Ubud & Seminyak, Indonesia

Day 13

I felt so horrible in the morning. I went to have breakfast and then went to buy more water. Fever didn’t seem to be so high anymore so I finally got some sleep. But soon I woke up to some singing and smell of something burning. I peeked from window and I saw some women praying behind my door. They were burning coconuts and that’s where to smell came from. They were doing that almost an hour and I was just angry because I wanted to get sleep. Later I realised that they didn’t do that to other rooms. Did the spirits tell that something was wrong in my room (me being sick)? If they were praying for my health it helped because after I woke up in the late afternoon I was feeling quite ok.

I went to the town to eat (in the same cheap place where I had eaten before). When I walked back to the hotel the centre was full of people selling last minute tickets to dance show in Ubud Palace. Because I wanted to see traditional Balinese dancing I bought one ticket. It was one hour until the show was starting so I sat down to wait in a bar drinking honeydew melon juice. Then I moved to Ubud Palace and I got quite good seat to watch the performance. They have these performances every day around Ubud and you can hear the music in the evening echoing around the town which gives a magical feeling. But this show was clearly aimed for tourists. Usually these dance performances last for hours but this was 1.5 hours long which was fine with me because I didn’t feel so well yet. They had 2 different dances in this show. First was short Legong dance performance and then longer Ramayana ballet performance. Both performances were shortened versions of the real stories. But I enjoyed this show and especially the gamelan music.

Day 14

This was my last day in Ubud. I was originally supposed to in Gunung Kawi which is said to be the most impressive ancient site in Bali. But I still didn’t feel perfectly healthy so I decided to skip it because I sometimes felt my head was little dizzy and walking hundreds of stairs didn’t sound very good at that moment. So I was still taking slowly. I went to Ubud Market to buy souvenirs and had lunch in place called Warung Ibu Oka. It’s recommended in every guide of Ubud and by Anthony Bourdain too so it was packed with people when I came there. I shared table with very friendly Australian-Canadian couple. The speciality of this restaurant is roasted pig and that’s what I of course ordered. And it was delicious! And surprisingly cheap! Although the couple told me it used be cheaper, but because Bourdain made this place famous they raised the prices.

Otherwise I didn’t do much on that day. I went back to hotel to rest because suddenly I started to feel little worse again. I organised a ride for me for the next day to beach town of Seminyak where I would spend my last 2 days in Bali. In the evening I went to have dinner in a guide book recommended Tutmak Café. It’s expensive and nothing special so I don’t recommend. 

Day 15

In the morning my ride came to pick me from the hotel. I shared the car with Scottish couple, Swiss woman and American woman. So there were six persons and their luggage in a 5 person car. It was little tight. But we had very nice conversations during the trip. All others left the car in Bali airport so was left alone for the rest of the drive to Kuta. The driver left me at some junction in Kuta and I took a taxi from there to my hostel in Seminyak. Breakfast was still going on so I was greeted with other hostel guests. It was actually nice to have other people around after I had spent many days alone in my hotel room. I had lunch in a restaurant which was other side of the road from the hotel. And the concept of this restaurant soon became my favourite. All the foods are on show and they you just point which ones you want and they fill the plate for you. And it was surprisingly cheap too, probably because many locals seemed to eat at this place too. And the food was delicious. I felt little tired so I decided to rest on my bed for a while. Well, that while became hours of sleep. Rest of the day I spend at the hostel with other guests, just talking and having drinks. I noticed it in Ubud too but here in Seminyak it was clearer because of bigger population:  Balinese people shoot fireworks every evening after sunset, probably to get rid of bad spirits. For dinner I had bad nasi goreng in a bar where other customers were drunk Australians. But it was only place open anymore. 

Day 16

Other guests recommended last night the massage place next door so I decided to try it out too. Full body massage for 45 minutes was only 6 Euros. It was very relaxing and I felt quite numb after that. Then I had lunch again at the same buffet-style restaurant as yesterday and this time I tried different foods. Then I walked to see the beach. The famous beaches of Bali. I must say the first sight was very magical. The smell of salt water, the sound big waves hitting the beach, the wind and the noises from traffic faded in the background. But when I walked closer to the waterline I started to see the truth. The water was full of trash. There were diapers, plastic bags, cans, bottles and even light bulbs. I started to walk south towards Legian and Kuta along the waterline. Suddenly the trashes disappeared from the beach but there was explanation for that; the hotel resort area had started. Beach was cleaned here so hotel visitors don’t need to see the truth. Yellow flags were warning of strong waves but people still in the water. Couple times I almost got sucked by the waves to the sea and I was just standing or walking in shallow water. Somewhere in Legian area there was a gap between the hotels and I got back on the streets. I was feeling so hot and tired so I took a taxi to take me back to the hostel. And as soon I sat down inside I realised that it was a fake taxi. Well, he took me to the hostel but charged a lot of extra; he used traffic as an excuse for that. After that I felt so angry. Again in the evening I was hanging out with other hostel guests. I had dinner in expensive Thai restaurant. We started to watch a Brazilian film in the hostel but soon I started to feel tired and I went to sleep.

I was waiting so much for tomorrow, the day when I would fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and see finally my dear friend.

Touring in Bali, Indonesia

Day 12

This day it was time for tour around the island of Bali. I went to the tourist office where I met with the driver. He said to me that there was going to be 2 Japanese women with us and we went to pick them up from their hotel which was located outside of the town. Driver said it was good thing that I was on the tour with the ladies because according to him Japanese people are too nice to say no. So he said that I should save them during the day from bad situations and that was what I did couple times during next 6 hours.

Our first stop was Goa Gajah or Elephant Cave Temple. The driver said that we need sarongs to enter and we should buy them here if we don’t have because we would need them in every place we visit. Japanese ladies bought their sarongs but I had heard that there are sarongs for tourists available for free on entrance and that was true. So I didn’t buy sarong from there. The temple was interesting looking from the outside; the door was carved as a mouth of some kind of god maybe. Early European explorers thought it was elephant and that why it’s named Elephant Cave. Inside the temple there’s nothing to see. Area around the temple had some old fountains and other temple but otherwise nothing special.

Our next stop was Pura Tirtha Empul or The Holy Spring Water Temple. Again I didn’t need to buy sarong because there was sarongs available for tourists. This temple was very interesting experience. Like the name suggests it has a spring which is holy so people bath in the water. I was watching the bathing ritual and people tried to invite me to come bath with them. If there wouldn’t have been so tight schedule and full day of sightseeing ahead of me I would’ve definitely joined these people. I walked around the temple complex and watched how a praying ceremony was just ending. In this place I did really feel the religious spirit unlike in the Elephant Cave Temple. I really liked this temple and I recommend visiting it. We walked back to our car through souvenir stall and I decided that it would be easier for me just to buy a sarong. And that was a good decision because in the next places where we visited there were no possibilities to borrow a sarong. And it was also useful for other parts of the trip.

Next stop was coffee plantation in Temen. Well, I’m not so sure about that plantation part. There were couple coffee plants here and there and some other plants like cocoa, black pepper and other spices. But I wouldn’t call that place a plantation. And there seemed to be quite many of these “plantations” in the area. But they also had couple of these animals called civets which eat coffee beans. The beans go through their digestion and then people make coffee of those beans. That coffee is called kopi luwak in Indonesian and it’s very expensive. They had some teas and coffee for tasting at the plantation but if you wanted to taste luwak coffee you had to pay for that. As I don’t like coffee I didn’t taste it but the Japanese ladies paid the extra to have a small cup of luwak. And when we started to leave from the plantation, surprise, surprise; we had to go through a shop selling luwak coffee, normal coffee, different teas and local alcohol drinks. I didn’t buy anything but of course the Japanese ladies were shopping like crazy.

Before our next destination we shortly stopped at Penelokan where there was nice view over Lake Batur to Mount Batur, although the mountain was partly covered by clouds. Air was much cooler here at the mountain which was nice relief from the heat but our driver was complaining that air was cold :D Roads were quite crazy at the mountain area, lots of steep hills. It started to rain when we got closer to our next destination which was Pura Besakih or Mother Temple of Besakih. Pura Besakih is the most important and largest temple in Bali. Many guide books warn that this temple could be very annoying experience. Our driver also warned us before we left the car that don’t listen to anybody and he gave me extra task to guard the Japanese ladies. And soon it became very clear why everybody gives warnings about this place. Soon some men were shouting at us from a small booth that we have to check our tickets there. They looked so angry so I decided to show our tickets to them. Then they showed us map of the temple complex and I realised that this wasn’t a ticket checkpoint. Soon they asked us to sign a paper and then we would have a guide which they say is mandatory in the temple complex. Japanese ladies were almost already writing their names in the paper but I quickly stopped them and asked the men to give our tickets back. So without me the Japanese ladies would have got fooled in the first possible place. Then it was time for the temple area. It was raining hard so the views from the temple complex were hidden behind the clouds but I could see that the temple area continued high on the slope of Mount Agung. People were all the time trying to offer guide services or sell umbrellas even when I had one on my own. One of the guides got angry at me when I was protecting Japanese ladies from him and he lied to me that one of the temples was closed. Quite poor lie when I could see other tourists walking inside. Well, there was other entrance to that temple too. But even with all these troubles from locals I recommend to visit in Pura Besakih. In my opinion the complex was very beautiful and the temple design is so unique. On a clear day the views must be amazing. Just remember to ignore everybody there, they will soon get tired of you and then you can walk around in peace.

Next we had lunch. Driver took us to some tourist restaurant which had nice view over a valley. The restaurant had a buffet and the price of the buffet was the highest price I paid for food in Indonesia (it was over 8 Euros). Even the Japanese ladies were shocked of the price. So I decided to eat for full price. The staff seemed to be little shocked when I went to get food for 5^th time. And I still went to get desserts 2 times after that. After dinner we started to drive towards the city of Semarapura. On the way we shortly stopped to see a view over rice terraces. In Semarapura sun was shining again but I was feeling little sick. My ears didn’t feel ok after driving down from the mountain and I also had headache. So it was good thing that Semarapura was our last stop. Semarapura was known as Klungkung before and it used to be the centre of Klungkung kingdom. We visited in Klungkung Palace or what is now left of it. The buildings had interesting paintings on their ceilings but otherwise it wasn’t anything special. The place had also small museum.

On way home we were stuck in traffic. We first dropped the Japanese ladies to their hotel. I also didn’t take the ride all the way back to the tourist office. Because traffic was so bad, it was faster for me to walk back to my hotel. When I got back to my room I noticed the wifi was working. While I was surfing in the internet I started to feel cold and I realised I was getting sick. Soon my fever had risen and I was feeling both cold and hot. I took all the medicines I had and drank water all the time; thankfully I had quite plenty of it. I also had some snacks which I bought earlier so I didn’t need go find food with fever but I was feeling full of the buffet still anyway. I couldn’t get any sleep during following the night.