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.
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.
1 comment:
Good to hear your news and see the photo's, the one of you and Mike in the tree is pretty special!! No real news from here weather continues as ever so we've yet to have a weekend camping and it is looking very unlikely that we will take the tents to Brampton live in 2 weeks time. At this rate it will rival Glastonbury mud!! Take care you two, love Mum xxx
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