Bali (Part 1)

Sailing into Benoa Harbor was our first time in Asia, and different than anything either of us had every experienced. From the boats to the architecture to the food smells, everything was new. Benoa Harbor is far from the peaceful and serene harbors of the Pacific. Loud boats go in and out and the water looks like a trash soup. Nonetheless, we were excited to be on solid ground, as Bali is a fantastic place to end our sailing adventure and begin our land journey into South East Asia. 

Escaping Benoa Harbor to Kuta, we spent three days getting re-oriented with sleeping through the night, long hot water showers, walking, and other land life luxuries. Since massages are $5 for an hour, we obviously pampered ourselves. Our friends Cathy and Charlie (S/V Celebrate) hosted a party at one of Bali's top resorts, the Rimba by Ayana in Jimberan. There must have been more than twenty pools surrounded by lush gardens. It was nice to say a final goodbye to all of the friends we have made traveling with the ARC. 

From Kuta, we shuttled north to Ubud. The villiage is filled with family run homestays that are overflowing with beautiful architecture and small family temples. Brian chose a really nice little homestay, complete with breakfast, pool, hot water, balcony, and nice room for $15/night. Every morning at first light, there was a loud monkey call (from our balcony, of course) and all of the monkeys in town would come running. At first this was terrifying, but we became accustomed to the monkey routine. During the nights we frequently woke to hear movement in parts of our room, which we determined was outside of the thin thatch walls. At one point, I debated whether or not our room was haunted. Monkeys were constantly trying to get through the screens and run like crazy through our room. When our little bag of snacks started to disappear, first suspect was Brian, second the monkeys, but the real culprit was a little, not so little, mouse. The next night the mouse was no where to be seen, but a half tailed cat was passed out on our balcony. What a zoo...

The village of Ubud is the center of arts and culture in Bali and it seems as though everyone is an artist whether it be painter, woodcarver, weaver, or stone architect. We took several long walks in the rice patty countryside and enjoyed exploring local cuisine at roadside stands. Nasi campur (rice with vegetables) and Bokso (soup with bean noodles and dumplings) are our favorite local dishes, both $1/ meal. Temples line the streets and the architecture is outstanding all around. Monkeys were everywhere, no joke everywhere. While they are very suspicious creatures, we had some good laughs watching their odd behaviors, some of which are too graphic for this email. Our hotel had a guy with a slingshot constantly patrolling the grounds. On our last morning in Ubud an undeterred monkey stole Lauren's banana pancakes... which Brian describes as a first world problem. Debatable. The entire monkey situation was just comical on many levels.

We hired a driver to take us up to Lovina, a quieter village in North Bali. Along the way, went made several stops in Central Bali. We stopped at an area home to lewaks... the rodent creators of kopi lewak coffee . For those of you not familiar with this delicacy, these cat/rodent-like creatures eat cherry like fruits and their poo is collected, roasted, and ground into lewak coffee. Since the lewaks are very selective and only eat the very best of the cherries, their pebbly poo is very valuable. At the lewak forest, we also sampled local teas which was a lot of fun. We also stopped at Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, a very important water temple on a volcanic lake. Ceremonies asking the gods to water the rice patties are held here. Approaching Lovina, we drove through mountain lakes and the clove fields of Munduk. Fine tuning our negotiating skills has been a task. Nothing has a fixed price and most people are willing to reduce asking price to a 1/3... Regardless, we've had victories and defeats in our bartering, but feel ok about it, especially when everyone walks away thinking they got a good deal. 

Bali is super affordable and we are excited to be able to spend time here decompressing after our long sailing journey. We plan to spend another week or two exploring North and East Bali (and maybe getting more $5 massages) before venturing to Thailand.