Friday, October 3, 2008

Sara and I have now been in Bali for 2 weeks! After Ubud, we travelled by bus (public transportation here consists of minivans called "bemos" that cost anywhere from 20-80 cents per ride) to a harbor town called Padangbai. The greatest part about our brief stay here was that there was a 3 day Hindu ceremony going on... so we got to see all the locals dress up in their fancy sarong outfits and walk (with their offerings balanced on their heads) to the temples up on the hill. The event required all local Hindus to walk to all 3 temples and deliver offerings once a day for 3 days. After praying, they came out with rice on their foreheads and chest.  It was a beautiful procession to watch! The people were very kind to us, and allowed us to take lots of photos, and even gave us some of the breads and fruits in their baskets of offerings. I felt honored to be so welcomed! Because most people did this at night, nighttime was very lively, with vendors cooking and selling satay (chicken and fish skewers) and other interesting tofu and banana things on the street,  so all you could see up and down the main road was the light of the cooking fires. It was such a cool experience!

Padangbai also had lots of fun reggae bars (plastered with pictures of Bob Marley, it was hilarious), and we found some fun Germans to hang out with over the course of our stay there.

The next place we went to was my most favorite place yet- an old royal palace called Tirta Gangga. The palace grounds were beautifully landscaped, with pools of water and picturesque statues and bridges everywhere. Some of the bathing pools are accessible to visitors- so I went for a great swim! The surrounding area was lovely as well... terraced rice fields as far as you can see, framed by palm trees and a volcano.  We stayed in the hotel on-site, and enjoyed some great meals and great views in this tranquil and serene spot. 

After Tirta Gangga, we headed to the northern coast of Bali to a town called Lovina. It's famous for it's dolphin-watching boat tours (which of course we didn't do). The town wasn't very exciting; I don't think I would go back. We tried to go to a waterfall recommended by my guide book, but because it is still the dry season there wasn't much to see. We hiked all the way out there only to find... a pathetic little trickle and a pool of stagnant water. It made for some funny photos! We did, however, make it to the local hot springs, which seems to be the locals' weekend hang-out spot. There was an admission fee of about 30 cents, and the site consisted of 3 warm pools with lush surroundings. 

After Lovina, we hopped on a bus and rode down through the center of Bali (think more beautiful rice fields and small villages) back to the southern beach/resort area of the island. We had hoped we'd be able to catch a plane and return to Jakarta before the start of Idul Fitri, a major Muslim holiday at the start of October. Of course we had major difficulties booking a flight (sooooo aggravating; despite being able to make flight reservations we were unable to pay for them) and so now we are stuck in Bali until the end of  Idul Fitri (because of the holiday, transportation is infrequent and incredibly costly). We anticipate leaving next Wednesday or Thursday. Bali is not the worst place to be stuck... that's for sure, and we definitely plan on making the most of it! I have to see though that I am eager to return to Jakarta and get my life started there. We have already started looking into apartments, and I've contacted organizations regarding both paid and volunteer work. 

I am having trouble posting photos on this blog (despite what many of you think, I am incredibly technologically challenged!), and so have created a flickr.com account to post photos. You can log in as me to see the photos that I have posted so far. The internet connection as these internet cafes has been weak, so the upload has been slow.... so not too many pictures are there just yet. Go to flickr.com, log in: stinsona86 and the password: spirit
From there click on "photo stream"

Love and miss you all!

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