Monday, May 15, 2006




Our Return to Bali (Craig, May 15 06)

Here's a big travel tip: If you are traveling on the long flight to Singapore from SFO, which is a total of about 17 hours in the air, I highly recommend you call Singapore Air when you get your tickets and ask for the exit rows, the aisle and middle seat (the window seat has the door right in front of it). This gives you extended leg room and makes all the difference in the world.

So after many, many hours, we arrived in Singapore and had a five hour layover. This gave us enough time to take a 2 hour air-con bus tour of Singapore. This is pretty neat - they show you the financial district, plus the older traditionally isolated ethnic neighborhoods - Chinese, Indian, Malay, colonial British - which all have their own special wares and restaurants and temples and building styles. Looks like there are some GREAT place to stop and eat, but on the short tour they can't let you get off the bus. Outside of the downtown, everything is manicured parks and tall apartment buildings - no wildlands that's for sure! When we got back to Singapore airport, we still had time for a shower and an hour massage...boy was that great after so long in the air.

We got into Bali after dark, spent the first night in Kuta (cute hotel, close to the airport, but Kuta is missable!) and the next morning we were on our way to Pemuteran; a four hour drive from Kuta. This is a lovely small town on the northwest coast of Bali, famous for its diving. We went there to get our PADI diving certificates from the small diving resort of Reef Seen (www.reefseen.com). We especially wanted to go there because one of our favorite hotels in the whole world is there, the Pondok Sari. This place is really wonderful...very nice, comfortable bungalows, outdoor showers, a great swimming pool, gorgeous Balinese gardens, and one of the best things, lovely young Balinese women giving fantastic massages. For only about $20 US, you get a 90 minute massage. I can't tell you how wonderful this was after a day of diving. Here is a picture of the garden next to the massage room...



The dive center, Reef Seen, is just down the beach. Dive master Paul Turley was our instructor. Amy had dived before, about 18 years ago, but this was a first for me. I had been told a few years ago by an ex-Navy Seal that diving was the way to go, about 100 times better than snorkeling. Snorkeling was like watching a movie, but to dive was to be IN the movie. Boy, was he right. The first dive we went down about 12 meters. I had a hard time equalizing, getting the air pressure inside the ear to equalize what was happening outside the ear, so I had to go down fairly slowly. We had several things we had to do in order to get our certificate, like clearing the mask, taking the mask off under water, than putting it back on and clearing it (really freaky!!!!), doing compass work under water, taking the tank and BCD off and putting it back on, etc. But most of the four dives we did was just exploring these amazing reefs and seeing the undersea life. Wow, what an experience. We saw just unreal things like the most beautiful coral you've ever seen. Some of this coral had small fish, hundreds of them swimming in and out of them. We found a big sea cucumber with a little blue fish attached to him. We saw a small lobster. I'm telling you, if you're a snorkeler and like the water, take up diving, it really is a world apart. I can't wait to go on our next dive, wherever that may be. This is Amy and me with Paul, our dive master...



The drive between Pemuteran and Ubud, is beautiful, passing lovely rice paddies and some high mountain lakes. The lake area is actually fairly cool in climate, as it is about 4500 feet in elevation. The temple at Bedegul is one of the most beautiful in Bali...



and this is a view along the road to Ubud...



After three days in Pemuteran, we spent one day and night in Ubud before heading to Sulawesi. Typical of us, we spent almost the whole day scoping out things to buy. We are especially interested in wood and stone carving, so we went up and down the main shopping street, Monkey Forest Road, looking in the wonderful shops. We found some amazing wood carvings, both free standing and a few that are wall hangings. We also had my favorite Bali meal, crispy fried duck.



Sulawesi and Tana Toraja

The next morning we flew to the island of Sulawesi, formerly known as The Celebes. We had contracted a fellow named Dodo (his real name is Mursalim), also known as "The Penman of Makassar". We found Dodo through Lonely Planet and he came highly recommended as a driver. Dodo is a wonderful man. He picked us up at the airport in his brand new Suzuki van, very comfortable with airconditioning and a nice sound system. Our destination was the town of Rantepao in the area of Tana Toraja, a mountainous region about 9 hours drive north of Makassar. We loved Dodo right away. He has a great personality and is always full of good stories and is just fun to be around. If you ever go to Makassar or Tana Toraja, you must hire Dodo as your driver (his email is donow77@hotmail.com and his website is http://homepage.mac.com/soniaf/mak/penman/). They call him the Penman because Dodo collects pens, in fact has about 2500 of them!

The drive to Rantepao was long, but very beautiful. Dodo knows all the good places to stop and check out the interesting things and beautiful scenery. We stopped along the way to check out the dried fish. Here's Dodo Amy and the dried fish...




This is the area of the tribe of the Bugis. They are a great seafaring people and build wonderful looking houses...



And like in Bali, the men just hang around on these raised platforms, talking story all day...



The Bugis are the original Boogey men, as they were also pirates and were famous throughout the area. Ships from Holland, England other European countries were often attacked by the Bugis. The phrase "The Boogey man is going to get you" originated with these folks.

Nowadays most of the people who live in southern Sulawesi are descended from the Bugis or the Makassars. Sulawesi like most of Indonesia is largely Muslim, so there are lots of mosques, you are often hearing the call to prayer over the loudspeaker, and many but not all of the ladies wear head coverings and some lovely traditional style dresses. Toilets are "muslim style", meaning you are supposed to use water not toilet paper to clean yourself, Amy confesses she still doesn't understand how girls are supposed to do this and not walk out completely wet.

After 9 nine long but interesting hours, we finally arrived in Rantepao, in Tana Toraja. This area is most famous for the Tongkonan, the interesting houses that are built here. They are made to look like a boat and have wonderful carvings on all sides...





On the front of the houses you often see many buffalo horns; the more horns, the more important the family who owns the house...



Dodo set us up with a wonderful local guide, Yatim. Yatim is a real character...he's about 4 foot 10 inches, with a long pony tail. He constantly smokes clove cigarettes and as we were to later learn, is a good guitar player and singer. He is a Torajan and knows all the local stuff. Here's a picture of him and Amy in the market...



The most famous thing in Tana Toraja is the funeral of the local people. There is nothing like it anywhere. These are HUGE affairs, sometimes lasting days. The Torajans believe that you need several animals to go on the journey with you to the other side, especially buffalo and pigs. So every six days there is a gigantic livestock market (along with a market for everything else) in Rantepao. We were just lucky enough to not only be there for market day, but also we were there for a big funeral.

First off let me tell you, the market and the funeral are not for the weak at heart where it comes to the treatment of animals, especially pigs. The livestock market is held around a huge field. You first come upon the buffalo market. Now to have a proper send off on your funeral, you may need to sacrifice 10 buffalo or more. Some of the more rare buffalo can cost upward of 100,000,000 rupiah, which is around $10,000!!! So as you can well imagine, a funeral can be very hard financially on a family. The most expensive buffalo are these very rare albino buffalo...



which for some reason or another are better for clearing the way for you to get to heaven. There were several of them at the market, but most of the buffalo were of the plain black kind.



Next came the pig market, which was a little tough to go through. The poor pigs were tied up with their feet around bamboo poles, then laid down side by side under a giant awning. The line from Deliverance, 'Squeal like a pig!', kept coming back to me. The poor little piggies knew what was coming, that's for sure and they were squealing very loudly.



There is also a large produce section, where the town comes not only to buy food, but to hobnob with their neighbors, like any market in the world...



Sulawei is known for its coffee, grown in nearby Kelosi (you can find it at Peat's). Mostly they sell Robusta, but we found some Arabica, which is much tastier...



There is a lot of food at the market, including spices and fish...





After the market it was off to the funeral. These don't happen everyday, especially at this time of year, so we were really lucky. A few months ago, an 85 lady from a wealthy local family died. It takes awhile for the family to accumulate all the livestock and money needed to put a funeral on, as well as inviting the many, many guests from neighboring villages. Yatim led us into the funeral area, which consists of many Tongkanans and many viewing platforms for the many guests. We were immediately taken to the deceased's family, meeting the son and the sister. We had bought a gift of cigarettes for the family, which is a nice gesture we were told. We got to sit and talk story with the family for awhile, they were all dressed up in beautiful local costumes. Nearby, kids and old folks smiled at us. One old lady had totally black teeth, a result of decades of betelnut chewing.

So what happens at the funeral is that first one or two buffalo are slaughtered. Then the meat is cut up and eventually cooked for friends and family.



The buffalo are treated much better than the poor pigs. They seem to be treated kind of like royalty, with their individual handlers, until their throat is slit and they are sent off to pave the way to the other side...




Several pigs are brought in (still tied to those bamboo poles) and laid on the ground, squealing their bloody heads off.




Then some guy goes around and points to the pig, mumbles something to another guy with a notebook, who jots something down. Eventually the pigs are taken into the forest for their dispatch from this world. At the same time, a procession comes into the grounds, a line of many people from a neighboring village. They are taken to a pavillion where they are served tea and goodies. Behind this procession, come many men dressed in black robes. They form a circle and then start a beautiful chant, which according to Yatim chronicles the life of the deceased, from birth to her journey to the other side...





Some local children then play some very haunting music on these special bamboo instruments. It really sounds lovely, music the likes I've never heard before.



Here are some of the kids...



and some of the kids get dressed up in local costumes. They are very proud...



We are watching all of this on the side, along with the occasional buffalo...



and some locals (with Yatim, who knows everyone)...



Then the folks who were led in are now led out and a new procession of folks from another village are led in and the whole thing starts over again...



The funeral goes on all afternoon, but kind of the same thing is happening every half hour or so, as new villages are led in and another circular chant happens...



So by this time we were ready to go (it was HOT!!!!) and go check out some other things, which were the famous Tongkonans. Yatim and Dodo took us to a lovely valley, which was filled with rice fields and had villages of Tongkonans. These again are the local houses, built to look either like a boat, or possible the horns of a buffalo, no one is quite sure which. The landscape here is quite beautiful...



and of course there are literally hundreds of Tongkonans...



which have very detailed carvings on all sides...




After this it was time to head back to the hotel for a rest. Unfortunately, we picked a rather bad hotel for the first night. The worst thing was the big termite nest in the bathroom. Actually, it was wood pushed up from a termite nest somewhere under the tub. Amy had wiped it away at night, but by the next morning it was back. We moved to a much nicer hotel the next day, the Toraja Prince, which had a great pool.

Anyway, for dinner we had some local fare at Mart's Cafe, which is where Yatim and his buddies like to hang out. The local food is very good. One dish is chicken cooked in bamboo, and they make another dish of pork made with a tasty black sause made out of a local fruit. The pork was really, really good, but I couldn't help thinking of the squealing pigs I saw earlier that day. Oh well.

Yatim took out his guitar and sang several local ballads with a couple of buddies that were there. They are very soulful songs and very beautiful. I then borrowed his guitar and Amy and I sang a couple of Hawaiian tunes. Everyone, including some tourists at the next table, thought that was great. Probably the first time Hawaiian music has ever been performed in Rantepao!

The next day we toured some of Toraja's burial sites. The local people carve what is known as a Tau Tau, an effigy of the person who is buried. There are several of these at each burial site. The most famous of these is at Lemo...




At each of the tourist spots are local people selling their crafts. Toraja is famous for its woodcarving. Platters are made with intricate, very detailed carving, almost Arabic in design. Sometimes you come upon a local craftsman who makes tau taus...



And there are some great wood carving shops. Here's one and it's obviously a slow day...




Yatim took us to some 'hanging grave', which are old rotting wooden coffins that are hung on granite cliffs, bones piled inside of them willy nilly. Some have rotten so much that they have fallen and the bones have scattered. Occasionally, the skulls are just propped up on a rock...



Lunch that day was eaten at a place called the Panorama Restaurant, which had a beautiful view over some rice paddies. We got to see how locals quickly harvested the rice. One woman was working very fast in the heat of the day...



One of the finest villages was Ketu Ke'tsu, where there were many Tongkonans with intricate carvings. They were getting ready for another funeral, so folks were hanging out...






The next day was spent driving back to Makassar. We stopped along the way for some boiled corn and happened to be the amusement for some local ladies selling corn by the side of the road. These 'warungs' are all along the road and there will be several in one spot, all devoted to selling a certain food, like boiled corn, dried fish, sweet cakes, etc. These are corn ladies (and the incomparable Dodo)...



Dodo got us to the airport in plenty of time for our flight. It was tough saying goodbye, as Dodo is now a good friend and who knows if we will see him again.

The Makassar airport was nice, especially for their massage room, where they do reflexology on the feet. This was part joyous massage and part Spanish Inquisition torture, as they really massage the feet very hard. Between my screams of pain were sighs of joy. Soon, we were in the air for our 1 hour flight to Bali and 1 hour ride to Ubud.

Back in Bali

It was good being back in Bali, especially Ubud. Bali is truly a magical place and Ubud is the center of all that is Bali. There is a certain energy here that is hard to describe. But it all comes together; the lovely, warm people, the gorgeous landscapes, the art, the ceremonies...it makes for not only the most exotic place I've ever been to, but a place that just feels good to be. This was the view from our hotel, the Pande Permai...



We woke up early and took a walk. We discovered a small alleyway and decided to walk through it. We were soon out of the tourist area and into the real Ubud, with everyone getting ready for the big ceremony. Today was Kuningan, one of the most important days of the Balinese Hindu year. It's a bit like Day of the Dead in Mexico, as 10 days earlier, Galungan, the ancestors come back to earth and hang around. For the Balinese it's more like Christmas, as it's truly a big family holiday. So the day we were there, Kuningan, was when the ancestors head back to where they came from. But everyone gets all dressed up and goes to temple. In this alleyway, ladies were heading to their temples with offerings on their heads...



where they would make an offering...



Then they head to one of the big temples. We went to the temple in the Monkey Forest, right near our hotel. You must wear proper temple clothes to enter, which is a sarong and a sash, and the foreigners are kept in the back, which is actually a good place for a view. There was a gamelan orchestra playing away. Here is a picture of a drummer...



When they were done, some of the kids decided to try their hands at gamelan. Actually, it sounded about the same as the grownups (you have to have heard gamelan to actually understand this statement)...



Everybody was now lined up to receive blessings and to give them...









After a few minutes of this, everyone heads over to a pavillion where the priests give them some rice, which they press to their foreheads; not unlike Catholics who get a some ash put on them on Ash Wednesday.



Soon the ceremony was over and the procession began. All the folks in the temple head out to go around the town. They often have a barong with them, a sacred lion or pig...





For us it was time for shopping. We had already found pretty much what we wanted, so we went to the various stores ready to bargain. When the shopkeeper gives you a price, I usually offer him half. Of course, he looks horrified, insulted, shocked, or all three, but he quickly counter offers. I counter, then he counters, then I give him my absolute last, final, highest price I will pay. He offers something a little higher than that. I say okay, we shake hands, and everyone is happy. We came with 2 suitcases, one only half full. We left with five suitcases, full of wonderful art, coffee and spices. This is Amy at our favorite art shop, waiting around as the sales lady wraps up our purchases...



and this is an example of some of Bali's fine wood carving...



Of course, shopping is very hard work and you can work up quite a thirst. Luckily, right across the street from the art shop is a great little restaurant with a view on the rice paddies. They make an ice cappuccino, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it...



There was still a bit more shopping to do. Here are some of the helpers of a local shopkeeper...




Well, the next morning was our last morning. We were picked up early for the ride to the airport. Along the way are several stone carving shops. We ended up buying four statues plus a beautiful lantern. Here is one of the carvers...



While along the side of the road, we packed our new treasures into our suitcases, to the amusement to our guide, Ketut, and our driver...



The flight home was a long one, over 24 hours, but it was a great flight. Lots of leg room, fantastic service by lovely Singapore Airline ladies. Good movies to watch and we both slept about 6 hours. Before we knew it, we were flying over the California coast and could see Lucas Valley and our neighborhood. When we got home, we unpacked all of our goodies...



and today have been trying to figure out where to put all of them!

All in all, another fantastic trip to Bali. Both Amy and I highly recommend a trip here to anyone with a little adventure in their hearts. Bali is probably my favorite place in all the world. The people go out of their way to make you feel at home, the landscape is the most beautiful anywhere in the world, and the art and daily life is unique here. Yes, it's a long flight, but anywhere interesting takes awhile to get to. For the price of a 1 star hotel in Europe, you can stay at the equivelant of a 4 star in Bali and be pampered to your heart's content. The massages alone are worth the journey!

We use Escapes Unlimited, which has great deals to Bali plus other Asian destinations. Their website is http://www.escapesltd.com/ and I can't recommend them enough. For under $1000 you can get a roundtrip ticket on Singapore Air plus 6 nights in a hotel. How can you beat that?