Last Two Weeks in Bali - Part 2

Part 2 - The journey around the island (again).

We headed out on a Wed. and began our journey in a rented vehicle to Medewi. A new swell was on it’s way in and we heard that it would be mega in size. Ry and I were excited to see what Medewi would bring. The drive as usual was quite intense and I dreaded hitting a mo-pedder that may be on the left or the right side of us, squeezed amongst the heavy traffic. Ryan took us through the heart of Denpasar, the most densely populated city in Bali. I felt extremely carsick as our van weaved in and out and through craziness. After stopping for a quick ice cream at a small grocery store, we finally made it down a dirt road through a forest of large coconut trees to another surf break before Medewi called Balian. The deep chocolate colored waves were double overhead outside and in the shore break. “Medewi is going to be huge!” Ryan exclaimed. It didn’t look safe to paddle out and there was no where to stay or safely park our vehicle, so we continued up the coast to Medewi. The air around the west coast smelt of humid farm country as the antelope/cows dotted the fields, even under the coconut trees. I wondered in worry, what if a coconut ever dropped down on a cow’s poor little head? I chuckled a bit at the thought…granted it would be a horrid sight indeed. Finally the road to Medewi appeared and Ryan turned left down the one strip of “surf-Medewi” road. “I think we should check Mai Malu Ry to see if they still have any places to stay. Dash said it is a bit more crowded here and we might not get a place,” I concernly suggested. We headed into the familiar restaurant that Ry, Mike and I had eaten at a month ago and went to the front counter to ask for rooms. Surprisingly and luckily there were exactly two rooms that were available. One was a double bed for $10.00 a night and the other was a tiny, tiny one bedroom closet room for $9.00 a night. We had paid around $8.00 a night for a huge room right on the surf break called Shipwreaks at Nusa Lembongan (didn’t get to blog about this part of the journey yet) and so I was a little hesitant to take a closet room. We all decided to stay since Mai Malu was just a walk down to the Medewi break.

After settling in a bit we had a large meal at the Mai Malu café. Jason’s nasi goreng was a huge portion of fried rice, chicken skewers (sate) and shrimp crackers, Ryan’s sweet and sour coated chicken with peppers and sweet onions was of another massive proportion, Hilary’s thickly sliced and battered coated fish and chips was enough to feed two to three people and my cap cay (pronounced chap-chay) was a plethora of sautéed choy sum, carrots, and cabbage smothered in a spicy soy sauce and served with a large portion of rice. It was a nice end to such a long, long drive on the Indonesian highway.

After our meals we decided to head out to look at the surf break, even though some of us felt extremely lethargic from the drive and meal. The waters at Medewi looked a light chocolate brown and the waves were much larger than I had remembered previously body boarding at Medewi a month back. “I don’t think I want to go in that water,” Hilary said to Ryan and I. (Jason was resting his ankle in the room that he had lightly twisted at Balian beach). “Well let’s give it a shot since there is no one out there,” Ryan excitedly said since it would be the first time he would be out surfing Medewi. We all agreed to paddle out. I was worried about the sanitation of the water however and hoped that we wouldn’t stay out too long. Baracudas and sharks lingered heavily in murky waters like that particular day. After gearing up we headed out to the break. As soon as we paddled out the waves were much bigger than it had seemed on shore. The size of the waves during the session went from about 3ft. to 7ft. on the sets, but the wave itself was very mushy, unorganized and choppy. The only dangerous part this time was the roaring shore break on the inside that slammed on to large river stones. Over all the session was a bit frustrating in my opinion. I took quite a few sets on the head and just thought of the ugly, putrid water that was going up my nostrils and ears. Ryan and I ended up staying out the longest and the sets were only getting bigger. We finally made it in and quickly showered and put cap fulls of hydrogen peroxide in our ears to kill any bacteria that may have been lingering. (Hearing stories from our friend Chris from the Galih made us extra concerned about bacteria in the ears since he had lost his hearing in one ear from river bacteria in North Carolina). By the time we were finished showering it was quite dark and we headed down to the benches and tables in front of the break to join Hilary and Jason for a cold, refreshing Bintang Beer. It was still very hot and humid out (so much so that even in the water we were sweating).

The next day was the biggest that I had ever seen Medewi. Sets were about 10 ft. Hawaiian and the current was very intense. Ryan made it out early in the morning and caught a beautiful wave that was double overhead. The local surf photographers (and me) were able to capture the wave. Ryan was extra stoked that day! After the session, we decided to head out of Medewi and continue on our journey through the coast. Before we left however Jason, Hilary and I had $9.00 hour traditional Indonesian healing massages on the beach by two very strong Indonesian women. My muscles were quite sore after the massage and I had a headache for the rest of the day. We decided to head to the town of Lovina and pass Pemutaran where Mike, Ryan and I had stayed a while back. Lovina was said to have dolphins in the bay and it was a vibrant little town. On the way there Hilary waved down an ice cream mo-peder to the left of our vehicle. It said only 1,000 rupiah, which is 10 cents American. (It turned out to be 2,000 rupiah or 20 cents American) Our first attempt did not succeed, but the second did and the ice cream man stopped on the side of the road for us. He was very surprised at the wave-down. On the back of his mo-ped was a large box full of dried ice and a container of neopolitin ice cream. On the side of the box were tiny kid sized cones of all different colors of the rainbow. The little cone with the little scoop was a very scrumptious, sweet treat.

Throughout the Bali adventures, I was, had been, and still am so amazed at Indonesian mo-ped entrepreneurs. So efficient in producing satisfying products that they skillfully carried on the back of their mo-peds. For example, the Bakso-man who served steaming hot meatball soup with noodles that were contained in an massive, boiling soup pot, or the Chicken sate-man who carried a hot grill and several trays of rolled up rice in banana leaves, or the Donut man who carried loads of fried pastries ready to be filled with goodness, or the Everything-you-can-get-that’s plastic man with kitchen utensils, toys and all sorts of random things, or the Fresh-vegetable man who carried loads and loads of fresh veggies and fruits that literally hung for dear life on the basket wiring, or the Bush/Forest man who carried bushels of thick weeds and branches from a long days community work, all in the back of his mo-ped. We had seen numerous mo-peds that carried loads and loads of stuff like families, long pieces of bamboo and poles, to packs of chickens held by their feet, to cages and boxes and just stuff…I don’t know how they squeezed through oncoming vehicles, other mo-peds and people, but somehow it just worked. I humorously contemplated on these mo-ped men and the Budweiser commercials for the “Real-men of genius” and thought how great it would be to “salute” them.

It would go something like this maybe?:
“We salute you Mr. anything- and –everything- can- fit- on- a- mo-ped Indonesian- entrepreneur –family- man…”----“Mr. Indonesian-entrepreneur-family-man!”

“Only you can hold your entire immediate family through intense traffic and never, ever weave out of control.”---“Always in controool.”

“Only you can hold a 20 ft. long bamboo across a busy intersection and not hit other oncoming mo-pederists.”---“Please don’t hit me!”

“It’s amazing how you and only you can serve a delicious bowl of hot meatball soup or a perfectly grilled chicken sate on the side of the busy country roads to make what you can to survive.” “no Bali Belly!”

“Only you through your mo-ped talent can squeeze through traffic without taking off several side view mirrors.”---“Just centimeters away from the mirrors.”

“We salute you Mr. anything-and-everything-can-fit-on-a mo-ped Indonesian-entrepreneur-family-man…there is nothing in this world you can’t fit on your mo-ped.”

So we continued down the long highway to the little town of Lovina. It was a cute little town and everyone, I mean everyone offered to take us on dolphin tours or to purchase little smiling wooden dolphins from their trays and carts. It was quite a sight. Hilary and Jason took up an offer to go on a dolphin tour with our homestay manager and said that it was a huge spectacle/mess. With over 100 boats out at the bay, it was lucky none of them hit or injured any of the dolphins! I am going to have to say here that Lovina was not one of our most favorite places. Unpleasant Lovina mosquitos left the most itchiest bites (I could of sworn we had a nest in the room), the Karaoke bar next to our homestay remained open until 1:00 a.m. in the morning and I don’t know who was singing, but it was a nightmare, and on our last night all Jason wanted was a fresh tasty pizza from a restaurant that we all had begun to love and the order was taken down, but never received by the chefs. His hungry belly couldn’t take it anymore and we paid only half the bill. That kind of did it for us, we definitely decided to leave the next day. Hilary and I however found a fantastic bakery called Lovina bakery that was owned by a German man who married an Indonesian woman. Their fresh baguettes were amazing with peanut butter and cheese and their sugar smack chocolate and vanilla cookies filled Ryan and I’s sugar craving. We also had the best “weiner-snitzel” at Warung Perfect on their opening night and were served free Bintang beers.

Our next stop was the town of Ubud and I couldn’t wait to take Hilary shopping since Ryan feared to go with me. I don’t know why, why wouldn’t a guy want to go shopping with their girlfriend? Especially in bargaining craziness being bombarded by packs of sales people! (I found a way to ignore them, but I will explain later on) On our way to Ubud we stopped at Mount Batur for a scenic tour and lunch. Hoards of people selling art and wooden sculptures came to our table to try to make some rupiah, but we declined to purchase anything. “My father is an artist, look at his paintings, just take a look please.” “Tidak terimakasih,” I replied back to her (which means no thank you). “Everyone’s family member is an “artist” here, it’s all the same paintings,” I mentioned to Hilary and Jason. I remembered from the last time Ryan and I had come to the mountain pass. Our friends, Pablo and Danielle bought a beautiful painting of a field of rice paddies and a gorgeous sunset from a man who said that he was a painter. Around 15 minutes later at a stop by the lake within the crater of the volcano another man showed us his paintings and there it was! The painting of the rice paddies with the sunset and this man also claimed to be an artist. It was a very interesting experience and I wondered, which factory it was that put out all of these unique paintings?

We finally made it to Ubud after some quick turn-arounds and re-routes. We were ecstatic to find a Homestay that was overlooking stunning rice paddies. Both mornings we were served wonderful breakfasts on our porches. First morning were mouth watering, thick pieces of French toasts with a fruit bowl covered in coconut shavings and the second morning was a crepe creation of bananas, coconut, honey and sugar. Jason and Hilary were able to experience the wonders and excitement of monkey forest, with all it’s special stone carvings that surrounded the temples and of course the multitude of monkeys grabbing away at clothing and valuables. I visited the Bali Animal Welfare Association or BAWA where I held a saved Bali puppy. The organization treats street dogs for internal parasites and other diseases and also sterilizes puppies for “puppylation control.” Their main goal was/is to control the stray dog population in Bali and to eventually adopt out their dogs to homes other than Balinese families. The woman at the clinic mentioned that in a couple of years when hopefully the rabies epidemic subsides and is eradicated, puppies will be able to be adopted out of Bali.

Other fun times in Ubud…Hilary and I were able to bargain shop till we dropped and had a pleasant fresh avocado sand which lunch for $2.00 a piece. My i-pod provided the greatest avenue for ignoring pestering sales individuals. At every opportunity they took to harass me with a sale I simply pointed to my ear phones, raised my eyebrows in confusion and said, “I can’t hear you, sorry, earphones in my ear.” Then I would hurry along, dancing if I could to the rhythm of the musical beat. I-pods are true wonders…really…in so many situations. Ubud was very enjoyable, a town of art, music, great food, laughter, and monkeys. After a couple of days there, we decided to head back to Uluwatu for our last three days before leaving lovely Bali.