Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!

VIDEO OF DANCE PERFORMANCE ADDED

Hi there!

Francesca wrote the first part of this post, and here it is:

On our last day, we were ready for our drive to Bali from mainland Java. It only took about an hour to drive from Kalibaru to the Bali ferry, and then we were off! The ferry was slow and calm, taking about 30 minutes for us to reach Bali Island itself. While on the boat, we had to ‘deal’ with some locals, watching them do crazy things like leap off the ferry for a swim or throw trash directly into the water. Not the most comforting to watch. After we reached the ferry terminal, we still had to get to Ubud, a city that is a 3 hour drive from where the ferry lands at Gilimanuk on the west coast.



We started to take in the new sights: ornate architecture on the most simple of buildings, Hindu hanging party decorations made by local women, the aroma of sweet incent everywhere... very different from mainland Java!





The larger hanging Hindu decorations along the roadside are called ‘penjor.’



Here is a great description from an education website we found of the decorations displayed throughout Bali:

“The penjor is a tall, curved bamboo pole decorated with coconut leaves with an offering at the base. This is one of the media used by Hindus in Bali as part of almost every important ceremony, especially for the anniversary temple celebrations. The Sri Jaya Kasunu manuscript states that the penjor symbolizes the mountain and the mountain itself is the symbol of the universe. Therefore, for the Balinese the penjor is synonymous with Mount Agung, the highest and holiest mountain in Bali. The aim of erecting penjors at Galungan is to show devotion to God in His manifestation as Hyang Giri Pati (the God of the mountain). Mountains with deep forests hold a lot of water, which flows into rivers. This then fulfills water needs for irrigation and drinking water. During Galungan celebrations, each family erects a penjor outside their gate, which makes the whole neighborhood look splendid.”



Now, here is my (Henk’s) section:

Bali has been treating us extremely well so far, and it is time I made you all very jealous by telling you about our adventures. Our arrival in Ubud had perhaps been unfortunate, but in some way we have to thank ‘Beda Guesthouse’ for purposefully overbooking and thus selling our room, for we found a lovely place just across the street from them. Whilst Francesca guarded our bags I had walked down the street and ducked into a little place called ‘Tunjung Bungalows,’ where I had a talk with the owner. The place looked very decent, so I went back to Francesca and had one of the Beda-employees help us with our bags.



Initially, we had told ‘Beda’ we would return the next day to claim our room. They offered us to make use of their WiFi, which we needed to keep in touch with all of you. After dropping our bags off, I sat down with the owner of ‘Tunjung;’ she told me that ‘Beda’ always overbooks, and that she often gets requests from them to house a few of their ‘extras.’ Of course, they’d only stay for one night and then head back to ‘Beda.’ The owner told me she was quite angry about their policy and the amount of work she had to do for people that didn’t want to stay for more than one night. She offered us to stay longer for a very nice rate and in a better room than the one we were in for this first day.

I was quite pleased with her offer and promised that we would check the room in the morning and that we would most likely stay. First Francesca and I headed over to ‘Beda’ with our laptop in our daypack. The owner actually wanted to charge us for an hour’s worth of internet, which left us dumbfounded. I didn’t feel like having the argument right then, so I accepted his timecard and we went online. After an hour of Ubud-research and a bit of downloading we were quite done with the internet, and we headed back to our bungalow. The owner came after us, demanding money. I told him that we were not going to pay, because they had sold our room and earlier offered us free internet. The guy apologized and we left.

The intensity of the days behind us caught up with us and we dozed off for a few hours, ready for dinner. Monkey Forest Road had looked interesting on the way in, so we walked down Jalan Tegel, past the Monkey Forest and through the dark, reappearing on the other side with a lane of restaurants and hotels ahead of us. The first places looked a little dodgy, but eventually we came across a place called ‘Ubud Inn Warung,’ where we sat down for a bite. The restaurant was right next to a pond and we had an enormous table with an equally enormous bench to enjoy our meal. Francesca opted for a home-made Hawaiian Pizza whilst I had a Club Sandwich. Whilst we were eating, I saw something rustling in the plants next to us.

Too curious I walked over to the shrubbery and saw a cute little creature emptying the flowers on the bushes. It was a fruit bat and it didn’t care about us being there at all. I called Francesca over and even though she was initially scared we were soon right next to the bat inspecting it. One of the employees of the hotel next to the ‘warung’ even brought it a banana. It was a pity we had forgotten our camera, but I guess you can’t get a picture of everything. After watching the bat for a few more minutes we finished our meal and took a detour back to our bungalow.

The next morning we were woken up early by the plentiful crowing roosters, barking dogs and a little later, screaming kids. Since it’s so hot in the middle of the day school starts at 7:30AM and ends around 11:00AM. Not being able to sleep much longer we got up and asked for our breakfast. By 8:30AM we were enjoying our fruit and banana jaffles (toasted slices of bread with sliced banana inside), whilst the owner’s mother went around placing fresh offerings all over the place. I also pointed out the colored chickens that were running around (painted by the original owner) and we had a look at the decorations hanging around.



After that it was time to explore Ubud some more and we walked up Jl. Hanoman towards Jl. Raya Ubud to explore some of the surroundings. We saw several nice restaurants, cool shops, many monuments and dance arenas and even a gathering of old men that we were too hesitant about to visit. We were far behind with our posts and (mainly) pictures, so we found an internet café and sat down. The place also offered lunch, so we ordered a bagel and a grilled cheese sandwich. The afternoon went by rather unassumingly and in the early evening we decided to walk down the rest of Monkey Forest Rd. to find another place to eat. What we did not know was that the power had gone out due to maintenance after the earthquakes in past years, so finding a place to eat at proved difficult as many had no back-up generators. We sat down for a snack in a hip little place and shared grilled pineapple with a chocolate sauce. We didn’t feel hungry enough to eat a full dinner, so we retired to our bungalow and watched ‘Paranormal Activity’ – which was pretty bad! – and got some early sleep.

On the 18th of November we managed to sleep in and only started our day in the afternoon. I was very excited to take Francesca to the Monkey Forest, which is exactly what its name suggests. We got our extremely cheap tickets and stepped into the forest. Immediately we were surrounded by monkeys. Cute little ones, but also old grumpy grandpas were sitting around, waiting for a snack. I walked back to buy us some bananas, which I handed to Francesca so I could take some pictures. Before she (and I) knew it a mother with a baby had climbed up her leg via her dress, was pulling down her shirt and reached for all the bananas. Gone were our bananas… Francesca did not look happy at all, but there was not much we could have done since a bite from a monkey would have been worse than losing a bit of fruit.





Our first goal was a temple in the middle of the forest. Armed with a green sarong Francesca and I headed inside and found a rather abandoned and destroyed shrine. I thought it strange that they were doing so little work on the temple itself, because there was a lot of construction around it. Even stranger was the one sole monkey that we saw licking a few bricks. We‘re still not sure what it was doing there, so any suggestions are welcome! The statues surrounding the courtyard were perhaps even more bizarre, as we saw an angel with monkey-bodies, a woman with dog-face and other even vaguer creations that we marveled at.





Monkeys also surrounded us on our way to a sacred waterhole. Whole families were sitting and eating, or fighting, or playing around us. A youngster sat on the side of the path investigating one of the offerings. Down at the bottom of the staircase we seemed to have entered an entirely different world. More bizarre statues proved we were still in the same place. We walked past the pond to a narrow path with an unknown end. We decided to walk down it and followed a tiny gorge covered in lush greens. The water was perfectly see-through. At the end of the path we found a tiny statue holding a little urn which had eternal water running through it.





Since the path ended with the sculpture Francesca and I headed in the opposite direction where we found another neat creation. A steep staircase down to the water found us standing next to a huge statue of a giant komodo. Covered in green moss it looked very much like it could come alive any minute. After the komodo we walked back up the staircase and found ourselves surrounded by monkeys on all sides once again. We walked to the end of the forest and back, and eventually watched some young monkeys playing together whilst an older one lazily laid around.



Another monkey tried to climb Francesca, but before it reached its goal a guide scared it off her shoulder. Right after we found out what it was after as it also climbed me, eventually reaching my shoulder. It posed there for a while and then tried to grab my glasses. I held on tight and the monkey realized it was fighting a losing battle, so it let go and disappeared. Our adventure with the monkeys was coming to an end and Francesca and I walked around town for a little more, thinking about dinner.





Eventually we found what we were looking for: the ‘Bebek Bengil’ or ‘Dirty Duck.’ Francesca had had a craving for duck, so this seemed to be the best place to go to. The table was once again chairless, so a few pillows provided us with cushioning. The restaurant looked very small, but once inside we were taken behind the reception and past some rice paddies. Our table was in the back, and once seated we had a look at the menu. Francesca got her duck – local style – and I felt more like chicken, so I ordered a local specialty. Francesca found her duck a little dry, but combined with the sauce it tasted pretty good. My chicken was very tender and tasted ‘enak,’ or ‘delicious.’





The next day Francesca and I had planned to go to a Balinese dance, and the owner had directed us to her husband’s group, so we could buy tickets later. We were sidetracked by the gathering of men, and this time dared to enter the courtyard, flanked by Hindu architecture and statues. We found they were holding cockfights! Two men were holding two roosters and the other guys were placing their bets. Eventually, the roosters were let loose and we saw them fighting a fierce fight. We saw one giving up, upon which the other was picked up and declared winner. The loser was carried off and followed by us. We then saw what happened to the loser.







The first thing we saw was an old man taking a little knife off one of the claws of the rooster. He then cut off its legs – mind you, still alive – and started plucking its feathers. He gathered some as a trophy and smiled whilst I took photos. Another man even explained the rooster would be eaten later that day. Francesca and I thought we’d be more shocked by all of this, but the continuous crowing had made us, and Francesca in particular, rather anti-rooster. Francesca would like you all to know that: “one rooster starts crowing at like 3 in the morning – you don’t have to say ‘at like’ (I’m apparently not allowed to add this, he he!) – which will then be followed by a second rooster, and a third rooster, until there’s a symphony of roosters crowing in unison, or high-pitched little squeals. It’ll go on for what’ll seem like hours. It’ll be one of the worst memories I’ll have of South-East Asia.”





A second fight was about to ensue, and I switched the camera to video mode. This time we actually got to see the full fight, and how it begins. First, the roosters are put up against each other. The owners will ruffle their feathers, hit their heads and make them look fierce. They pretend to let them loose several times, before stepping back two paces and letting them go. Both roosters fly at each other’s throats with their claws – with added knives – and blood starts flowing. This time there was a white rooster, which made it a lot easier to see how much damage was actually done. We guessed that once one rooster admits defeat it’ll lay down on its stomach and stay still. The other sort of climbs on top, before being announced winner. See above for the continuation of this story.







At the end of the second fight we were done with watching cockfights and walked towards the exit, still the only tourists to check it out. We were not the only people that were not supposed to be there though, as a cop came in. We didn’t find out what happened after that, but we heard the fights are illegal and the fights were stopped, apparently right after we had left. We didn’t see any more fights at the same place the following days, so go us for following our ears.

Our next stop was a little clothing shop that Francesca had had her eye on a few days before. She had seen a very colorful dress and since we can’t buy souvenirs, but a cute piece of clothing is always okay, we decided to check the price out. The dress was hand-painted in Ubud and looked great on Francesca. When she was asking which size to get the woman suggested ‘Medium or Large.’ Francesca and I were about to protest when she started laughing and pointed at Francesca’s chest. ‘Because you have big – here.’ Aaah! Medium looked great, and so we took it home.

Lunchtime was coming up and we walked back a little to a cute little restaurant we had seen earlier. We sat down on some chairless pillows once again, and ordered a pizza and a sandwich to share. The pizza especially was a great choice and filled us up entirely. We decided to rest up before the dance later that night and walked back. A few hours later we felt refreshed and strolled to the ‘theater.’ We bought our tickets and sat down front row.

About 70 men in traditional clothing came pouring out and sat down in a circle in front of us. Together with several actors they played out the Ramayana once again, but in a much more abstract and musical variation. Francesca and I were quite intrigued by their interpretation. The men were supposed to be monkeys, and the sounds they were making formed the rhythm of the performance. Listen carefully to the video I made and you’ll hear them sing ‘chak-chak-chak’ (The sound of monkeys) in unison whilst one man chants ‘pong-pong-pong.’(The sound of the bird king) It was very mesmerizing and interesting to watch.













The second part of the show was a little less tantalizing. Two young girls performed a supposedly very difficult dance, which didn’t look that challenging at all. The most difficult part for them must’ve been standing there in heavy smoke coming out of a small bowl with smoldering wet wood in front of them.





The third and final part however was very much worth it. The Fire Dance is an exorcist dance against spirit possession. Right in front of us two men brought out a large stack of coconuts, which they set on fire. We were a little too close for comfort as the smoke blew in our faces at times and the heat was very noticeable. However, we sat it out and saw a man run through and kick the blazing coconuts, whilst wearing a wooden contraption that reminded me of a horse. It looked very surreal and gave us a worthy ending to a very successful day.