12.25.07 Christmas in the Tropics!
Christmas day starts off with a cocktail at the Four Seasons Resort. it is a five star, over-the-top hotel with a koi pond on it's roof. we have checked out of Oka Wati's and are on our way out of town. we quickly realize that the "road map" we have bought for $10 bucks in Ubud, is as useless as our first useless map. none of the roads we see are on the map, and even though we have tried to prepare for this with a little ruler of sorts with kilometer markings on it, it turns out the map is also not to scale.
when we get to the Four Seasons, we are ready for something nice.
entering on the roof and walking down through a koi pond, we come to the first floor of the hotel. it's built on the side of a cliff facing acres of palm and banana trees. this allows for the entrance on the roof.
everything is infinitely refined around us. walls are smooth, floors are cold, there is no sound but a whisper of far away happenings, and gamelan players directly in front of us gracing the bottom of the staircase as we enter the "bar" area.
we sit down and look at the menu. we want a champagne drink in honor of Christmas. we want special. ha. champagne drinks at the Four Seasons in Ubud are $28 a piece! well, we won't be doing that. we opt for something tropical and cheap at $14. it's a special day. we splurge. we order duck potstickers for an additional $17. we lean back and drink in as much as we can kind of afford.
the architecture is so cool, it's difficult to understand. the engineering that must have been involved. we've looked into how much it costs to stay there. the base price is $450/night.
we dreamily take a few shots and then get back on the road.
NEXT STOP: a rest stop, where the salesgirls in the store laugh at us, "ha ha...blah blahblah blah...honeymoon...ha ha ha ha...blah blah blah."
I think they were laughing at us, i tell guy. oh they definitely were, he says. there are no tourists up north. we are heading where very few americans head. we are not pioneers, we are just freewheeling like bob dylan.
the drive north is fun. we get amazing vistas as we reach the top of a mountain range. we find abandoned mega-resorts, more wild monkeys and finally, as we descend towards the northern coast: the Git Git Falls.
we turn off at the first sign. there isn't so much a parking lot, as a space on the side of the road. a guy with one eye approaches us, followed by a young guy who looks like he should be in a boy band. they tell us they'll watch our car, and take us on the 300 meter walk to the falls. we take our bathing suits and head out. i am suspicious as usual, and guy is confident.
the walk is short, and the falls are beautiful. smaller than we imagined, but very beautiful and lush and falling hard. we are told we can swim if we want. we find a nook in the rock and change. we dive in together. the water is chilled but not like it'd be in the sierras. what a surreal christmas. i keep trying to relate to what normally would be, then i do something like dive into a water fall.
we swim a bit while our guide shoots pictures of us. we hike back. we pay him. we get back in the car.
as we leave the falls area, we pass another sign for "Git Git Falls" and then another and then finally a third that actually has a parking lot and a more official appearance. we laugh. lots of "Git Git Falls." i knew there was a reason to be suspicious. we were so taken by the boy band guy and his one-eyed friend!
Lovina
As soon as we get close to Lovina, guy starts talking in a mexican accent. "hola senor" he says to every passing man. he repeats every sign he sees with the accent. i don't fully realize why until later.
as we're pulling into the northern coastal town that is described as "sleepy" in the guide book, we are approached by a guy on a motorbike. guy rolls down the window, motorbike guy hands us a crumpled business card. he says it's for a hotel. there are good prices and it's very clean. we say, "Why not?" and follow him into town and to the hotel.
after a quick look-through, we deem it fine. they get us for sure when they tell us it's half-price for the night.
we're in.
we get dinner and sit outside our room on a little patio for hours. we recount our similar childhoods. our memories are flowing. we remember what our moms used to make us for dinner in the 70s. like chung king and tuna casserole. we remember our christmases. our favorites, our least favorites and what we would get from Santa (guy got bikes, bike gear, toys. i got books, drawing supplies and socks). we both had dads who liked to make us wait to go under the christmas tree in the morning.
we sit and drink beer after beer and then decide to call guy's family. it's 9am on the east coast, and 10pm that night for us. four houses. four phone calls. we laugh and cry and surprise the relatives. they scream out, "AHHH!" when they recognize our voices. "you have made our christmas!" they say. we get a deep inner glow. they have given us so much love over the phone wires from the other side of the world. it's the perfect way to end a very odd, but very fun day.
we fall asleep watching Dick and Jane on HBO.
12.26.07
Turns out guy was speaking with a mexican accent in Lovina because Lovina is the balinese Tijuana.
As we leave town, and head west, we see where we were. trash is everywhere. the beach is a hazard. it stinks. the place is thrashed. there are no cars here. only motorbikes. there is no art here. it is obviously dependent only on agriculture to get by. fortunately, there is a ton of that.
we're happy to leave Lovina, but we don't know where we're going to stay next. we realize that we have 6 more days. it seems an eternity! we're so excited by this prospect, and still getting to be lazy. we are still not being called upon to do a goddamn thing. what a luxury.
i look in the guidebook and see that there is very very little in the way of accomodations and things to see and do on the rest of the north coast and then south on the west coast. i say we need to stay in Pemuteran next, and there are a few good options there. first though, we should check out a natural hot springs area called Air Panas.
guy called it, "like swimming in a national geographic magazine." and that's what it looked like to our virgin eyes. people of several origins, religions (women in headwraps) and colors swam in the very large hot springs. i was stared at mercilessly as i was the only woman not in full clothing. i got out quickly and took some shots. it wasn't my favorite activity. it was one of those you don't enjoy, and know you won't but do anyway. as we left we were accosted by the little girls who got us going in too. they are begging us to buy jewelry. i am reminded of "Children of the Corn" while they repeat in soft, singsong-y voices, "one thousand one thousand one thousand one thousand one thousand" as they follow us the long road back to the car. finally, i break, as does guy. we say, "it's only ten cents. let's pick up some bracelets." we get some smiles from the girls worth way more than that and then we're off.
12.27.07 Pemuteran
guy is sick.
bummer on the house of jones. when he is sick, he isolates himself. he does not talk, he just does. he gets up. he showers. he eats. he lies still. he moans. it is fortunate guy can be sick in such a nice place.
we are currently checked in to the fanciest place either of us has ever stayed. it's $100 a night. we have our own villa and our own private pool. it's unreal. we are so excited.
the day before, upon arrival, we run around checking the place out. it's a brand new resort and smells that way. i see the shampoo in a glass bottle with a stopper and scream, "i'm so excited!" guy opens and slams shut all the glass doors. he finds the backyard with it's own private koi pond and outdoor tub and shower. there is also an indoor shower if you don't want to be outside.
anything you could possibly want is in the villa. even wine. when guy finds the wine, we settle in our outdoor kitchen and i wait for him to pop the bottle. we have missed wine, our drink of choice. this is an unprecedented moment. seated at our own pool with the Bali sea spread out in the near distance, a mountain range directly behind us.
this is to be our home for four nights. when guy suggests four nights, my heart sinks at the idea of blowing $400 so quickly, but what are ya gonna do? say no to your own villa? and private pool? i don't have that in me. these are not luxuries we can even approach affording back home.
so guy is sick by day 2.
i proceed to read and write pretty continually for the next two days. i make lists like:
Rules I have Broken:
1. bringing narcotics into the country
2. bathing in the tub even though it says "out of order due to water shortage"
Reading:
1. A Paper Life by Tatum O'Neal
2. unpublished stories by Barett Brown
3. December Vanity Fair
4. IV by Chuck Klosterman
Top 3 questions asked of us in Bali:
1. Where are you from? (which sometimes comes out as "where do you come from?" - to me a much more difficult question)
2. How long you here?
3. First time in Bali? - always followed by "ahhh (smile) welcome to bali!"
we are asked these three questions by every balinese person we talk to in Bali. including every desk clerk, car rental person, suitcase carrier, customs person, waiter, driver, bartender and masseuse.
Top 3 answers to top 3 questions:
1. where do we come from has been surprisingly challenging to answer. at first we said, "San Francisco" until someone thought "Francisco" meant France. In Ubud some people didn't seem to know where it is. we also answered "America" which seemed cocky and ambiguious as there are two Americas, right? even though we have been called "americans" throughout the trip without falter. Then guy started saying "United States." i never liked this one. it sounds clumsy to me. also, maybe dangerous as i am pretty sure it is the term used to describe us in ways like "only the United States failed to sign the kyoto treaty." i thought about saying, "The U.S." because the brits say, "the UK" but i never did. finally, we settled on "California." this seemed to always bring a smile and more often than the others, a look of recognition. and to hilarious effect, upon hearing the word "california," the balinese would break out into song, "hotel california" and look at us and smile. one guy even knew that it's the Eagles who wrote hotel california. only once did guy try to explain that technically Hotel California is in mexico.
2. in [insert town] 3 or 4 days. in bali? 2 weeks.
3. yes.
Farma
what amazing luck. there is a pharmacy right next door to luxuryville. i go to get guy some cough medicine. i'm hopeful i can get something with codeine in it when i enter the bright white building and see rows and rows of bottles behind plastic sliding doors. my heart quickens as always in pharmacies. i have a true love of pharmaceuticals, and not just taking them.
i tell the pharmacist using part pantomine and part distilled english that i need something for a "hack hack" cough. and for lots of "snort snort" snot in the nose. she shows me three kinds of syrup. i read them all and recognize all ingredients but one. this makes me think it might be something stronger than robitussin. i choose it. she has me sign a slip of paper that looks like a prescription. hope! i pay the exhorbitant bali price of $7.50 for the large bottle and leave.
next i go to the resort's computer room and look up the ingredients. all are on the up and up, totally normal and non-narcotic. oh well. i've picked out an expectorant and a suppresant. the package says something else i investigate as having fun potential: spasmolytic.
nice.
i think it must be an anti-spasm agent, and this could be good.
according to wikipedia, it is both a muscle relaxant and a skinny puppy single.
HA! i laugh. thank god i'm not taking a sip of music that sounds like nightmares.
when i get to guy, he is grateful. he takes a few sips and says it makes his face feel funny. 10 minutes later he is much better. i have also taken a few sips and feel nothing. at least guy is on the up and up. the fun should continue soon.
Snorkel
i only got introduced to snorkeling a couple years ago, and can't get enough. unfortunately, we are in bali during monsoon season, and the wind and rain stir up a lot of sand underwater, making it difficult to see anything. we do catch one good day though, and learn something about electricity, water and rebuilding reefs.
the Pemuteran Reef Project is something the people are very excited about. it's pretty genius. as we snorkle we see the effect of this out-there project to restore reefs that have been destroyed by idiots who decide one day to fish by using dynamite. the balinese have put huge skeletal metal cages in the water and (somehow) charge them with electricity thereby making new coral grow and bringing about new fish and all kinds of life.
snorkeling here is a new kind of amazing. not only do we get to see beautiful fish and coral, but it feels like we're swimming in a sculpture garden.
Jungle Chicken
just a quick note to anyone who might go to bali. you've got to check out the jungle. lots of wildlife live there and they're totally viewable. we saw a barking deer (he actually barks), a jungle chicken (beautiful! great name), a huge lizard that looks like a komodo dragon, wild boar, another kind of deer and lots more monkeys. there are resorts on this tip of the island that you can only access via boat. pretty cool. the jungle resort, from which we view all of this is totally empty. so empty, and so large that i feel like we've walked into a balinese texas chainsaw massacre movie. upon arrival, we sit on a vast deck. a man comes out, welcomes us, takes our drink order and disappears for a long time. i walk around checking the place out. there is no one in sight. not even at the welcome desk. i smell something dead under the deck. the air is so still. i get creeped out. i tell guy we've been trapped and we're gonna die.
the thing about bali that is so sad, that the people tell us about every other day, is how tourism is so down due to the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005. apparently the island almost recovered most tourism by 2005 when the suicide bombers hit them again. now no one goes to bali. the residents tell us, as we sit in empty restaurants and at empty pools, that these places used to be filled with tourists. bombing bali is ridiculous. impossible to understand. like thailand, this country has no feel of violence in the air. people don't seem to take advantage of others (except maybe the git git guys with tourists like us), people don't steal, there is no feel of physical threat on the streets. and yet...they have been targeted by extremists. our parents were worried about us going to bali because of these bombings, and being americans. the sad truth is, we felt safer in bali than we do in san francisco.
12.29 - 12.30.07
we drive south, get lost, get found, eat after starving, turn in the car and get a ride to the airport. it's all over, and we're headed home after a short stop in bangkok for a bangin' new year's eve.
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