Day 1. Kuta. What is there to do? First off, we had to get my passport situation sorted out. So, I called the US Consulate, turns out it's a pretty common problem. I just had to take a taxi into Denpasar, drop my passport off at the consulate, pay $82USD and wait 3-5 business days. It would be cutting it close on the other end, as we had plans to be either out in the Gili Islands or up in Ubud. But, it had to be done.
So Mags and I procure a "Blue Bird" cab, the only ones you can trust because they run the meters correctly, and headed off. Kuta is built like a circular ring road: you are at the top, you have to go all the way back down to the bottom to get back up again. Such a mess. The trip was close to an hour, and the fee was 75,000 rupiah, about $10USD. The cab driver waited for us at the consulate, taking a nap in the heat.
Now let me tell you, I was super stressed out at this point. I didn't want to get stuck somewhere. I didn't want to have problems. I semi-didn't trust that I could leave my passport with strangers, (but for Pete's sake, these were the strangers that are authorized to issue passports!) Still, I walked in, expecting a lot of stress, finagling, and problems.
Turns out, I waited 4.3 minutes, went in to see the Yankee head of the consulate, and that was it. Took no time at all, had to fill out 1 form (in which I opted for the larger, 48 page addition! If I fill that up, I will have to apply for a new passport. I've got 5 years. Game on.)
It was the most stress free experience ever. Maggie had to get additional pages added on while she was in Bangkok and she said it was an absolute mess. Took 2 hours, lots of stress. Not a Balinese patio, with no line and 1 form to fill out. I don't think I could have "planned" it better.
One more cab ride back to the city, and then we were planning out trip out to the Gili Islands off of Lombok. Bali is it's own island, within Indonesia. Lombok is a similarly sized island, across a small stretch of water that has 3 smaller islands off of it. You can take a slow boat, 6 hours or so, or a fast boat, 2 hours. Since we were slightly crunched on time, we opted for the fast boat. Not realizing the price was VERY negotiable, we paid way too much. However, only when you are out at the islands do you realize that is the case. SO. If you go: We paid 1,000,000 rupiah each, for return. That's around $100US. You should pay around 250,000 rupiah, each way. If your travel agent in Kuta is being a jerk, only pay for 1 way and pay for the return on the islands where they are MUCH cheaper. Lesson learned.
After this, we went to our "spa" day, which I had booked before our arrival. I wanted to give Mags a present for her birthday, which I had missed in January. So, we had a 'couple's massage', (not the first nor the last time we felt like we were on a quasi-honeymoon) a foot rub and a milk bath. Oh the milk bath. It was a large tub filled with water, milk and flower petals on top. The only problem was, it was about 120 degrees. Not ANYTHING you want to feel when you are in the tropics. After lots of time spent easing each body part in, we were in the tub. It felt really good on your skin. But I needed about 3 hours afterwards to properly cool.
We decided since we were staying another night in the Kuta area we wanted to change hotels and get down to where the action is in Kuta beach. I highly recommend the J Boutique Hotel in Kuta! We moved on to this bungalow place down by the water. When I say bungalow place, I mean tropical paradise, lush gardens, surrounding a pool, with every bathroom open to the outside. It was beautiful, but buggy. We met up with a German dude sitting out on the porch next to us who told us a bit about the area. He had been coming to that spot for 14 years to dive! We headed down to the beach, and were very disappointed. It was covered in trash. I think it must have some technical draw for the waves, because the surfer's love it, but those of us there for visuals: avoid Kuta Beach. It also is where the backpackers hang out, so lot's of party party. The Bali bombings were on this stretch of road, if that gives you an idea the seediness.
But, it was as if Bali was revealing herself to us, one flower petal being peeled back at a time. Kuta town: nothing much to do, but great accomodation. Kuta Beach: great accomodation, stuff to do, people to meet, but still not quite our ideal of 'Bali'. Next up: Gili Islands. We got up super early to catch a lift down to Padang Bai, (Padang Bay basically) and our fast boat out to the islands. After a slight mis-communication problem between our driver, our location and meeting up, we got in an Isuzu Trooper equivalent and headed to the Bai.
Here's where I can get into the Balinese driving style. Most island cultures have a somewhat hectic, but loving nature to the way they drive. 3, 4, 5 vehicles across the road at any one time, there are frequent toots and honks of horns, alerting the motorbike driver in front of you, 'Hey, I'm here and I'm passing you.' or 'Beep, beep! Scoot your boot over, I'm overtaking! Have a great day!' It's pretty subtle, but if you listen you can hear the love in each tap of the horn. But not today. Today, we had Mario Andretti, hell bent on global domination driving us. He was overtaking. He was tail-gating. At one point, we were sandwiched between a bus, a car and 3 motorbikes, and he was still bent on passing. I couldn't watch. Every so often I would glance ahead and let out a 'squee!' of terror.
After we made it to the Bai, we had a short amount of time thanks to Andretti to hang out, grab a snack, use the toilet, etc. I used this time to start shooting. What first? Flowers!
Every morning, the Balinese make offerings to the gods. They contain usually some sort of flower or plant, some sort of food (could be a few grains of rice, or more substantial food) and a smoking incense punk. They are everywhere, on the morning stoop, in the middle of the road, on the back of a motorbike, on the roof. Maggie learned that the offerings on the ground were to the evil spirits, to keep them down there and the offerings higher up were to the gods in the mountains that are good.
Soon after, we boarded our fast boat, got our in-transit snack of a donut! and water, and headed out. I immediately wanted to be up on the roof, even though I knew I would get a lot of sun. Boats make me nauseous, so I wanted the fresh air and views to keep my mind off things if I did get sick. It was absolutely beautiful. We passed by Bali's eastern coast, headed through the Strait of Lombok (I could be making up this name) where we saw numerous dolphins jumping in our wake, and finally arrived. First, we stopped off at the Lombok port, where I took another opportunity to take some photos. What's really striking in Balinese culture is how much work the women do, and how relatively little the men do.
We watched as women carried bags of rice, plywood and numerous other things on their heads to the awaiting boat to load up. The men simply looked on. I took a large amount of photos of the women, here's one of my favorite below.
I also took a shot of 2 Balinese boys sitting on their boat. One of them saw that I was taking his photo and then I could not get them to stop staring and waving at me. Lost the subtlety of the moment!
A short 20 minutes later we had arrived in Gili Trawagnan, our home for the next 3 days. Tropical island bliss! At the Irish Tra Na Nog Villas.
