Indonesia and her impossibly friendly citizens

After suffering a considerable blow to the bank account due to living in a developed country for four months, we said a heartfelt goodbye to family and headed back to the now familiar territory of South East Asia. (Some of the following pics are small so remember to click on them to see full size.)

Indonesia is currently in the tail end of its monsoon season. The Island village we visited first was Ubud in well-known Bali. Our quaint little hostel (Darta Homestay) had only 4 rooms each with a private veranda. Surrounding the rooms there was a fish pond, a religious bling (four small towers with a central temple) for hindu prayers and of course the resident children playing with chickie, the fluffly pooch with a ridiculous cross bite. The evening's sleep here is accompanied by an almost constant rainfall which ends with the clucking hens and chirping birds in the courtyard as the sun rises. Noman, the cook / maintenance man / laundry man / and moped chauffeur seems to work almost around the clock, but his smile is never anything less than genuine.

We took a stroll through a place aptly named Monkey Forest. Here, tourists can walk under the green tree top canopy while gazing at the moss covered statues. There are about 300 wild monkeys that live in this forest and they've become quite cheeky due to frequent feeding and contact with tourists. This monkey (I'm the one in yellow) posed nicely for a photo. At the same time, a stranger nearby laughed and said "twins... separated at birth!". Rather than start a fight, I just got my monkey to fling poo at him! OK! I didn't... but I wanted to! Not all sites have friendly monkeys though. At one temple, while Sam was watching en elderly woman try in vain to get her glasses back from the monkey that stole them, another monkey jumped on her shoulder and in an instant was staring at Sam with her glasses in it's tiny little hands. As if responding to a dare, he (she? - girls are just as mischievious...) stared right into her eyes, bent the frame in half and chewed on the lens. It'll be a challenge explaining that one to the insurance company but it makes for a good story.

Indonesia, is a mix of muslim, hindu and buddist religions living in a quasi-harmonious existence. Their common thread is that they all work together to make a living. We saw many working in rice or other farming, tourism, pottery and art. However the memory of the Bali bombing in surf / tourist mecca, Kuta is not forgotten as clothing stalls in the busy streets sell shirts that read "Osama don't surf". Additionally after chatting privately with a local, he told me in a hushed voice that the mosque on the hill is full of people he doesn't understand. "They are our enemy!" I quickly see that the beauty in this country is not impervious to the religious tensions which are the topic of many a newpaper headline.

Putu, is a young, hip twenty five year old, born in Ubud. He speaks his mother tongue Balinese, Bahasa Indonese, Japanese and English and knows the roads of his island inside out. Yet he still works long hours to make $3-5/day. This money helps to boost the family income which includes his parents (rice farmers) and younger brother and sister, who all live in the same house. Like several other South East Asian countries, only those with connections or "special reasons" are granted a travel visa to leave the country. We hired Putu for 3 days and had a fantastic tour of the temples on the island and even got to see his "secret" road between two beautiful rice fields.


The national footwear is the sandal and for obvious reasons. The monsoon rains are legendary. These downpours last only about 10-30 minutes but create small rivers of varying shades of brown street juice. Only the sandal can allow you to continue shopping while your toes play in the murky puddles. Coinciding with the low season, the monsoon rains also provide some of the most lush surroundings imaginable and plenty of availabilities in the homestays and hostels.

We spent a week in the relaxed town of Ubud, where locals mix with tourists and the streets are littered with offerings to the gods for wishes such as safety, money, peace etc. These offerings consist of banana leaves folded into a square, with coloured flower petals inside. Additionally, it's customary to offer food, such as rice, fruit or even a tasty chocolate brownie to their god of choice. (I swear I didn't eat it!) Both buddists and hindus make offerings to their gods and incredibly, locals will spend up to 60% of their earnings on this alone.

The streets are lined with cozy looking cafes and while watching an amazing downpour with an iced banana chai, I had a pleasant chat with four local westerners who greatly appreciate Ubud for it's special healing powers. They were nice enough to explain why the center of the region's spiritual power lies just near a local river, due to the alignment of the planets, and the influence of the stars with the river's flow. These locals offered to enlighten me with a swim, however I unfortunately had to turn down their offer as I had a strict appointment with reality. Maybe some other time.

Our trip to one temple coincided with the religious holiday of holy waters. During this holiday, devout hindus flock to this site built on a natural spring and bathe in the waters. It is meant to cleanse one from past sins and judging from the number of people in this bath, they must be a sinful lot. Imagine the santa claus parade or st. patty's day festivities. Now add a temple, water and offerings piled high on every nook and cranny. It seemed like quite the event, but even Putu, a devoted Hindu said, the crowds were too much.

On our last day with Putu (nicknamed the Amazing Putu, for his incredible ability to play chicken with large speeding trucks and survive), we wanted to do something memorable before we left the island. So we did what most people do when they visit Bali: we went to the ice sculpture exhibit and went sliding on their ice slide. It's hard to imagine but in this tropical climate, the organizers found a way to build a dome with a constant temperature of -20 celcius. After donning the "winter coats" they supply at the entrance, we walked into what felt like the world's largest beer fridge. The "coats were made of thick place mat material and had a velcro zipper. We had to seriously convince Putu that he wouldn't die at that temperature, but once inside, his perpetual coolness turned to outright panic. We practically pushed him down the 25 m ice slide thinking he'd love it, but after the second slide, he made a bee line for the exit. Check out the video... We could be in Canada! Anyway, it was a great escape from the arduous life of the island's lush beauty and constant comfortable temperatures. Later on, in the safety of his own climate, Putu laughed nervously and said we were crazy to live in Canada. 30 million crazy canucks can't be that wrong!



We had planned to go to a small island off of Lombok called Gili Air to do a hike of an amazing volcano called Rinjani. However due to misleading information from some travellers we met, our dates did not allow us to make the trek. We decided to head to Gili Trawangan instead. All three Gili islands are just a few kilometers away from each other. It only takes a mere 12 hours to travel the 60 kms by van, ferry boat, bus and then island boat. We could have taken the two hour shuttle for just $10 more but again we were given faulty information. Moral of the story, ask lots of questions.

We did two dives while at the Gili Islands. One of them was a navigation dive which finished off our advanced PADI certificate and the other was just a fun dive. Sadly, a few years back, the locals used dynamite fishing causing large scale loss of coral. This technique brings in loads of fish the first time around but then almost nothing afterwards. As the coral remains dead for decades after, the fish migrate to healthier habitats. Despite this, our dives were filled with a huge variety of fish. Indonesia actually has 3 times the marine life diversity of the great barrier reef.

Above water, life on this Gili island is peaceful. There are no cars, no buses and no bikes. Just horse-drawn buggies and bicycles to get people around on. With only a nine km perimeter, most people just shuffle along the main path. Locals play soccer on the beach, while children giggle and splash among the island boats, their little brown bums doing cannon balls off the bow. Inland, there is a local village, school and market with a relaxed muslim community which turns a blind eye to the topless sun bathers on the beach in return for the tourist dollar.


The palpable difference between the relaxed and predominantly hindu island of Bali and the more industrial and muslim Island of Lombok left us wanting more and wanting to learn more. Swearing to return to Indonesia in the future to climb Rinjani or maybe visit that spiritual center on the river, we boarded a plane in Denpasar for Malaysia and whatever adventures lay ahead.