We have finally made it to our final country, Indonesia. We landed in Denpasar yesterday morning and set out on our 45 minute drive to Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali.

I was here about 4 years ago, and probably haven’t shut up about the place since then. It seemed only fair that I bring Theresa and Caellum here on the return visit. I decided we should get a private villa while in Ubud, you can find nice hotel accommodations, but they cost twice as much and I really don’t need turn down service. I found a villa about a 20 minute walk from the city centre, and right in the middle of the rice fields. Ubud is surrounded by rice fields and they’re beautiful to look at and walk through.

 

You’ll find a lot of accommodations in Bali are built to live outdoors. Even during the rainy season, which we’re currently in. The bathrooms are generally open to the outdoors, as well as the eating area and lounging areas. Our kitchen opens up onto the pool. This is a great place to sleep outside if you’re so inclined.

I have a private yoga instructor coming to see if she can help correct some of the issues I have. There’s a yoga studio in the “tree house”, so again, we’ll be doing it outdoors. I’m hoping to get some tools I can use when we return to Canada.

We didn’t arrive to the villa until later in the afternoon, so all we had time for was a swim and walk to find some food. The streets aren’t well lit, so there was some tense moments with traffic in the dark as we navigated our way to the top of Ubud. We ended up in a place with some live blues music and some Nasi Goreng. It’s a great dish, you’re full up on $4.50 in a tourist town.

Nasi goreng, literally meaning “fried rice” in Indonesian and Malay, can refer simply to fried pre-cooked rice, a meal including stir fried rice in small amount of cooking oil ormargarine, typically spiced with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), shallot, garlic, tamarind and chilli and accompanied by other ingredients, particularly egg, chicken and prawns.

We enjoyed the live music and headed back to the villa. To impress Caellum I jumped into the pool with my clothes on and I didn’t think he’d stop laughing.

The sounds of the insects, lizards and birds that surrounds us is pretty musical. We have some Tokae Gecko’s living with us. Caellum was initially bothered by them until he learned that they eat the mosquitos. We’ll all sleep a lot better without any of them buzzing around and biting us.

I wish I could properly record what we hear all night long. It’s likely you can buy a CD, “the sounds of Bali”.

Today we decided we needed some wheels, so Theresa arranged some scooter rentals for us. They break the bank at $7 a day. The last time Theresa was on a scooter was in Cuba, she decided to dump the thing on the side of the road just as a bus of school children rode by laughing at her. This time, she was a pro.

Once we got the scooters, we headed to the grocery store. Caellum rode with me and was responsible for the horn. Unlike in Canada, the Balinese use the horn to let you know they’re there, not to tell you to get out of the way. It’s a lot nicer that way. I wish the scooter was more socially acceptable in Canada, they’re such a smart mode of transport.

We brought our groceries back to the villa and rode back into Ubud centre, where the chaos that is scooter traffic was surrounding us. It was a lot of fun lane splitting in a traffic jam on a scooter. At one point I ran a red light, I didn’t realize this until Theresa told me.

We got some petrol for the scooters and went back into town for some lunch and back to the condo for a swim.

I ventured out while Caellum did some homework. I wanted to see some of the rice fields around us, and just to explore.

The last time I was here, I walked the rice fields with some old friends and new ones. It was one of favourite memories from travel. There was woman in the middle of the rice fields selling coconuts, I paid my dollar and she hacked it open and we strolled and drank from the coconut. We met and chatted with some locals, and just enjoyed the moment. If there is a bad person in Bali, I haven’t met him/her yet.

We are here during the rainy season, so it’s guaranteed to rain every single day, but it’s not so bad. We’ll get clear and warm nights, and sun in the morning and sometimes into the early afternoon. Then by about 3:00, we’ll get an enormous downpour and maybe some thunder and lightning. It’s actually nice, it cuts some of the humidity in the air and seems to warm the pool up.

Once the rain let up, I headed into the local village to look around. We’re in the middle of a festival that is currently going on in Bali, I’ll have to get back to you on which one it is. There’s a lot of decorations and random parades and music all around us. More sounds of Bali.

Bali is mostly Hindu, while the rest of Indonesia is Muslim, it actually has the highest Muslim population of any nation on earth. I admit I don’t know much about Hinduism, but I do enjoy the dress and the ceremony of it all. While we were sitting by the pool, our bell rang and a Balinese woman came in and did some kind of offering ceremony and lit some incense. Again, I’m going to have ask about the significance of what she did.

Caellum had a great first day in Bali and has proclaimed it his favourite place so far. I’m confident both Theresa and Caellum are going to leave Bali with a lot of great memories.

Can’t wait to see tomorrow.