I recently returned from my vacation to Bali, Indonesia. I'd hoped to post something while there, but the computers to be found were mostly old, very slow, the connections were often poor, and there were no ports to link my camera in and upload photos. Without photos I just don't think I could have done it justice. Bali is a very photogenic place. The people are beautiful and they always smiling. In fact, when I first arrived it was somewhat disconcerting. They have nothing to hide, they look you directly in the eyes and their mouth peels wide into a big warm grin. It's very endearing, inviting and infectious. After a little time being there it made me wish people everywhere were so friendly. If people could so easily smile and share such warmth the world would certainly be a better, happier place to live.
I spent most of my time in the town of Ubud, which is considered to be the "cultural center" of Bali. There are artists everywhere -- painters; wood carvers; silver smiths; textile weavers and batik artists; stone carvers; musicians and instrument makers; dancers. The roads in and all around Ubud are lined with shops selling all sorts of arts and crafts. Whole families learn one or another art form and practice it relentlessly. It's amazing to see all the shops, the wares, the varieties of what people do.
I spent my days walking a lot, reading a lot, practicing yoga at an amazing studio, lounging and napping in the hottest part of the day. I checked out museums and ate at a variety of restaurants looking for the best food. Everything in Bali is inexpensive. My hotel room was $10 a night, which included a big breakfast. Meals were anywhere from 90 cents to $4, the latter being on the expensive side. I rented a scooter for $4 a day and spent about a week touring around the northern volcanoes and the north coast. I could have rented a beat-up and badly maintained mountain bike -- a very cheap Chinese trap -- for $1 a day, but the roads around town were way too crowded and there were basically no regulations. It was better just to walk.
But, on my scooter trip north I realized that Bali would actually be a great place to have a touring bike and do some exploring. I had purchased a fairly detailed road map before setting off to the north, but I really wanted to take the small roads and realized that most of them weren't listed on the map. After a couple of days I began choosing little roads that looked interesting and by the third day I was no longer referencing the map at all. It was much nicer just exploring. Bali is an island, and a fairly small one at that, so really, how lost could I possibly get? The countryside was absolutely amazing, green and lush jungle, tiered rice fields, sprawling farmland, tiny old villages, and temple after temple along the way. There was almost no traffic on the small country roads, the views were excellent, and as I came down the backside of the mountains the ocean showed itself. I travelled around the north coast for a few days, swam, scuba dived around a shipwreck near Amed, and continued reading and relaxing, just as if that's all I had to do in the world.
Instead of talking about all of this, click here to see a bunch of pictures to give you a better idea of what I saw.
