Ticket to the moon

Sanur was not exciting at all, except maybe for a spectacular sunrise over the ocean. And a cool kind of temple right by the sea.


We wanted pizza but they didn’t have any cheese. We wanted a walk on the beach but were harassed by locals. We wanted to admire the ocean but some 5 star hotels had floating chairs on it. That's my foot and Patrick wondering..."wtf"?!



After Patrick left, I felt insecure for a few hours – being used to traveling alone, I had gotten used to some company and suddenly wondered if I could make it on my own. Given, the place I was staying at didn’t help at all. And then I saw that painting...!!!



The day he left, we had drove to Jimbaran to try and see some white-sand beaches but all we found was a rotten dead dog (!), a dude fishing with a motorbike helmet on (!!), and some naked kid playing in the sand. The whole place was dirty and I couldn’t even walk barefoot because of all the crap in the sand.





The hotel was nice though, with two awesome swimming pools! But the room was too big, too marble, too white, too… asepticized. I was going out of my mind, so I decided to book a flight the very next day and spend a few nights in Lombok. while waiting at the airport, some woman stood behind me and another one quickly took a picture. I was shocked, but then I said "wait a second! I want tone too!" so they brought the kids over and we all had a good laugh.





Lombok is an island next to Bali. Unlike Bali, which is 90% Hindu, Lombok’s majority is Muslim, so it wasn’t a good idea for me to show up in a tank top, my curly blond hair just blowing in the wind. You should have seen the judgmental looks I got. The flight was 40 bucks and lasted about 30 minutes, full turbulence included.

Upon arrival at the airport, for security reasons I guess, people had to buy a “taxi ticket” from the counter - as opposed to hailing a cab like we usually do. It was funny to see horse transportation on the street (cheaper than buses or bemos), and trucks full of people. I headed to Bulan Baru guest house in Mangsit, north of Senggigi – nice place, tiny pool, old tired bed and reasonable food for 15$ a night (which in my opinion wasn’t really worth it).





The staff was nice and quite knowledgeable about stuff to do on the island. Upon my arrival, one of them informed me that I can get a “ticket to the moon” on the Gili islands… meaning it’s very easy to find drugs such as mush, hashish, marijuana and so on over there.

On the other hand, the Australian owner was not very sociable. In a place like that, I would expect some friendly chitchat but he ignored me. And when his staff told him the operator organizing my trip to Gili islands (which his staff had booked for me) had stood me up, he never even apologized or talked to me.

Anyway, I went for a quick walk on the street, looking for the beach, but I immediately got stared at by almost everyone, kids asking me for cigarettes, dog barking off my ass (I was totally scared they’d bite me!), men whispering “beautiful! Where you go?” as I walked by… I just went back to Bulan Baru to eat a disgustingly chewy and untasty steak that was advertised on the menu as tender or juicy Australian steak.

The next day as I learned the Gili island trip was off, I hired a driver to take me around Lombok and show me some local stuff. We drove by a fisherman village near Mataram, a Chinese cemetary - because apparently the Chinese have been living in Lombok for years, they even have their Chinatown. The landscape was simply beautiful, with green rice fields, mountains, and bamboo houses.







That how I ended up discovering a pottery warehouse where all piled up were the magnificent pieces rich people buy for thousands of dollars. Needless to say I got some sweet deals and I was pleased to experience this, chatting with them while eating bananas.





I also ended up in a very poor village where women have been weaving for generations and men work on the farm. Everyone was friendly, and I couldn’t believe how much work is involved in those masterpieces – women sitting down for 10 hours a day, making on average 10$ a month for clothes and blankets that, again, are incredibly expensive back in Western countries.







My guide knew his job quite well, saying how beautiful I am, how hard it is for him to find a wife, teaching me weaving, telling sad stories about locals, making me try clothes on, and then taking me to a store where he pressured me to buy stuff. I couldn’t say no. And even if it cost 45$, I thought what the hell, they’re poor. But when I left, he asked for a kiss and I said no so he replied “how about just on the cheek?” and I agreed. Oh my, it was the strangest thing… he smelled me!



Next, my driver took me to a quiet beach next to Kuta, Mawan beach. It felt good to find some peace and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he is a painter. We came across three naked little boys who had walked about an hour in the nude in order to come swim at this beach. They were so free and adorable!





Along the beach we stumbled across a fisherman village of about 50 people living in tiny houses, no electricity, no revenue aside from fishing. They built their own boats… well, they built everything, and women stayed at home all day, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids. I guess that’s why they had so many kids running around, keeping themselves busy.





I bought Malake dinner, and unlike our driver in Ubud who had taken us to a fancy restaurant and treated himself to a 10$ meal (that’s expensive for Indonesia!), Malake took me to a local joint and we enjoyed 2$ fried rice in silence. He is a simple man and I appreciated that.

The ride on the way back was quick and full of surprising sights – cows blocking the road, Muslim students coming back from school, a bemo (cheap bus) FILLED with people hanging at the back, and some abandoned car in which little kids were playing.









That night I went to a very friendly bar in Senggigi called Happy Café, where a live band was playing all kinds of music, from Shaggy’s “Angel”, to Santana “Black woman” and Bob Marley –that’s where the lead singer said: “Bob Marley sings ‘Get up, stand up for your rights’, but here in Lombok we sing ‘Get up, stand up for your rice!”

As more people walked in, many more drinks were sent to my table, especially from local guys winking at me from the bar, and that’s when the bar owner decided to get in the game and also send drinks to my table! Then the dancing came and some guy actually wouldn’t take no for an answer. Luckily, some former world champion dancer was entertaining the crowd and I said I couldn’t compete with that hehe. The man was hilarious, shaking his hips and gesturing toward his wife who was sitting at the bar, as you can (try to) see on that video. It was loud and vibrant so turn down the volume!



That night I found out my credit card wasn’t working anymore, and Visa was closed. I started freaking out and decided to head back to Bali, ready to sleep at the airport for the rest of the week.

Papa strong, mama happy

Ubud is probably one of my favorite places on earth – at the heart of Balinese culture, right in the center of the island, this town glooms with rice fields, arts and vegetarian cuisine.

We stayed at Ketut’s Place, a surprising family-run hotel hidden in the lush gardens through which a little river flows. The swimming pool was a plus, and the staff simly charming. Though it was, again, a little expensive for Indonesia, we treated ourselves banana pancakes our terrace facing what looked like the amazon, and delectable massages to the sound of running water.

Waking around Ubud is astounding because the city is vibrant with colors, smells and contrasts. Terrazo was a nice spot for drinks and fruit, while Bu Oka served exquisite Babi Buling (spicy pork and rice, see the pig below). Ketut’s place also offered a Balinese fest (including the traditional smoked duck, fried tofu and satay, which is meat and coconut served on a stick)

Patrick and I burned off all those calories by walking around town for hours every single day. We ended up in the Monkey forest, an experience in itself as you can see on this video, with monkeys diving and playing in a little pond. It's upside down, i'm sorry but i'm trying to fix it without any image quality loss... still fun to watch...



My first encounter with a monkey was frightening. We had bought a whole bunch of bananas, and a macaque immediately saw them. I handed him one of them, but he stole the whole pack and ran away with it. I tried to steal them back but…well, he showed me big shiny teeth so I had to give up! Those were MY bananas...

Wink, wink...

Hahaha! It tickles...

Monkeys can smell bananas through your bag so it would be silly to try and hide them. Instead, the guards told us to lift our arms up, and the monkeys climbed on us to get them. Priceless!

I was astounded to realize how much humans have in common with macaques (not as much as with chimps but still). Check out this video, one of them is making sure his buddy is all clean. He looks a little nervous but you have to understand that there were like 20 Japanese around filming and taking pictures.



We had already seen some gigantic paper monsters back in Seminyak, but we had no idea what that was about. So when we saw some more in Ubud, we were told that they’re building them for Hindu New Year (which will be the topic of a whole other post!)

I told Patrick we needed to spend a whole day at the market, and we did (!) I had never seen so much crap, I mean so many things – incence, fruit, photo albums, pottery, clothes, phallic-shaped bottle openers, tiger balm, postcards, masks, paintings, Buddha statues, and so on.

You can imagine the "good price for you!", "yes, take a look" and the like going on under there... ;) I had fun bargaining too, the calculator being their main tool of communication hehe

As Ubud is incredibly culturally rich, it is no surprise that it is also quite famous for traditional dance shows. We caught little kids practicing at the palace one afternoon and it was shocking how those little girls looked and acted like grown women!

Another surprising experience was at the Elephant forest. We were greeted by Dennis, a hilarious guide who’s named all the elephants according to famous people – there was Ronald Reagan, Liz Taylor, and of course Tony Blair (whose 5th leg suggests my presence was a turn on…?)


It was incredibly sad to see them all chained, standing on concrete. Dennis said it’s so they don’t run away (I would understand if they did!) and he kept hitting them with a sharp stick. Broke my heart.

Yet they did give us a few fun times, and it was awesome to see and feel how strong their tusk is! And look at those teeth!




We decided to spend quite a few days in Ubud, and hired a driver on our last day to visit Batur, a beautiful volcano north of the island. Needless to say we didn’t stay long… street vendors got a hold of me as soon as I got out of the car, and they wouldn’t let me go! I understand they are poor, but man that was almost scary. I felt like crap.



On our way there we dropped by a small village called Taman, something like paradise on earth! There, they grow organic food, and I learned a lot about fruit trees.
That’s snake fruit

Vanilla

Cinnamon

Coffee

Avocados

Even a bee hive!


And our driver Imane who taught us an important lesson (referring to the importance and power of ginseng): “Papa strong, mama happy!”


Once again, nature was breathtaking, and I was pleasantly surprised to see little kids and chicken freely running around the place.


As it was almost time for Patrick to get back to France, we decided to head to Sanur.

Bali and Lombok

Only 15 days traveling around both islands and I feel completely different. Of course the “high” will fade away as I get back to my life here in Korea.


But what I’ve seen, what I’ve experienced, what I’ve felt, tasted and even smelled in Indonesia really got to me in the most unexpected way – nothing like my previous journeys in Thailand, China, Japan, Europe or even Latin America.

In order to be somehow concise and keep those memories alive, I’ll post parts of my trip every day this week. It’s my way of not forgetting those souvenirs too soon, and y’all are welcome to join!

So. Jeju-Seoul was a one-hour flight. Then Seoul-Tokyo lasted 2 hours. Finally, Tokyo-Denpasar took 8 hours during which I chatted with a charming landscaper living in Hawaii.

At 11pm on a Saturday night, Denpasar airport was relatively quiet. The heat and humidity crushed us as we paid our $25US Visa fee, valid for a month. An airport sign warned us against infantile sexual tourism, a very sad reality over there.



Patrick’s plane landed an hour later and we quickly hopped on the car taking us to the airport. The greetings were warm, and we had lots of fun reminiscing of that year we met in France back in 2005.

The hotel was breathtaking – with a nice swimming pool, vast garden and stylish room. Villa Kresna was expensive for Indonesia, but totally worth it. They served us breakfast on our terrace (fruit, fruit, fruit!), the sun gently warming us as we listened to the sound of countless unknown animals.


Our first stroll in Seminyak, hip city north of Kuta, was full of surprises! Hindu culture was embedded in everything we saw, or heard, while the sound of a developing country kept shouting at us “Please come in! Good price for you!”, “Hello! Taxi?”

The streets were filled with designer boutiques and expensive stuff. It took us a while to get used to the local currency – 10 000 Rupiah (rph) is roughly $1US. Looking around me, I instantly decided to send back to Korea everything I had brought with me… what was I thinking!? My backpack was filled with clothes, and I knew damn well I’d be purchasing loads of them here! Those little kids sold me my first pair of fisherman pants.



It seems like God manifested himself that day; as we were walking on the street, I found 3 000rph on the sidewalk. Later, a phallus carved in wood was also lying on the street. Fun way to start the trip, I tell ya!

We got a divine foot massage for almost nothing, enjoying some fresh mango juice while discussing our itinerary and taking several short naps. Our next stop at the beach was surprising – with huge crowds of tourists surfing and walking in the sand, as well as Balinese youth playing soccer. Sunset came a few minutes later while I was struggling with the strong waves and it was magnificent!



Dinner at Gado Gado was enough to make us believe that we were in heaven – set right on the beach, with the sight and sound of waves, Patrick and I enjoyed (among other things) delicious garlic prawns and chilly white wine. We talked for hours, trying to remake the world just like in those good days back in France.

We didn’t learn much about Balinese culture in Semyniak because, well, it is quite touristy and aristocratic. We were barely getting used to the sights of the architecture, the heavy heat and humidity, the constant sounds of cars, motorcycles, barking dogs and blabbering locals.

I was mostly impressed with the colorful and diverse Hindu statues all over the place, temples are on every street corner, and even funny ads like the one of a well-equipped man that read “Not for everyone” – along the line of the wooden penis found on the street, a reminder that sex here is not taboo at all!



Next we headed to Ubud and what would be my favorite place in Bali! Stucked in traffic in Depnasar, newspaper sellers would look trough the car’s tainted windows and offer us “Le Monde”… how did they know we were French just by looking at us!? I bought it to get rid of the guy, but another one came and when he saw we had already that one, he pressed against the window a copy of “Le Canard Enchaine”, right there, in the middle of Indonesia! What the...!?

Meanwhile an old man was braving traffic as usual with his little portable stand…