Bali the Sixth: Rafting

Perhaps because SCUBA diving hadn't gotten us quite wet enough, we also signed up for white water rafting. To my understanding there is only one place in Bali that offers rafting, and they have signs all over the island. They also offer elephant rides, but seeing as you weren't allowed to trample anyone or anything much we took a pass on those.

As you can see, you don't get a sweet hat or weapons when riding the elephants either. How are you supposed to strike terror into the hearts of your foot-traveling inferiors?

At first we were looking at the dry riverbeds of the desert half of the island on the ride over and wondering where they were finding their white-water, but sensibly it turns out that the rafting is on the western, jungle half of the island. So there was a two hour drive to get there, like anything on that half of the island from Tulamben. The facility was on the cusp of a deep, very jungle-y valley and was substantially off the main roads.

After arriving, they hooked us up with our own private rafting dude who was probably younger than us and some reasonably non-sketchy floation equipment and helmets. The starting point for the rafting was way down in the bottom of that valley and we walked fairly scenic switchback dirt/mud paths down to the bottom. At the bottom the guide selected a raft and made sure it was fully inflated using a compressor that looked like a leftover prop from an Indiana Jones movie or the kind of fake equipment that you see waiting in lines at amusement parks. At this point we were using a waterproof disposable camera that cost $1 per exposure, so I don't have a picture of their vintage hardware.

Rafting starting point

The guide gave a pretty basic but understandable safety lecture, and we were off down the river. The waterway seemed pretty much made for rafting - a narrow (<30ft), mostly straight channel with regular drops of three to six feet, which keep it interesting but not scary.

Their river looked pretty much like this.

The moisture level was somewhat enhanced by the guide, who had a bit of an act going on where he was clowning around, deliberately spinning the boat backwards, splashing water on us in exaggerated accidents and so forth. I probably wouldn't have missed it if it were absent, but he seemed to be enjoying his job and a certain amount of the fun was contagious.

The boat was travelling backwards when this was taken, for example.

About halfway through there was a dam with a pond behind it where the water got calm and the rafts all stop to give the guides a break and let people stretch their legs. The guide recommended swimming but the water did not look particularly inviting (meaning, the kind of water where parasites might swim up your urethra) and we declined. We saw a man collecting vegetation in the middle of the jungle during this break and asked the guide what was up - he said the man would probably be bringing it to his cow. I personally felt a bit sorry for the cow as the green stuff did not exactly look tender and delicious, but then again the cow is probabably used to it. Did throw me a little that having to go into the jungle to haul green stuff to his cow is part of this guy's daily routine. Again with the soft child of the first world bit.

Break time

The rafting after the break proceeded much as before, and was fun if not life-changing. At the end we walked back up out of the valley on a different set of scenic switchback muddy roads. At the top of the valley was a supremely ancient truck with benches in the back that took us back to the starting point, driving on a track going between a lot of rice paddies and other farmland before hitting actual roads again. This experience came with a buffet lunch attached as part of the price, so we dug in to probably the worst food we had in Bali, which was just medicore to decent instead of good to amazing. Not a problem. Overall, I would say I'm glad we did it once, but I wouldn't visit again too soon.

Bali the Fifth: Tulamben

For the first part of our trip, we stayed in a small diving town called Tulamben. Tulamben is on the eastern side of the island, which is desert-like because the volcanoes tend to keep the rain clouds on the other side of the island. The town is very brown, with garbage-filled cacti lining the roads and chickens everywhere. Our hotel was amazing. The normal hotel was full, so we got upgraded to their top-of-the-line villa at half price. This villa was about a mile down the road from the dive shop, so transportation was a consideration. We could either use bicycles, use motorbikes, or walk. For the most part, we walked, which confused everybody even though it really didn't take very long. The sidewalk was small when it was available, and the road was not so pleasant, until you turned down for the villas. At that point, there was a lovely stone wall with many beautiful flowers, as well as a view of the mountains in the distance.

The room itself was excellent. Clean, spacious, and right in front of the complex so all you had to do was open the curtains to watch a sunrise from the bed. We had an excellent view of the ocean (on three sides), pool, and palm trees from our room. Balinese bathrooms are again another style of bathroom. They typically have a window open to the outside, and no shower curtain, just a wall between the toilet and showering area. Easier to clean, I'm sure, but strange for us.

Breakfast was included with these rooms, and we wish we'd taken a picture. Every morning, you got a choice of fresh fruit (typically papaya, banana, watermelon, and maybe cantaloupe with Indonesian limes) or cornflakes, either scrambled eggs or an omelette with cheese and veggies, toast with an assortment of spreads, and a glass of fresh fruit juice. When they say fresh fruit juice, they mean they toss the fruit (same as above) into the blender until it is juice. Very good, very fresh, very delicious, though I've never had watermelon, papaya, and banana juice before.

In Tulamben the restaurants were near the dive shop, not the villas, which were outside of the town proper. We were in town during the daytime for our diving anyway, so would grab lunch at a local restaurant, typically spending $6-10 for two darn good lunches of fresh fish or Indonesian curries with chicken, plus fruit drinks and a large bottle of water. The first night, we had dinner at The Wayan, a local restaurant named for its owner, also one of the most popular names in Bali for men and women. The maid, one of the head guys at the dive shop, and many other shops shared the

same name. The second night we were there there was a delicious barbecue at the villas, with all of the people staying at both the hotel and the villas as well as some neighbors who were friends with the owner. For the rest of the nights, since we did not want to stay in town the whole day or walk back at night, we ordered delivery from The Wayan and picked up beverages from a convenience store before heading back after diving. The food came nicely prepared for us, with soups and curries in plastic bags within the boxes.

Because the town is not as much of a tourist area as other places in Bali, there are many locals who live among the shops and along the road between the villas and downtown. Many homes had roosters in cages out front. We weren't sure why they were caged at first, but then were told that the roosters, once chosen to be fighters, were kept away from the hens so they would be better fighters. We were told that they have fights twice weekly, and lots of money is gambled by the locals on these fights. We also spoke with one of the women who worked at the hotel, and she told us a lot about local culture. Bali is primarily Hindu, and religion is very important. Men are allowed to have multiple wives so that every family will have heirs to make sure the ancestors are still taken care of and that all necessary religious services and ceremonies are attended. She'd been married for years, but her husband has three wives. As tourists, we were able to get amazing breakfasts and wonderful dinners, but the Balinese do not eat so well. She told us that she typically just eats rice for breakfast, and not too much at that.

All businesses put out ritual offerings (I think every morning) so they will be prosperous. These offerings are probably what keep

the many stray dogs alive and well. Everywhere you look there are stray dogs. Well, they're not all strays even if they look like it - some of the dogs had homes, but there were no leashes or collars to be found. The ones not full of mange with visible ribs likely had families, and a very few even had collars to show who they belonged to. One dog lived at one of the restaurants we had lunch at a few times, and would just hang out in the restaurant. Apparently, the way to get a dog here is to just pick up a puppy that's old enough, as we witnessed towards the end of our vacation. A female dog was walking along the road, and her adorable little black Lab-like puppy decided to follow her. It was unable to get back up on the curb, and would likely not have lasted too long if the taxi drivers started coming by. A concerned tourist picked it up and put it on the sidewalk, and it tried to cross the street again. A young boy picked it up, put it in the basket of his moped, and drove off, so we're pretty sure he now has a puppy. Or dinner. One or the other.

When we weren't diving, wandering about town, or attempting to have other adventures, we hung out at the villa doing dive class homework, reading, and napping. It was lovely to nap in the afternoon after going diving with the fan on and the sounds of the ocean coming in. From the rear of the villa, we had an amazing view of Mount Agung. One night, while waiting for our delivery, we just had to get some pictures. For more shots of our time in Tulamben, head over to our Flickr set.

Bali the Fourth: Mt. Agung

Near the end of our stay in Tulamben (which we'll post more about soon) we signed up for a nightime hike up Mount Agung, a volcano that towers over Tulamben and most of the eastern half of Bali, of which it is the highest peak. I'd wanted to climb it since the moment I saw it - it looks altogether different than non-volcanic mountains, which, I suppose, makes sense. The idea is to hike the mountain at night to be able to watch the sun rise over pretty much the whole of Bali, which sounded pretty nice. The mountain takes two-and-a-half to three hours to hike up from a starting point already substantially up the hill. It takes an hour to drive around the base of the mountain to the starting point from Tulamben. Sunrise is at about 6:15 AM. Add those items together and the driver picked us up at the hotel at 1AM to make sure we had plenty of time. We roared across the island to the starting point in pretty much a vegetative state, then the driver introduced us to the hired guide and went to sleep in the car until we got back in the morning.

The Challenge: Mt. Agung

At this point, we discovered that we had assumed a few important things that we should not have. For starters, since this hike is a made-for-tourists package type service, and the hiking is, in fact, at night, as a child-of-the-first-world I assumed that they would provide headlamps or something significant by way of illumination of the path. Who brings a headlamp to a tropical island just in case, you know? They don't. For $130 I expected headlamps. We had a little find-your-way-to-the-bathroom flashlight from the hotel and the guide had an LED headlamp, so we decided to give it a try anyhow.

View of the mountain at 2AM with no flashlight

Second, I figured that they would rally a huge group at their staging area, and then shepherd them all up together at the pace of the slowest members of the group. With four hours to make a 2-3 hour walk, everyone would arrive together and they'd only need three guides or so to oversee the operation. I knew just from looking at the mountain from Tulamben that the terrain was tough stuff, and was sort of counting on not having to be fast, just faster than the slowest people. Instead, each group that books separately gets their own guide. We got the youngest, fittest, and by far the best-equipped guide I saw that night, and he had one speed and that was fast. He didn't have any English of note.

The climb starts below a temple and as with the stereotype all temples on mountains in Asia have mondo stairs below them. We bounded up mondo stairs and began positively assaulting further sections of the path. Somewhere around this point Ana confessed to me that the altitude had had her gasping a little in the parking lot and now, further up and under a lot more strain, she was just not getting enough air. I didn't feel anything that I could positively attribute to altitude but there's evidence below that she was not making things up about the atmospheric pressure. Anyhow, she didn't want to keep going up if she couldn't breathe where she was, so I surrendered our crappy flashlight to her and she went back to sit miserably in the parking lot for the rest of the evening because we didn't figure out that the driver hadn't left until the following morning.

We sealed this bottle at the parking lot. Sea-level pressure caused significant distortion.

After Ana's descent, the assault on the path resumed. I was getting a real workout trying to keep up with the guide, but my energy was strongly focused by the fact that if I slowed down, I moved out of the small area lit by his headlamp and couldn't see, so it was very important to keep up - the path was steep and rocky with loose gravel and stones, so not being able to see kind of left you screwed. Focusing on that helped me to not feel the burn so much, and I did keep up even as we passed I think five other groups going up (they all had their own headlamps and more mountaineering gear - must have gotten the memo), so believe me when I say we were cruising. We took a couple of breaks (shorter than the other groups breaks) on a couple of wider, flatter areas of the path where it became obvious that we were up REALLY high. The small lights of the small towns were visible beneath the clouds but the ocean was just black beyond them. The stars and the milky way were very clear and bright due to the altitude and the minimal light pollution, and they were a thing of beauty. The guides all seemed to carry sour fruits, halfway between an orange and a lime, and he shared out a couple. They weren't bad.

As we went higher and higher, the night started to get kind of nasty. I was wearing the heaviest clothes I brought to Bali (jeans, long sleeve T under a thick warm hoodie) and even on the move I was not really warm enough. The wind was strong and gusting enough that when it came it was better to hold on rather than to try to keep moving, because it could push you sideways. For added pleasure, it carried grit and dirt that got into the eyes and everything else. Add this to following superguide at high speed in the dark and I began feeling not so great about the experience on the whole.

I didn't have my watch on so I didn't know how long we'd been walking, and I had been carefully not asking the guide so as not to seem a pussy and also to allow myself to think hopefully about how close we were to finishing rather than asking and finding out that we were nowhere close. There came a time though, stopped for a break under the cover of an enormous rock presumably ejected by the volcano, when I did ask. The guide said two hours. At this point I am certain that he didn't understand the question and gave the time it takes him to climb the whole damn hill (note that that is 25% faster than the normal "fast" speed) but right then I didn't know what to think. I supposed that it was possible that the whole previous climb had only been 1 hour and we were actually on track for a three hour climb. Thinking that I'd only been through 1/3 of the experience, and given how cold it was there, I had no desire to attempt another two hours of bullet-train climbing into what must be steadily colder and windier climes. I bailed. Superguide didn't want anything to do with going back down the hill, so he traded my weak self to another guide who figured he would get paid the same amount of money for less work with me, and we started down the hill.

Now, I told you that superguide was well equipped - at this point please allow me to elaborate. Superguide had hiking books, a hiking-type backpack, an LED headlamp, modern waterproof jacket, and a full set of teeth. Guide #2 was not so lucky. His idea of mountain climbing equipment was flip-flops, a plastic "Punk Rock Isn't Dead" backpack (went nicely with his bright pink beanie for a complete punk-rock ensemble), a ratty coat, and a flashlight even crappier than the one we brought from the hotel, and a less complete set of teeth as befitting his approximate age of 65. His flashlight really did not give much light at all, and it was the only illumination of note that we had.

So we went down the hill, which involved a certain amount of crab-walking and butt-sliding as it really was quite steep and the wind was certainly still out in force. After perhaps 15 or 20 minutes, we encountered a group being lead by a guide who actually spoke English. This guide informed me that we were in fact not 2 hours and fifteen minutes from the top, but closer to half an hour. I rapidly computed that 15 to 20 minutes prior, I had been 10 to 15 minutes from the top and cursed. Having already given up and realizing that at the extant temperatures even if I summited I couldn't wait around for more than an hour for the sun to come up without freezing, I decided to continue down. However, having been so narrowly thwarted I resolved that someday I shall return to Mount Agung and drink its milkshake in an uncompromising fashion.

Another half an hour down the hill and it really gets fun when Punk Rock guide's flashlight starts dying. We had a longish period of intermittent light when he was turning it on and off and shaking it and tapping it and so forth, but eventually it truly died. During this exciting period, there were times when it was clear that the guide was not sure if we were on the right path, with some doubling back and going sideways across places that were surely not the path. He did manage to keep us from straying too far. We made it in this comical fashion back below treeline, so when the light died I figured the smartest thing to do was sit tight and wait for sunrise as the temperature was no longer a problem. Punk Rock guide was more of a feel-your-way-through-the-sharp-rocks in darkness kind of guy though, so we kept going and I added to my already significant collection of cuts, bruises, lacerations, etc. There were a couple of places where serious injury was in the offing with crevices and steep drops and the like but I failed to stumble into or fall off any of them based only on starlight and touch.

Rarely have I been so happy to see dawn.

This is taken from not-anywhere-close-to-the-top. Note the clouds waaay down there.

Once the sun started coming up and we could actually see again, progress sped up considerably. The temperature and view improved markedly as well. I took some pictures from where we were on the mountain - most of them as washed out because the light was so low, but hopefully you can get some ideas. Even below treeline the views were gorgeous. When we approached the starting point there was the temple that all those stairs belonged to, and as I looked out over the small plateau it was on the temple looked like it was floating on the clouds below it, which was breathtaking and in my book made the whole thing worth it. Ana had started back up the hill when the sun came up and met us coming down at the temple, so we have a picture of her at the top of the stairs leading up to the plateau. I went on the stairs at the very gate of the temple for a picture, which came right before being chased off said stairs by temple personnel.

Temple above the clouds was awesome.

They started yelling at me about 3 seconds later.

Ana and Dr. Punk Rock at the top of the stairs leading up to the temple plateau.

One plus about aborting the mission - we made it back to the hotel in time for yet another amazing breakfast. And golly, it tasted good.

Bali the Third: The Big Blue

The ocean. It really is big and blue. We went to Tulamben to learn how to dive. With our PADI Open Water diving certification, we can dive anywhere up to 18 meters (~60 feet) deep. We figure that Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and other places we might visit will be excellent spots for diving, so we may as well get diving certified during one of our first vacations.


The beach here is rocky, and therefore so not so great for sunbathing, but it is great for diving. You can just walk right out into the water and you're pretty much on one of the two coral reefs or the shipwreck. They have the Coral Garden, a more beginner-friendly coral reef, and The Wall, a drop-off covered in coral. For the diving course, we had two pool dives and four ocean dives. Because we were comfortable and able to do all of the exercises fairly quickly and easily in the pool, we only did two pool sessions instead of the possible four or five. The dive course had homework, including watching a DVD, reading the large textbook, and answering quizzes to make sure we understood the basics of diving, the mechanics of our equipment, solutions and warning signs for possible problems, and the basics of underwater navigation and communication. A lot of this was common sense or things that we already knew, like the physics of buoyancy, so wasn't too difficult though it did take a good couple of hours each day.




While in the pool, you have to show that you won't freak out underwater, that you can figure out how to swim and use your equipment, and that if something happens, like your mask falls off, your regulator falls out, or you run out of air, that you can deal with the situation.
You get your gear ready in the back of the shop, and then porters come and take the tanks to whichever dive site you're going to dive at. The porters are local women who get paid US$1 (about $10-20 equivalent purchasing power in Bali and considered excellent money) for each tank they carry. The tanks are pretty heavy and they usually carry two or three of them at once on their foreheads.

Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia - A porter carrying dive equipment to the beach
Originally uploaded by peter.inbeijing

After your tanks are picked up by the porters, you cross the street from the dive shop to the beach. It's really close, which is nice. Once you're at the beach, you have to navigate over the rocks wearing your tanks and all of your gear into the water. I fell once. In the water, you put your flippers and mask on, then head down to whichever place you're going to for your dive. For our first dive, we went to the Coral Garden. It's a beautiful area that isn't too deep so you're not likely to go too far out of your depth, you just float around and look at all the pretty fish and coral.

For our next two dives, we went over to the wreck.

BALI-64
Originally uploaded by Christian Loader

Many people like to see the wreck, so it's best to go early before the people staying on other parts of the island get in. The first one was an afternoon dive, so there were quite a few people around. It was pretty amazing, and Lee was impressed. For this trip, I was pushing for the diving and Lee was going along with it, but wasn't too enthused (vice versa for the surfing!). After seeing the wreck and learning that diving is actually pretty easy, Lee was very glad we did this. The wreck was simply amazing, with so many different corals and fish living all around it. The ship must have been enormous before it was broken into pieces, as the pieces were still bigger than houses - you could go between two big pieces while they towered over you, or go along the top of a piece and come to an edge with a 100 foot drop (which you can float right over). The next morning, we went to the wreck again bright and early, when many fewer people were around. We saw a school of Lumphead Parrotfish, which were quite substantial fish and just hanging near the bottom, like a herd of cows in a field. There were schools of fish circling overhead pretty much every time we went out, and all kinds of colorful reef fish. We went in and around the ship, but didn't see the whole thing. It was so large, you really wouldn't be able to see the whole thing on one tank or probably three for that matter.


For our last dive, we tried to bring our camera to the Wall, a drop off coral garden. The case we'd bought was waterproof, and kept the camera nice and dry for the first couple of pictures. I was able to get a pretty nice picture of our instructor heading down to the bottom. When we got down to take more interesting pictures, deeper in the water (6m or so) we learned that the waterproof to 40 m case was not actually pressure proof at that time. This was probably user error, because setting up the seal needs to be done exactly right for it to work. We should probably replace the O-ring all together before attempting to use the case again. Of course, getting a digital camera as wet as we did causes it to die. We've already ordered the same camera, because I really, really love that camera and replacing it costs less than the underwater case to use with it, but next time I will try it with a fresh O-ring and I'll take it down without the camera in it a few times to be sure I can do reliable setups.

The Wall itself was amazing, and all of our dives were in amazingly clear water. We just wish the camera could have been more useful! For some amazing shots of what we've seen but couldn't photograph, take a look here.

Bali the Second: Now I Know What Running Over a Chicken Sounds Like

We ourselves did not actually drive in Bali. I don't think I would be comfortable doing so in anything less than a tank. For the first part of the trip the dive resort provided a driver when we wanted one, and for the second half the surf school van and taxis got us around.

This being our first time really outside the first world (downtown Rochester doesn't count) we sort of knew that driving was different elsewhere but didn't really understand or believe this down deep. However, after spending numerous hours being driven about Bali, it is fair to say that we now have a meaningful understanding of several important principles of Balinese motor traffic.

Rule 1: The rules are more like...guidelines.

If we put out all sails, can we pass the two overloaded pickups before that cement truck coming down the hill drives through us like a vapor of exploding SUV?

In Bali, legal traffic maneuvers can be easily determined by the fact that you do not in fact die before, during, or immediately following their execution. There are no double yellow lines, protected turns, stop signs, speed limits, or traffic lights, except in a few very developed areas near the capital and even there nobody pays attention to them.

This counts as a highly developed area.

Rule 2: Size Matters
There are three sizes of vehicle on the road. Smaller than you, the same size as you, and bigger than you. Since we were usually in car or SUV sized vehicles, these categories broke down into mopeds, other cars, and cargo vehicles. If you're a car, you can push the mopeds around - onto the shoulder or otherwise out of your way. Mind you, this goes for mopeds in both directions of traffic. If you're a cargo vehicle, you don't ever bother looking for mopeds and concentrate on pushing the cars around. Contests between vehicles of the same size involve willpower and a lot of laying on of the horn. Basically, assume that you're invisible to any larger vehicle but that any smaller vehicles are totally aware of your every move and you'll fit right in.

There is some striking scenery to be seen from the road if you live.

Rule 3: Yes, it CAN fit another person
We saw five people on a moped. Threes and fours were common, but we saw at least one five. I counted more than 20 people in the bed of an old Toyota pickup before we passed it at one point. A bus might as well be a train. Safety belts are not in common use or available, usually, though helmets are pretty common. One does have to wonder though, when you see the father of a family driving the moped, with one kid sitting on his lap, one kid sitting behind him, and mom riding no-hands side-saddle on the back, and the dad is the only one with a helmet, how exactly that protects the rest of them? Another common modification is putting chrome stickers on the windows to protect against the sun. Some people just tint them but a lot of the big trucks totally black out the windows aside from a three inch slit at eye level to see through. So when I said that you should pretend the trucks can't see you, it must be true on a regular basis. Some mopeds are clearly only meant for one person - those are the ones that have been modified for cargo. Seeing a moped with a three-foot wooden box attached to each side is common, and sometimes a whole kiosk will be integrated into a moped so the vendor can just drive the moped to the market and already be completely set up. These vendors generally sacrifice all ability to see behind them when driving.

Above: Balinese Train

Rule 4: Pay Attention & Communicate
Since the road is sort of a lawless wasteland populated by unpredictable death-seeking drivers of highly unothodox and unreliable vehicles, driving is a much less casual exercise than at home. The drivers had to pay constant attention to the road and to make constant decisions about whether it was safe to pass slow-moving vehicles, which abound. Circumstances change rapidly and they need to react. Now, not all drivers are paying attention all the time, and you do not know which ones are and are not. Therefore, the safest thing to do is honk at all of them, all the time. I'm sure they wear out the horns before they need their first oil change. At night, not all vehicles seem to use their lights all the time, and there appears to be sort of a light flashing Morse-type code in use. It is important that the drivers in the oncoming lane know what size vehicle you are so that they can appropriately plan whatever hairbrained maneuver they are considering - a group of mopeds looks a lot like a big truck, except that the truck will not accept being forced onto the shoulder so that you can pass the guy in your lane. Flashing the lights helps establish the relative sizes of vehicles at night. Speaking of lanes, the actual number is 2 pretty much everywhere. The effective number varies between three and five, depending on the proportion of mopeds to other vehicles. Three means one car lane going each way, plus the omnidirectional permanent passing lane in the middle.

More scenery, this time from the jungle half of the island.

So yeah, it was different and much more dangerous and exciting - I'd rather drive with speed limits and mandatory car inspections for my money. It's safer for the chickens too, though we only hit one and it really deserved it. We did a fair bit of criss-crossing the island for different things, which will be gone into in much more detail in later posts, but we don't have that many pictures because by that point we were down to disposable cameras and had limited film. You can see all the Bali pictures in the gallery.

Bali the First: Getting There

We went to Bali for 11 days at the end of July. This wasn't a product of long term planning, I just thought wouldn't it be neat if it were possible to...and then two weeks later we went. There were some scheduling issues to work out with Lee's job, but basically they swapped two weeks of work and vacation around in his schedule and gave us the OK. This was the first international vacation we've ever taken, our first time in the Southern Hemisphere, and with the full page tourist visa, a good step forward in filling our passports. Bali is an island in Indonesia. It is mostly Hindu, whereas the rest of Indonesia is mostly Muslim. It is not a first world country, and was an interesting experience in ways mostly good but some bad.


View Larger Map

We had a 6.5 hour nonstop flight from Kansai International airport outside Osaka to Bali, after taking the train to Osaka from Kanazawa the night before. We had a flight early enough that taking the train the same day was not possible. While in Osaka airport, we decided to change money as I'd read that you cannot do so in Tulamben, the city we'd be staying at for the first leg of our journey (this information later proved untrue). The exchange rate is US$1 ~= RP10000, except at Kansai airport where they feel they should earn an extra ~25%. Lee is holding 1.5 million Rupiah, the Indonesian currency and feeling cool under the influence of too many zeros on money. We also found interesting hotel literature in the nightstand - we checked for a Bible just to see if they had them in hotels here here, and found one in Japanese, right next to a book of Buddhist teachings. So international travelers in Osaka can expect to find dueling religions inside the night stands which we thought was kind of neat.


In the morning, we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport to catch our flight. Kansai airport is well designed. It's a man-made island off the coast housing a train station as well as the airport, plus several more-expensive-than-ours hotels. The train station is in the center of the complex, with the hotel off on one side and the airport on the other. It's very simple to walk across to catch your flight, only about 2 minutes between the rails and the baggage pickup or ticket counters. Definitely a very smooth and well-thought-out complex. The food areas were large and diverse and we ate at a Subway as I'd been craving a turkey sub for quite some time. I managed to get turkey in Japan! This is a major feat. We had to take a picture of the inside of the terminal because we realized it's shaped like an airplane wing. You can see it somewhat in the picture.

The flight itself was uneventful. The airport in Denpasar, however, surely let us know we were no longer in Japan, with temples and statues and scenery galore. It also had long and painful lines. We had a line for our visas and baggage and waited more than 90 minutes total, then walked past the customs guy who, thankfully, appeared to be asleep at his machine. The money changers at this airport were competing against one another, and give much better rates than in Osaka. The luggage was being guarded by a bunch of locals who were angling for tips. As we were somewhat fatigued from the flight and not quick enough, one of them grabbed our bag for us and was trying to direct us to his favorite money changer and taxi service. He managed to beg for a fairly large tip, simply because we weren't expecting it and seriously, who ever expects a grown man to be begging, whining, and pleading with you? That and we haven't had to tip anyone in a year since it is unthinkable in Japan. We did manage to find our driver and head over to our first hotel in Tulamben, which was about a three hour drive away, without further problems aside from a few minor aneurysms caused by rapid acclimitization to Balinese driving techniques and the G-forces involved in such, about which Lee will post in detail later.


One disappointing thing about the drive to the hotel was that by the time we were on our way, the sun had set, so we were unable to see the countryside. We stopped at a lovely restaurant on a waterlily covered bay/lake for dinner, but couldn't enjoy the view as much as we would have liked. We were so happy to have rice that wasn't short grain sticky Japanese rice and flavorful, spicy food! The villas we were staying at for the first part of the trip were booked for the first night, so we stayed in a new villa down the road that had just opened for business. Sadly, the camera fell out of the bag in the car so we don't have pictures of that first one, but it was very nice with a comfortable bed and an amazing view. Fishing boats left from that beach every morning and if you woke up to watch the sunrise at 6:30, you could also watch the fishing boats come back in around 7. That first sunrise was excellent.

Flickr for more pictures!