As mentioned in the last post, I hired a scooter in Ubud and had a great day just exploring around. The hostel that rented it to me required a 50,000 idr deposit for a towel but thought nothing of handing over the keys to a scooter to anyone willing to cough up 50,000 idr for the day. By the end of the day, I was kind of wishing I had just tried to rent a scooter in Kuta for 10 or 12 days and circumnavigated the island.
Bali is defined by their temples. They have a unique mix of Hindu and older island religion. As well as participating in the local temple, everyone has a temple in their house. They pray and make offerings multiple times a day. I found a one of the temples I'd set out for that day - nicknamed the water temple for it's beautiful water features.
There was a second temple I'd been told about that I never found due to getting sucked into a tourist vortex. I had turned down a narrow dirt road, following google maps to where the temple should be, when a guy came up on a scooter, stopped me and said I didn't want to go down there, that it was better to get to the temple I was looking for by the "main" road (I never figured out what that was). He then told me he was on his way to pick his kids up from school and he would show me to a coffee plantation that offered tours for free. So I agreed to follow him. He was on me like white on rice after that. After a 15 min scooter ride, we went in to a lame staged area where an old lady was roasting a few coffee beans over an open fire. I was then seated and presented with 8 or 10 cups of different coffee's and tea's. I asked my new found friend about picking up his kids and he gave me some vague mumble about his brother would do it., So I asked him what he got out of bringing me to the plantation and he told me he got a cut of whatever I spent there. It was clear to me then that I wasn't getting out of there without making a donation of some sort. Long story short, I gave them 50,000 idr for a cup of rat poo coffee (kopi luwak on wikipedia if you're curious about this specialty coffee - and no, I didn't care for it...) and bolted. Later that same night, I went to the fire dance (or Kecak - named for the percussion sounds the roughly 100 extras made throughout the hour long event) at the temple up the road from the hostel. A small village of about 700 put on a production involving over 100 people - I thoroughly enjoyed it.
After Ubud, I took a shuttle north to Lovina. I was sick much of the 5 days in Lovina and spent a lot of time lazing around. I did hire a scooter there and took it into the mountains to a waterfall one day. I screwed up and left the keys in the scooter while I hiked up to the waterfall. There was a 10,000 entrance fee to go to the waterfall that I'm sure only applied to those with a tourist face. When I got back, a creepy guy had my keys and tried to extort an additional 10,000 from me to get them back. I held my ground and he eventually relented. It could've been much worse and I was hyper vigilant with the keys after that.
After Lovina came the Gili Islands a series of 3 small islands off the coast of Lombok (the large island east of Bali). Gili Trawangan (or Gili T) is the most built up and has a reputation as a party place, Gili Meno is quiet and sparsely populated and Gili Air (meaning water in Indonesian) is somewhere in between the two. An all day trek landed me on Gili Air where I spent 4 fun days with instant hostel friends Carol, Steven and a few others. The highlight of the time there was an all day snorkeling trip around the islands which was fantastic - loads of sea turtles and colorful reef fish. Steven had found a hostel on Gili Meno that sometimes offered free accommodation for volunteer work and I decided to go along and spend my last few days on the sleepy little island. The hostel already had it's limit of 4 volunteers and Steven and I paid 80,000 idr to sleep on the sunrise platform - by the water, under the stars (there were hammocks we could move to underneath if it rained). The night was damp and cold but a great experience. The next day I decided to find proper accommodation and moved to a nice private hut that had air conditioning! The wifi was a lie, but for about $12 usd a night with a lovely tomato and cheese omelet breakfast included, the air conditioned room was a much welcomed luxury and I didn't have it in me to complain. 5 nights there and I felt more rested than I have in several weeks. As it turned out, it was lucky the first hostel had no volunteer spots available, Indonesian Immigration showed up later on the day I left and hauled away the 4 volunteers that were there. A tourist visa plainly states that no work is to be done here - volunteer or paid. It couldn't have been a pleasant way to leave the country. Though I had my doubts I would've opted for the work, over paying 6 bucks to do nothing ;) Steven would've been caught up in it had there been a spot available.
The day long journey back to Bali happened yesterday. One more night in Kuta and an early morning flight back to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.
