BALI, Indonesia

Hey there, from the 18th through the 24th Dan and I were in Bali. It is an island located in southern indonesia known for its night life and tropical get away. Most of the visitors are Australians. It was a 2 and a half hour flight from Singapore. We arrived in Kuta on Saturday night the 18th and headed to a resort for the first two nights. Kuta is the heart of the night life in Bali and is located on the southern tip and is also known internationally as one of the best places to go surfing. Upon unloading our stuff we headed to a local bar called Uncle Norms, more relaxed type of bar then most in Kuta. Sunday we rented some surf boards on the beach and hit the waves. We were using the bigger boards, not the short boards, so within a short amount of time, both Dan and I were getting up no problem, it was alot of fun. The pic to the left is of me holding the money I converted to rupiah, the bills are 100,000, and I just so happened to have a little over 2.9 million in my hands, no big deal or anything.

Monday we decided to rent some mopeds to get around the island for

the next four days. Because of safety and liability issues most people opt to rent a driver and a car for the day, however we were looking for some adventure and freedom and a cheaper method of transportation. I never thought that I would actually be driving in the crazy no rules indonesian traffic. However after driving for four days, I have a new respect for their rules or lack of them when it comes to driving. Basically larger vehicles have the right away, and little vehicles like mopeds can weave in and out of traffic but use theirs horns with the larger cars help to do so safely. The horn is method of communication rather then a way to away to show your anger. The reason why I think they are doing it right, is because everybody has to be an active driver, no traffic lights, no stop signs, no rules. You communicate with the cars around you and everybody is alert, and so you are always ready for something to happen. With that being said it is quite a tiring process. To the right you can see my moped.

Monday night we stayed in Ubud, its a pretty large city. We only had reservations made for our first two nights in Kuta, so we didnt know what it was going to be like getting a room. However as soon as we arrived in Ubud, hotel managers were riding around trying to get us to come to their hotel, so we could barter as we rode along. It was very efficient, and after going with one and checking out the room, we batered even farther getting the room for 120,000 when he wanted 300,000 for it, they were really hard up for cash, and we found the walk away to be very effective. By the way 9,500 is about 1 dollar US. In the morning we got our free breakfast delivered to our room. Their were monkeys all around us on the roof of the hotel and running along the telephone wires, it was pretty crazy. Dan didnt want his papaya and so in a matter of seconds of him standing up, a monkey dropped from our roof and started eating, it was pretty funny (pic to the left). After breakfast, we checked out a temple in Ubud, and as if we hadnt seen enough monkeys, we went into a monkey forest to see hundreds more.

We then headed out for Mt. Batur with the plan of stopping along the way to see the rice paddies which can be seen to the right. They were pretty magnificent. Now, one of the down sides of riding a moped is that cops can pull you over for no reason and ask for millions of dollars if you dont have a international license or an indonesian license. (They are quite corrupt although they have been doing a good job taking out terrorist groups in Bali) Anyways, we read up about how to handle this situation before we left in case we encountered it. Dan read somewhere that you can try to convince the Police that your license from the US is international. So low and be hold, as we were climbing the mountain on our mopeds, we come around a corner, and there was 5 officers motioning us to pull over. After stopping we showed them our insurance, which thank goodness was in order, and then they told us that we didnt have the right license, and so we started our attempt to convince them otherwise. It was pretty humerous, although at the time, we were trying to keep a straight face, but the fact is they really didnt have a clue if it was or not, they just wanted money, but after 15 minutes they gave up and said we could continue on. We were pretty thrilled, although we had only about 100,000 in our wallets and the rest in our bags, so they wouldnt have gotten much.. We arrived at Mt Batur and instantly a guy names Tobali befriended us and showed us around, basically took us to his friends restaurants and hotels, but it was all good, he was really helpful and it was all cheap. He spent the whole day with us, taking us to the most sacred

indonesian temple on Mt Anung.

Wednesday morning we woke up at 330 am and were driven to the base of Mt. Batur, a 5 minute drive. Mt Batur is an active volcano and famous for its sunrise views from the top. We had to pay for a guide earlier the day before, since it is all monitored by the government. (another way to get money from tourist) Our group was compromised of a french couple, a german couple, two french girls from london, and another french guy (alot of French!). It was a really good group though, and we all became friends pretty fast, picture of group is in the photos link at the bottom. It was a very strenuous hike and we pretty much sweated all the way through all of our clothes (just t shirt and shorts at that time). It took about 2 hours to get to the summit, and we all got there around 6am, however we couldnt see more then a few feet because it was literally in the clouds. It was also really cold, but that was ok since we brought dry clothes and a sweatshirt, so all was good. Our two guides cooked eggs on the steaming rocks which was pretty neat and really tasty. We then started down a different, longer way with the hope of seeing a good view, since at this point we still hadnt seen the inside of the volcano. About 800 ft down from the summit, it cleared for a little bit so that we could get a pretty good view, everybody was pretty excited. The crater was HUGE, and actually a Sweden kid fell down and died last spring, (first death on the mountain) and so they told us about that, and showed us where it happened. About 6 hours from when we left we arrived back at the base, said good bye to our trek mates and then headed back to the hotel to pack up so we could continue are trip up to the Northern part of the island at Lovina Beach.

We spent a night at Lovina beach, watched a Bali Dance Show and did some swimming, and then thursday morning we started our trip back south to Kuta. Along the way we stopped at the Gigit waterfall, which was refreshing and then tanah lot temple on the south western side which had some pretty good views. We arrived in Kuta around 4pm thankful to be safe and without any incident with our bikes. The renters were also really relieved I think, since we had worked up a deal for a little bit more dough, that we wouldnt be responsible for anything, even the theft of the bike, they just wanted cash so bad they signed our agreement and probably prayed that nothing would happen. Thursday night we once again spent at Uncle Norms, they always have live music after 8pm which was really nice. Friday we went to the beach to get thrown around by the waves some more and decided to try our luck with the short boards which didnt go so well, but was fun none the less. We then hired a driver to take us to a temple on the southeast side and then the airport after that. The pic below is of me at the temple. Whenever you go to a temple you need to rent one of the little dresses as you can see, so we always looked pretty goofy.

Overall it was a really fun trip. One thing I wasn't expecting though, was the begging for our business, they dont understand the word NO, and by the end you just learn that you just ignore them or give them a wave of your hand. Although some, girls who wanted to give us massages, would follow us all the way down the street, rubbing our arms, as if we were going to change our minds, it was kind of annoying, but I guess part of the culture. I think Todd, the husband of the french couple that we climbed with summed Bali up pretty well, "Theirs three religions here, hindu, buddhism, and muslim, but they all have the same god... the RUPIAH." But with that all being said, everybody we encountered were very friendly, and one guy even took the time to draw us a map of Ubud, because we kind of got lost. More pics can be found here. I have got a pretty busy week coming up here with some midterms, so I probably wont post for another two weeks. But until then, have a good one, Brett