Relaxing in a Sea of Rice Paddys

On the second leg of our holiday vacation triumvirate we ventured to Bali.

I have to sheepishly admit that in the planning process for this trip, I was not at all into Bali. Bali sounded very commercial and overdone (I've heard from friends "think Australian's Cancun, spring break-style"). Brian pushed this into the itinerary, and after finding acceptably priced flights and connecting times, I scheduled three days, four nights in Bali. And now I totally admit I was wrong. I L-O-V-E Bali!

But first a note on transit. To fly from Pankalan Bun to Bali, we needed to connect in Java. Our connection, in Surabaya on the northeast end of the island, was scheduled for six hours. Indonesia is a county stretched across an archipelago of about 6,000 inhabited islands (with another at least 11,000 uninhabited islands!). Some islands - Sumatra, Java, Borneo - are huge. Others are tiny. There are over 700 indigenous languages spoken in cultures across three time zones. A majority of the population is Muslim, although the island of Bali is nearly entirely Hindu. As Brian also said in the last blog, I'm so very impressed with our kids becoming exceptional travelers in such a short time. Transit time really did fly by. We played a bunch of card games, enjoyed dinner and a beer, and indulged in a tremendous game of Carcassone, our new family-favorite game. Upon arriving at the departure gate, we saw that the flight was slightly delayed. About 15 minutes before the new scheduled departure time, there was an announcement in Bahasa Indonesian and a mob stormed the gate grabbing Styrofoam packages. I went to check it out - as I watched, the notification sign changed from "Delay" to "Refreshment". I went back to Brian, informing him and the kids to bunker down for a long delay. With a belly full of AirAsia-provided Nasi Goreng, we took off another two hours later.

Our first lunch in Bali. Food in Ubud is delicious and healthy!

We opted to avoid the beach party scene (foam party, anyone?) and headed toward inland Bali. We arrived at the beautiful Infinity Villa near Ubud, Bali in the middle of the night, settled down, and then woke up to a breathtaking view of a 360 degree sea of rice fields. http://www.infinity-villa-ubud.com/ The kids swam away the morning in the infinity pool outside the villa. Then we headed out to the town of Ubud, the Bali epicenter of art and culture. During our time on the klotok, the kids developed an interest in whittling sticks. Maybe it was just an excuse to use the pocket knife, but they really had a lot of fun with it. So in looking at the cool craft classes we could take that afternoon, we all opted for wood carving.

I was a bit skeptical when the master carver had us select our models - Violet choose to make a dolphin, Tyler a sea turtle, and Brian a gecko. The wood tile designs feed my need for symmetry so I selected a beautiful but complex pattern. Our carving master sat us down and assured us that we could replicate the models. With an unbelievable calm, the carving master handed my six-year-old a razor sharp chisel and hammer, and instructed him where and how to cut away to wood. The three hour course flew by -- so fun! It's cool to be at a place with the kids now that we can all do an activity or take a lesson together. We were all beginners, starting at the same level, and having tremendous fun.

After the class we went to a traditional Balinese Kecak, or fire dance. The Kecak has no musical instruments and, instead, a chorus of 100 men chant throughout the performance, mimicking a pack of monkeys. Now that we have more than one monkey experience under our belts, I can verify that they did indeed sound like monkeys. The monkey song is meant to put a devotee into a trance who at the culmination of the performance kicks and dances on a big pile of coconut shell embers. All in all, it was a good performance, with exceptionally cool chanting.

We spent Bali day #2 at an elephant sanctuary and wildlife park. While elephants are not native to Bali, the Sumatran elephant, a subspecies of the Asian elephant, is native to Indonesia's islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Deforestation is threatening these elephants in a similar way as Malaysia's elephant population. The elephant sanctuary has relocated about 30 elephants that were captured in palm plantations and would have otherwise have been killed. We took an elephant ride and spent hours feeding the juvenile elephants. The elephant park is beautiful. By all accounts they are doing it right. Lots of space, lots of clean water. Long term, one-on-one relationships between an elephant and its trainer. But it also highlighted again the impacts of deforestation and there was a sadness to see these giant refugees. We spent the afternoon touring local Hindu temples; one was right out of an Indian Jones movie! Tyler even found and stepped on a family of cave-ducks: think Rodney Dangerfield a la Caddy Shack, and you might get this family inside joke. (Yes - Brian added that line during the editing process).

A quick dunk at the Water Temple...

...followed by meditation.

The super old and really amazing Moon Temple.

The wonderful owner of the Infinity Villa said that the Ubud "must do" is a rice paddy bicycle tour. This was only slightly complicated since our kids can't yet ride bikes. Or as Violet said "I can ride a bicycle. I just can't start or stop. Or turn." Brian did a quick round of research and found a bicycle tour company with tandem bikes. We were in! So for our last day in Bali, our guide picked us up in the morning and we headed for the volcano. Along the way, we stopped at a coffee plantation and learned about coffee growing and roasting. We also met the furry little Asian palm civet, a nocturnal weasel-like creature that eats coffee beans and then poops them out. The coffee makers, after collecting these beans, roast them as sell them as Kopi Luwak for like $100 a pound. Brian and I sampled some coffee - it was okay, but in no way worth the price tag. But Tyler loved that we were drinking "poop coffee."


We continued our drive past the volcano and then met up with our advance team. They had the bikes ready. So the tandem bikes were actually tandem bikes for ADULTS. Vi couldn't even reach the peddles. Fortunately, the tour guides knew the childrens' dimensions and they'd affixed a short bamboo pole across the bike frames for the kids to rest their feet (maybe not the safest, but we'd brought the childrens' bike helmets from KL so we should get some points for that). The rig worked surprisingly well. Our fantastic guide grew up as a rice farmer and along the tour he shared with us a wonderful wealth of knowledge on rice growing. It's laborious, unrelenting work that showcases an ancient yet well-preserved system of resource distribution. Water is centrally channeled and farmers downstream must coordinate the field flooding and harvest patterns. He also shared some sad accounts of land and wildlife changes since the introduction of industrial pesticides. Amid the breathtaking scenery, I am pleased to report that no child fell off his or her bamboo bike perch.

For those in our region, Bali is an easy and wonderful vacation spot. Ubud has great accommodations and delicious, healthy food. It's chill and relaxed, yet with a wealth of activities. And with a direct flight from KL to Bali, we can be there in two hours for as little as $100 on AirAsia -- yes, I have already looked for flights to go back!

Next stop in the holiday adventure - a middle of the night flight back to Java for a 6:00 am arrival in Yojyakarta.

But for now I leave you with a cockfighting picture. Well actually, it's a post fight shot. The winner, on the left, returns home for a shower and massage. The loser, on the right, is already cleaned up and ready to be dinner.