GARGANTUAN steps
Saturday, July 04, 2015
island of the gods
They call Bali the Island of the Gods, though I am not able to find out a reason behind this famed moniker, beyond the fact that it contains a whole lot of Hindu temples. In fact, Bali is also known as the Island of Thousand Temples, though this is supposedly a gross underestimation. There are apparently 6002 of them. Within a temple complex stand many puras, which are Balinese Hindu temples. Amongst all these, the most ironic thing was that for our trip to Bali, Chun Yi and myself never stepped into a single temple. And even more ironically, we never stepped on to a beach as well! Guess there really are a lot more things in Bali to do then visit temples and lie on beaches (though I am sure we will be back to do that sooner rather than later)!
Bali is the most visited island in the whole of Indonesia, the second being that of Yogyakarta of the famed Borobudur temple. The first Hindus arrived on the island way back in 100 B.C., though it was not till the Javanese Majapahit Empire's rule in the 14th century did this result in an influx of Javanese culture that is now so apparent today. The first contact the island had with the Europeans were with the Portuguese in the early 16th century, but it was the Dutch and its East India Company that took a firm foothold of the island at the turn of that century. After dividing and conquering the various Balinese realms, they never left the island till after the second world war. They initially lost the island to the Japanese during the war, and then subsequently to Sukarno, President of Indonesia, when the island was declared part of the independent Republic of Indonesia on 29th December 1949. It was not till the 1960s when the island gained its popularity amongst tourists, and they have never looked back since despite countless setbacks including a volcanic eruption and countless suicide bombings. Now, the whole of Bali is geared towards tourism - its beaches, its mountains, its temples, its sacred dances, and even its rice paddies. And though Bali may feel crowded and claustrophobic at times, especially on the roads, there are pockets of peace and calm to be found, and in them you can find absolute tranquility. Even on top of a mountain with hundreds of people around you.
Days 1 and 2: White Water Rafting and Tanah Lot
I was barely back from London after taking my PACES examinations again, and I was back in the airport that very same afternoon to catch our flight out for a short weekend getaway. As most of our flights have typically been, our flight to Bali was no different - it departed Singapore more than an hour late, and we only reached our accommodation in Ubud just before its room services were closed for the night. I say room, though it was one of the most lavish of places that we have ever stayed in for an accommodation, and absurdly cheap too. We stayed in a villa beside a rice padi field in Ubud, and devoid of any light pollution beyond those filtering out from our room, we could even catch a glimpse of the Milky Way within the compounds of our villa.
'We love because He first loved us'
- 1 John 4:19
~to a lifetime with you~
Bali is the most visited island in the whole of Indonesia, the second being that of Yogyakarta of the famed Borobudur temple. The first Hindus arrived on the island way back in 100 B.C., though it was not till the Javanese Majapahit Empire's rule in the 14th century did this result in an influx of Javanese culture that is now so apparent today. The first contact the island had with the Europeans were with the Portuguese in the early 16th century, but it was the Dutch and its East India Company that took a firm foothold of the island at the turn of that century. After dividing and conquering the various Balinese realms, they never left the island till after the second world war. They initially lost the island to the Japanese during the war, and then subsequently to Sukarno, President of Indonesia, when the island was declared part of the independent Republic of Indonesia on 29th December 1949. It was not till the 1960s when the island gained its popularity amongst tourists, and they have never looked back since despite countless setbacks including a volcanic eruption and countless suicide bombings. Now, the whole of Bali is geared towards tourism - its beaches, its mountains, its temples, its sacred dances, and even its rice paddies. And though Bali may feel crowded and claustrophobic at times, especially on the roads, there are pockets of peace and calm to be found, and in them you can find absolute tranquility. Even on top of a mountain with hundreds of people around you.
Days 1 and 2: White Water Rafting and Tanah Lot
I was barely back from London after taking my PACES examinations again, and I was back in the airport that very same afternoon to catch our flight out for a short weekend getaway. As most of our flights have typically been, our flight to Bali was no different - it departed Singapore more than an hour late, and we only reached our accommodation in Ubud just before its room services were closed for the night. I say room, though it was one of the most lavish of places that we have ever stayed in for an accommodation, and absurdly cheap too. We stayed in a villa beside a rice padi field in Ubud, and devoid of any light pollution beyond those filtering out from our room, we could even catch a glimpse of the Milky Way within the compounds of our villa.
The Milky Way
Our villa
Chun Yi, with her little Balinese flower, by the rice paddy fields
Breakfast by the pool
Chun Yi had previously been to Bali before, many years back, and one of her conditions for coming to Bali with me, which I had never been to before, was to go white water rafting. It didn't take me too long to agree to that, since I had other agendas on my mind for this trip, and I suppose I could try this once-in-a-lifetime activity. Besides, reviews said that rafting down the River Ayung was no different to a moderate Disneyland ride, and with that, we were all game to go. Now my pre-river ride start ominously with Chun Yi's wallet stuck in my shorts with the pocket zip broken just as I had zipped it in - and only a massive parang, handled dangerously at my thigh where the zip was located, could finally free it so that I could put it in a waterproof bag. It was a close shave.
The Ayung River, which we rafted down, is the longest river in Bali, running approximately 75 km from start to end, but we barely covered a fraction of it in our 3 hour ride down the river. Accompanied by another Italian couple and an apparently lunatic rafting captain (as claimed by other rafting captains), it was a fun but safe cruise down the river. We neither capsized nor were thrown overboard - and if anything, most of our bumps were little tricks and treats served by our captain, purposefully rear-ending our raft into rocks or smacking imaginary crocodiles and splashing water on to us. The ride down the river itself was filled with beautiful scenery and the only pity was that we could not take our cameras along with us. In fact, another tourist on another raft lost her GoPro camera for which their captain had to go swimming in the river looking for it, but to no avail. Guess some memories are better left captured in the mind! The rafting company though had spots where they could capture us on (digital) film and here's one for the memory.
Rafting down the River Ayung
At our villa - Villa Kayu Lama
After a short rest, we were up and about to try and catch Bali's famed spectacular sunset, made all the more spectacular on the backdrop of Tanah Lot. First off, an hour's ride turned into a two and a half hour nightmare, and secondly, by the time we had reached our destination, we managed to catch a glimpse of all but 3 minutes of sun setting before it went plummeted beyond the horizon. Finally, it seemed like the rest of Bali were with us to observe this spectacle, and beautiful though it was, the moment was despoiled.
Tanah Lot means 'Land Sea' in Balinese, and on its rock formation (partially man-made as it was crumbling), sits Pura Tanah Lot, or Tanah Lot temple. Interestingly, the man-made rock formation was actually sponsored by the Japanese government to preserve this sacred site. One can get across to the temple during low tide, but we never made it with the sun already set. It was a minor disappointment to our trip, and we were more than made up with another treasure in Bali - dinner at Merah Putih restaurant (which means 'Red White' - the colours making up the Indonesian national flag). Dinner was most excellent, and just like the rest of Bali, ridiculously under-priced. Thankfully we were not caught in a jam back to our villa, with an early morning set ahead of us.
Sunset at Tanah Lot
The crowd at Pura Tanah Lot
Chun Yi and myself with Pura Tanah Lot
After sunset
Dinner at Merah Putih
Day 3: Mount Batur and sunrise, coffee plantation and Kopi Luwak, the Tegalalang Rice Terrace, lunch at Bebek Bengil, four-hands massage at Sang Spa, and dinner at The Viceroy
After an absolutely back-breaking day rafting down the River Ayung, we were determined to top ourselves by ascending Mount Batur to catch sunrise the following morning. Mount Batur is actually an active volcano which rises 1717 metres above sea-level. This was a trek where one does not apparently need much training prior to scaling its heights, but it was definitely not as easy as it had been portrayed to be.
Before we had even gone into deep slumber, it was time to awake with our transport picking us up from our villa at two in the morning. After about an hour and a half's journey, with a coffee and pisang goreng break in the middle, we reached the starting point of our climb, which was apparently already 1 k.m. above sea level already - what's another 700 metres more to go? In complete darkness, and following throngs of fellow climbers carrying small little torches, we started our ascent in the cool mountain air. It was not before long we were breaking out in perspiration, and we took breaks more and more frequently. It was also quite a sight seeing the 'trail' in front of you - literally the hundreds of people, ahead of you, leading the way with little blinkering lights belonging to their torches. They also ominously showed the steep finale as we inched towards it. After two and a half hours, and many faltering steps, slips, dropping and then recovering my spectacles, more rest breaks, sliding down half a step for every step you took up on the sandy trails - we finally reached the top. Together with hundreds of other people. One couldn't imagine that the rest of Bali had decided to spend sunrise together with us after watching the sunset with us the evening before?
Thankfully, our guide was able to find a quiet spot for us to sit down and enjoy the shimmering spectacle ahead of us, with the first glimpse of sunrise met with a cheer from the crowd, and this was then overshadowed by endless waves of clouds, which broke at times to offer us glimpses of the sun peeking out from the horizon. And then it was finally out there for us to be immersed in its full glory, and it was a glorious sight to behold. And after shooting my time-lapse video and a few funny poses, I decided it was time to move on with the next step of my life - after a quivering proposal, she thankfully said yes! :)
First glimpse of the sun
Sunrise - a time-lapse
Two halves make one whole
And so she said yes!
The view of our climb - from the top
After having our breakfast on the top of Mount Batur, which included eggs cooked in the hot steam arising from the volcano itself, it was time to trek down along via a different route, along the volcanic crater, which offered even more breath-taking views of the surrounding region and the lava fields formed by multiple eruptions of Mount Batur in the past. The climb down was equally taxing on the body, and we took an equivalent amount of time coming down as we had gone up. This though included a few photo stops, and a few falls along the way as well with our tired and aching muscles.
Cooking our eggs in the hot volcanic steam
The sign of God's covenant
The view on the way down
Veni, Vidi, Vici - Mount Batur
Us with our climbing guide
He gets to climb Mount Batur two to three times a week!
Along the way back, we stopped by a coffee plantation and were shown and given a tour on how one of the world's most expensive coffee beans were collected. Kopi Luwak, also known as civet coffee, is made from coffee beans collected from coffee berries eaten, digested, fermented, and then defaecated by the civet cat. These were then washed many times over, and then roasted and pounded just like any other coffee beans. Apparently, these coffee berries are specially picked by the civet cat themselves (hence apparently better beans), and then the process of digestion and fermentation in their intestines improves the flavour of the coffee bean itself. Apparently, a kilogram of this coffee bean can fetch anything between USD $100-$700, depending on whether the beans were obtained from domesticated or wild civet cats! Not being a coffee connoisseur, I could hardly taste the difference between
Kopi Luwak and Starbucks coffee (both equally expensive to me), and
neither could Chun Yi as well. Now I wonder what are the most expensive tea leaves in the world - that would interest me slightly more.
A 'farmed' luwak
Chun Yi and a pot of luwak-processed coffee beans
We stopped by another of Bali's famed sights on the way back, the Tegalalang Rice Terraces, but we were too weary to climb another step down, and after a quick photo-stop, we made our way to one of Bali's most talked-about local restaurant - Bebik Bengil, or Dirty Duck Restaurant. Why one would name their restaurant with such a negative connotation is beyond me, but their signature dish, the crispy duck, made for an excellent lunch. Though this may be confounded by the fact that we were absolutely famished after our climb. Still, worth a try if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.
Tegalalang Rice Terraces
Chun Yi amongst the rice fields
Dirt Duck Restaurant
Crispy duck lunch
After chilling in our private pool in the afternoon, one of Chun Yi's favourite phrases for the trip, we headed out for another Balinese tradition - a massage to sooth our aching muscles - before celebrating our evening together with dinner at Cascades at The Viceroy, this time, away from the rest of Bali. I had initially enlisted the help of the restaurant for a proposal (just in case plan A had failed), and they were kind enough to make a heart-shaped flower arrangement around our dinner table, and we even had a complimentary pisang goreng after dinner! They really knew how to pamper us.
Four-hands massage at Sang Spa
Our dinner with a view
With compliments from the chef
Day 4: Ubud Town, Nasi Campur, and farewell Bali
Our final morning was spent exploring the cultural centre of Bali - Ubud. Famed for being an arts and crafts hub, we were stuck in the Ubud Market being accosted by shop-keepers selling their goods. In particular, a Balinese mamasan, literally used her girth to good use, trapped us in her shop by standing at her shop entrance, and hastily tearing down her shop to find a suitable dress for Chun Yi and suitable baby clothes for Raphael. And after failing to buy anything, we managed to squeeze ourselves out, but not before she hit me on the thigh and angrily mouthed a curse at me. It wasn't a particularly pleasant encounter for both of us, after having experienced such warmth and welcome from all the locals we had come into contact with. But it was but a spot of bother on our otherwise perfect holiday break together.
Ubud market
Chun Yi and myself
Nasi Campur - our last meal in Bali
All too soon, it was time to head to the airport (a bit too soon I must
say as we calculated for the Balinese traffic jam which we never ran
into) to catch our flight back to Singapore. Looking forward already to
our next holiday together~
'We love because He first loved us'
- 1 John 4:19
~to a lifetime with you~
Labels: Asia, Bali, Food, Geography, Indonesia, Nature, Scenery, Travel
posted by Gabriel Yan at 11:27 PM
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