Author: tompepinsky

Well it’s our last day in Bali and it’s almost time to get back to real life.  It’s going to be hard getting back to the traffic, noise, smelliness, and hordes of people in Jakarta after the lush, beautiful scenery here.  This morning, the four of us went on a white water rafting outing on the River Ayung.  It was great fun and a first for all of us.  The hardest part was walking down the six hundred or so steps to get to the river.  The fact that we were already wearing life jackets and helmets and carrying oars made it even warmer.  But then we got to float 11km down the river for an hour and a half looking at some truly stunning scenery.  The guide in the back of the boat did most of the work, telling us to paddle occasionally so that we felt like we were contributing (and so that we could at least pretend to earn our lunch which was waiting for us at the end).

Yesterday we were all set to go see another museum in town when one of the hotel staff assured us he could take us to a better spot.  So he drove us over to an artist’s colony situated on the edge of rice paddies where we had fun browsing.  There were tons of paintings there, many of them really beautiful.  And although there was no entrance fee, we didn’t really come out ahead because we all found some things to buy!  TP is getting good at bargaining, although we can’t imagine having to haggle over prices all the time.  Thank goodness for price tags.

One final note.  They have some games in the library here for guests to use to entertain themselves with.  One of them is "Baliopoly" which is funny for two reasons.  The first is that they have bungalows instead of houses.  But really, the best part is that instead of Jail in one corner they have Immigration.  "Go directly to Immigration, do not pass go!"  Pretty funny considering our past experiences.

We’re safely up in the mountains in Ubud now.  If there was ever a view prettier than the one from our hotel in Manggis, this would be it.  (We continue to apologize for not posting any pictures yet–we need dedicated internet access for long period of time to do that, and that’s hard to come by.  We’ll do that in Jakarta, although that may take about six days to get all of these pictures up.)

Ubud is an artsy town, no doubt.  The HPSI factor (hippies per square inch) here may be unequalled anywhere else in Southeast Asia.  We wandered around a bit yesterday.  After being in a secluded beachfront resort, we returned to reality with people following us down the street asking to drive us places.  Dad got a first-hand experience with frustration, Indonesian-style, as we attempted to change money yesterday.  First the money changer told us to wait, then to sit down, then even our driver got frustrated, said "what’s going on," she said "we’re closed," then we asked "how long," and then she said, "OK, now we’re open."  Then she wouldn’t accept the traveller’s checks.  But greenbacks go over pretty well.  Down the street at another money changer (who we had to wake up first), we asked if he needed a passport, which he did not, but then changed his mind, and said that he did.  We then visited an ATM.  Easy as pie.

(Here’s mom.)  Hey, all.  Fascinating trip.  Early in the week we went on a little tour of the countryside near our first hotel in Manggis..  They took us on very narrow back roads to a small textile factory.  There was one guy designing the patterns and three young women working at ancient hand looms.  Fabrics have natural dyes, and of course I bought a sample.  We also went to the hotel’s "private organic garden"  which was a garden plot at the top of a mountain.  There was basil, lemon basil. rocket, turmeric, eggplant, chilis and the organic fertilizer factory (cow).

We see children everywhere, and they are so cute! They have large dark eyes and when they see a Westerner, they gaze gravely.  There are many schools because schoolchildren all wear uniforms (each school different).  Although folks in the countryside are very poor by western standards, they do not look thin or hungry.  Indeed, how could they be when breadfruit, papaya, coconut, banana, and snakefruit are hanging from every tree?  Our driver told us that he eats meat only occasionally, on a special occasion, and main protein sources are tofu and tempe.  (Mother this is free range chicken heaven.  You need but to travel to Bali to find your 2.5 lb chicken!)

Today our plan is to see some museums, check out some crafts and shops and gardens, and then take a walk with a naturalist through the countryside outside of town.