Saturday, December 31, 2016

A Deep Blue New Year's Eve

Not too much planned today as LuRue was glad to hear. We met our boat driver at 9am to go to the Blue Lagoon. Montana's swimsuit was still very sandy, even with trying to scoop it out the day before. We got to the snorkeling place and we dove into the water. The driver drove ahead to meet up with us when we got there as we slowly started making our way looking at all the fishes and coral.

We started a little further down this time, where there was a small ship wreck and a few anchors that had coral on them for us to observe. We saw several fish that we hadn't seen before. LuRue kept shooting in the dark in hopes for more nice pictures. Montana did her usual of diving down and clicking constantly. Since the water isn't as pure in this bay, it is still somewhat luck as to whether or not you'll end with a good picture as proved with her starting with around 140 pictures, but ending on only 51. At one point, Montana saw an almost unreal transition of a fish. We saw several types of butterflyfishes, filefishes, unicorn fish and some more clown fish. Nemo was not eaten tonight though.


There are two fish in this picture, can you spot both?

Titan Triggerfish


Oriental Sweet Lips

We took showers after getting back. It was almost like showering after the sandy beach again. We decided that Montana definitely needed a new swimsuit, at least for swimming pool purposes, so that she wouldn't turn the pool into a beach. After the showers, we went off in search of a suit. The front desk recommended the Asri shop, so we headed there. However, when we got to the Asri shop, there was what looked like a sports shop, so we walked in there. Their bathing suit selection was very limited and only include bikinis. Montana tried on a few swimsuits and found one that might be a possibility, but we decided to look around a little more before finally deciding.

We first went into the Asri shop, but they had absolutely nothing in the way of swimsuits. We don't know why they recommended that shop. Maybe the sports shop was an extension of the Asri shop. We headed down to the supermarket we went to when we first got here. On our way we saw a dive resort, so we decided to stop by there and ask for a recommendation. They recommended a play called "DRAGOON" down the way we came. So we headed back the way we came. We found a place called Dragon Dive Shop, but that was closed and didn't look like it had been open in a while. We decided to walk down a bit more to see if we could find anything that might be called Dragoon, but there was no luck. On the way we checked out a few other shops. There were quite a few options for people with A-sized cups, but it was even harder to find one that fit large-busted women than it would to find it in Fairbanks.

We decided to go back to the sports shop. We grabbed one of each swim suit that they had there to try on. The woman working there was confused as to why we were grabbing like 5 different suits. We're not quite sure, but we think she thought you could try one size of one swim suit on and that is what it would be for all the other ones. Maybe that's how it works for an A-sized bra, but that's a foreign language to both of us, so we don't know. We do know that is definitely not how it works for sizes up in the alphabet.

Finally after trying on suits for what felt like an eon, Montana decided on one.



After that workout, we decided it was time to relax and test the new suit out in the pool. It actually ended up working really well. It would not be a good snorkel suit though, since it is two piece and trying to put the wetsuit on over that would not end well. So it looks like Montana will have to suffer being sandy while snorkeling.


We headed off to our New Year's Eve dinner at our hotel's restaurant. LuRue got a steak and Montana got BBQ ribs. We got a Balinese dance performance during dinner too. One of the girls obviously knew what she was doing, but the other one seemed unsure of herself. Both seemed great to us. Never in a million years could we curl our fingers like they did. They danced us into a new Balinese year.



Friday, December 30, 2016

Going to the Mountains

Several destinations today, but we got to avoid the highway traffic. Instead, we finally had a chance to observe life inland...away from the coast. Roads are narrow and winding, lots of cars and motorbikes, not to mention pedestrians, but between villages we were surrounded by rice paddies and mountainside/terraced agricultural areas with corn, peanuts, eggplant, tomatoes, pandanus plants, and much more. One traffic congestion turned out to be a cremation. Dozens of people were in a field beside the road, and it looked like some stands were being set up with food. A metal box was in the field, fully engulfed in flames. Our driver Ketut told us that each village has its own traditions regarding cremation. In his village, the ceremony for cremations is held only once a year whereas other villages may have more events. When asked what happens when someone dies in between, his answer was unclear, but he indicated that the body is buried until time for the ceremony. So, is the body itself buried or are ashes buried, then dug up? The important thing seems to be the Hindu ceremony near a temple when the whole village can turn out to honor the deceased.




Our first stop was to visit a village. We were met at the car by a young woman who led us up a path to a coffee and tea area set in the woods. She pointed out the different coffee beans, as an older woman in a hut stirred some beans in a shallow pan over a fire. Slow to catch on, LuRue finally recognized that one of the coffees was Luwak Coffee. Montana was puzzled by the whole idea and finally educated us both after researching it this evening. Apparently, early coffee plantation workers were not allowed to brew the coffee beans they grew and harvested, so they cleverly figured out that they could collect the beans after they had traveled, mostly undigested, through the GI tract of the palm civet. At the end of our coffee tour, we were given several different flavors of teas that were grown and made there.





Admission to many places here is always referred to as a donation and is usually 10,000 Indonesian rupiah or about 70 cents. We were next met by a local man who escorted us through the village, explaining that it is about 400 years old. His family has lived there for generations. He now lives there with his wife and 2-yr-old boy after working awhile in Denpasar, the capital. When he invited us into his home (up some stone stairs), we were surprised to see that the interior was all set up with display cases and racks of scarves. He led us over to a workstation where he does calligraphy. LuRue had been waiting to be inspired before buying a souvenir. Caught between not liking to be constantly hassled to buy things and recognizing that these people are trying to make a living, this seemed to be the right time. She didn’t have enough money (350,000 rupiah or $26), but the man said that our driver would pay him, then LuRue could pay the driver back (which she did). We noticed as we strolled through the village that other activities were taking place, such as women were weaving in their homes. It looks like the people take turns guiding visitors into the village. Our guide told us about a mock fight/dance that takes place annually in the village during which visitors can attend.






Winding our way to the next destination, we were escorted to another “donation” booth for admission to a water palace. Ketut’s tourist booklet described this as a Rajah’s country home, built in the middle of the 20th century. A combination of pools, plants, and statues, it is now a lovely park. Ketut said that it is also used as a source of water when needed for rice fields, etc.







Before we left, our manager Kukus had asked Ketut to pick up some mangos for him at a market, so we toured a small section of the market while he bought 2 kilos of mangos. It was full of a great variety of fruits and vegetables, all of which, Ketut said, is grown on Bali.


When we reached our final spot of the day, “White Sandy Beach”, we learned that Ketut was negotiating with a guard at a gate. The guard poked his head into the passenger-side window, looked straight at LuRue, then lifted the gate to let us through. Apparently, most people have to walk the rocky, somewhat steep road down to the beach...approximately quarter to half-mile. Age has its benefits!!


The beach was lined with umbrellas and lounge racks...some with plastic mattresses. Ladies came to greet and to lure us to their particular lounges. But Montana and LuRue played in the surf for an hour and a half, trying to catch breaking waves and riding them up onto the beach. They were rolled and tossed around like so much flotsam and jetsam. When they got out, they headed to a pipe labeled “Shower”. After LuRue figured out how to turn on the water and had caught a few dribbles, a guy showed up and started talking to Montana. All LuRue heard was, “...not my group.” Apparently, the shower is reserved on some basis that wasn’t at all obvious.


We were grateful to get back to the car and be driven up the rocky hill. Montana said she felt like royalty as we passed all the people trudging up and down.


The first order of business after getting back to the hotel was dealing with the buckets of sand we had accumulated in our bathing suits. Putu told us to use the shower by the swimming pool. LuRue had managed to get most of it out while still in the sea, but Montana’s sand had migrated by osmosis between the two layers of her swimsuit. While we worked at the pool shower, we could get the clumps of sand either into the straps or into the crotch, but couldn’t find an opening anywhere. We finally had to cut an opening with scissors. There must have been at least a cup of sand in her suit.


For dinner, we headed to Vincent’s Restaurant, said to be the #1 spot in Candidasa...about a 10-minute walk from our hotel. We each made a selection from the Balinese section and ended with an exotic dessert of white chocolate mousse wrapped in milk chocolate and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.


PS to “The Torture Chamber”...In spite of visible bruises, especially on legs, the arthritic knee stood up beautifully today. The crick in the back (left shoulder blade) was never worked on specifically (who would ask for more of the same at that point???), but it disappeared today by sitting straight while in the car and not twisting to look at everything interesting thing that happened to appear in the window.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Pain is Sometimes Pleasure

No wake up alarm, no trying to eat breakfast in half an hour, a very nice way to start the day. Both of us had projects that we didn't NEED to do that day, but wanted to get started on. LuRue had her fish identification and Montana had her lyrics videos to make. They had nothing that needed to get done right then and there, so they went off their separate ways to work on their projects. 

A couple hours later, LuRue stopped in and asked if Montana had a few minutes. She did and LuRue showed her a couple pictures of hers. One was a before (how the picture was actually taken) and one of an after (after LuRue cropped it and did little changes.) The difference really impressed Montana.

Before

After

Here's one of LuRue's best, which, sadly, we didn't have the before picture to show. 


We decided to take a break and walk around town. We had some signs & sculptures & rituals we wanted to take pictures of. We walked down to where the sidewalk ended observing and taking pictures, then headed back. Of course, since it was around lunch time, we had to do our tradition and stop by a specific store before going back to the hotel. 




We had discussed interest before in possibly going to the spa once and trying out some Indonesian massages, so before going back to our room we stopped by the spa (about a 30 second walk from our room) to schedule an appointment at 2:30 that day. LuRue’s back and knee had been killing her, so she asked the workers what they would suggest. They suggested a deep tissue body massage. Oblivious to what that actually was, she agreed to it. Montana, feeling curious, signed up for a body scrub with Mud.

Once again, when we got back to our room, we went our separate ways and worked on our projects.

2:30 came around and we were off to get our massages. Montana’s massage ended up being very mild compared to what LuRue experienced. Montana’s massager pretty much took a handful of mud and smeared it around her body, let it dry, then washed it off with a washcloth. It was an odd feeling, but she didn’t get much out of it. Montana heard LuRue moaning and groaning during her massage, to which she took as moans and groans of relaxation. However, the story is much different.

Turns out LuRue’s deep tissue massage wasn’t really a relaxing massage. As lifehacker.com says, "It feels very much like someone is torturing you on purpose..." So, her moans and groans were of pain not pleasure. The massager would push down so hard that it was like getting stabbed. At one point the massager did something to her toes to feel like they were getting ripped off. LuRue had thought that Montana was having the same thing and was wondering why she was so quiet. Montana couldn’t even come close to saying what the experience was like, so she had LuRue describe it herself: “At a few crucial times after the petite young woman had ground her thumbs and elbows in particularly excruciatingly deep, I could hear and see her softly chanting, then making whisking motions. Toward the very end of the session, the massager began to gag as she pulled on my arms and shoulders and had to spit through the open window several times. The last few times, she returned with tears in her eyes. She hadn’t quite recovered by the time the session was over, and I felt compelled to give her a hug. Award-winning performance or genuine...who knows?”

After describing everything to Montana, she ended it on “you should try it”. Who knows if that’ll actually happen or not.  


After their massages, they once again separated to work on their projects. Montana finished hers at around dinnertime, so they headed off to dinner. They went to the restaurant right across the street from Watergarden. On the way there, LuRue made a brilliant discovery. Miraculously, LuRue’s knee was working much better than it had been. It was like a fairy swished a wand at her knee. She actually said if her knee goes back to being bad, she might go in again. Maybe Corrine should try this on her knee sometime. At the restaurant, Montana ordered an Indonesian noodle dish and LuRue ordered a German dish and of course, they ended it on an apple pie for dessert. All of it was delicious. A nice way to end the day.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Elephants, Huts, and Bats...Oh, My!

Riding an elephant! Doesn't everyone start out their day like that?

After a 10:00am meetup with our driver Ketut, we also welcomed the company of Putu, one of the main receptionists. She was going along with us today as our guest and guide. She has been Montana's main accomplice for planning our activities and is full of ideas.

As usual, when we got to Bakas Tours, we had no idea of what we were doing or where we were supposed to go. Every place is full of people milling around, but Ketut usually steers us in the right direction, giving strong signals about where to pay the admission. Putu had never been before, so she was as confused as we were. But, as always, we got our tickets and were pointed to the waiting area.

Before long, a couple of elephants came into view and we learned a bit what it was going to be like. The animals were led into a wading pond before ending up against the platform that loads people. Putu and LuRue got in the first seat aboard a female, and for about half of our 40-minute ride, Montana was behind us on a male. The elephant keepers were both from Sumatra...young guys who were tough and wiry. Montana learned quite a bit from talking to her guy...long hours and very little pay. But maybe a worse job was the one held by the middle-aged woman who had to come out into the pathway to pick up the dung after each elephant. It was definitely an experience and for a few rupiahs more, we got to feed our elephants a watermelon cut into chunks. It's quite an experience to feel the trunk take the piece from your hand.



The ticket included a Balinese buffet in a nearby dining hall for the three of us. It would take a palate more sophisticated than LuRue's to say whether it was really good or typical buffet food.

Next stop turned out to be a big surprise. We had been expecting a temple, but instead ended up at Taman Nusa, Indonesian Culture Park. The basic idea is very similar to the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, but more to it. Besides some other features, it contains more than 60 traditional houses, some of which are hundreds of years old. They represent different areas of Indonesia. At most of the clusters of a specific area, there were performers playing instruments, or weaving, or doing a traditional dance...some type of typical craft. It was possible to walk into most of the houses, at least a couple of which were houses of royalty from days gone by. At the end of the loop, a museum had impressive displays of traditional weavings, batiks, and shadow puppets.



Since the hour was getting late, Montana and LuRue were speculating that the temple idea was out, but no...it turned out to be on the way back. As before when entering a temple, we were outfitted with sarongs so that we were properly dressed for the holy area. This time, the temple wasn't a building, but a tiled enclosure (no ceiling) facing a cave. Just outside the cave, a group of people were seated on the ground, praying. Putu explained that this is the temple for this area, but any Hindu is welcome to participate in the daily ceremony, which takes place late in the afternoon. Montana was interested in the inhabitants of the cave, but it looked like we wouldn't be able to see anything. Putu went to talk to one of the groundskeepers there, then led us to the entrance of the cave, behind a small building where we wouldn't disturb the worshipers. There on the ceiling of the cave, were thousands of bats, with individuals constantly coming and going, much like a bird rookery, but always staying in the cave. After dark, they would leave to find their meals.


So, after quietly observing several aspects of the Hindu ceremony and doing some bat-watching, we left and were back at the hotel by about 5:00. We have decided that tomorrow is a day of rest, although several possibilities kept popping up...we could do this, we could do that! Whatever we do, it won't be boring!

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Barong, Batiks, Birds

A very early morning...6:30am. The play we were going to started at 9:30 in the morning, which meant we had to meet our driver at 8, which meant getting up at 6:30. We drove to Gianyar where we watched a Barong & Kris Dance. The dance was telling what was like a folk tale of Indonesia. We were mostly able to follow along, but it would've been impossible to do without our pamphlet that already described the story for us. The dancers put on very impressive dances.



We were then taken to a batik store where outside the store we could watch people making batiks. Sadly, it didn't show every stage of it, which is what LuRue and Montana were most interested in. Inside, there were many, many very detailed batik drawings. The artist must have a lot of patience to get such detail using batik. We wished we could have seen more batiks in the process of making. We didn't spend much time there though, since neither of us are really into shopping.


Assuming we were going back we got in the car ready for an hour and a half drive. Fifteen minutes later though, the driver pulled into a bird zoo, which cost over 30 dollars to get in. We walked around looking at all the beautiful birds and admiring them, while discussing how depressing it is to cage wild animals and wondering how humans would feel if other animals put humans in a cage. We saw birds from all different parts of the tropics. Who knew where we were heading next when we got back to the car. Was it Candidasa? Was it another touristy place?


Oh yeah! Another temple. This one was a little more complex than the first one we saw. There were more detailed sculptures and more places to look around, but still neither of us were thrilled. Plus we were both burning up from the sun and didn't want to spend much more time in direct sunlight. Our favorite part of this stop was when we walked past some random Chinese tourists and they very excitedly dragged us in to get their pictures taken with us.


We then were driven to a waterfall where we walked up to a viewpoint and got to look down on all the people swimming in the falls. After some thought, Montana decided to walk down several flights of stairs to the falls. LuRue, however, decided to stay at the viewpoint. Montana stepped into the falls, but sadly couldn't go much farther, because she had no bathing suit and the sign specifically said no nudity. "Don't worry, be sexy, but not nude". She walked back up the long, painfully unending stairway where she met LuRue and we walked back to the car.


We were taken to our hotel, where we spent an hour or so in the pool, before heading to dinner. We went to the same restaurant we had our cooking class at. The food in our class was good enough to make us want to try out the restaurant. LuRue ordered some BBQ ribs, while Montana had a chicken tutu, and no, it was not a chicken dressed in a tutu as amusing as that would have been. The dinner was great. For dessert LuRue had a crepe with coconut inside, Dadar Gulung, and Montana had a white and dark chocolate brownie with ice-cream.


After dinner was over, the waitress informed us that a 15 to 20 minute dance would be starting soon. We decided to stay to at least watch part of it, but we had to leave early to give time to go over pictures and write the post. 

Monday, December 26, 2016

Finding and Eating Nemo

Activities director Montana and our hotel receptionists really know how to fill up a day! It started with a 7:30 alarm, off to breakfast, then rushing back to our room to stuff ourselves into dive suits. It's enough of a challenge when one is dry...with wet, sticky skin, it's a workout!!!


Our boat driver was waiting when we arrived at the reception area, and it was a repeat of two days ago, but this time we knew what to expect. When he disappeared, we knew which little alleyway to duck into. Boat entry was easier this time through an opening in the side of the boat...don't know why we didn't go that way before. We knew where to stow our things & were heading to the Blue Lagoon in very short order. It takes about a half hour to get there and Montana weathered the trip with no problem. She jumped in as soon as she could and never had a problem today.





The boat driver gave us directions again and said he would meet us down current where he would anchor his boat. Everything went well. It didn't take long to see that this area was worlds apart from where we went the first day...we were wondering why they even bother with "the island"--maybe that area is OK for diving. There was some good coral and lots of different fishes...enough to keep us making discoveries for 2.5 hours. It will take quite awhile to identify what we saw. Many LuRue remembers from previous trips to the Pacific, but it's like a foreign language...you forget if you don't use it. Some of the most memorable sightings were a very large eel swimming beneath us, a small school of squid, and a large Butterflyfish-type, but huge...about 15 inches in diameter. Montana managed to get a couple of quick photos.  We are really eager to spend some time with the fish book to see if we can figure it out.







Montana can dive down and hover about 12 to 15 feet deep, so is able to get some really good photos. LuRue's photos are strictly point-and-shoot, but with cropping a small fraction of the photo, it is often good enough to ID a fish, so good enough.


Toward the end of our snorkeling pass, LuRue called out to Montana that she had found Nemo. Montana swam quickly over and we watched for several minutes as a large group of Clownfish swam in and over a beautiful sea anemone.


We quit a little earlier than we needed to, but for a first day, it was enough. This time we landed on the beach and there was a lot of help getting our things off the boat. A good day!!


We still had enough time before our afternoon activity to swim for an hour or so in the pool (and, of course, run down for a quick gelato!)


The driver for our cooking class picked us up, drove a few hundred feet, and pulled into the same place that we go for snorkeling! A very nice beachside restaurant that we'll go to, one of these days. We were escorted to a table to have a "welcome drink" of some kind of fruit juice. Then a man came up to us and introduced himself as Chef Dewa. He led us around the walkways of the hotel, pointing out different plants that are used in cooking. Apparently, most things can be obtained there on the grounds. Then we went to the beach, right next to where we catch our snorkeling boat, and saw the cooking area set up in a covered section next to the base of the restaurant (one story overhead). There were places prepared, including chopping boards, deep fryer, steamer, blender, and sink for washing. The chef helped us into aprons and headscarves (with our names) as the driver, who had picked us up, followed us around like paparazzi, recording everything with a very nice digital camera.


We first made spring rolls, then sat at a beach table under a tree to eat them after being photographed with the finished dish and with the chef. And so it went for three dishes for our main course, followed by dessert. The main course was a trio of steamed chicken dish with spices in a banana leaf (Tum Be Siap), a rice dish with peanuts (Gado Gado), and fish kebobs (poor Nemo!). Actually that one was Sate Lilit (minced fish wrapped around skewer, which in this case was a stalk of lemongrass). Dessert was Pisang Goreng (Fried banana)...banana chunks dipped in a pancake batter, then deep-fried.


There goes Nemo


Appetizer


Dinner


Dessert


We lingered through sunset as the assistants created personalized Certificates and a CD of photos. The sunset sky was quite spectacular and we even had a little excitement as the lantern hanging in the tree behind Montana's head at first didn't come on, then some unusual lighting above the lantern turned out to be the faulty wiring on fire. We called the troops over, they turned out those lights, and the fire burned itself out.


When we got home, it dawned on us that we don't have a way to access the CD with photos, so are very glad that Montana was also taking pictures. The guy at reception (night watchman?) was very happy to take our leftovers!


Tomorrow we have to be ready for an 8:00am departure, so that means a 6:30 alarm. Ugh!!