Ubud

So I left Sanur for Ubud to begin my trip around the island, and even the taxi journey up there was more fascinating than Sanur. The major thing that stood out to me was the election campaign posters lining the roads. They were just like the ones in HK, except there were about 50 different candidates. My favourite was a guy in an army-style, roofless jeep, grinning, with his arms up in the air as if to say "Whatever". My second favourite was a guy with a yellow mohawk. I have to point out this was for the Indonesian general election!



Ubud itself is lovely. Much more upmarket and chilled out than Sanur, where there is so much hassle that I felt uncomfortable going out in the street, making it a chore to leave the hotel. The place I was staying in here was set in tranquil, tropical gardens, where you feel totally alone. It creates the impression that you are in your own, giant Balinese palace. If you take the time to sit and look around you, you begin to notice the intricate stone carvings of nonsensical animals. It was the calmest view imaginable, yet it was a jungle of sound - hundreds of insects chirping away, the hidden gardener chopping at the hedges, a girl singing nearby, a cockrel crowing(!), some kids making tarzan noises, people manually building something, laughter..... It was nice to just sit for a while and listen.



Later in the day I met with the group that I was due to go on my trip with, there were only six of us in total. Two of the people were American diplomats - there lives sounded fascinating. They work as politcal officers to improve human rights and have been stationed in countries such as Afhganistan, Bangladesh, Thailand.... from everything they were telling me it sounding exactly like my perfect job! Maybe a possible result of my intended International Relations/Peace Studies masters in Japan...?



Another person on the trip was Chloe, a girl the same age as me who I shared a room with. She had just been travelling in Australia as well, and turns out we both knew some of the same people in Byron Bay! Such a small world! Also, she happens to be in Bangkok on the same dates as me, so we are meeting up again there.



That night we all went to a night market. It was kind of funny - the drive there was the first sense I really had of being in Asia, it felt like I had come home. The market itself was a bit like a Hong Kong market, except no where near as packed and so much more chilled out. It was all locals apart from us. Here was the first place I realised my love of Asian food - I had an excellent meal of these veggie tempura type things. No idea what was in them other than that the were vegetarian, but they were delicious! And all for about 30 US cents. The market's speciality was suckling pig.

The next day we walked through the nearby countryside, surrounded by rice fields. It was so beautiful, like a picturebook. A kind of bizarre thing was though, that the small path was dotted with art galleries, but there were no tourists to buy the art. Perhaps the send it to Ubud to be sold.

At the beginning of the walk we saw a traditional (rich person) Balinese house. Each room in the house had a different function and needed to be facing a different direction according to its function; but the great thing was that every room could also be used for sleeping. The house was beautiful, with such detailed carving everywhere in wood and gold. The most striking feature, I thought, was the two statues of what appeared to the Western eye to be demons guarding the door from evil. There was also a pet dog that sang.

Througout the day our local guide would tell us all the relevent traditions of Hinduism to what we were seeing. There are several major ceremonies throughout life, one being tooth filing, and they all seem quite focused on purity. We were appropriately standing under a great Banyan tree while the guide was giving is longest talk on the ceremonies - this tree is holy to Hindus - and the guide, who was lovely, made what at the time was a rather amusing joke (though I think it was more amusing for him to be telling it as he couldn't speak much English, so it was rather sweet, whereas if i told it, it would have been quite cheesy). The joke was that in Hinduism they have a holy tree - the Banyan tree, in America they have a Holy-wood. The guide also, much to my entertainment, frenquently used the phrase: "Take a chill pill, man."

One thing I started to learn in Ubud - all chips in Bali are so tasty!!!

So after that tasty chip lunch, we went shopping in the market. They were shouting out that though shoes were 1000IDR...thats 10 US cents... which of course was incredibly cheap and worth getting some. However when I actually went to buy a pair, they changed their price to 100,000, so it was just a trick to reel people in. However I did get a good bargain on a pair of light trousers which I needed for more conservative areas, but the woman didn't seem to happy about selling them for such a low price, so I felt a bit bad afterwards! Thinking about it now though, I reckon it was all an act.

I should really talk about the people in Ubud, as they were absolutely lovely. I ended up spending a while talking to the hotel staff, and just random people on street corners! They were all really curious about us, loving to ask questions about where we were from, what we did for a living, our family. They were so sweet and unlike other places where you never really talk to hotel staff, these guys would just come and socialise with you.

In the evening we went to see a traditional dance, which was in three parts. The first dance had a dramatic chorus of about 60 men, chanting noises throughout, such as a very fast "tukka tukka tukka" and something sounding a bit like "ketchup". At first it was a bit confusing as the two main, male characters were played by girls, but we soon figured this out! The costumes were a show in themselves. They were so extravagent with lots of gold - very beautiful. The bad guys were all played by older men in masks. It was a typical story of a princess being kidnapped and her rescue - all very lively and dramatic.

The second dance was done by two very long girls in a trance, dancing with their eyes closed. Every so often they would collapse and have to be picked up by the nearest female background-chanters. They were perfectly in time with each other, but apparently they aren't taught the dance at all - the spirit of the goddess goes within them and dances using their bodies. At the end a priest revives them using incense and holy water.

The final dance was somewhat disturbing! It started with a big fire being made out of coconut shells and the all traditional petrol! Then a guy came along riding a toy horse and ran straight through the middle of the fire! He carried on like this for about fifteen minutes, kicking the fire about and running across the burning coals barefoot! All the time he is in a trance with his eyes closed. With the little girls I didn't believe the trance, however this was so....incredible I'm not so sure anymore. He was in a total frenzy. In the end two people had to catch him and hold him down while the priest revived him in the same manner as the little girls. That was the end of the show....but I noticed the guy who had been running through the fire just sat in the same place where he had been revived, not moving and looking like he was going to be sick for about half an hour afterwards. He was really not in a good state at all, it was quite worrying!

After that intense start of the evening we headed to a local Balinese lady's house for dinner - a friend of our group leader. She had cooked a big buffet for us and it was delicious! There was lots of coconut involved. I was very pleasantly surprised, the fussy eater that I am, that on trying everything vegetarian I loved it all and ate until I couldn't move!

Arrival in Bali....

Sanur: I'm sitting on my "large balcony designed for luxury living" in my Bali hotel room, overlooking the pagoda roofing, tropical gardens and lagoon-like pool. The smell of incense drifts through the air and the only thing I hear is the traditional Balinese gamelan music playing somewhere in the distance - it seems to belong with the view, as though it was the music of nature. Occasionally the peace is broken when a bat flutters around me, but this too belongs perfectly.



My first day in Bali went as follows (repeated about every two metres down the street):

Local guy: Hello, how are you?
Me: I'm good thankyou.
Local: Where are you from?
Me: Hong Kong. (Just to be confusing.)
Local: But you don't look like you're from Hong Kong?
Me: No, my family are English.
Local: Ohhh. There are many English in Hong Kong?
Me: Yes, lots.
Local: Can I know your name?
Me: Yes, it's An-nie.
Local: Honey?
Me: No, An-nie.
Local: An-nie.
Me: And your name?
Local: I am so-and-so.
Me: So-and-so?
Local: Yes, so-and-so. How old are you Annie?
Me: I am twenty-two.
Local: Twenty-three?
Me: No, no, twenty-two.
Local: Twenty-two, ohhh, I am twenty-six. Do you have a boyfriend Annie?
Me: (lying) Yes, I do.
Local: How many boyfriends?
Me: Just the one!
Local: Would you like another one.
Me: No, I'm fine with the one I've got, thankyou.
Local: Where is your boyfriend?
Me: He is back at the hotel.
Local: You don't want a Balinese boyfriend as well?
Me: I don't think my boyfriend would be too happen with that....
Local: Oh, what are you doing tomorrow?
Me: I'm not sure yet.
Local: Would you like to come with me tomorrow? I have a taxi. For you it is free.
Me: No I'm sorry, thankyou.
Local: We could go on a trip? The volcano? Ubud? Kuta?
Me: I'm sorry, I can't.
Local: Maybe you like to go swimming, we could go swimming?
Me: No, I'm sorry.
Local: Oh ok. You are very beautiful. I like you Annie.
Me: Oh, thankyou.
Local: Where are you going now?
Me: Back to my hotel.
Local: Oh ok, maybe I can see you again sometime.
Me: Maybe....
Local: Ok, goodbye Annie, you are very beautiful!
Me: Thankyou! Goodbye!

I have to point out this was done with beaming smiles and in a most friendly nature. It was not at all agressive or sleazy.

A bit of a disaster....

It started with those useless cookers in the hostel. A place could get shut down for them, just for the safety of normal people, so god help all the poor idiots like me with no coordination, severe difficulties with perception and no damn common sense. Of course I ended up burning myself. It was inevitable. And it hurt. Really hurt. So much that after the initial thirty seconds of shock, I broke out into a sweat, an intense heat overcame me and my vision became that of a barely-able-to-stand drunk. I managed to stagger to the toilet before completely blacking out, collapsed into a heap on the floor and poured the contents of my stomach into the toilet bowl. THAT is how much it hurt.

And that was a sign of things to come. Despite the fact that it lost me the use of one hand and caused a ridiculous (and literally sickening) amount of pain, this was not my really problem of the day. My bank balance was. Five pounds. Five measly pounds. Not even enough to get out the cash point! Certainly not enough to pay for my visa into Indonesia (which I needed that day) or my hotel.

So there I was, sitting at the airport in Darwin, thoroughly expecting to be deported from Bali before I'd even made it out the airport. It was really quite typical of me to be in this situation, and a serious flaw that I need to work on. On this occasion however, it happened that money does grow on trees after all....

However, I still showed all signs that things were dire, when after eating the airplane meal I found myself contently thinking: "Wow, that was delicious! Best food I've eaten in ages!" and scraping up every last crumb.

Darwin wasn't too bad afterall....

I mentioned the writers that I was staying in my Darwin room with. Well they had a group of writer friends, all stayingin our hostel, all awesome people. So we sat around the whole time, sipping drink and discussing modern literature. Soon enough, the conversation turned to one man, of whom I am the biggest fan - and turns out so were they! - the late journalist, Hunter S Thompson. These guys were great. Any Thompson fans are automatically great, but these guys were a great laugh as well. I suppose it takes a certain type of person to be a Thompson fan, but they seemed to really share my life values and....and well we just really clicked. These were my kind of people. One of them even reminded me of Thompson - maybe it was the clothes that did it: his aviator sunglasses teemed with a proper collered shirt and shorts. Or maybe he did have that essense that only a super cool, permanently intoxicated, eccentric journalist could have. Anywyas these people really seemed to inspire me, as I haven't stopped writing since. Also, I quite took a liking to one of them.

We all had a very crazy night out - involving lots of goon, 3am swimming pool antics, pants landing on security guards faces....and far more hilarious events, but as much as I'm itching to write about it all, I don't feel the world is quiet ready to hear about it! It sure showed me that Darwin can give you a damn good time though, despite my initial dislike of the place!

Thought on leaving home....

I'd been put in a room in Darwin with two writers - both very nice people. For the girl, this is the first tmie she has left her home town of Perth for any significant period of time, and she had written a piece on how it made her feel. This made me think about what it meant to me - sending myself off, alone, into the unknown world - and realised that my feelings must be very different to hers.

I don't really feel like I'm out of my comfort zone. Every bed feels like my own bed. I feel at home everywhere I go. In fact, I feel like I'm more at home and more in my comfort zone leading the life of a nomad. This kind of life truly is where I belong.

First Impressions of Darwin

Now don't get me wrong - I'm all for debauchery, but at first I thought Darwin was HORRIBLE. I wrote my thoughts stated here when I had just got back to my room after sitting on the pavement for an hour because some dumbass set the fire alarm off by smoking in their room. That time I spent on the pavement really created a strong first image of the town.

The first thing I noticed about Darwin was the difference in the type of backpacker. Where before it had always been more female, all my age, and very chatty, now it was predominantly male, thirties - think builder tan, the kind of tattoos you would expect to find on a sailor, tank tops, and a general look of someone you do not want to mess with - this was the main kind of inhabitant of Darwin, so it seemed. Most people appeared to be workers and stuck to their already formed friendship groups.

So I decided to have a look around town to see if Darwin had anything better to offer. It didn't, to put it simply. It was however the first time an Aborigine person spoke to me, previously they have remained very secluded. He was very friendly, and I felt kinda bad that I didn't have the cigarette he asked for.

Back to the hostel and Darwin's scummyness: As I was cooking dinner, I soon learnt that the nobs for the hobs weren't working - it was a case of some being permanently on and some being permanently off! Fair enough, as long as I could still get my dinner cooked I didn't care too much at that point, but it did cross my mind that places get shut down for less fire hazards!

Shortly after this, though thankfully after I'd finished my dinner (otherwise I would have been going no where!) the fire alarm goes off. So everyone leaves the building in what must have been the most lethargic evacuation of all time and the fire brigade comes. I overheard some of the more permanent residents complain about how this happens every night. From observing some of the people in the street however I learnt that three more days here was probably three more days too much (so I thought at the time). It was half nine in the evening, some people that had miraculously made it out the hostel were passed out on the pavement, some lying in the road even, with the traffic being diverted round them! Others were falling about all over the place and trying to drag the unconscious bodies down the street. As I said earlier, I'm all for debauchery, but overhearing people's conversations pushed me into the understanding of the place: "When I was last arrested....", "Oh yeah, this guy who the police tasered the other night....", "When I was charged with assault the other week....", "Who are those guys on the other side of the road? Do you think they want to fight?...."

First impressions of Darwin: This was a city of nothing to do, nothing to see, and full of annoying, scummy people. A bit of a dump, to say the least..... I ended up having a hell of a lot of fun in the end!

Music in Australia

1) Circular Quay, Sydney - Aborigine, complete with warpaint, playing a digeridoo to a trance beat background

2) Red Hot Chilli Pepper obsession, followed by Silverchair who seemingly still exist!

3) On the Nimbin tour Douggie played the most memorable song from the Sacrid Spirits - Canadian Red Indian soundtrack that my family seem obsessed with in Canada

4) Travelling Wilburies - End of the Line came on the radio on the Eungella rainforest tour - my first ever favourite song

5) Steady as she Goes!