(after actually getting bored of doing nothing at the resort, we rent a car and bolt north. we have no idea what we're about to get ourselves into in regards to traffic, and balinese roads.)
Got into Ubud yesterday about mid-afternoon. took 3 hours to get some 50 miles due to no effective map. had shitty useless map. with driving worse than anything either of us have ever seen, even worse than manhattan, we have an insane, yet exhilarating driving experience up the middle of the island. the roads are very skinny with little to no driving laws. sometimes 3 lanes would emerge on a 2-lane road. sometimes our lane would become a parking lot with no alternative but to try to find a way around it. and then there are the motorbikes. they're everywhere like bugs. little tiny children ride behind their parents. no helmet, just tiny little hands grasping the shirt in front of them. they have expressions of intense focus or total boredom. driving in bali is an unbelievably stressful experience.
we are also really hungry through most of it, and can't find a place to pull over to get food. many foods, no space for parking the car. only motorbike parking everywhere. we go hungry for hours. the motorbikes dart in and out, cars hem us in, skinny starving dogs dart in and out, can't see names of roads, have shitty map, blood sugar dropping. HELL. i start to feel a little crazy, like i can't focus my eyes on the map/the road/the street names in the book/the one-way signs/the stop signs/the city signs anymore. i can't use my instinct for direction anymore. i've exhausted all resources. guy yells every time there is a fork in the road, "WHICH WAY! WHICH WAY!"
the pressure is unmanageable. his driving is very skilled, but he is so stressed. we both wear thin, but
somehow
manage
to get along.
until the very end.
we arrive in Ubud. again, no street signs, or hard to see. guy takes a spastic wrong turn off what we believe to be the road we want. everything is crowded and tight and we're moving at a snail's pace due to traffic congestion. there are no options for fixing a wrong turn, except to start over from the beginning. i yell without thinking, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
guy gets pissed and calls me a child. i call him an asshole. i get defensive and say stuff that doesn't make sense. i'm so brain dead, i don't even remember yelling at him.
finally i get out of the car when we somehow magically find our hotel on a street other than we expected. a total accident. i grab my bag and get out so i can scout it out and find where to park the car. it seems like we might have to park in a neighboring town, it is that crowded. guy thinks there might be a "back lot." this cracks me up. there is no space anywhere. we split up, he takes the car, i take my bag and look for a door. i realize i'm giving off a terrible vibe, but i'm just furious.
i walk down dubious cobblestone alleys, one after the other, following hand painted signs for the hotel. i am finally greeted by who we get to know as "Yoman," our very humble host, and get our room.
guy finds parking but is confused after the hellish driving, and after finding me, we end up going back to the car 3x for things we need. back and forth, back and forth, back and forth up and down cobblestone before we find ourselves exhaustively, happily poolside.
the pool is stunning in the steamy environ.
i think we can forgive each other for our outburst. we make up with a silent hug underwater in the pool, described as "commodious" in our guidebook. it is extraordinarily refreshing and it washes away our frustration.
i never want to drive through the middle of Bali ever again. we will take the coast back.
(it should be noted that by as soon as the next day we were talking of the great adventure the drive had been, and are left feeling that way to this day.)
Ubud
Ubud is super cool. very arty. an arty we understand. tons of little shops with original-design everything. tiny winding streets. lots of white people. we decide to stay 3 days.
our room at the Oka Wati Hotel is unreal. For $30 we have 25' ceilings made of woven matting. it is decorated with antique balinese furniture. understated. authentic. we love it. we have a ceiling fan. no A/C. this is fine. although a constant state of stickiness is the reality, unless we are walking during which time we are slick with sweat.
it is just afternoon and we will go get lunch before i get an in-room massage from a weird girl named Made, at 3pm. after that we will shop and get drinks. we think.
earlier today we went to see Goa Geneh, a temple found in a cave in 1923. not very impressive. tons of bugs and super hot making us slick and wet and miserable. vendors approach aggressively. we say, "no thank you" over and over. we have to shut the car door in their faces. they continue to talk thorugh the window. it's really irritating. i see a kitten on the walk to the temple. she is too young to know how to hunt. she is skinny and separated from her mother. she is mewing and dying. it is unbearable to me. i go towards her and stop. i cannot get involved. it will lead to more heartbreak and possibly disease. i walk away from the kitten and do nothing to help her.
this is fucked up.
i have trouble with the memory/image of the mewing, starving kitten and not helping her for several days afterward.
12.27.07 - about 12.24
christmas eve. how weird. we spend it riding mountain bikes 17 miles down the slope of a volcano in a monsoon storm.
there is a tour advertised in our hotel room desk. we decide to take it, very unlike us, but this one sounds special. it promises a visit to a plantation and a traditional family compound where we will "Meet the family!" plus the aforementioned bike ride followed by a "balinese feast." sounds good. we're in.
there are many parts to the tour.
we eat breakfast atop a volcano during heavy fog...
we feed banana pancakes to a starving dog...
we stop at a family compound to see how they work...
we drink coffee on a plantation and smoke pure balinese tobacco with our guide.
then we get on our bikes, ready to ride...and the monsoon starts again.
thick sheets of rain are coming down. our tour group of 2 brits, 1 german, us and two dorky americans in spandex laugh at what is about to happen. our shoes are so soaked within seconds, it's like we've been walking in a swimming pool. and off we go.
the riding is hysterical fun. it's downhill and fast fast fast. guy and i are in the front. we laugh like we're mad as the rain needles stab our eyes, making it difficult to see. we're on backroads in bali. there are no cars. we are swiftly passing small villages with carved stone walls and rushing water from rice paddies down to the road. little children wave and say "Hallo! Hallo!" and give us high-fives (or sideways-fives) as we rush past in a spray of water. we're cruising along, never looking back when suddenly there is a crash of lightning directly in front of us. it looks like it splits the earth in half. it's thick and blinding white. just as quickly a thunderclap louder than anything guy or i have ever heard, follows. we scream, our eyes are huge, we look at each other in total wonder through the curtain of rain. it's a moment i will remember for the rest of my life.
3 hours later, the ride is over. we're completely soaked and swimming in endorphins, not to mention rain. we sit down, order a beer, and pig out.
but that's not all.
now the tour takes us to a monkey jungle.
you buy little bananas at the front of the park. the monkeys are running wild. you get used to this. you pass out the bananas to the monkeys who softly take them from your hand with unimaginable grace. you watch and stare at the monkeys. you do all this, but you don't expect a monkey to land on your back.
he was light, like a small cat and suddenly there, on my shoulder. the pictures guy immediately started taking are hilarious. he doesn't stop snapping. my face is horrified and in motion in the first picture. my eyes are huge. especially under my matted, damp, post-bike ride hair. the monkey sits calmly on my shoulder and unwraps his tiny banana and eats it. i hand him another one. he does the same thing and then is gone. it's magical! i want to call my mom right away and tell her. this is the first clue that something tremendous has happened. must call mom. we spend a good hour observing the free range monkeys.
it's so liberating being in a foreign country with so few rules, regulations, standards. monkeys roam freely and downhill bike tours include close-impact lightning. fantastic.
tomorrow we leave Ubud. guy wants to go north to Lovina and then down the west coast "to see big waves" where the surfers are. i want to go directly east to Sanur, (and maybe to the gili islands?) and then down the east coast for white-sand beaches. we go north.
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