Bali was a dream for us – a tropical paradise with perfect temperatures, the ocean (free diving and snorkeling), mountains, waterfalls, cheap food, and $1 fresh fruit juices.
Bali reminded Marissa a lot of Hawaii and Scott a lot of Costa Rica with many small and boutique restaurants, hotels, and stores. Everyone knew someone who could help with our desires.
The island is designed to cater to tourists every need, which makes it VERY easy to get anything and go anywhere. On top of that, everything was so affordable. But what’s crazy is how many people are here!
Bali is about the size of Delaware but has a population over 4 million!
Day 1 – Flights and Driver Gusti
For being just on the other end of the South China sea, Bali was pretty far away from Shenzhen. It took us 19 hours to get from our apartment in China to our hotel in Bali. This included our car transit to the Shenzhen airport and from Bali’s airport to our hotel (both a 2 hour car drive).
Our resort arranged a driver for us, his name was Gusti and he was waiting for us at the airport.
We spent the week on the east side of Bali in a small beach town named Candi Dasa. It’s about a 2 hour drive from Bali’s international airport:
When we arrived at our resort, all the lights were off and it seemed no one was there.
Sketchy.
We walk up the stairs and look around, it’s a ghost town. Then, after about 2 minutes of wondering what to do, Marissa saw some guy sleeping on one of the couches in the lobby. Gusti walked over and smacked his knee.
Nothing.
Then Gusti shook his knee.
The older man finally jumped up from the couch waving his arms in the air like ‘stop, stop, stop’.
After a few seconds, the man realized what was happening and laughed.
Then we all laughed.
He got the room keys and told us to follow him.
It’s about 12:30am and we are exhausted from traveling in a budget airline all day, but we were so in love with the resort vibes it really gave us a second wind. It’s this small, simple, quaint, and boutique resort with nine little bungalows that form a compound and a pool in the middle.
We get to our room and it’s very clean. We walk through the back door to realize our bathroom is outside! It’s like a covered porch but the walls are 7’ tall so no one can see in/out. It’s so special to poop outside.
Here is a link to our airbnb listing and then some photos of the resort:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/19643261?source_impression_id=p3_1719318305_P3tLXmWHWI84GLol
A small detail we loved in the bathroom was the shower drain. It was an open trench, about 2 inches wide, that wrapped around the outside of the shower floor, so you watched the water make a mini stream around the shower floor as the palm trees were overhead providing shade. And we LOVED having the bathroom outside, it was special.
Day 2 – Snorkel at Blue Lagoon
We woke up the next day and got breakfast at the resort restaurant. During breakfast we ask the server some questions about activities. One of which was about scooters, a very common thing here. Here’s how scooter rental went:
Marissa: We want to rent snorkel gear and oh, also, what about renting scooters?
Server: Sure, you want a scooter? Big or small?
Scott: Big, for 2 people.
Server: Ok, I will call one for you. They have snorkel gear too.
Scott and marissa continue eating breakfast.
5 minutes later
Server: Ok, your scooter is here.
Scott: What? What do you mean?
Server: Yes, that is your scooter there.
A man gets off the scooter in the parking lot.
Scott walks out to the front parking lot and meets the man, followed shortly after by another lady on a scooter to take man 1 home.
The lady gets off her scooter and hands Scott a piece of paper to sign. Scott signs and asks,
“Do you need to see my drivers license?”
Lady: No, it’s ok, you know how to drive one of these, right?
And that’s it. Now we have a scooter to ride all week. No insurance checks. No driving requirements or checks, just sign your name on this little piece of paper and here’s your scooter.
Oh, and the cost?
It was $36.
For the entire week.
Insane.
We finish breakfast and forget to tip, because we are so used to china where tipping isn’t a thing (we make up for it later though), and get ready to go snorkeling! We ask the best place to snorkel and are told ‘blue lagoon beach’.
It’s a 30 minute scooter ride to the other side of the bay.
We ride over to the beach, park, and are instantly bombarded with locals harassing (soliciting) us, asking us over and over if we want to snorkel, go on a boat ride, scuba dive, taxi, etc. It was like this in the Philippines too, and any tourist spot really, it’s just overwhelming to be surrounded by people begging for you to accept their services while trying to figure out what you even want to do.
Anyway,
We had bought our own snorkel gear back in China. We bought some high quality stuff so we’d have nice gear when we snorkel there (Shenzhen) and on our travels. So we didn’t want anyone’s services. We just wanted to get to the water and get in it!
As we approach the beach, Marissa whispers to me: Don’t kill me, but I forgot my mask at the hotel.
Lol
So we finally get to this beach and it’s something out of a movie. A quiet little cove (lagoon??) with a small restaurant up on the hill behind the sand. The waves were rough because the tide was still coming in, so we got some $1 fruit juices and waited an hour.
And by $1 fruit juices, I don’t mean apple juice. I mean, the lady peels two fresh mangoes, puts them in a blender with ice, and makes you a smoothie.
We snorkeled for about an hour and half! It was a stunning spot. But a little small. Scott did his deepest recorded free dive today at 34 feet. But this cove was pretty shallow overall, so he had to swim really far out to get this.
Here are some photos of the lagoon:
After the swim, we walked the length of the sand beach, got some more fruit juices, and went back to the hotel.
Dinner at a small restaurant near the hotel, bought 2 gallons of water for the hotel room, and crashed.
Tomorrow? More snorkeling. But this time, we brought the go pro to get some underwater photos for you!
Day 3 – More snorkeling, Virgin Beach, and dinner
In Bali, there is a system of naming children to identify their order of birth in relation to their siblings.
A family’s first child is named Wayan, Putu, Gede or, for a girl, Ni Luh. Wayan is a Balinese name meaning “eldest”.
In written form, if it’s a girl, you’d see “Ni” before the name. If it’s a boy, you’d see “i” before the name.
The second child is called Made, Kadek, or Nengah. Made and Nengah mean madya or “middle”. Kadek means “little brother” or “little sister”.
The third child is given the name Nyoman or Komang. These names may be shortened to “Man” and “Mang” respectively.
Fourth born children are named Ketut.
If there is a fifth child in the family, he is often called Wayan Balik (meaning “Wayan again”).
The reason for this naming system is because of purpose. It’s ingrained in Balinese culture for each person to understand their purpose. That is, to know where they fit within their community and how they are contributing.
As a tourist, we saw this mostly in the random small talk questions asked as we were meeting new people. For example, shopping, dining, or on a tour.
We would be checking out to buy sunscreen in a store and, instead of asking the typical “How are you doing?” or “Where are you from?” the cashier would ask, “What hotel are you staying at?”
And then when we were leaving the workers would ask “Where are you going today?”
It wasn’t until the end of the trip we noticed a trend, it happened when buying water at the airport. The first thing the cashier said to us was, “Where are you going?”
In a tone like ‘whats-it-matter-to-you-buddy’, Scott replied saying, “Where are you going, buddy?”
That’s when we were like, there’s something here, everyone is always asking us where we are coming from or where we are going. So we looked it up.
The Balinese want to know where you are coming from and where you are going so they understand where you fit within their community and within their lives at that moment.
If they know what hotel or town you’re staying at, they know where you’re coming from. And they ask where you’re going next.
So interesting.
Anyway, on day three, after breakfast, we set up a boat ride snorkel day with our new friend Nyoman, or because he’s male, I Nyoman. He is the captain of a trimaran canoe near our hotel.
In the above photo you can see a few small islands in the background, this is where Nyoman took us first to snorkel.
We loved this spot because it was only us swimming! No other tourists.
The downside?
The currents were really strong. Especially between the two islands as the water was rushing through them like a funnel.
But, we saw some really cool fish including one that was all black but had huge white spots! There were also some cool tan eels. Here are some underwater photos from the day:
Eel:
We snorkeled here for an hour and Scott was able to set another free dive record, he hit 41 feet deep holding his breath!
Then Nyoman picked us up and drove us across the bay, in his cool trimaran, to where we were yesterday.
We told Nyoman we already snorkeled in the blue lagoon, so he took us to Tanjung Jepun, a famous snorkel area around the corner from the blue lagoon.
Tanjung Jepun was a HUGE tourist trap, but it was really cool. There were over 20 canoe trimarans here, all tied together.
When we arrived Nyoman put sacrament sized bread pieces into an empty water bottle that had a ½ inch hole in the cap. Then he filled the bottle with sea water.
Once in the water, we would squeeze the water bottle and little pieces of bread goo would come out.
Can you guess who loved this?
The topical fish!
It was so fun because these are beautiful tropical fish just swarming around you, waiting for you to release the bread. And when they realize you have a bread bottle, they are right up on your stuff.
These are beautiful angel fish, parrot fish, and tiger fish all in a distance you can easily touch them. We have some videos of it in action, so reach out if you want to see!
This area also had some fun features in the bottom of the sea. Cages, huge cement blocks, poles, etc. Just things to swim down and check out. It was set up to be a snorkel playground for tourists.
Not very natural, but a really fun place to hang out.
Towards the end of our 1.5 hour snorkel session here, Marissa was getting the hang of equalizing her ears when swimming down deep. This made it so much more fun for her.
Marissa and I often talk about how much we both love the water. For us, when we jump off that boat and into the ocean, it’s impossible to think about the worries of real life. When snorkeling we are transported to this separate world where we are so focused, and so present, on our surroundings — looking at the fish, looking at the rocks, trying to dive down deep and get a fish-eyes view of the underwater world. It’s such a healthy escape.
Except when we forget to put on sunscreen…
With that, here are some photos from our GoPro at this spot:
When we finished here at Tanjung Jepun, Nyoman boated us back to the beach by our resort (Candidasa beach).
Because we didn’t wear enough sun screen, we went on a shopping tour (in town) to buy some long sleeve shirts to cover up our burnt bodies.
The day ended with us going to a nearby hotel that said they have a local dance ceremony at 7pm. But the ceremony was postponed until Friday, so we just ate dinner there on the beach.
Day 4 – Sleep-in and Waterfall Adventure
Yesterday was such a long day and we were EXHAUSTED! So today we slept in.
We were asleep at about 8:30 pm yesterday and we got out of bed at 9am!
Our trip to the waterwall was a true adventure.
As mentioned, Bali is set up for tourists and makes getting around SO easy. Every step you take there is another local asking, “you have tour today? Need driver? I give you good price”
But we rented a scooter and there is nothing like driving through the jungle, watching monkeys in the trees, as the wind is hitting your face.
So, we typed “waterfall” into Google maps, picked the closest one that looked stunning, and headed off on our scooter.
But of course, there is much more risk to riding these scooters. Bali roads are insane, almost identical to the craziness in India. The difference is, Scooters rule the road here, not the larger cars.
Here in Bali, if there is not an oncoming car, the scooters are passing cars. And the cars all back down and let them. But as you’re flying past a car, scooter drivers are keeping such a close eye on the sides of the roads for chickens wanting to cross, dogs, monkeys, or children.
As we get closer to the waterfall (following google maps navigation), the road becomes much quieter until we are clearly DEEP in the jungle. We pass little villages / homesteads from time to time.
They were these cool interesting houses (huts) that the local people live in, inside the jungle. Most of them had metal roofs and cement walls, but other than that, they were really primitive.
We arrive at the end of the navigation, which is right next to this coconut shucking compound. It reminded us of some deep jungle, secret, drug-creation plant (like you see on the documentaries).
We parked the scooter in the mud where the road was no longer paved. We walked down the dirt path, which led us to nowhere.
Well, it led to some dude’s farm.
Next to the farm was a dry river wash, so we walked up it for a while.
It also led to nowhere.
Something didn’t seem right because the photos of this waterfall had it look like a pretty substantial waterfall, not like those in Arizona which only appear during rain.
We turn around and go back to the dude’s farm where we ask the owner (Mr. Dude) where the waterfall is while showing him pictures of the google review photos.
He says a bunch of stuff in Balinese and points in a direction.
Hope is restored.
We walk where he pointed and eventually see a dirt foot path and walk on….
Until it dead ends at another villager’s house. Which was a really cool homestead. They had two cows tied up, one pig playing in the mud, and a ton of chickens running around.
Oh, and on the chicken topic, did you know chickens originated from this part of the world? Southeast asia.
Some of the chickens here are so beautiful, with vibrant and contrasting colors. They are also much, much skinnier. This is because the chickens we know (the brown and white ones) have been bred to be chickens that lay lots of eggs or chickens with higher meat genetics. Cross breeding to produce the most lucrative chickens.
Here are some random chicken photos as an interlude to our waterfall story:
So now back to the waterfall hunt story.
When we arrived at his villagers home, a little girl, about 4 or 5, came out of the home to welcome us.
We said, “waterfall?”
No reply.
The mother soon came out and we asked her, who also didn’t know english, so she called her husband.
He came out and pointed us down a different path and said “moto.”
So we walk down this path on their property and it leads to a road.
The road we drove in on.
We just walked in a big circle and are back to the entrance of the coconut compound.
From here, we walk into the underground coconut plant and ask where the waterfall is. There is a gentleman who knows good English and explains to us where to go.
We get back on the scooter and ride a kilometer (or so) back and to the left until we see a sign that says “waterfall.” Mission accomplished!
Walking down to the waterfall was very special: listening to all the jungle sounds and observing each homestead with their innovative techniques for building and surviving here in the Balinese wilderness.
Many of the homes had makeshift fences made out of random materials like old billboard signs, and bamboo for their fence posts.
It was cool to see all the different uses of bamboo here. Modified of course, they were the plumbing for a lot of people. And we saw the bamboo cut in half and used as gutters.
As we approached the waterfall, Scott was in front, and saw a local lady butt naked taking a bath in the river water! He quickly stopped, turned around, and said to Marissa, “OMG, there’s a naked lady up there.”
Scott had Marissa walk ahead and tell the ladies (there were more than one) that we were about to pass through (the path went right by their bathing spot).
As we got closer, a little old lady, with about 2 teeth, came running behind us to help “guide” us up to the falls…which meant walking in front of us and then asking for money later.
When we arrived we were stunned. At about 40 feet tall, hidden in this little pocket of exposed black rock, deep in the Bali jungle, and not a single person around, was this magnificent waterfall.
We only had large bills (100,000 rupiah bills), about $6USD, so we gave the little old lady one.
She was THRILLED. She held the bill with both hands and then held it to her chest, like a little girl would hold her teddy bear close to her heart.
Imagine getting so excited for $6? We are so lucky.
A small pool formed at the bottom of the falls and we quickly jumped in for a swim!
The lady stayed and watched us swim for a while and eventually took some photos of us:
Swimming in the pools beneath the waterfall, jumping off the rocks, or even just standing by waterfalls really make us feel alive and exhilarated.
For a brief period of time, just like snorkeling, as we enter the cold water and swim around, looking up at the falls, or worrying about our next steps in the murky water…all our problems and concerns fade away.
We love it. The same thing happened at the waterfall in the Philippines.
A healthy way to pause time and enjoy the moment.
After our secluded time at the waterfall, we get back on our scooter and drive towards our resort.
We stopped for lunch on the beach near our resort and chilled the rest of the day.
Day 5 – Snorkeling shipwrecks
At our resort (called Arco Iris), we’ve been asking the workers to have breakfast ready for us at a specific time so we don’t have to wait. It’s these little touches that make Bali such a dream. Not to mention, breakfast is included in our stay, which was only $37/night.
After we eat our breakfast, we pack up our scooter and head out to our first shipwreck. Today we will visit two shipwrecks on the east end of Bali, the USAT Liberty shipwreck and a Japanese shipwreck.
The USAT Liberty was a USA army cargo ship. It was built in New Jersey at the end of WW1 (in 1918). It delivered cargo to France a few times and then just hung out until WW2 began.
In January 1942, the ship was en route between Australia and Philippines, carrying railroad parts and rubber, when it was hit by a Japanese Submarine’s torpedo!
It was taking on too much water and the crew drove her up on the beach here in east Bali. Later earthquakes vibrated the ship off the beach and down into the sea. The stern of the boat (the back) is only about 8 or 9 feet underwater, so it’s very easy to see.
As for the Japanese ship wreck, well, much less information is known. Actually, no one even really knew if it’s a Japanese ship. The story we were told was that someone, long ago, dove down and saw the ship’s head (or the toilet) and said this toilet resembles the kind of toilets used on Japanese boats.
I guess there are careers in toilet identification?
We travel first to the USAT Liberty shipwreck. We arrive at the tourist spot, pay our 25,000 rupiah ($1.50) entrance fee, and are, like always, hawked down by the locals trying to sell us a tour.
On day one of our Bali trip, when we rented the scooter, we also rented snorkel fins from the uncle of the scooter rental company. We packed our own mask and snorkel (from china). Renting the fins from Uncle Alex has its own side-story drama, but we will leave it out of this post.
So, Scott ended up renting a weight belt from one of the tourist hawkers, but we declined his generous offer to be a snorkel guide, as we had our own gear.
We got out to the dive site and boy was it cool. Shipwrecks are such a wonderful display of how nature creates life everywhere. There were really cool rooms to swim down and look in. And so many scuba divers. But all the bubbles were cool to watch come up.
Sadly, Scott’s right snorkel fin broke about 20 minutes into our swimming session. And by broke, we mean broke in half. Here is what we mean:
In the moment it really didn’t affect the trip. It was harder to dive deep, but there was still plenty to see at the 10-20 feet deep range, so he could dive down. And at this point, Marissa’s free diving was getting very, very good. She was easily diving to 25-30 feet in one breath (confirmed on our dive computer- aka a dive watch).
While snorkeling (free diving) here, we met a guy named Matty, an Australian who overworked himself running his own construction business. His workers forced him to take 2 months off and, well, he picked Bali. We got to chatting because, as Scott went down for a deep dive, around 35 feet, Matty was right there next to him!
We also met a lady named Valencia. She too was swimming deep (without scuba gear) so we started a conversation about free diving.
Scott asked her, where are you from? She replied and, silly scott, thought she said “South Africa”.
So Scott replied, oh nice, we are going to Kenya in two weeks!
Come to realize, she said South America!
She was from Uruguay.
We swam at this ship wreck for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. The ocean water was so warm we did not need a wetsuit. Our dive computer said 84 degrees!
After our swim, we chatted with Matty on the beach for a while. He was a pretty smart guy. He had a lot of curiosity around us living in China and the truth behind what you hear about it.
We say our goodbyes and we head south, through the town of Amed, to the questionably Japanese shipwreck. But first, here are some GoPro photos from the USAT Liberty wreck:
It was a 40 minute scooter ride down to the Japanese site. The locals set up a simple parking lot for guests and then charge you to walk from the parking lots to the beach. But this entrance fee included one free fruit juice at the bar!
We pay our 20,000 rupiah entrance fee and walk down to the black stone beach. Scott’s fins are busted so he rents a nice set from another Nyoman.
We walk into the water slowly (it’s all rocks) and put on our fins. This shipwreck was much, much smaller but also much less crowded. And the majority of the wreck was in much shallower water than the USAT Liberty, so we could see more.
This spot also had two mooring balls close to the wreck, which gave us something to hold onto and relax, instead of constantly treading water or fighting currents. This allowed us to rest in between dives, giving our bodies much more oxygen for the hour we were here. That rest time helped us to dive much deeper and for much longer.
With that, Scott started to dive really deep. He first hit 35 feet, the depth reached at the USAT Liberty, with very little effort.
When free diving deep, it’s imperative to have a buddy watch you dive. So Scott called Marissa over to watch (and video record) his next dive. Scott swam out until the depth seemed deeper than his last dive, took a big breath, and went down.
At this point, both of us are able to equalize our ears without using our hand to clamp our nose. So Scott swims down with his hands by his side and with slow, long kicks of his fins. He disappears into the deep dark. After about 15 seconds of not seeing him, he is now slowly swimming back up. When he surfaces he shouts loud into the air!
He swam down to 16.8 meters (55 feet). His personal record.
Here are some GoPro photos from the Japanese shipwreck site:
After our swim we get our complementary juice– both of us chose Banana – and headed out for our 1.5 hour drive back to the resort in Candi Dasa.
This scooter drive back was very beautiful. From where we were, it was about the same travel time to go back to our first site and down the inland “highway” (if you could call it that) as it was to take the slow and small backroad along the coast.
We picked the backroad which first continued through the town of Amed, which, if we ever go back to Bali, will be a town we stay in for a few days. It seemed like a good spot! Then onto winding, empty, and steep roads that lined the eastern coast of Bali. It was very similar to the Pacific coast highway in California.
As the sun was setting and we exited the steep cliffside parts of the eastern shore, we looked to our right and saw the tallest mountain (which is also an active volcano) in the distance: Mount Agung.
Hiking to the top of this was an activity we contemplated but ultimately decided to do more swimming. But there’s always next time, right?
Also, something that continually delayed our scooter drives, were these Hindu ritual parades. We never looked up exactly which rituals they were, but a group of 30-40 Balinese would march down the road chanting, making it impossible to pass.
Something else we got a laugh at on this drive was a guy sitting on the back of the scooter, holding a dead, but fully feathered, chicken in his right hand.
This scooter was driving down the highway in front of us.
The guy started lifting the chicken up to his head with his right hand and sticking out his left hand to take selfies with the dead chicken!
It was hard to tell if he was taking selfies or in a video call. Still, so strange for back-of-the-scooter behavior.
We made it back to the resort safely and quickly showery before our 7:30pm reservation for a traditional Balinese Dance performance & dinner at the Discovery Resort (another resort near ours).
Before we leave, uncle Alex comes by to settle the broken snorkel fin debacle.
The Balinese dancing was something very special. There were 4 different traditional dances performed. Sadly, we don’t remember the names or many details about what the dances were supposed to represent.
All the dances were female only. And the dances included the girls, as we would call it, dancing with their eyes. The girls would hold their eyes wide open, as wide as they could. And then move their eyes to the beat of the music.
The music was upbeat but kind of eerie.
There was one dance, the last dance, which had a male and female dancing, representing a male bee chasing after a female bee as the female bee went from flower to flower.
The problem?
There were no male dancers.
So the female dancer came out to the crowd and picked a male to come dance with her.
Can you guess who she selected first?
Scott.
After Scott’s 30 seconds of fame, the female dancer makes her rounds through the crowd and eventually gets most of the men up there, one at a time, to dance.
And then she moves onto the women and brings up females. But with the females, she gives them a handheld fan to dance with!
Marissa’s dancing was truly the best of the women. She understood the assignment quite well.
Day 6 – Traditional Village, Chocolate Factory, Water Temple, new Resort (Planet Biru)
Today we are checking out of our current hotel (Arco Iris) and moving to a resort up in the mountains (Planet Biru). With that, yesterday we asked Gusti (our driver from day 1) if he could give us a ride to our new hotel.
And what happened during the phone call?
He sold us on a full day tour to see some local cultural spots.
Gusti picked us up at 10am and our first stop was to a traditional village called “Dauh Tukad Desa Tenganan.”
Or you can just call it Tenganan Village.
Honestly, it was a tourist trap. Guests pay a donation and one villager walks you around. And by “around” we mean to all the places where they are selling merchandise that is said to be made in the Village. Hand woven baskets, beautiful tapestries, and hand carved wood items.
We typically try to avoid places like this when traveling. Although the village is authentic in the sense it still does hold ancient ceremonies, dances, and even fights (it even has some ancient structures), we struggle to enjoy the history and culture when we know their main goal is to convince us to spend our money somewhere inside the tour on merchandise that is often questionable if it’s made there or mass produced.
We’d much rather pay a higher entrance fee than barter with people who literally barter for a living.
Although we are slowly becoming experts at bartering because everywhere we have traveled this year requires bartering, we arent as good as the locals.
With all that said, we think visiting places like this are a must, at least once, on most vacations. It gives us the opportunity to purchase authentic (hopefully) goods for our personal collection. And oftentimes, it’s the best way to learn local history as museums are not very common.
Here, our guide’s name is– you guessed it– Nyoman, child number 3. He takes us into his home and shows us his tapestry making machine:
He picks up that piece of bamboo over and over then tells us they only work with this machine twice a month. It can only be worked on during some special time (maybe each full moon? Maybe when his wife is free? We forgot). And a tapestry this size takes about one year to complete.
He is just waving this thing around like a kite string and we are really curious to see how it works, so we ask Nyoman to demonstrate.
Nyoman replies, “Oh, only my wife does this.”
So no preview for us. Marissa is suspicious whether it is a functioning loom in the first place.
Can you guess where he leads us next?
Into the room where he sells these tapestries.
We passed on the cotton tapestries but Nyoman had these cool foldable paintings on a table. They were made by boiling palm leaves, drying them, carving the design with a stick, then rubbing charcoal over the impressions. After the charcoal has set inside the carvings, you wipe the excess charcoal and the indents remain black.
Scott loved one that was a map of Bali. So he bought it:
At the same time Marissa loved a beautiful table runner hanging in the back corner of Nyoman’s store, so she bought it:
After shopping, Nyoman showed us his mini temple / worship area, which is attached to his home.
Each tower seen is a shrine for a different Hindu god. Unlike the refined and simplified Christianity, where there is one God for all things, and similar to the Pagan Gods, each of the Hindu gods (or goddesses) are the ruler of certain aspects of the universe. When worshiping, locals walk up to the shrine with an offering (usually rice, flowers, leaves, or a fruit). The offering is placed in a palm-leaf basket (called Canang sari). They say a prayer and ask for prosperity, or say thank you, in the realm in which that god (or goddess) rules.
One difference we noticed between India worship and Bali was in regards to Shiva. Shiva is the god of Destruction. And in India, he is considered to have a temper and be hot headed, so many Shiva shrines had a polished stone or mini shiva statue. Worshipers would pour water over a stone (or mini shiva statue) to “cool him off.” But that wasn’t the case in Bali. In Bali they simply gave an offering.
The yellow blankets over the shrine towers are for decoration. We saw these blankets all over Bali, but most were a black and white checkered fabric.
Overall the village was very clean. It wasn’t filled with huts, it was modernized with homes built of cement. And the homes had nice stone fences all around and the members all had scooters. The land was never sold off as individual plots, so it was all kept in one family’s name. They also kept LOTS of their traditional ceremonies. One of which is a yearly fight called Pandan Fighting. It’s where all the men would dress up in war clothes and fight each other, Fight Club style, in the ring. When fighting, each man used a spiky cactus like leaf as a weapon. The ceremony was to pay respect to Kartikeya, the god of war (Shiva’s son).
Here is a really good, and short, documentary video showing the fight:
And here are some of our photos from the Tenganan Village:
Nyoman’s Front Door^
Chicken Cages^
Wicker baskets laying out to dry^
The area the Pandan Fight occurs^
Meeting rooms^
After the village tour Gusti drove us to a chocolate factory to take a tour of the plant and see the process of a cacao bean going from tree pod to chocolate bar. We had low expectations for this place but it turned out really cool. Simple but informative.
Here is a chocolate tree:
And the pods are what the chocolate beans are grown in. Inside the pods are about 40 seeds, or “beans.”
When the pod is ready, the beans are taken out of the pods and placed inside a box that is lined with banana leaves. They sit there for 2 days and are moved to a new banana-leaf-lined box. Then, 2 days later, moved into one more box. The boxes are set up in a staircase pattern so they dump from the upper box to the lower.
Once these 6 days are finished, the beans are put in a solar room where they are spread out and dried for 10 days:
After 10 days of drying the beans are edible and quite delicious. Scott stole a few.
The next step, which we don’t have a photo of, the beans are put into bags and kept in a climate controlled room for one year, about 18 degrees celsius (64 F).
Next they are roasted in a machine that spins and heats them. After roasting, workers hand pick the usable beans out of the batch and separate the bad beans. Here you can see the difference between usable beans and the bad. Bad ones are in the white container:
Next, the outer shell is removed from the bean. At this location, this is done by hand and is an extremely tedious process because, once you start picking the shell off, the inner bean tends to crumble into pieces. So then you have to pick the shell parts away from the inner bean:
Once they have the shell separated from the inner bean, the inners are ground up, heated, and poured into chocolate bars. BUT, most of the chocolate you know has cocoa butter and sugar added during the heating process. This removes the bitter taste that the cocoa bean has and makes for a better tasting treat.
After our tour we were given a taste test of the factory’s chocolate bars. Going from 100% pure cocoa bean down to 64%. The lower the percent, the higher the amount of added cocoa butter and sugar. There were also some flavored bars.
We were also given a tea that was made from brewing the cocoa bean shells with water. It had lemon and added sugar, so it was great.
Last, but not least, we ordered an Iced Chocolate, which we’d just called a chocolate milk. Boy was it amazing, best chocolate milk we’ve ever had.
It was served with milk/ice in a glass but the chocolate syrup was separate and you poured it in yourself. So yummy:
After the chocolate factory we got lunch that overlooked a recently harvested rice paddy.
Then we toured Tirta Gangga Water Garden, a water palace/temple. It is the former royal palace of Tirtagangga (which means water of the Ganges, Hinduism’s holy river).
It was really beautiful but very crowded, filled with locals trying to sell us sunglasses, and, at this point, just another Asian temple grounds. Here are some photos though:
Once finished at the Tirta Gannga Garden Gusti took us to our new Airbnb where we spent our two nights. We picked this place because we wanted seclusion and some quiet time for just us— a beautiful place to relax and do nothing.
Which is basically impossible for us.
But we wanted to try.
This resort was called Planet Biru and was nestled high in the hills of eastern Bali. It was very difficult to get to, both not accurate on Google maps nor good roads. Gusti continually got out of the car to check if the road was safe for his car to go down and how to place his tires properly so he didn’t bottom out.
But all that adventure was worth it once we arrived.
The resort has four housing structures hidden in the forest. One main house and three A-Frame bungalows. We rented one of the bungalows.
The bottom floor was outside and what we considered the living room. It also had a private mini pool.
The next floor up was the bedroom:
There was a 3rd floor which had a full size bed for additional guests. It was at the top of the A frame. We only went up there once.
Here is a link to the Airbnb listing if you’re interested:
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/664586204925998989
The views were to die for. Looking out of our bedroom was like watching a real life, David Attenborough narrated, National Geographic film. There was an entire ecosystem below us with villages, rice terraces, a river, birds, the Indian ocean, resorts, and more. That night we sat and watched the world below for two hours.
It was majestic to watch the white feathered birds fly as their white feathers contracted with the lush and vibrant green of the fields. Kites were very popular in Bali, so we watched young kids fly their yellow, white and black kites as we tried to guess where the person was standing, holding the string. We watched the workers plow the rice paddy while listening to the distant sound of motor bikes makes their way through the narrow paths between each terrace.
As we sat and watched the world below that night, we started talking about how magical it is to be in an area where the majority of people are outwardly happy and smiling. And also in a country where they speak our native language, so we can make jokes with the cashiers or make quick friends with the waitress, something we have been missing.
Day 7 – Walk through rice paddy fields
Because our resort is facing the east, we woke up the next morning at 6:24am to catch the sunrise.
Then back to sleep until 9:15am because, well, we are on vacation after all!
Breakfast was served to our bungalow (room service style), then we ate and watched the scenery below.
Around noon we eventually got dressed and decided to walk down to the rice terraces below. The hotel recently created a path through the jungle below and down to the rice fields.
We spent about 2.5 hours wandering through the mini paths and villages below.
The amount of work needed to build these rice terraces is insane and a true art to create these perfect stair-step systems where water flows down at the perfect rate so each terrace is always filled with 4-6 inches of water. The water pools serve three main functions:
- So weeds wont grow
- So algae can grow, then the algae is a fertilizer to the rice plant
- To water the rice plant.
The terraces shown here were being worked, no rice planted yet. We watched the man in the blue sweater walk up and down each of these terraces, no shoes on, churning the mud with this ancient piece of equipment so the soil is ready for planting.
What was even cooler is the farmers’ homes were built right inside the treeline, so, from the field, you couldn’t see homes. They were hidden in the woods. But we watched several workers disappear into the woods, like in the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ when the players would disappear into the cornfield.
So, we wandered over to the path to check out their homes.
As we walked along the treeline path, every few meters there was a small path that turned right. We would peak down the path to get a glimpse into the villagers’ living situation.
We didn’t take a lot of photos here because the villages were very active with lots of people, so we felt weird taking photos of them. When we peeked into the front doorsteps of the homes, we were greeted with lots of smiles, waves, and hellos.
As we walked down the hill more, the rice terraces became more and more green. Whoever owned the part of the land down hill was closer to harvest than the guy in the blue sweater.
If you didnt know, rice grows like a wheat plant. As it matures, the kernels (or grains) grow at the top of the stalk. The rice is inside a chaff (rice hull, or husk) just like the chocolate bean shell. You can see it in the photo below. These rice plants aren’t quite ready to harvest, but are getting close.
It was a magical day spending time up close to the lives of rice paddy farmers and seeing their work.
We ended the day back at our bungalow with a swim in our pool and watching the ecosystem below.
As we watched the world below, we simultaneously were enthralled by these ants on our pool deck who were moving a piece of aluminum foil (Yakult drink wrapper) all the way across the pool deck. They were taking their new claimed treasure home!
It’s great how entertaining Earth is when you’re completely unplugged.