Seven Days in Bali
Singapore

Adding Bali to our itinerary was almost an afterthought. When we originally talked about where to go in South East Asia, visiting Indonesia seemed like a daunting task; the country was so big, it appeared that there was so much to do and see there. Of course, we had heard so much about Bali being this tropical island paradise from so many tourists that we kinda just threw it in there, thinking that it would be a nice way to wrap up or travels around Asia. Of course, we knew we were going at the tail end of the wet season (rainy season continues through March), but that couldn’t be helped.

Once in Singapore though, as we continued to keep abreast of the news and the latest developments, we started having second thoughts about how long we should stay in Bali. The tone of the travel advisory issued by the Canadian government warning against travel in Indonesia (including Bali) was stronger than that of other advisories; they cited the recent Bali bombing that killed over 200 people in a bar at Kuta Beach. We also knew of the upcoming elections, which recent history has shown to be a rather tumultuous period of time throughout Indonesia. Upon some further research and reading other people’s travelogues and websites, we decided to still visit Bali, but reduce our stay from two weeks to one. We knew that we wouldn’t really be visiting Indonesia in the sense that it would take months to get an appreciation for the entire country, but hopefully we’d get some sense of what Bali culture was like.

Well, we have not been disappointed with our Bali experience at all, and as usual, there have not been any significant signs of unrest. We chose to stay in Ubud, and have not even seen Kuta or Sanur beaches, thus avoiding most heavily trafficked tourist areas. Ubud is considered the cultural heart of Bali, with its dozens of arts and craft centers, museums, and shops. It is a small but growing town that has three main streets; there is an interesting mix of high-end resorts, cozy guesthouses, local food stalls, and trendy restaurants scattered around the area. We stayed in a fabulous hotel located south of Ubud town called Saren Indah; Jen found it on the Internet, and booked us for a three-day package. It is located in between two rice paddies, about 200 meters away from Monkey Forest; each time we walk to and from town, we pass through the forest and are entertained by the tame but cheeky monkeys who accost tourists for bananas and snacks. After our first night here, we liked it so much we decided to spend the entire week here, booking a second three-day package and making Ubud our base from which to see the rest of Bali.

For the last week, we’ve been alternating taking day-trips out around Bali with a private car and driver, with walking around the town and taking in local shows and dances. The rupiah has devalued so greatly from the 1997 Asian economic crisis that almost everything seems to be a bargain here. I get the impression that prices are going up again, but for what we paid for transportation and accommodation, things seemed to be more than reasonable. (Aside from the fact that the USD has dropped so much.) Our day trips took us all the way up to the north of Bali, and also to the East; we hung out at the highest point on the island, Gunung Agung, and visited the fertile farmlands in the central region of the island. Our favourite views on these day trips were those of the little villages and towns that we traveled through, watching Balinese people go about their daily business with hardly another tourist in sight.

The effects of tourism are evident around several of Bali’s more popular attractions though. The touts at Pura Besakih, Bali’s “Mother Temple”, were especially aggressive; they demanded that we hire one of them as a “guardian” of the temple, and proclaimed that we weren’t allowed to go past the outer wall without doing so. When we did nonetheless, they protested vehemently, shouted insults, and then left us to go after less stubborn tourists. We knew what we were and weren’t allowed to do, thanks to our very respectable driver Komang. The touts and vendors at other tourist sites were also reasonably aggressive, but didn’t do anything we hadn’t seen before, just the usual “Only 10,000 Rp” to get you into their shop, where the price then changes to 40,000 Rp.

I think my favourite day was still the first day, which Jen already described, but was special because while we were observing the ceremony in the temple at Pejeng village, we knew we were witnessing a completely non-tourist event, the gamelan orchestra was not being paid to perform so well, and the ceremony was not a rehearsed, affair put on to entertain people like us. We hung out in the background and stayed there for hours, watching families coming to pray with their offerings, listening to the chanting and the gonging, and getting plenty of sincere smiles from people as they walked by.

One interesting and somewhat disconcerting political observation we made was seeing the various bands of political supporters around the island, both while in Ubud, and also while moving around on one of our day trips. These weren’t your western-style campaign rallies, where everyone congregated in an area carrying signs and cheering; they were more similar to biker-gang convoys riding through town bullying the local townsfolk. Typically, there would be a group of 20 to 100 men of varying ages all wearing the colours of their party (there were more red PDI supporters than any other), driving around in motorcycles, mopeds, jeeps, and trucks, all waving flags, shouting and whooping at bystanders, blaring loud music and propaganda on huge speakers, and revving their engines like Hell’s Angels wanna-be’s. Maybe I’m painting an overly dramatic picture, but each time these convoys passed us (some with police escorts), I couldn’t help but wonder if they were campaigning through intimidation; they didn’t seem like the kind of people you would want to disagree with publicly.

For the last few days of our stay, we were the only people in our small boutique hotel. It was nice to get all the personalized individual attention from the entire hotel wait staff, but it was a little weird at the same time. The main reason for the lack of tourists? Definitely not the accommodations, they were fantastic. And definitely not the price either: for only $35 USD a night, we got a fully equipped deluxe king-size room with soaker tub, A/C, TV, fridge, a one hour massage every three days, two tickets to a nightly show (worth $12 USD themselves), and two tickets to the Monkey Forest temple. Sure there are even cheaper options, but this was pretty luxurious.

No, the main reason is that things have been severely affected by the Bali bombing that occurring in a bar in Kuta Beach last year. Over 200 people were killed, both Balinese and foreigners, and the effect that has had on tourism has been devastating. I don’t know the details of which Indonesian fundamentalists did it or for what reason, but if the perpetrators were thinking that they were doing Balinese people a favour by scaring away Westerners, they couldn’t have been more wrong. Bali has been a popular tourist destination for decades now, but you wouldn’t be able to tell walking through Ubud today. All throughout town, there are dozens of shops and cafes full of merchandise and tables, but no customers. Vendors seem to have a bit more of a desperate note in their voices as they try to peddle their wares. The negative effect snowballs, affecting guides, drivers, clerks, cooks, and hospitality staff, eventually leading to food merchants, suppliers, and farmers. The only people who seem to continue to do well are the police, who still pocket payoffs whenever they choose (we saw examples of this twice in the time we were in Bali). The terrorism doesn’t make sense, but it never does.

A very interesting observation we made about what we saw in Bali was the obvious dominance of Hinduism throughout the island. This is somewhat curious, given the fact that Indonesia is one of the world’s most populous Muslim countries. We were curious to compare the similarities and differences of the Hindu religion practiced in Bali with that practiced in India. Much of Balinese daily life seems to revolve around religion to a great degree; offerings are made regularly, you can’t go very far without seeing another altar or banana leaf tray filled with bits of food and flowers left on the floor or in an entranceway.

Here, Shiva is spelled Siwa, Vishnu is spelled Wisnu. As in India though, there are hundreds of other gods and goddesses that we can’t keep track of them all. Demons abound, and there are many statues around Ubud depicting the appropriate demise of sinners by a demon of some sort. During ceremonies and festivals (like the week that we’re here) many statues are wrapped in a black and white checkered sarong, apparently symbolizing good and evil; gods have a yellow sash wrapped around them as well, to represent their deity status. There was a fair bit of Buddhist influence as well, as we saw several Buddhist statues and stupas around the various temple sites.

Bali was a place that for us, lived up to its reputation as being an exotic tropical destination. There are definitely some very touristy areas and some visibly negative results of some sites having too many visitors, but for the most part, it was pretty easy to get off the totally beaten path. In our one week here, we saw less than half the island; there is a lot to see and do. Irrespective of the perception of terrorist activity in Indonesia, based on our seven-day experience, we would still recommend traveling to Bali for pretty much anyone.

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Labuan and Singapore
Singapore

Coming to Bali has dropped us south of the Equator for the second time this trip. In fact, we’ll be spending the next few months in the southern hemisphere, as we prepare to leave Asia for Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and South America. It’s hard to believe that we’re going to be in Australia in two days, it really feels like the end of a very memorable chapter in our journey. We’ve just written up our Second Report Card that summarizes our best moments in Asia—you can find it in the Columns section.

Incidentally, we just found out that I’ve lost Premier Executive status with United Airlines, the “special” designation that the airline gives their frequent fliers. We haven’t been flying enough in the last year, and so have dropped down to Premier. We found out when we were turned away from the Premier lounge in Denpasar… the lounges aren’t really that big a deal, but to be turned away with our tails between our legs does sting a bit, ouch! It’s a bit ironic, that I fly much more for work in a given year than I do traveling around the world.

I wanted to mention two areas that we haven’t blogged about yet but haven’t forgotten: Labuan, Malaysia and Singapore. Because we were visiting these two places primarily to visit relatives, they haven’t had the same “tourist attraction appeal” to us as other destinations. This meant that we were missing out somewhat, but we really enjoyed spending time with our extended families, so we definitely have no regrets missing out on some of the more tourist-oriented activities.

We went to Labuan for two days, after KK and before Sipadan. It is a small island just off the coast of Malaysian Borneo, a 2 ½ hour ferry ride from KK. Very few people have heard about it, and unless you’re looking for a quiet rural Malaysian island experience, there’s probably little reason to visit there. They do have several off-shore banks and some tax-free incentives, but other than that, there’s not much in the way of foreigner activity there. We really enjoyed spending time with my uncle and family there though, eating at the local food stalls, visiting the bird sanctuary and a few other local landmarks, and watching my cousins play in a beachfront park.

Most people know about Singapore, but I think the only impression that many people have is that you get caned there, and you can’t chew gum. Well, there’s obviously a lot more to Singapore than that; here you can see the results of a carefully managed and governed city-state that has emerged from third-world status to first (borrowed from Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs) in less than two generations. A financial and business center in the entire SE Asia region, Singapore is known for being a leader both economically and socially, and has strong ties to the West and many other nations. This country also faces challenges from its surrounding neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia, who some say are looking to gain from Singapore’s wealth and success. Singapore is also known for some “social initiatives,” in which the government has experimented with various social issues with varying degrees of success.

There is also a lot to see and do in Singapore, but again, here we were keen on spending our time with relatives, so didn’t really do a whole lot of sightseeing. Also because we had both been here a few times in the past, we didn’t have any pressing desire to hit the tourist attractions. We again did enjoy eating the huge selection of local food, and did walk around town a bit; we were impressed with the many malls and shopping options there were, ranging from small local shops to fancy high-end malls that looked much more sophisticated than those at home. We were also able to get several errands done, including cleaning the camera CMOS sensor at Canon’s Service Center for a very reasonable $13 USD. Of course, the highlight of our stay in Singapore was hanging out with all our relatives, as we both have family who live and work there. Perhaps when we visit again (maybe there will be more than two of us?) we will have more time to spend there, and will make an effort to see more attractions.

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