Once Greg and I had dropped my brother Sam off at Denpasar airport, we took a taxi all the way to the small town of Amed, which is on the Northeast coast of the island. We wanted to do some snorkeling and relaxing away from any touristy hotspot. It ended up being an okay choice. The place we stayed was nice and reasonable in cost, had a pool, a pretty great restaurant, and had a dive shop attached, where we were able to use snorkeling equipment for free.
The “beach” was just a short 2 or 3 minute walk.
It was a thin, rocky beach with little waves. We enjoyed a long snorkel along the coast, searching for the wreck site, but never found it. There were some decent fish and lots of bright blue starfish along the bottom. Eventually I got scared out of the water, though, when I spotted a jellyfish. Now that I’ve experienced that brand of pain (in Sarawak, Borneo) I’m not too keen on tempting fate for another dose!
After several days relaxing by the pool and reading there, we got another taxi to take us to Ubud . . . The place that everyone says is just so amazing! If you’ve seen the Julia Roberts film, “Eat, Pray, Love” then you will have an idea of some of the beauty of Bali and the central part of the island, but as far as Ubud is concerned these days, it’s like a crowded mecca for expensive-yoga-retreat-goers and artists, wannabe artists & art collectors. It’s like a ton of western artists and hippies came and opened shop for other westerners.
I guess that’s like a lot of tourist-Bali, though. The downtown area is super touristy with tons of fancy boutiques, western restaurants, and miles of souvenir shops and stands. For me, it was incredibly stressful to walk around. And I’ve talked to loads of backpackers since then that have gone to Ubud and come back early because they hated it so much. It’s too bad, really.
However, our hotel was out of the middle of all that, thankfully, and though it was a little more expensive than we wanted, it was relaxing and quite picturesque:
Another highlight of Ubud was when we went on a free walking tour of the organic farm the restaurant sponsored and the village it was in, so we were able to learn about Balinese Hinduism (like, when people die, they bury them for a short period (like a month or so) and then cremate them. Also, there are temple complexes specific to whatever job you do, like if you are a taxi driver, you go to a specific temple, if you are a driver, you go to another temple, etc), rice farming (the Indonesian gov't wants them to use engineered rice so they can grow more crops than normal in one year), the way Balinese families organized their home “compounds” (there are little separate rooms/buildings for specific purposes and people, like there's one that's just for settling family arguments, one for the kitchen, an area for animals, one for the elders or newlyweds, etc), and a little about Balinese art.
One final highlight of Ubud was the Monkey Forest/Temple. It is a nature reserve and temple complex and is super cheap to get in ($2.55) and there is no shortage of monkeys for you to feed, take pictures of, watch, and dodge. They are not shy, that is for sure.
The whole forest is actually quite nice to walk around in and there are lots of interesting sculptures as well:
I think the sculpture above is reminiscent of Munch's "The Scream"
And a hindu temple:
After Ubud, Greg and I decided to spend a few days in Seminyak, which is an expat hub. It has tons of great restaurants, clubs, and hotels, including “Potato Head” and the W. The beaches are great and the water is perfect for swimming! There are a few decently priced bars on the beach where you can negotiate to rent beach chair spots, which is what Greg and I did a few times.
We then flew to KK (Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia) for almost a week, where Greg and I did some island hopping and snorkeling one afternoon, both saw a movie but separately (lol), and did some Crossfit (Greg’s first time - he wasn’t into it, but he was a great sport and got a date out of it!).
The point of us going there, though, was for me to climb Mount Kinabalu, which I will detail in my next blog post. Then Greg and I returned to Bali for his flight back to SF, but not before we spent another few days back in Canggu in a fabulous and fabulously inexpensive (like $20/night via airbnb) villa in Canggu, where I did my Crossfit and searched around for where I wanted to live because I had decided to move to Canggu in October.
Greg was sick for a few days, which was unfortunate, but thankfully it didn’t get too serious because I had some Cipro (antibiotic) on hand. We enjoyed our last few days together, and though I had struggled with my whiny hermit problem while we were together (more on that in my next post), I was truly grateful to have had him with me, as we have been friends for a long time and do travel well together. (Our first trip together was in 2010 to Barcelona, Spain!) I may love my alone time, but traveling is very lonely. A friendly face was truly what I needed.
He is one of very few friends of mine in the States that really values travel and have made their lives flexible enough to be able to do so. I look forward to the next time we meet in a foreign country to witness the world together!
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