove past Sanur - a big resort area with lots of hotels and beaches along the East coast of Bali and North of the Benoa Harbour.  We pass by the offices of Panorama Travel who are currently the largest inbound travel agency in Bali. Back in the 90's Nick used to work for Fire Tours who were a very large Travel Agency with 67 agents, but it is now very small with only 7 agents after the explosion tragedy in 2002 which resulted in a massive drop in the number of tourists coming to Bali.

The Paradise Plaza is the tallest building at 10 storeys in Bali built in 1966.  Current regulations prevent any building being higher than the tallest coconut-tree, around 4 storeys.  In July strong winds driving North from Australia arrive, so  there are massive kite flying competitions in Sanur in the East, along with 5 to 6 metre surfing on blue point, and Padang Padang which is most popular for surfing.  From Sanur it is about a 25 minute drive from Jimberan to the south beaches popular for surfing.  The surfing events are followed on Aug 17th, which is the Indonesian Independence Day, celebrated every year with big festivals and events.

We drive through BATUBALAN village, known for its' stone carvings.  In fact I believe that the carvings in Bali deserve special mention - nowhere have I seen such huge carvings with such intricate designs - it seems that around every corner, and entering each new village or town, there is a massive carving and a story behind each carving.  This is in addition to all the carvings at each temple, every village and within each home where "offerings" are made several times each day.  Beautiful seems a quite inadequate description for some of these monuments - unbelievable and breath taking seems more apt!  The first art village, Kesimanor Sukawasi, is known for its' batik, then Batubulan village, which has the biggest tree in Bali, a banyan tree, considered to be sacred in Bali.  Celuk (pronounced CHeluk) is next - the silver village considered to be one of the most prosperous in Bali along with Kuta and Ubud.  As we continue towards Ubud we see many wood carvings along the roadsides, then paintings in Ubud.  At the wood carvings we first watch the master carvers to see how the products are made to understand craftsmanship and quality.

The traditional house compound that we visited in Batuan village, sub village Peneda was very interesting - there are 3 separate areas within the compound - the outer, middle and inner.  The inner is where the shrines and temple are located with several types of shrines for: god, ancestors, unseen spirits, storing offerings, and for the Monk when he visits for advice, discussions, and special events such as weddings and funerals.  Domestic animals, such as pigs and cocks, are also kept in the compound but are kept as far away from the temple as possible.  There are 4 specific buildings within the middle compound: Bale (building) Daje (north) seniors house, Bale Dangin (East) ceremonial building, Bale Dauh (West) visitors building,    We paid a gratuity to the family who live here of 50,000 rupiah ($5). The Bale Paon (South) kitchen was amazing - no mod cons here, just a wood fire and hot and smokey, but well set out.  We also saw caged cocks for cock fighting (!), and two caged porcupines.  They sell the animals when they are short of money, and they also eat the porcupines - so sad.

There are 4 types of temples in Bali: family, clan, village and public, and praying and making offerings is a very central part of their culture, in fact it is the basis of their daily lives and integral to their moral beliefs and family and community support.

We turned East on the highway at the town of Gianyar region - again amazing monuments and a  Parliament building where the 40 members of parliament are elected every 5 years.  There are also both a traditional market and a modern Western style shopping centre.  As we drove further from Kuta and Denpasar we could see the area was getting less built up with more trees along the roads, and  views of the rice paddies.  At one point we saw hundreds of yellow song birds for sale in cages along the sides of the road which led to a discussion of the animal market in Denpasar where every kind of animal can be purchased including snakes and monkeys - bought as pets, trained to work etc etc.

One stretch of the highway was decorated (called PANJOR) with huge bent bamboo sticks.. each with baskets at the bottom for offerings to be made every day.  Over our time we saw many of the Panjor decorations along the streets - some drying out and older, other brand new, and still others being made and erected - all very intricate and each village extremely proud of their Panjor.  The members of each village participate in both making the panjor, decorating the village, and then making the offerings each day.

We passed what is today called the Japanese caves where in WWII the JAPANESE hid their guns and  weapons when they overran Indonesia taking just 2 1/2 years  after 340 years of Colonial rule by the Dutch. Shortly after passing the Japanese caves we turned North East at the town of KLUNGKUNG - a new hospital built here with donations from Australia and other countries after the tragedy in Kuta in 2002 when more than 200 people were injured or died and the medical facilities were inadequate.

The drive became more beautiful with every passing mile - it was a narrow road, and we were gaining altitude with switchbacks all the way.  Along the road sides were many fruit trees, durian fruit, clove trees and rice.  Durian is currently in season and several ladies had baskets of it selling it along the road - smells like hell and tastes like heaven is how it is classified in Bali.

Mt Agung is the highest volcano ( no longer active) at 3142 metres which last erupted in  1963 with big rocks thrown for miles around.  It takes around 5 hours to climb following the trail which goes through jungle along which there are many leeches (no we didn't climb this today).  The largest temple in Bali and presided over by Mt Agung, is called the Mother temple, located in Besakih - we visited the Mother Temple prior to lunch.   Nick managed to take the bus on the main road so that we could get closer to the temple grounds and avoid the 1km walk since we had a client on board with bad feet (small bribe required!).   The road is narrow so sharing it with the motorcycles and big trucks going the opposite direction most certainly required all of our driver Wayan's skills and concentration!

To enter the Mother Temple and grounds we each had to wear a sarong and selendang (belt) to cover our knees and legs which Nick provided - the Mother Temple does not have them available although there are lots of vendors available to sell them to every person requiring one.  The Mother temple is huge and so impressive sitting high up the side of the distant slopes to Mt Agung - incredible views of the valley out to the ocean.  There were hundreds of villagers, and communities, arriving to make their offerings and pray - all dressed in their traditional dress.  We saw the villagers arrive and all the family wash and cleanse themselves in the large pool with running water spouting from taps, change into clean clothes, and then enter the inner courtyard (which we did not enter) where they made their offerings and then sat together on the floor cross legged to pray.

Within the Mother Temple compound are many temples, and each "family" in Bali has their own family temple within the Mother Temple which is where they go to pray each year as a special outing.  This is considered a family outing and the children, and parents, look forward to travelling to the Mother Temple and bring along a picnic for this very special event which lasts all day.  There are many special days during the year - not all the same for every village or family.

The destar or udeng head dress, the sarong (underneath) and saput (top layer like a sarong).  There are 3 castes or levels in Bali the HIGH, the MIDDLE, and the LOW.  The head dress for the low is called destar, and for the middle and high is called udeng.  In addition when the Balinese converse their polite language is high, when they converse with their same cast it is called middle language, and when they are very upset and use angry rude words it is called low language.   Authorised Balinese Tour Guides must always wear their traditional dress, so we had the pleasure of Nick, our own tour guide, wearing his traditional dress every day.

After visiting the Mother Temple - walking up and down the hundreds of steps - very worn and ancient, knowing how lucky we were to be in this special place - we were back on the bus and driving through beautiful countryside with amazingly narrow streets and lots of switch backs -a glorious view whichever way you looked.  You could understand the availability of adventure touring in Bali.   Whitewater rafting is very popular and available in Eastern Bali - the Ayung river for grade 2 rapids;  in Ubud for beginners; there are also advanced grade 3 and 4 rapids in Eastern Bali cost $45 to $85 USD per person including the transfers, instructor and lunch on the river Unda, and also available on the river Teagawaja which is grade 3 or 4 rapids.  We passed several Rafting Company office and rafts along the road as we headed south East from the Mother temple to the Matagiri restaurant where we would have lunch.

We shared lunch (Indonesian buffet) at the open air Matagiri restauarant with unbelievable views in the most amazing location overlooking the rice fields in many shades of green, and Mt Agung on the horizon.  I think we could have stayed there all afternoon sipping on white wine or ice cold Bintang beer and just taking in the views - truly spectacular!  The buffet wasn't quite as good as in Mt Batur but still enjoyable with fresh fruits and banana pancakes for dessert.

The crops grown in this area vary depending on the season:  dry season - tobacco, chilis, corn, nuts, long beans, and rice if they have a water supply.  Wet season - rice.  We did discuss yoga and in Bali only the revered old folks go to an ashram.   The ashram is for religion, yoga and meditation - when the Balinese are young they are taught  to focus - Balinese don't start learning Yoga until they are in their 50's.  Rather a different take than we have in the Western world I would say?

Getting back for a minute to the structure and caste system within Bali.  There are 3 languages: Balinese upper, middle, low.   The Indonesian language is Bahasa Indonesia.  The people from each cast, first, second, third and fourth caste - can marry outside caste; caste is handed down from father to son.  When  a couple get  married the wife always takes the husband's caste. 

After leaving the Matagiri we headed in a generally Eastern direction towards the coast but turned North when we hit the coast road. We arrived in the village of Tengasan just before 4pm which is where they make a very expensive and very fine woven textile in traditional patterns - it is known as garingsing, it looks like a  type of batik, and a small sash 20cm by 120cm would cost approximately $250 USD.  The ladies sit on the floor and use their feet to hold the frame steady, and their hands to pass the shuttle with the silk in it backwards and forwards through the very fine base threads.  Being someone who loves mostly bright and/or dramatic fabrics, I found the garingsing quite sombre.  In this village we also saw several rattan baskets with cocks in them died in bright colours of orange, blue, yellow and pink - I just hate the thought of cock fighting which I believe is what these cocks were on sale to do.  We also saw a palm tree decorated in dozens of empty egg shells stuck on the end of each branch - a novel approach for decorations!

At a little market just outside the walls of this little village we bought placemats and baskets made from ATA grass which is grown here - the leaves are slit into fine strips with a knife, then it is dried and woven.  It looks like rattan but is not.  By now we were running quite late and were in a hurry to get back - a shame because many of us would have spent longer in the market here and bought much more given the time!  We left the village of Tengasan at 445pm passing the locals heading to the village for the festival at the temple which lasts for 3 days.  We also passed a volleyball game in progress at a park on the side of the road with hundreds of people standing on the sidelines watching and supporting the players.

Luxury hotels I want to check out:  Amankila, Amannusa in Nusa Dua and Amandari in Ubud.