Far from the madding crowd

Since my last blog Mike and I spent about a week on Lombok, Bali's slightly less touristy neighbour, before returning to Bali. On Lombok, there are a large number of horses and carts that jostle with the scooters and cars on the crazy roads. The beach town of Sengiggi and the beautiful island of Gili Air, about 5km off the mainland, provided some excellent snorkeling ground. Despite their partial destruction by boats and people, the soft coral reefs were colourful, with an abundance of tropical fish. Our stay on Gili Air, a stunningly undeveloped, laid-back island, was very relaxing although slightly spoiled by us both being ill. Back on Lombok mainland, we headed to the mountain village of Senaru near the base of Gunung Rinjani, Indonesia's second largest volcano. For various reasons we didn't undertake the four day trek up Rinjani and left Senaru feeling a little frustrated. On Thursday we boarded the ridiculously slow public ferry back to Bali. Seriously, I could run faster, probably with only one leg.

We have seen a different side to Bali this time around. The guidebook contained a pitifully small paragraph about a place called Tirta Gangga but the words 'small', 'isolated' and 'quiet' jumped out at us. It is a pretty little place in the midst of absolutely stunning scenery. A walk from the village took us through verdant paddy fields and subsistence villages. Conveniently situated at the foot of Gunung Agung, Tirta Gangga proved to be an ideal place from which to climb Bali's highest and most sacred volcano. This we did at night, setting off at 2am so as to arrive at the crater for sunrise. The climb was worth the effort and we watched the sun come up behind Lombok's Gunung Rinjani.

In addition to enjoying Bali's scenery, I have attempted to gain an insight into its unique religion and culture. Balinese-Hinduism actually seems to have arisen from an intricate mix of Buddhist, Hindu and animist influences. Indeed, many of the Hindu temples house a Buddha, who is worshiped in addition to Shiva. Daily offerings are made to both the Gods and the Demons, illustrating the constant strive for equilibrium between good and evil. In Bali, the elaborate displays of dedication to the Gods is combined with large doses of superstition and the occasional Black Magic.

Mike and I have now returned to Ubud, where we will spend a last few days enjoying each other's company before Mike leaves for Thailand and then home. Back in England, I graduated from my PhD this week. Theretofore, henceforth I shall be known as Dr Emma Jo Bowles. Only joking, but it feels good.

Ants in my pants

Now then. Until recently I have regarded ants with huge respect and admiration. This week, however, they have shown themselves up a tad. When digging around in my bag the other day for articles to be laundered, I discovered to my disgust, about a million ants all crawling around in there. Ok, slight exaggeration but there were loads. I wondered at what food scraps or crumbs could possibly have attracted them. There were none. The entire reason for their pilgrimage to the depths of my bag and into my walking boot was a packet of panty liners. They munched right through the wrappers to reach their treasure. What possible nutritional value these could have I simply cannot imagine but there you go. Ants are not so clever after all and I was not impressed. Once upon a time I wanted to become an entomologist when I grew up. That was back in the day when I failed to notice the majority of insects and thought that butterflies were the most wonderful thing on earth. I grew out of that one, just like I grew out of wanting to cut up dead people. We have seen some seriously big insects in the mountains over the last two days. Their singing filled the background, day and night.

Adakah kamar kosong?

Since arriving in Denpasar last Sunday, Mike and I spent six days in Bali and have now moved on to Lombok. We spent a couple of nights in Sanur, on the peninsula south of Denpasar. It was nice enough but extremely touristy. From there we headed to Ubud, an arty crafty town to the North. We were able to walk through some rice paddies around Ubud and take in the Balinese scenery. We also vistited a Monkey sanctury where the monkeys are allowed to live almost as if in the wild. They were not caged and therefore free to move away if they pleased. Clearly, with so many people visiting the sanctury and feeding them bananas, they are living a life of luxury and have no intention of going anywhere.

What can I say about Bali? It is green and beautiful, chaotic and noisy. The air smells of traffic fumes mixed with incense. The most popular mode of transport is the scooter. It is amazing how many people and things get piled onto them. Two adults, a todler and then maybe a baby, some bananas or budgies, no worries. The roads are therefore a tad crazy with scooters weaving in and out all over the place. We had a little scooter ride oursleves when we visited the Mother temple of Pura Besakih as there was no public transport to take us back to the town we were staying in. All quite safe, I promise. Our trip to the temple was a mixed experience. It was cool to see the buildings and get a glimpse of a Hindu ceremony. However, we were ripped off a number of times that day which all got a bit frustrating.

Everywhere we go there are so many people trying to sell things. You can hardly take a step without a ''hello, transport'' or a ''please look in my shop''. It is hard not to smile and talk back to people when they say hello in such a friendly way. I guess I'll get used to it after a while but I hate to be rude, especially when I know that I'm the tourist who can afford to travel to their country and they are pretty poor. Ah well, I really don't want a rucksack full of sarongs, necklaces, fake designer watches and ugly paintings. If I was here on a short holiday I would take a suitcase home half-filled with beautiful sarongs and scarfs. The textiles here are so colourful and the silk is stunning. I'll just stick to one sarong for now.