Indonesia Wrap-up

Well, our 6 weeks in Indonesia have come to an end and we are home.  We spent the last week back in Ubud, which like for many others, had become our home away from home in Bali. We were able to reconnect with our Irish/German friend Julia, relax, swim in the pool and generally soak up some final Bali time. Not to mention getting our shopping done. Telling everyone I would buy them gifts for Christmas seemed such a good idea in December. But not as much so when I had to cram all the shopping into 1 day. Oh well, my bargaining skills are now razor sharp.

We really enjoyed experiencing a few of the many sides of Indonesia including the hectic Muslim island of Java, the touristy Hindu Bali, the remote and not touristy more rural Lombok and finally the laidback islands of the Gilis.

Trip Highlights:

• New friends including Ross and Jake (Canadian/American english teachers in Japan), Joyce and Iain w/ Xavier and Tess (Australian family), Leah and Luke (Australians), Ale and Javi (Chilean/Kiwi/Aussie single mom and daughter), Julia (Irish/German on a RTW trip), and Alex (American footballer).

Julia with Jasmine

Javi and Ale

• Seeing old friends who live oh so far away: Ali from Beijing



•  Food: We especially like the Mie Gorung (fried noodles) Mie Kuah (noodle soup), banana pancakes, and all the glorious fish we got in Lombok.

Typical fish dinner, note best eaten with a large Bintang beer

Banana pancake, really more of a crepe, with honey on the side.

Front of a typical Warung (small restaurant)

• Natural wonders of Indonesia including active volcanoes: Mount Bromo and Mount Batur

• Finally the temples and other cultural stuff added to our understanding of Indonesian culture

So with sadness at leaving mixed with the joy of heading home we said goodbye to Indonesia:

Sunset over Bali

Galungan: celebrating a Hindu ceremony in Bali

Occurring once in every 210 days in the pawukon (Balinese cycle of days), Galungan marks the beginning of the most important recurring religious ceremony that is celebrated by all Balinese. During the Galungan period the deified ancestors of the family descend to their former homes. They must be suitably entertained and welcomed, and prayers and offerings must be made for them. Those families who have ancestors that have not yet been cremated, but are still buried in the village cemetery, must make offerings at the graves.

pouring rain

This is one of the major balinese hindi holidays and we got to observe while here. It was pretty neat to experience the celebration at the guest house we are staying at through our guesthouse family here in Ubud. The day before they decorated their penjor (a tall bamboo pole that they place in front of the home). The family also spent hours decorating the family temple and preparing offerings.

Family temple all decorated for Galungan

We dressed in sarongs and sashes and watched all the people walk around delivering their offerings to the different temples. All in all it was a really fun day.

penjor and decorated shrine in front of a house on the street I am staying

penjors galore

Base of the penjors and the women making offerings

At the temple praying after making offerings

What the offerings look like

The family dressed in their Galungan best (with Jasmine)

In search of a good Beach

We spent a very busy week with Alison visiting a few new places around Bali including the east coast area of Amed. This is a relatively isolated area of coastline with gorgeous black sand beaches. Unfortunately we landed there during a 3 days of extreme stormy weather and the wind and waves were big almost the whole time we were there. We did get one day of not bad weather, but they lost power on the whole coast the day we arrived and never got it back. I had sorta planned on staying there for a couple of days after Alison left but with high winds, big waves and no power, it was just too hard for us. So we moved on to calmer pastures... Sanur.

Black sand beach in Amed

Before coming to Bali I had this impression that it was the land of gorgeous beaches. But in reality the beaches here have been pretty sucky. Even in places where we had fun, like the Gilis, the beaches have been coarse broken up pieces of coral and really shallow water or dirty with huge waves (both Kutas and Lovina). No fine sand beaches with clean swimmable ocean. Amed had the beaches but the weather was so bad we couldn't really enjoy it.

more black sand beaches

The gorgeous Amed coast

But finally in Sanur we found a nice clean beach, with easy access and a swimmable ocean, even if most of the tourists there were in there 50s and 60s. But it took us visiting 6 different towns to fine a halfway okay beach. I guess now I know, you don't visit Bali looking for world class beaches. Not that we didn't enjoy all of our ocean experience (after all it doesn't take much for someone from Montana to get their ocean fix on). But definitely different than expected.

fishing boats in Amed

yes, she gets to drink soda here

Seems only fair since I get to drink yummy microbrews