The rest of the trip

We spent the last few days in Bali driving along the north coast, walking in the national park, driving south again, stopping at a temple and staying at Le Meridien at the famous temple of Tana Lot. That is one hotel I would really like to recommend (website).

Goody dropped us at the airport after an incident where we thought we'd lost him. He turned up in the perfume department of a duty free shop in Kuta, oblivious to the looks he was getting from the sales staff: we had got used to that special Goody smell but the ladies at the Chanel counter were not impressed. We said our goodbyes and gave him a good tip. I still couldn't help feeling sorry for him. Poor Goody, will he ever get over is angst?


Goody and David














Me relaxing at Le Meridien














Tana Lot at sunset


After that we had a couple of days back at Quinci and a few more days in Singapore. All good fun, needless to say.

And that concludes my summer blog 2006. Stories continue about Japan over on my regular blog http://mynardjo.tripod.com/blog See you there!

Permuteran

Goody was in goody form that day. He’d spent some time with his family and had a spring in his step. We continued driving along the north coast. It’s a lovely stretch and smells of clove and cinnamon. We stopped at a little town called Permuteran and took quite a while to find somewhere to stay as everywhere was either full or really overpriced. We ended up in a place that looked ok, but turned out to be a mozzie-infested hell hole. The air conditioning in our room would shut itself off every hour and we’d wake up hot and confused each time. Fortunately, we were under a mosquito net, but the bathroom was swarming.

The beach was pretty and quiet, again with that quirky, gravelly black sand.

A massage to remember

We didn’t feel the need for any fasting, psychic diagnostic therapy or chakra realignment, but we did take advantage of great massages available in Indonesia. In Lovina we booked massages at the hotel. We had been spoiled by Noor’s and Saab’s soft, chubby hands in Lombok and were pretty freaked out by an unfamiliar set in Bali. My lady was called Normina and looked 100. David’s lady (can’t remember her name) was a spring chicken in comparison at 66. Before any oil was put on our backs, we were treated to a dry hand press. It was a bit like being sand-papered. Normina’s hands were like old parchment. I don’t think she meant to be mean, but the massage really hurt. She couldn’t hear me whimpering as she was deaf so continued squeezing and pummeling my skin, all the while grinning her one-tooth smile. David didn’t get off lightly; his lady squeezed so hard with her bony fingers that his wrist hurt for days afterwards. She had a solution “You buy Tiger Balm from me”. Normina started chanting “For bruise, for stomach, for sunburn” and other such uses. At least I think that’s what she was saying. It’s hard to understand someone who only has one tooth. We didn’t buy any of the magic ointment but perhaps we should have as it would have masked the way we smelled: of cheap biscuits (I think we had been massaged with palm oil).

"Health" treatments

Many people come to Bali for the health treatments. I knew someone once who came for a month of colonic irrigation to lose weight. We weren’t tempted by any of these treatments, but I’ll share some of the health services with you from the brochures I collected:

“ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT. Ibu Marlena brings several incredible abilities to her healing sessions, including an uncanny ability to diagnose through her psychic powers. Additionally, using her hands to gently massage and manipulate muscles and soft tissue, she is able to effect sometimes miraculous healing. $30 a session.”

“DEEP TISSUE BODY WORK. The deep tissue body worker uses “acupressure” points to find the correct blockages of stored up energy or emotions. Deep Tissue work balances both the body and the minds and allows for higher mental and physical functioning. $30 per session”. Perhaps we should have told Goody about it.

“TOTAL TISSUE CLEANSING. This involves a process of removing toxins, parasites and other unwanted organic and inorganic material from the digestive tract, the blood and lymph systems, and the cells and tissues of the body.

Fasting supplements: $9 per day, $54 per week
Colon hydrotherapy $50 per session, $130 for 3 sessions.
Six day packages: $314”

Forgive my presumptuousness, but doesn’t the liver do that? Anyway, in case you are tempted by these treatments, call Ubud 62 (361) 974-393 and spend your week in Bali in an unforgettable way.

The great dolphin chase

The mosque woke us up at 4.30 and we were not impressed (the north of Bali has the highest concentration of Muslims on the island). This meant we were already awake when our alarm went off at 5.30 to get us up for our dolphin watching trip.

The boats were waiting on the shore and we queued up with mainly Dutch and Spanish holiday makers to board one. The boats don’t look particularly sea-worthy. They look like insects with a long skinny body and legs. No one bothers with the minor formality of life jackets and you just get in and sit in a line behind the driver and motor out to sea.

The sun was just coming up and displaying some wonderful colours in the sky. The sea was calm and I had fun for a while taking photographs and enjoying the views of the mountains gradually appearing. I had almost forgotten why we were out there, when someone shouted “delfín!”. Three dolphins jumped out of the golden water just ahead of us. We weren’t the only ones to spot them. About 20 little boats changed course and headed towards the sighting. If they had been still there, we would have had them surrounded. It felt like we were on a dolphin hunting trip rather than a dolphin watching trip! We actually didn’t see any more for an hour and when we did it was the same performance; all the boats headed right towards them motors on full throttle. It seems such a short-sighted approach. Many tourists come to Lovina just to see the dolphins and many local families rely on the income that provides. Why oh why then do they mess it up and chase the dolphins away? Apparently, not so long ago, you could see dolphins from the shore every morning, but now you have to go further and further out to try to spot them. It was Monkey Disco* all over again.















*Monkey Disco is one of our favourite (boring?) travel stories. Years ago on our first trip to Sri Lanka, we did a safari in Yala national park. Our driver/guide tried to make sure we got a good show and seemed disappointed when the animals weren’t doing anything entertaining. For example, we came across a huge number of pink flamingos near a lake at dusk. We were happy to observe this beautiful spectacle from a distance, but the driver wanted to drive right into them so that we could see them fly. Fortunately, we talked him out of it. Whenever we came across some monkeys quietly hanging out in a tree, the cretinous driver would rev his engine to scare and irritate the poor things. He’d look very pleased with the result, give us the thumbs up and yell “monkey disco” as the monkeys jumped and danced around in annoyance. A very extreme example of guides messing with the balance of nature in order to entertain the tourists and being too thick to realize that they may be harming the very thing that brings the tourists there in the first place. The sad thing about the Sri Lanka case was that there was a park ranger in the car at the time who did nothing.

Lovina

The place Goody found us to stay was a “real” holiday resort (Aditya website) full of real European package tourists, kids entertainment, organized trips and a swimming pool with a swim-up bar. It was a huge place set in lovely grounds, but had definitely seen better days. It was good fun for a night as there was a street a short walk away with a strip of bars and restaurants. We’d found Bali-dorm, or was it Bali-molinos, Bali Island or even Bali-mun? (obscure references to British holiday resorts and an estate on the north side of Dublin in case you’re wondering).

Indonesia is amazing. At sunset more volcanoes appear on the horizon. This time we could see Java. Dozens of hawkers (lurkers) lined the wall which separated the resort from the beach shouting to get our attention. So much for a quiet stroll at sunset…

The Goodies

Does anyone remember The Goodies television program from the 70s? The theme tune went “Goody, goody goody yum yum”. We can’t help singing it wheneve we talk about Goody. Poor Goody.

Goody's existential angst

Lovina is a series of villages on a stretch of black sand beach where a few resorts have sprung up. Goody dropped us off at one of these resorts and went of to see his family in Singaraja. I was pleased that he had somewhere proper to stay that night. Goody is having some personal issues. He is a nice guy and a very good driver, so from that respect we have been very lucky. We weren’t sure how to deal with his bouts of existential angst however. We’d be motoring along merrily, soaking in the fabulous views, and interesting street life when Goody would build up to one of his speeches that went something like this:

Goody (serious expression, one hand going up): Jo, David, I sorry.
Us: Eh? Why?
Goody: I sorry. I serious.
Us (baffled): What do you mean?
Goody: I sorry. I tired. My back. I serious. Your holiday no good.
Us: No, our holiday is great! You are doing a good job. We are happy.
Goody: My back. I serious. What should I do?
Us (wondering where this was going. Was it a scam to fleece us for doctor’s fees?): Um. Have a massage? A hot bath? Do some stretching exercises?
Goody: I serious. I play chess. I win. Lately I don’t win. Why? I sorry. I serious.

We had several such conversations with Goody and it was very difficult to follow his thread. We think he was trying to tell us that he was suffering from depression and was apologizing for not being the all-singing all-dancing, entertaining driver. We actually liked that he was quiet. We didn’t want another Zachariah or Mohammed or (worse) Ping. He obviously wanted to talk about his depression, but we weren’t much use. Poor Goody. Usually once we’d had one of our little chats, he’d brighten up a bit. It’s as if he needed to get it out once a day. When he started with the “I sorry…” bit, it did occur to us that he might be apologizing for something he was about to do like drive us over a cliff or something.

North Bali

We enjoyed staying at Apa Kabar Villas, but I was worried about Goody. When we have hired drivers in the past, their accommodation was always taken care of. This time, when we checked in, Goody just kind of loitered outside reception. I didn’t want him to sleep in the car, but we had been told that the fee we had paid included the driver’s expenses. Fortunately, the hotel did find him somewhere to stay for free. His increasing dubious body odor suggested that a shower wasn’t made available however.














Soon enough it was time to leave Amed and head further along the north coast to Lovina. The old SUV seemed even more uncomfortable today. Everything seemed so bumpy as the suspension and shock absorbers both seemed to be shot. It was also much hotter. Goody told us that having the air con on meant that the engine wouldn’t perform well. We arrived at a temple and got out to have a look. I was so hot and uncomfortable and grouchy. Goody must have noticed me whining as he switched the air conditioning on after that.

We didn’t want a guide, but an official from the temple insisted on showing us around. He was a right barrel of laughs. He greeted me with “Are you having your period?” I already knew that women are asked not to visit temples at their time of the month, so this personal question didn’t faze me. Next we had to be purified which involved being sprinkled with holy water and rice. The rice clings to the water on your forehead. We also needed to be decked out with sarongs and sashes before we were deemed ready to climb the steps to the temple. The guide delivered a dead pan description of the temple and lists of facts and figures he had memorized. I don’t remember anything he said apart from something about there having been a temple on the site for 5000 years. Could that be true? The shrine was a new one but housed some lovely old statues of Ganesh and Shiva. We couldn’t go anywhere the near the statues, of course. Our misery-guts guide made it clear that there was an invisible line. Would we contaminate the statues if we went any closer?

Outside the temple there was a very festive atmoshphere. There were quite a few Westerners decked out in white flowing gowns. Hindu converts? What makes someone from, say Rotherham or Darwin become a Hindu? I wonder how easy it is for a someone not brought up in a Hindu society to grasp the complex system of gods and legends.

Fish

We have seen more carp here than anywhere else on the planet. Whenever there’s a pond, there’s carp. I always find them really creepy: those big sucking lips, the way they stick out of the water to beg for food and the way the fish fight each other for bread making those revolting sucking/kissing noises in the process. They really are abominations. David loves them and was pleased to discover that we actually had a carp pond IN OUR BATHROOM. You can watch them as you sit on the loo. I tried to pretend they weren’t real.