Bali

It is the rainy season here in Bali. My first week was plagued with clouds and rain, not the beautiful beach scene I was hoping for:


Should you ever find yourself in Bali, and you're feeling brave, then go ahead and open your eyes during the taxi drive from the airport. If you're feeling braver still, rent a scooter and give it a go. If you're downright insane, rent a car and be prepared for the most harrowing experience of your life. Three lanes of traffic squeezed into two lanes of space, scooters buzzing all around you like a swarm of locusts, horns ablaze. To the left, cars parked haphazardly, taking up half a lane, facing any direction. To the right, cars passing into oncoming traffic, around blind corners. There are no rules, no signs, scooters pull out in front of you without even looking. Often, rather than cross traffic, they simply drive on the wrong side of the road; no shoulders, of course. Schoolchildren walking in the street. Dogs sleeping mid-lane. And monkeys! Driving here is a continual need to swerve, and if that isn't enough, they drive on the left, and my Suzuki was a stick shift, complete with choke. I'm happy to be alive.

I drove a loop around the island over several days. Away from the congested south is much less hectic, but still quite populated. My first, and favorite stop was in the artistic village of Ubud. A bustling market of carvings, paintings and knick-knacks lies at Ubud's heart:


But I naturally walked away from the madness and found a beautiful path up a grassy ridge, my first sight of the actual countryside:


As well as a long expanse of rice fields:


I continued driving up into the mountains and into the clouds. In addition to being the rainy season, this week has been even wetter than normal, so I spent a lot of time reading and waiting for a break in the clouds for a view. Lovina beach and the north coast were windy and stormy, but I did find a reef to snorkel in the calmer waters at Pemuteran. The fish were brilliantly tropical, and I wish the sun was out to illuminate them. Nearby was a temple whose sacred keepers run amok:


The monkeys were unafraid because the Balinese revere and feed them.

Around to the southeast, in Negara, I found a magnificent temple that screamed for the attention of tourists, yet not a soul was there. I had this huge temple to myself:


Don't tell anyone, but I didn't wear the traditional sarong; I'm sure no one noticed. With some time left to kill on my car rental, I took back roads up into the mountains and was rewarded with a picture of non-tourist Bali. In one small village I came across a ceremony of some sort and they were playing traditional gamelan music that was amazing. I used charades to ask if I could stay and listen:


A man dressed in what I can only describe as Balinese drag asked if I wanted to come in for a drink. I wish I had, but I have to admit that I was a bit scared off by his lack of hair and abundance of makeup. I found out later that this was probably a wedding and the drag queen would have been the groom. I was also quickly running out of daylight, and gas, and the mountain road was turning out to be longer and slower than I expected. As it was, I ended up in the dark and pouring rain at a tiny restaurant with my map out and an extremely friendly and helpful Balinese man checking my fuel gauge and coming up with, "Bedugal? Maybe..." But that is a longer story, so I'll just say that I didn't make it to Bedugal that night.

The remainder of my trip has been spent in Sanur with Jimmy's friend John and his family. The sun has finally come out and I'm having a blast with them. Today I got out on the water for a kiteboarding lesson and found that having learned to wakeboard and snowboard has greatly improved my position on the learning curve, even though I haven't done it in nearly two years. I even got a couple transitions without falling.

After that, lunch. This is some candy for my grandpa Grover:


This snapper was 800g and about six bucks; the most expensive thing on the menu!