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Ubud

We have now decided to stay here in the area for a week longer because, firstly, we haven’t got our passports back yet, the wife wouldn’t mind travelling on with just a copy but the husband is in favour, and secondly, we want to explore the surrounding area on a scooter. And as we want to cook something ourselves again, we are looking for accommodation with a kitchen and we don’t even have a fridge here. After a long search and sorting out, sometimes one is missing, sometimes the other, but we have a fridge there. Or so we thought. But, oh dear, this is the biggest surprise of all, where do they get the good ratings „Excellent“ from?

We wondered why the taxi driver made such a big turn (the price had been agreed, so it wasn’t that) and didn’t drive into the street indicated, as it turned out later that it was impossible to get in from this side with suitcases. He dropped us off at a very narrow, barely visible alley, which then immediately turned left and for about 1 km (it felt like it was still quite humid today) we dragged our luggage and additional bags down this narrow alley, to my incredulous groans, which occasionally came out of my innermost being, Mann just said, staring at his mobile phone: it must be here – and he was right. We came back to one of these lovely Balinese gardens and were warmly greeted by the owner. There are also 3 pools with koi here, one under the footbridge that leads to the creek and causes the rather large koi to move noisily every time we cross it.

The first thing I had to do was clean the fridge (once again I couldn’t be grateful enough to my EM) so that I could put something in it. The kitchenette only consists of a kettle !!!!! We already have 2 plates, two glasses and cutlery in our luggage, but we hadn’t seen anything like this before !!! I’ll save myself the trouble of describing it.

The bathroom doesn’t have a shelf anywhere, but the drain is directly under the shower and not at the highest point in the bathroom as in our last accommodation, so we had to wade through the water for most of the day.

Now to the Monkey Forest. An area that is still a refuge for around 600 monkeys, because even here the habitat for some animals is becoming smaller and smaller. There are feeding areas where the monkeys get their food and are kept in the forest. Some of them curiously escape and take a leisurely stroll through the city, suddenly sitting in the middle of the pavement or walking across the cables from one balcony to another.

There are big signs everywhere in the forest asking you not to feed the monkeys. However, some tourists simply don’t care and so in some places the monkeys are quite quick to grab your bag or sit on your rucksack and try to reach in or open the zips because they have realised that the food is being taken out. If you then try to get rid of them, they can get really angry and start baring their teeth in fear, but luckily they often have a new victim straight away.

On the somewhat lonely way out, the monkeys sit around on the path and don’t even think about making way. Gerhard, only with his camera eye, overlooks a little monkey, kicks it, it howls and in no time at all the strong monkey men come at us from all directions, snarling and nagging, making me feel queasy. But they knew exactly that Gerhard was the culprit and let me out of the circle. They drew the circle tighter and tighter and it was only when Gerhard stamped his feet that they slowly withdrew and we left as quickly as possible. Some of the visitors who had gathered had their great photos, of course, but not us.

But even for the monkeys, life is not just about eating bananas. For a delicacy like a coconut, it also means putting in a lot of effort and working hard. Here is a sequence – a kind of flip book. -G.)

So, today we went for a ride on the scooter that the host got from his brother. Don’t ask. I don’t know if I can really enjoy it. Halfway there, when we wanted to see where we were, we realised that the mobile phone was still on the charger in the accommodation….. Well, it was crazy hot, lots of traffic and so we decided to call it a day for the time being. Now I’m sitting here with arms like I’ve been doing gymnastics for hours, but I was only holding on to poor Gerhard, who was admirable But even for the monkeys, life is not just about eating bananas. For a delicacy like a coconut, it also means putting in a lot of effort and working hard. Here is asequence- a kind of flip book. -G.)

We returned the scooter and got a better one. It was a good decision. The first hire company didn’t give us one without a passport, but recommended a colleague who does. He only gave us one with a passport number without checking it, well, we can’t take it with us anyway, but still: great confidence. So, we haven’t got our passports back yet, the system broke down at the Immigration Office last week!!! Now we’ve been here illegally for 10 days ( Gerhard ). Something will happen. I want to go on…

So, yesterday we set off with the „new“ old scooter. It rides much better and the front brake also works better, but that didn’t stop it from tipping over with us. No, not because I was leaning in the wrong direction on the bend – it was a straight stretch of road for a change – but because we veered off the „road“ when swerving. Now we also got to know the helpfulness of the Balinese. The car behind us stopped extremely quickly and another car driver and a motorcyclist immediately came to our aid. Fortunately, we didn’t break anything – apart from 2 fingernails – thanks to our strong, well-maintained bones. The scooter also got off lightly.

We continued our journey to a temple with holy water. As it gets pitch dark here without a crossing, we wanted to get to our accommodation on time, so we had to forego a bath in the holy water and just washed our faces with it and I think it was worth it.

Bali also often suffers from a lack of water, but here the water gushes out of many lion heads and as it must be artesian, it is celebrated as a special gift from the gods. The water then flows into a riverbed and a little way downstream the inhabitants fill the water into large canisters.

We went on a longer trip on Saturday, setting off at 8am, the traffic was still „moderate“ as we had hoped. The first stop drove us straight into the arms of enterprising saleswomen, who very skilfully tried to persuade us to buy a sarong and were only unsuccessful because nothing really fitted into our suitcase, but still a little sleepy they were able to persuade us to rent a sarong, completely overpriced. Actually, we should have known better from the day before, but at least we were able to negotiate it down. Well and when we bought the tickets it turned out that the sarong was included in the price and we felt stupid and tricked. When we came back, I laughed and said to the actually lovely woman „You are an excellent saleswoman“ and she gave us our money back. For being so good, she deserved to get at least what you would have to pay to borrow elsewhere and many Balinese are not well off either. We then parted laughing and waving. It was nice and relaxing after all. We first visited the Goa Gaya temple, which was built in the 9th century. The exact meaning of the cave is unknown. The temple is also called the Elephant Temple because of the elephant sculpture. The temple contains Hindu and Buddhist sculptures. Part of it was destroyed in an earthquake. -G.)

Our next destination was the GUNUNG KAWI temple, which is nestled in rice terraces. Unfortunately in a deep valley, so the „climbing“ started again. -G.)

After we had visited other temples, Gerhard had got so used to the sarong that he no longer wanted to give it up. He marched straight past the guards, camera in front of his stomach (sorry: in front of his body), the 3 guards started gesticulating wildly, Gerhard stopped, looked at them kindly, as soon as they were quiet he wanted to go on, no way, this was repeated three times until I gently tore the sarong off Gerhard’s body.

We then drove to the famous rice terraces and set off, totally exhausted (me) from the countless steps up and down the temple complexes, balancing on the narrowest of paths through the rice fields and through the rainforest or jungle or something, at around 4 o’clock on the way back, where traffic was waiting for us like rush hour.

It was just awful. For kilometres only at walking pace, and then it happened, just before the end, a stupid truck cut us off so cheekily and at one of the rare (probably why they are ignored) traffic lights that exist in Bali and we landed under the scooter and immediately everything stopped, the sellers rushed out of their shops, wanted to lead me to a chair : come on, sit down first ( am I a granny ? ) then one of them came straight away with water: here, have a drink and I don’t think they could believe that we were just shaking the dust off our clothes, sitting on the old scooter and waving goodbye. The bruises only really became visible the next day, but the sore muscles in my calves from the sightseeing were much worse.

In the evening we went to our favourite Warung here (Warung means small family-run „restaurant“ -G.). In the meantime, Mrs was a bit tense and what does the boss do – gives me a great neck massage and gives me the big tube of massage cream, we couldn’t believe it, our much-loved horse balm had just run out. And so
It turned out that she gets up at 5 a.m. every morning, drives about an hour to work in Kuta (km) (for 10 years), goes shopping at the market for the warong before going to work, which she has been doing for 20 years, and returns at lunchtime, now at least 1 ½ hours. Then she looks after the sick parents-in-law, goes to the restaurant and continues there until she goes to bed at 11:30. She is so friendly and welcoming. We couldn’t believe it and she radiates such contentment and love, it’s unbelievable and at 47 she looks 35. And the next day I got another super massage because she loves it so much.

Today we ended up in a vegan, raw food restaurant. The many vegan, organic and vegetarian restaurants and warungs are not a new trend, but the Asian diet has always gone more in this direction and even more so in Bali.

Only the name is new. On the internet, my wife came across a restaurant nearby that belongs to a Chinese woman who is known almost worldwide and who has had an interesting career and many well-known yogis and healers go there when they are in Bali. It was really interesting. Although the restaurants all around are pretty empty, the place was packed. Part of the yoga community probably meets there. Gerhard made a face as if he would have liked to throw the food through the restaurant, I’m more of a raw food fan, but I found the food took some getting used to and had actually expected more, e.g. refined spices, so it was just sweet. If it was going to be sweet, then at least for dessert and so we ate one of the delicious raw vegan cakes, which are simply a delight and actually made us leave the restaurant feeling full.

The ice cream in Bali is basically vegan and very tasty and the colours are a delight because they are natural (now I remember that Aldi banned all artificial colourings from its range some time ago, perhaps not only in Australia). And matcha ice cream and cake: a poisonous green sin.

Padang bai

With a bit of pressure, the passports are finally ready for collection. With a lot of running around we found a shuttle bus to Kuta and another one for Tuesday to Pangangbai. So we continue tomorrow with excitement for the next accommodation, but it’s only for 3 days anyway. In Pangangbai we will then look out for a ferry to Lombok. But here we also took the opportunity to lie down on the white beach and swim in the sea again – without being caught by huge waves ;-).

Of course, everyone tries to sell the speedboat, but I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t get sick. We have time and will enjoy 5 hours on the water. Anyway, we’re looking forward to finally getting back to the sea, we don’t have the right shoes for climbing volcanoes (the volcanic belt runs through Bali and Lombok) anyway, so we’ll do that next time.

Today my wife is going to straighten her bones and knead her muscles. There’s a spa on every corner here.

Arrived safely in Padang bai on an ancient shuttle bus. It was closer to the accommodation than we had expected, only the constant providers: one stands next to the other and everyone wants to make you realise that the accommodation is sooo far away or that you will certainly need accommodation after all. My wife made the providers laugh by saying loudly, just like she always does: we don’t need a taxi, we have accommodation ….. We always endeavour to remain friendly and polite, my God, people have to live too, but sometimes you do get annoyed when the vendors become too pushy or you are asked to buy a sarong for the hundredth time. It doesn’t help if you buy something and put it on display to have your peace and quiet, no, then they say you could buy another one. And sometimes it’s really hard. When we once bought 2 ribbons from a child, it hardly took us seconds before we were surrounded by other children.

We decided to take the public ferry to Lombok and definitely not the speedboats for several reasons. We also wanted adventure. We found a provider who offered the trip to our accommodation and it worked perfectly.

The ferry is huge, runs every hour, packed with lorries, scooters, vendors, children and everything else that goes with it. We had prepared ourselves for 5 hours of horror and a seat on the ground, nothing like that, everyone had wonderful seats, there was no crowding, no children screamed, mattresses were placed on the ground and some slept, even adults. We had been careful not to have breakfast and only drank the bare minimum, so everything was fine and the guide was waiting for us right at the exit and took us to the taxi.

Well, the taxi driver wanted to show us all sorts of things on the way, but luckily we were prepared for that and made it clear to him that we were tired and that our aunt and uncle would have to wait. Only when I wanted to pick up a watermelon, hundreds of which were being sold at the side of the road, did he run forward and beat the seller over the head with the price. He was visibly uncomfortable when I wanted to bargain with him, well I mean everything is so cheap here that it took me a long time to bargain, you always think, my God, they have less than you, and I always have to remind myself that bargaining is part of it here and that it’s a game. We have already experienced that we accepted the price immediately and they didn’t want to give it to us until we realised that they wanted to trade.

Lombok

About an hour’s drive from the harbour to the accommodation, which is about 1 km outside the village with a view of the mountains and the djungle.

The accommodation is run by Muslims and I am always speechless when I see how the women here get the laundry snow-white by scrubbing it with stones. Only what is not so dirty goes into the washing machine.

Yesterday we got talking to 2 young men, we realised that they were scared of riding scooters, that did me good again! We want to hire a scooter again anyway, the roads here are very wide and very empty and my wife is determined to overcome her fear, which she almost managed to do yesterday.

Have booked for 6 days. And what’s going on here? Sometimes the muezzin starts calling from the mosque at 4.30 in the morning, it goes on for about 30 minutes, the few roosters here are not worth mentioning, what would Gerhard be happy now if it were only the roosters !!!! As there are many mosques here, there are also many muezzins calling, 5 times a day, one on the right, one on the left, one a little earlier, one a little later and we have to leave all the windows and doors open as the fan doesn’t work properly and the „auxiliary fan“ provided doesn’t work either. Now, unfortunately, the cat that climbs into our room when we’re not there has torn the one beautiful curtain that it always climbs out on.

Lombok-Kuta is much more localised than our tourist resorts in Bali. But here, too, people have clearly adapted to the „foreigners“. We also found a local restaurant for a break and a light cocktail. -G.)

Here on this side where we are on Lombok, there are mainly very beautiful rugged coastlines with great beaches in between. The scenery is fantastic and it’s great for relaxing – even though we’re no longer on holiday. -G.)

The buffalo also enjoy „beach life“. Unfortunately, walking in the shallow sand is not without danger. So Petra slowly sank into the sand – but fortunately she emerged somewhat sandy.

On the beach we discovered these sculptures depicting a fleeing princess from her wild and competing suitors. -G.)

Here is another real-life example of the fact that far too much fuss is made about health and safety at work:

We went for a nice walk along the beach but were then stopped by a monkey who didn’t want to give up Gerhard’s photo bag and snarled and bared his fearsome teeth every time we pulled on it. It was only when I grabbed my rucksack that he realised and started to jump, but this time we were quicker. It then took us a while to get our shoes, which were right under him, because stamping our feet was no good on the soft sand. Unfortunately, he prevented us from continuing our walk on the beach. A little further on, some female monkeys with little ones ran across the path, which was probably one of the reasons.