Bali...poop coffee, vampires, and waves

Just spent the most amazing week in Bali with the Carlisles and Brennans. I had visited the Carlisles in Singapore about a month ago, and Craig and Anne Marie had invited me to come to Bali with them and Anne Marie's brother's family (Terry, Elise, Danny (sophomore in hs), and Katie (freshman at Northwestern) from Tulsa, Ok. I had really been looking forward to this "vacation" from my vacation, and it definitely didn't disappoint.
I arrived into Denpasar airport the night of the 20th, and for the first time on my travels had someone waiting outside with a sign and my name. For the first time I wasn't with all the other backpackers trying to find other people to share taxis and figure out where to stay the night at the last minute.
The driver took me on a winding road up to the longhouse villa where we would be staying. And it was instantly amazing. Dinner was just starting, so someone took my bags to my room and I sat down to enjoy one of the tastiest seafood meals I had ever had complete with delicious white snapper, prawns, and the best clams I had ever had. The large table was in a nice and airy room with a nice view down towards denpasar and the ocean. After dinner (and a tasty dessert), Ashlin and Caitlin took me on the grand tour of the villa, which is by far the nicest place I have ever stayed. The villa came complete with it's own pool, hot tub, exercise room, kitchen, massage room, entertainment room (with a huge tv and surround sound), great views down to the ocean (always with loads of giant kites in view), lots of comfortable couches, speakers wired to an ipod port, and lots of cool art including rock carvings and painting depicting the story of the Ramayana (which brought back memories of Meg Simonton's english 150 class). We all had our own rooms, named after indonesian islands and with themed art decorating them. I had Java, which included puppets and figurines as art. I had large windowed doors that opened up to a little garden area full of frangiapanis, other flowers, and the view down to the ocean. And we had a cook that made the tastiest meals for us everyday.
We ended the first night by watching Forgetting Sara Marshall in the entertainment room. We thought it was a good movie to watch with the surf lesson scenes and all. So of course Danny, Katie, and my theme later on that week would be "do less" C'mon Danny, do less! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59nrQPo53xo
The first day, we went down to the city to shop at the local markets for food for dinner as we were taking a balinese cooking class that day. The town was unique with all its hindu temples and statues everywhere and balinese style of architecture, giving Bali a feel unlike any other place in Asia I have been so far. It was very neat how almost all the houses and buildings were built with the very equisite balinese style. In the afternoon, we helped a bit with the cooking and hung out in the beautiful pool before heading out to the Ulu Watu temple which is situated at the edge of towering cliffs over the crashing waves. It's an ideal place to watch the sunset with the cliffs, temple, and ocean framing the dropping, burning globe, but the star attractions were the long-tailed macaques crawling all around the temple and cliffs. These cheeky monkeys would come right up to you to grab food, or any other loose object on you. The monkeys would walk right up to you, tug on your sarong (we were wearing them for apporpriate temple wear), and beg for food. These guys certainly had a good business as they would fit the ben and jerry's chunky monkey icecream flavor quite well. It was quite funny to watch them run off with sunglasses, hair ties, necklaces, cameras, you name it. The locals and the monkeys seemed to have worked out a deal where the monkeys steal something and then the locals will trade a banana for the object and then ask for money once returning the object. Our group made it out pretty good. Caitlin lost a headband and Craig lost his balance, and that was about all. There was this one male that was being quite agressive and baring his teeth. Craig went in to get a nice picture of the teeth and the monkey jumped out at him, teeth bared, causing Craig to stumble backwards. After another great dinner and some political discussion (they did a good job of getting me back uptodate on all that is going on back in America whether it be politics or pop culture), we went down to the theatre room to watch Twilight. When I left america, the twilight books were huge and every gal at my work was reading them. The movie was pretty entertaining and it ended up causing quite a discussion the next morning, and Danny and I found out that twilight things just kept popping up the whole time we were in bali.
The next day we woke up early for the long drive to tulamben to go diving at a famous US shipwreck (USS liberty). The scenery along the drive was spectacular with gorgeous views of volcanoes, glistening emerald rice terraces, and views to the ocean. And when we got closer to Tulamben it turned much drier in the volcanoes rain shadow and there were even cacti along the roadside. And it was of course intriguing watching balinese life in the rural areas go by, including a couple funeral processions blocking the road and a pig being slaughtered by the side of the road. The wreck was huge with lots of soft corals and some nice fish swimming around. Entering the dive site was difficult (and rather funny) as it was a stone beach with some wave action and of course we were all wearing our heavy and awkward dive equipment. Everyone was a certified diver except for princess Katie, so she had two escorts taking her around the wreck and watching and helping her at all times. The guys working with our dive outfit were all so happy and laughing all the time. And of course adding to the humour was this little guy wearing only maroon briefs in which he had stuffed himself to impress the ladies. And then he'd just randomly run out into the ocean with only a mask and snorkel and kind of flop around. None of them would stop laughing at that. Spaghetts that night, only the 2nd time (thanks to vivian earlier in singapore) since I've been in asia.
The next day was a packed day. We woke up early and then drove to the top of the Batur crater, which is a massive crater with a lake in the bottom and an active cincer cone still rising above it. We ate breakfast (#2) at a restaurant with a great view down the crater. After breakfast we drove down to a coffee and fruit plantation, which was famous for Lewak coffee (apparently highlighted in the bucket list according to Craig). Luwak coffee is quite interesting in that the Luwak (a type of civet) eats only the ripe and tasty coffee beans. The beans then pass through it's digestive system (in a highly sophisticated process, of course involving the duodenum...=) before it is pooped out. Then of course someone had the bright idea of taking coffee beans in luwak poo and finishing the coffee process only to determine that they made quite tasty coffee indeed. In addition to guzzling down luwak poo coffee, we also got to taste some of their other coffee, with the sweet ginseng coffee being my favorite.
After a bit of a drive, it was time to hop onto our bicycles and explore the upper Ubud area by pedal power. I'd been watching Le Tour some nights back at the villa and teaching Danny a bit about it, so we were eager to try out our drafting and pulling skills and avoid cracking. Course it wasn't too difficult as it was mostly downhill and with a nice cloud cover and occassional drizzle. And I had some extra weight to my ride as Caitlin was strapped into the seat behind me and acted as my excellent, though cautious, race coordinator. The bike ride was definitely a highlight of my bali trip, and not the least because I love cycling. The scenery was gorgeous, the villages unique, and the people quite friendly yelling out there hellos. The villages and rice fields we pedaled through were all very rural and all very traditional. The people watching was quite interesting from women carrying impossible loads on their heads to children flying kites to little girls dressed up and makeuppe-up to old toppless women. In addition to all the rice terraces we of course cycled passed hindu compounds and many many temples. The whole area had a very relaxed and quiet feel to it, which I liked...and there we were biking through it. It was a completely different bali (and in my opinion better) than what we would see the next day in Kuta. The ride ended in a little open area where there was a cremation ceremony going on. I think we all felt a little uncomfortable and worried a bit about how a cremation over an open fire would smell, but it was interesting to experience. After the cycling we were driven back to the owner's compound, which I guess is a rare experience to be able to visit inside a balinese compound. Inside we ate one of our best meals yet and then got a tour of the compound which included the spleeping areas of the family, the kitchen, and the temple and worship areas. Bali is primarily Hindu, unlike the rest of Indonesia which follows Islam. The entire tour that day was quite amazing and we learned lots about balinese culture and balinese hinduism. Something that amazed me is that in each caste they have a certain name for the 1st born, 2nd born, 3rd born, etc that is always the same. This is a bit crazy to me, b/c in essence they have lots and lots of the same names running around out there. So basically Sherman, Yosh, McClean, Conrad, the Bison, etc, etc, and me would all have the same name. We also later learned from Ado (The Carlisle's aussie friend who lives in Bali) that the Balinese often spend 80% of their small income on religious ceremonies
The next day we headed down to Kuta to catch what bali is world famous for...it's waves. After re-living the do less scene of sarah marshall and listening to some beach boys (and putting in the back of our heads all of Craig's horror stories of having to hold your breath for 2 minutes for each wave in a 10 wave cycle) we were ready to go out and hang ten. Craig has been surfing since he was young and living in Cali, but the rest of us (Ashlin, Caitlin, Anne Marie, Danny, Katie, Terry, and I) needed lessons from Ado and his pro-surfer employee Maday (sp?). The waves were pretty big that day as a big swell had come in the day before that had all the surfers excited. It didn't take long before we were pretty consistently catching waves, though standing was an all-together different story. We spent the whole day down at the Kuta beach and most of the time in the water. We were all fairly burnt, yes even me, the son of the sunscreen nazi. Even though I put layer after layer of 70spf on, the sun was so intense and the cream seemed to wash off quickly in the rough surf, of which I spent a lot of time tumbling wildly in.
That night back at the villa, we were treated to a special meal of babi guling (whole roasted pig) of which Katie had to kill with her bare hands using only a stick from the forest. Well, most of that is true, you can probably figure out which isn't.
The next day we went back to Kuta, which is really just a very touristy beach area full of western style surf shops, fast foods, etc mixed with tourist stalls, to do some more surfing. The beach at Kuta is nice and long, though quite crowded and there are lots of people walking around trying to sell you things. It's all quite the scene. I think there are other more serene spots on the island if you like quieter beaches, but this place has the better and safer (read no reefs) area to learn to surf. As the ladies would be leaving for ubud in the afternoon to shop, they took out the longer boards first, so I took out the short board, which was quite the challenge to stand up on; however, I was able to stand and ride several waves with it, which got me quite excited b/c as Ado said, that's the next big step in the surfing progression as all the good surfers you see out there are using the short boards. After the ladies left for shopping, I was re-united with big blue. Danny grabbed the green monster and me and my surf buddy were back at it again. By the end of the day we were doing quite well. We were catching the waves everytime and standing for at least a few seconds, if not the whole ride, most everywave as well. We had moved away from the area where the best surfers were riding as to be out of there way and in the area that we were surfing, we had become the best. In fact, we had been given a little "respect square" that was all ours, so we didn't have the problem of anyone in our way, which was quite nice. When it was time to pack the boards back up in the van and head back to the villa, we staggered out of the water completely soar from tumbling and paddling, sunburnt, bruised, chaffed, but with big smiles on our faces as we felt we had kind of got it. Back at the villa waiting for the ladies to return back from the shopping with all of their hardware (and hopefully still some money as we joked Terry about), we took amazing massages (much more professional and well done than the few massages I had done on the thai beaches) and soaked in the hot tub to ease our muscles. Dinner was again great, but slightly sad as it was our last night at the villa. And we were all so exhausted that we didn't even watch our usual movie.
The final day, we got up bright and early to surf one last time before heading back to the villa for our final breakfast and amazing pancakes and fruit.
It was a sad, sad goodbye for me when we dropped the Carlisles and Brennans off at the airport. Of course Craig and Anne Marie had been overly generous to me the whole time, and there was no way I could thank them enough. And the villa had been amazing beyond my wildest imaginations and the tours and surfing unbelievable as well. But what I was most sad about and what I knew I would miss the most was the fun I had with the group and the family feeling it had. Well, really, that's what it was: a big family vacation. And even though I wasn't family, I was taken in as family, and that is something I'll never forget and will always be grateful for. As I'd mentioned before and found out when I visited in Singapore the Carlisles are amazing...not only generous beyond belief, but fun and active as well. And they know how to throw a great party and kick in the fun. And the Brennans too made the trip all the better. Danny and Katie were fun and great to talk to, to catch back up on what's going on in America. And at the risk of sounding like an adult, they were the nicest kids I have met yet on the trip. It was fun to hear about Katie getting ready to go off to college and Danny is quite similar to how I was back in school with sports and all, but still highly concerned about academics as well. (and we even were both chess champions of some sort back in grade school). But in my own defense b/c I still consider myself one of the kids (age is but a number as the wise Yoshizaki would say), we hung out much more as peers (me pretending to me in my teens) than as some adult-teen relationship. Though it cut a little deep when Ashlin made the kid party (which of course I was invited to) be an under 30 only party. Yikes! But yea, I had a great time hanging out with and getting to know Danny and Katie. They got along very well and obviously loved one another, and it made me really really miss my bro. But I was lucky to have 1 brother and 3 sisters on the trip with me there, so all was great. Of course Terry and Elise were great as well. I loved Terry's humuor and he cracked me up, and I had some great chats with Elise and I admire her inquisitiveness. We found out that Elise and my mom were quite similar. The only difference I could ascertain was that Elise stalks Jason Castro online and is on facebook. Though I know my mom is a fan of Jason Castro, so perhaps she is doing that online as well while dad watches the rockies =) Mom, Terry also went to school in Madtown, though I think he went a few years after you did. And Bro, I've decided that inbetween ski seasons some summer we need to move to a place with big waves and really learn to surf sometime.
But yea, I will always remember Bali as a great place with an even greater group of families to spend it with. I do really hope to see both families again sometime. I hope perhaps I can show them around my turf sometime and take them down mountains filled with frozen water that doesn't crash and swirl quite so much. I think I'll likely be passing through Bali again as I make my way south the Darwin, but I know if I do come back it won't even compare to the first time.
And of course in the aftermath if got me thinking of my own family vacations and how great they were with you dad and mom. It's a different kind of thing between the kind of travelling I'm doing here on the backpacker traveller's circuit and family vacations. And though I think you see and do more as a traveller, a vacation with the family is more fun and perhaps just as rewarding.