Because the Chinese New Year fell on the Sunday right after school started, we had the second week of school completely off! Many exchange students take the time to travel around Asia at any opportunity they get, and some of us went to the Philippines for the week. Instead, I flew back down to Jakarta and spent a few days there before flying down to…BALI!!!
If you haven’t heard of Bali, that’s a shame! It’s known as “The Last Paradise on Earth.” Many celebrities like to vacation on this Indonesian island because of its warm, breezy beaches. Bali is also famous for its beautiful silver, as well as its very distinct culture. Oftentimes, when one thinks of Indonesian architecture, gamelan music, and dance, they are actually part of Balinese culture.
Day One
We took a two-hour flight from Jakarta to Bali. I was immediately struck by the warm weather. We took stairs down onto the ground and took a bus the rest of the way to the airport entrance, so I got an instant taste of the weather. It was very warm and humid, and the heat reminded me of Phoenix. The humidity, not so much.
After collecting our baggage we were greeted by a driver, Wayan. He was holding up a sign for us that said “Mr. Ed Routh.” Secretly, I’ve always wanted someone waiting with a sign for me at an airport (like a wealthy businessperson or celebrity), so it made my day.
He took us to our hotel, the Hotel Santika, which was absolutely beautiful! It was in the traditional architectural style, and there were fountains and a rose petal display in the open-air lobby. Two men were playing gamelan music with Balinese xylophone-like instruments. A bellboy was waiting to take our luggage off our hands. The check-in area was not a long counter, like what we’re used to in the US, but rather each clerk had their own desk with chairs for us to sit in. They brought us wet towels to wash our faces with.
The hotel had already made an impression on me (and I’m pretty critical being a hotel student), but they made me ecstatic when they told us they’d upgraded our room for free! They were out of the type of room Daddy had reserved, so they bumped us up to the “Garden Bungalow Suite.”
A bellboy took us to our room, which was awesome!!! There were two beautiful queen canopy beds, along with an amazing bathroom and even an outdoor shower (which I did NOT use, by the way). We had our own path leading up to our private porch and everything. I felt like a rich brat like Paris Hilton or something with all the special treatment I was getting.
As soon as we’d dropped off our luggage in the room, Daddy and I went back outside to meet Wayan, the driver. My Uncle Harry’s wife, Riesa, had recommended him as a good driver for us while we were in Bali. He spoke English fairly well, and was very sweet and patient with us. He also was pretty cheap: 350,000 rupiah per day for 10 hours, gas included. That’s about $35 USD per day. And that’s especially a bargain considering that each town in Bali is about a half-hour drive apart.
On our way to Uluwatu, we stopped at the Krisna market. I thought I might pass out from the amazing shopping here. It’s a tourist spot for sure, because the prices are fixed and there is no bargaining. However, most of the items were between one dollar and ten dollars, and for beautiful items, not cheap, crap items. They had clothing, paintings, wood carvings, jewelry, weavings, and basically all things Indonesian. It was like an artsy, crafty Dollar Store (and I love the Dollar Store).
Basically, I went crazy. I got a pair of shorts, a shirt, a dress, and two skirt wraps for the beach. I also got two instruments, a small piano-like instrument made with a coconut shell, and a wooden pan flute. I also bought a fan (because it was hot) and a flower hair-tie to tie back my hair (the humidity was making it stick to my neck). They also had beautiful wooden bracelets, so I got about four or five of those. I also got about four sets of Bali keychains, with ten in each package, so I’ll have plenty of souvenirs to bring back to my friends in the US! I also got a small bath soap and oil set for my friend Catherine, whose birthday was that week.
For all that, it cost me about $25 USD. It was awesome.
We drove up to Uluwatu, which is the best place in Bali to see the sunset. There is also a beautiful temple on a cliff overlooking the sea view, where my Uncle Harry and Riesa got married two Decembers ago. We came here to see the Kecak Dance, a traditional form of performance. A choir of seventy men provide the musical accompaniment to the dancers, who wear colorful costumes and tell a story.
Where Jakarta is 80% Muslim, Hinduism is practiced by 80% of the Balinese. Because each performance is blessed by a Hindi leader, people attending the ceremony need to be dressed properly. For the tourists that were wearing shorts or skirts above the knee, they needed to wear a sarong wrap with a sash. Daddy and I lucked out and were both wearing jeans, so we were only required to wear the sash around our waists.
Dinner was one of the best dining experiences I’ve ever had, and I’ve had quite a lot of those here in Asia. We asked Wayan to take us to a good place to eat, and he drove us to this road along the beach where there are dozens of restaurants. We got to eat ON the beach. Our table was in the open air, in the sand and everything. A live band was playing and going from table to table to perform, and they also had traditional dancing for entertainment as well.
I didn’t like having to get up to go pick out our seafood to eat. One, my feet were really tired from walking around all day in flip flops, and two, I had to point to the freshly dead sea creatures that were sitting in ice, waiting for me to eat them. Three, the girl helping me spoke English, but not perfectly, so communicating what I wanted to eat was a little difficult, but not too bad. I picked out a red snapper fish and some GINORMOUS prawns, and went back to the table.
It was really nice, watching and listening to the waves on the beach. I noticed that there were lots of stray dogs trotting up and down the beach, whereas in Jakarta there were lots of stray cats rather than dogs. But they seemed happy and got along with each other well. That’s Bali for you, laid-back and relaxed.
Before our food came, I went down to the vendor cart selling corn next to the water. I got two ears of corn in a honey butter sauce. As I waited for my corn, the two guys asked me where I was from. I said “the USA.” They replied, “Ahhh, USA, Obamaaaaa!”
I probably had a similar interaction about five different times during my stay in Bali. Barack Obama actually lived in Jakarta for a couple of years as a boy after his mother married an Indonesian man. He used to speak the Indonesian language (Bahasa). Indonesians have an obsessive love affair with President Obama, and they are super-excited for his visit to Jakarta this month.
Anyway, our dinner was excellent. The snapper was yummy, and I LOVED the prawns (I’m finding that I’m turning into a shrimp-lover). The corn was to die for, and the honey butter was seriously amazing. I enjoyed dipping my snapper and my buttered shrimp in the peanut oil sauce they’d brought me. They also brought out a basket of rice, which I had quite a bit of. Overall, an excellent dinner. For dessert we had some fruit. As we were about to leave, the band came and offered to play for us. Daddy said no, we were just leaving, but I made him stay for one song.
We went back to the hotel exhausted, but very satisfied with our day. The hotel had come by for the turndown service, and after hopping in the shower I went straight to sleep.
See my next post for Day 2 of my Bali trip!
Lots of love,
Kati
P.S. Terima kasih means "thank you" in Bahasa Indonesia. Bahasa simply means "language," so each time you say "Bahasa" you should follow with the country to which the language belongs.
P.P.S. I really, REALLY want some prawns right now. Yum…
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