It is hard to express in words what is so attractive about the island and its inhabitants but we were constantly awed by the beauty of our surroundings, and the exotic feel of the places visited and the people we met. I can't wait to go back and see some more of the place before it is ruined by development. We visited the less touristy/resort-oriented areas of Central and East Bali. The big resorts and the nice white-sand beaches are all in the South, but we decided to skip those and do something different. Everyone (our party consisted of ages ranging from 2 to 61-years-old) was really happy all week, so I think we made out ok with this choice.
In Central Bali, Ubud is a bustling town with 2-3 long main streets of fashionable shops, galleries, restaurants, artisan studios, an ancient palace and a few temples. Despite being overrun with tourists, the place still manages to feel backwards and remote, with motorcycle riders heading against traffic on narrow streets, lots of bicycles, and monkeys running amok. Our hotel, Champlung Sari, was situated on the outskirts of the Monkey Forest, a small macaque reserve/city park. We arrived at ~midnight and were then woken up at 6am to what sounded like furniture moving in the rooms above us. On closer inspection we realized we were on the top floor, and that the sounds were made by a horde of apes storming the hotel grounds. They all left within fifteen minutes or so of this display of chaos and energy.
We had our rental car delivered to the hotel in the morning, a good thing because it would have been dangerous, if not impossible, to find our way at night from the airport to the hotel. As popular a destination as Bali is, most of the country's road network is in disrepair. Some of it can be accurately and honestly described as a pile of rocks placed in some sort of a logical path. However, despite the dangers of driving here, rental companies are happy to let you take their fleet off their hands for a minimal payment, without any forms of identification or credit card information in lieu of potential damages. Notably, I found car rental to be the best value and hassle-free service on the island. We rented a Toyota Avanza - a very common SUV on the island. Anything closer to the ground would have likely not survived the trip...
Anxious to get out and about, and having no formal plans for the day - explore Ubud and its surroundings - we got into the car with the idea of driving north to the Elephant Safari Park, an attraction my father picked out form a tourist map in the hotel. We got the car in gear and headed north - we made sure to get a GPS with the car, which was at least helpful as a compass. The narow streets of Ubud quickly gave way to the narrow streets of the rest of Central Bali. We drove through more interior decor workshops than I have ever seen in my life - woodworks, stonemasonry, glass, you name it. Then, all of a sudden, a valley opened up on our right-hand side with amazing view of rice terraces, a scenic anomaly common in this area.
We continued north and uphill and we had not noticed any gas stations along the way. The rental car man had mentioned "premium" when discussing the particulars of operations, and we had noticed many shops lining the road with signs of the same. So we stopped at one convenient for its parking area large enough for a car - not as common as one might suspect on this major artery leading from Ubud to Mt. Batur and to the North. These "premium" shops generally boast a wall of shelves carrying glass bottles of either 1 or 2L capacity filled with gasoline. The shopkeeper, a young mother, assured us that this was the correct fluid for the car and we bought 5L worth, which she then promptly tipped one by one into a funnel inserted into the gas tank that my dad was holding in place for her. This was comical and we could not help but to laugh and take pictures of this operation. We later discovered that there are also normal gas stations, that those generally charge less than the "premium" road-side shops, that we had missed one on the way, and that they are not nearly as much fun...
We almost missed the unassuming turnoff to Taro village and the Elephant Safari Park. The road got less straight and less flat and we started getting a closer glimpse into the lifestyle of the common Balinese family. The elephant park itself was easy to find and it proved to be a tourist trap, but Lizzy liked the ride and we got to feed a few elephants up close - their skin is softer than one imagines, but still pretty rough and tough. After the visit, we were quite hungry, especially after a detour along a wrong road that was cut short when the road turned into a pile of large rubble. On the way back we bought some roadside snacks and a hot soup from a young vendor. Still quite famished we stopped at a store/restaurant/gas station run by one friendly woman. We got some fish curries, chayote soup, rice and long beans. The shopkeeper cum restauranteur entertained my dad in the kitchen (a bunch of pots over an open range in the back of the store) letting him dip his fingers into the various boiling sauces. We also bought some gasoline from her - 20L poured from a proper jerry can this time. Looked pretty heavy, too...On the way back to the hotel we stopped for a visit at the Monkey Forest, where we bought bananas and fed soe feral monkeys against the rules of the park. I think there had been some accidents with aggressive monkeys and there are now lots of monkey/tourist rangers keeping the peace. This park/garden has some pretty sone sculptures, and a really nice bridge with stone parapets carves to look like snakes/dragons with scales all along the sides, ending with heads and tails on either end. The bridge is also a staircase leading into a lower garden area and it passes through a Banyan tree whose roots are hanging in midair all over the lower level. A beautiful scene right out of a fantasy novel. Small and tourist-filled yet I would still recommend a twilight stroll through Monkey Forest. We finished our day with a dinner at Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck) restaurant, where we had crispy duck, spareribs, satay, rice and veggies (meh). My mom got sick (Bali belly?) from lunch...
We were awoken again at 6am by the monkey horde. This time we fed them. There is a fruit basket in the hotel rooms, and I assume that the macaques are performing this wake-up call ritual with the bananas from from the fruit bowls in mind. We shared ours. We checked out and drove out north from Ubud towards Mt Batur - a volcano that blew its top not too long ago. It has a lake (Lake Batur) on its Western side with a bunch of natural spring spas/resorts popping up along it. On the way we bought some of the best fresh fruit we've ever had - mangosteens, mandarins, rambutans, tomatoes - from various roadside vendors, some that looked young enough to be ten or even less. Something about the volcanic rock farmland is yielding super-fruits.
At a milestone T along the way, we got pulled over by official-looking gentlemen demanding that we pay an entrance fee to the Batur region. It was a symbolic sum, but the racket was not appreciated. We drove down a fairly steep road to the lake taking in the beautiful scenery with the towering Mt Batur rising from the Eastern edge of the water, its peak shrouded in mist. We found a nice resort with natural spring-fed pools and a nice restaurant, where we polished off lunch in the rain (under the safety of thatched roof). Lizzy pretty much fainted after a few spoon fulls of rice and slept on two chairs while we ate. Serene.After lunch we drove through the mountainous region east towards the coast. Following our GPS we ended up driving through what may have been the most direct route, but one seriously lacking in concrete. At some point we stopped to ask for directions from a man sitting in a hut by the side of the road in a remote location, only to be promptly surrounded by urchins of various ages knocking on the windows and trying to sell hand-made baskets in what appeared to be an overly aggressive manner. It was getting a little traumatic, so we declined and drove off while the knocking intensified. A little girl from this group ran after our car for what seemed like a very long stretch down a rocky mountain road, and we fell into an uncomfortable silence as we drove on, wishing that scene had gone very differently. Not long after that we merged with the better-paved coastal highway, as we closed in on our destination at the village of Candi Dasa. To be continued...
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