Life is a beach in Bali

Alex and I get into a rhythm of swimming and sun bathing by the beach (I read in the shade!) and then doing laps in the jungle-themed pool. (At least I do, Alex does more sun bathing.) Then we saunter over to the beach for lunch and rest a little after-wards as it is all a bit tiring - this resort life. On Monday we are a bit more energetic and visit a nearby temple, which has an ancient stone pillar with Sanskrit inscriptions. That’s what the guide-book said any way – I could see no Sanskrit anything. After discussions with some of Hugh’s more adventurous students, Alex decides she wants to go and learn how to scuba dive so we find a really nice Danish dive instructor who now lives in Bali who signs us up and I’m even thinking about it myself until I see the DVD which puts me off for life.

But Alex is full of enthusiasm and after an introductory dive in the pool, we are picked up early on Wednesday morning and drive off for an hour past rice paddies overlooked by big mountains to Pandangbai where we set off on our adventure. Unfortunately although it is only a small boat trip to Blue lagoon, it is way too rough for me to snorkel so I just watch anxiously as my baby disappears into the water and I become increasingly seasick as the boat bobs around for hours in the waves. Talk about mother love! Alex is having a great time however and gets up close to a nemo fish which makes me jealous but I recover once back on dry land and we enjoy a wonderful lunch full of eggplant with spicy peanut sauce.

We have a hard week full of swimming up to the pool bar and drinking cocktails on the beach. We also go shopping and buy many t-shirts, scarves and a nice silk dress for Alex. Hugh is working hard at his conference but takes a morning off and we visit the beautiful cliff top temple of Uluwatu and dodge the cheeky monkeys to do a bit of bird watching. This temple is one of nine on Bali, which are known as directional temples and face the sea, the sunset and the mountains. There are also temples of the lake and the forest. There are empty shrine thrones everywhere, which get filled with small offerings of rice, incense and flowers. Religion here is an interesting mixture of Hinduism and the older animist religion.

After a final conference dinner of crazy karaoke, we leave Sanur and drive in bumper to bumper traffic to Ubud, stopping to visit the temple of Goa Gaja, which has a spectacular location near a river and has a spooky cave with a statue of Ganesh, my favourite God. We are staying nearby for 2 nights in a gorgeous villa, which overlooks the river Wos and is tranquil and atmospheric with a sweet outdoor bathroom. Alex and I bravely venture into the chaos of central Ubud and are rewarded with a lovely lunch overlooking the lotus filled pools of the temple of Saraswati. We do more shopping and return home exhausted to find that Hugh has watched a traditional cremation ceremony on the river from our balcony. On our last day we walk to the nearby sacred monkey forest, trying to avoid the scary monkeys and home again in the tropical rain past water-filled rice paddies. Very picture postcard – just how I imagined Bali.

Jostling Yogyakarta

We return to the lovely Hotel Phoenix by minivan and do a bit more lolling by the pool before girding our loins to fight our way past becak drivers, batik salespeople and furious motorbikes and check out Yogyakarta. Despite our best efforts, we are nevertheless kidnapped by a helpful man and dutifully admire some rather nice Batik pictures and return to the hotel a few hours later, exhausted and in need of a soothing cocktail.

The next day we decide to visit the nearby temple complex of Prambanan, a curious mixture of Hindu and Buddhist temples which is quite spectacular despite being damaged in the 2006 earthquake. Hugh is happy and finds some birds at last although he gets a nasty wasp bite on his lip and starts to resemble elephant man. Somewhat alarmed and in need of anti-histamines we try to get back to the hotel but there are no taxis so we have to literally jump onto a moving bus which is quite exciting. We finally get back to the hotel after jumping off the still moving bus and Hugh recovers.

Alex and I decide to continue our self-appointed mission to try all of Indonesia’s transport options and hire a becak to see some more of Yogyakarta. We visit the imposing kraton, as the sultan’s palace is known, where we are again kidnapped by a nice man who shows us around the complex and takes us along alleys to a nearby puppet maker’s shop. It is fascinating to watch how the shadow puppets are made and coloured and we fall in love with Rama and a sea-monster that we have to buy. Then we visit another batik gallery and buy a nice bird batik for Hugh as we don’t want him to feel left out. After roaming the streets we meet up with Hugh and find an excellent restaurant and some cheapish wine.

Today we get an early flight and make our way to Bali. Our resort at Sanur is full of pavilions and pools and fountains and our rooms are gorgeous. We decide that this lifestyle will probably suit us all except Hugh who is fretting about internet access for his obsessive computer game addiction. But Alex and I are pleased to see that there are many lounges to lay on at the beach and a sweet pavilion you can swim out to and we enjoy a late lunch watching the sea. It’s a hard life!

Jaunting around Java

We are spending 2 weeks in Indonesia for partly for a conference and partly for a holiday and we fly first to Bali and have a horrible moment trying to push through crowds of people to buy our visas and then join an enormous crowd to be processed. The lines do not seem to move at all but people keep disappearing strangely behind us. We find out later that someone from the conference waited for 2 hours but we are worried about our connecting flight. After some fruitless fretting we are approached by an official, who spoke of an “express” lane, and then with our first ever bribe we are whisked through immigration. Very dodgy. Rather flustered, we catch a connecting flight to Yogyakarta in Java, a short 1 hour flight and check into the beautiful Hotel Phoenix, which was built in 1918 and has a very Dutch colonial feel. It is a lovely hotel with delightful friendly staff and we begin to relax.

In the morning we catch a taxi to the town of Borobudur, which is home to the UNESCO world heritage listed 8th century Buddhist temple that from the air resembles a huge mandala. After checking in to another beautiful hotel, the Saraswati, where we lolled by the lush pool for a while, we walked to the temple. Luckily it was overcast and not so hot by then as the temple has three terraces which you walk around clockwise in order to leave the world of passion and earthly pleasures behind to reach the summit and experience Nirvana with many stupas containing seated buddhas. I stalked a monk who was doing the real thing as the photograph shows. The views of the surrounding Javanese countryside from the top are breath-taking and we are able to see the huge volcano Mt Merapi in the distance. The funniest thing that happened as you can see is that Hugh became very popular as many people wanted to have their photos taken with him. We couldn’t really understand why! So we joined in the fun and took pictures of his fan club too.

The next day we had a wonderful buffet breakfast with the most delicious coconut pancakes and other yummy Indonesian treats which the manager assured me were vegetarian. Actually the food has been surprisingly good for me with lots of spicy tofu curries, fried tempeh and gado-gado. Hugh and I got up early and walked a few kilometres to the temple of Mendut which was quite tricky as there was not much in the way of footpaths and much in the way of traffic. The temple is small but quite atmospheric and is one of the few temples in Java with its original statue still inside. The monks from the nearby monastery walk from this temple to another even smaller temple we visited, called Candi Pawon and then onto Borobudur. The monastery is very tranquil and peaceful compared to the chaotic traffic outside.

Later, Alex and I decide to hire a horse and cart and explore the surrounding countryside. We left the motorcycle filled bustle of Borobudur and soon it was lovely and quiet and we passed rice paddies and fertile fields and quaint villages. The little kids are so cute and always smile and wave to us. We stoped to see how tofu was made in one village and how clay-pots were made in another. Quite fascinating. We love watching a whole family on a motorbike with one kid at the front, a dad, then another small child either standing or on his father’s shoulders and then a mum. Often with no helmets! Luckily people are very good drivers.