2Cs in Indonesia

Postscript

2011-10-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

We have arrived home to Tarpon Springs, Florida after an uneventful series of flights (with more legroom than we could have hoped for!) With broadband and my regular computer I am learning how to use Picasa to put up all the photos I took during this wonderful trip. So,

1) I invite you to keep checking back to favorite sections to see more and more as I figure out how to get them placed.

2) Follow the album links when they appear at the bottom right corners of the photos to see even more pictures of the same subject.

Until the next getaway....

Our Last (Pre-flight) Happy Hour

2011-10-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

Don with Greg of Ivory Street and Taffy and Shirley of The Road.

While shopping downtown for the Singapore Harley shirt we also managed to score two All Black's World Cup Rugby shirts. It made the perfect parting gift for our Kiwi Captain. (He won't have to wear his flag to next weekend's semi-final.) Taffy will be supporting his native Wales in the semi-final(his adoptive South African Springboks having lost to France in the quarterfinals.)

Thanks to these folks, the last players in the three month festival that has been our experience with Sail Indonesia 2011.

But above all thanks to Tom & Bette Lee of Quantum Leap, who invited us to join them in the first place, to George and Melinda of Dedalus, who gave us our base in Lovina, Bali, to Greg, Chrissie and Michael for sharing space aboard Ivory Street for the last leg to Singapore, and to the whole fleet of wonderful friends and fellow cruisers who let us feel like we still belong.

October 5-10, 2011 - Singapore

2011-10-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

Amazing how you can cross a strait, just a broad boulevard of water, and be in such a different place! Goodbye Indonesia; Singapore is ASIA, and this is Don's and my first experience of it. But it isn't just Asia, it is a unique crossroads of cultures, AND at the same time, a unique example of social engineering.

Singapore is an island city-state. It was gathered into the British empire by Thomas Stafford Raffles in the 1820s, who recognized the unique potential the island could play in world shipping based on its location on the crossroads of trade between the West and Asia. His foresight has been proven to the nth degree!

Singapore was occupied by Japan during WWII and it was another location of horrible wartime atrocities. It returned to British Rule after the war, but gained independence in 1959. Since then it has been governed by the People's Action Party. Lee Kuan Yew became its Secretary General and steered the city-state with a firm hand for thirty years into the clean, efficient successful industrialized power it is.

Most people have heard of Singapore's uptight mentality with respect to public behaviors: i.e. the infamous illegality of chewing gum, tight rein on litter, etc. The firm hand continues to be evident in strict port regulations, social management messages on trains and busses, wall posters, and heavy penalties for violations. Don and I walked through an pedestrian underpass in a park. On one side a sign asked politely that bikers dismount and walk through; on the other side it announced a $1000 fine for infringement!

The people, however, do not seemed at all cowed, just well behaved! The people on the very efficient subway system are all dressed a la mode Western style (mostly). We're back in a land where short short and camisole tops are OK, but there are no gansta pants nor sloppiness. The median age is in the mid-30s, and that's what you see out and about, and it seems like every one of them is engaged with their smartphone or Ipod!

In 2009, 74.2% of the 5.1 million residents were of Chinese, 13.4% of Malay, and 9.2% of Indian descent! Plus there are plenty of Western ex-pats working in corporate jobs and loving the international life. Official languages are English, Mandarin, and Malay, which makes it pretty easy for us to get around.

Housing is almost entirely high-rise complexes, planted in clusters on well-tended green areas with recreational areas with tennis or basketball available. It is the projects architectural scheme to the nth degree, and apparently done successfully.

Parks are liberally distributed throughout, and "town centers" appear to be the huge malls that are merged with transport hubs. You simply can't imagine the throng of eating that goes on in these multi-level malls, and all the stores appear packed. We suspect that most families eat most of their meals out!

Car ownership is discouraged, (the days you can use your vehicle determined by the color of your license plate! And we see signs "advising" Singapore drivers to top fuel up to 3/4 before crossing the bridge to Malaysia (where fuel is cheaper) and we understand you can be fined if caught exiting with less!) As a result, the highways have relatively light traffic, mostly busses and taxis, and definitely not the throng of motorbikes we saw in Indonesia. The roadways seem to all be thickly landscaped; even bridges and parking garages have integrated planters that overflow with greenery.

Instead, people use the subway and bus networks, which are quiet, well lit, and safe, and crowd control is a joy to flow along with. Plus companies provide shuttle service for employees to transport nodes.

Don and I have used the public transportation a lot. Tourism-wise we have visited the Asian Civilizations Museum (where we saw the Terracotta Army exhibit there -- So, cool!).

From Asians Civilizations Museum -2011-10-06

We've walked around the downtown area goggling at the unusual architecture and impressive skylines.

We had a great meal in vibrant Little India with old friends Jerry and Kathy of PoOino https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/4goJ3VBI0EuIW1xIql6whRwvqGosZTWbczVc65BJt80?feat=directlinkRoa who ventured into the city from their marina across the marina in Malyasia followed up by a quick look-see at Chinatown.

From Singapore Botanical Gardens

We took an afternoon to the beautiful Botanical Gardens (click on link to see flower photos!)and strolled past the lovely Swan Lake, through the Bromeliad and Orchid Gardens in a light drizzle, and stumbled over a Bonsai collection.

We also, of course, made the required pilgrimage to the Long Bar at Raffles Hotel, where we sat under the palm fan, threw peanut shells on the floor, enjoyed a Singapore Sling, and tried not to tremble at the prices.

From Raffles 2011-10-06

Raffles has been an expat hangout for decades, but it was a surprise to find it well inland from the river facing a towering Raffles commercial center (many, many, many things in Singapore bear the Raffles moniker.)

This past weekend we have spent down on Roberston Quay at a bar called Boomarang (sic) which seems to have been the ONLY place in Singapore broadcasting the World Cup Rugby semi-finals. Every non-American ex-pat in town was there (the American team did not make the semi-finals....not that many Americans even noticed that they made the playoffs!) Since our current cruiser pack includes Greg (a Kiwi currently based in Australia) and Taffy (a Welch South African), all four matches required our attendance. By George, I think we are starting to understand the game! Boomarang had all their tables reserved out which meant a lot of standing, but both days we were befriended by locals who lets us squeezed into their area and several of us actually onto chairs!

Today is laundry and packing up, but also moving the boat, first to the fuel dock and thence to another slip. Seems the owner of this one came back unannounced month early and wants his slip back. Chrissie and Michael flew back to Mooloolaba on Saturday, giving Michael a day to rest up for school(...and to finish his journal!) This afternoon we are off back downtown to see if we can score Don a Harley Singapore shirt. I am amused that it is the male half of the team that is taking us to Singapore's famed Orchard Street Shopping strip!

Our flight goes out early Wednesday morning, 12:55 AM! Our route home is via Shanghai and NYC, and takes us, I presume, "over the top". I can't get my mind around whether it will be light the whole way or what!? We land back in Tampa, after 36 hours traveling time, still on Wednesday, at 10:20pm!

2011-10-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

October 4, 2011- Arrival in Singapore

The chart plotter was overwhelmed within minutes of leaving the marina. One hundred and seventy three (yes 173) targets was the first report, then it upped to nearly 200! Trying to process all the data kept shutting the whole unit down. Greg first tried limiting the display only to dangerous targets, but obviously the processor has to consider everything first to know what qualifies as dangerous. In the end, Greg just had to pull the plug on the AIS.

The surprising result was a relatively unstressful crossing of the Singapore Strait. By far the majority of the big ships -- and I mean REALLY BIG SHIPS! -- were anchored in vast designated anchorages while the ships that were underway were channeled into controlled traffic schemes maintaining a steady three-minute separation. Until ready to cross, small boats like us must stay to the outside (on the shoulders of the highway if you will) and then, when ready to cross, plunge, darting like bumblebees to cross the traffic lanes in the available gaps. Watching a fellow rally boat crossing to Sentosa Island (where the downtown marinas are located) was a little alarming as it appeared that he was about to get crushed. In actuality he was already into "the median."

We crossed much farther west,, and when our turn came, the fact is, it was not that bad. There is room to pause in between the lanes, as witnessed by the local fishing pangas leisurely line fishing away! Mind you it would not have been any fun if the chartplotter had not been working at all!

The one disappointment was that the atmosphere was so hazy that taking photos of the Singapore skyline or of the clogged anchorages of giant ships was almost pointless. We could see the skyscrapers all huddled together across the strait, but the camera couldn't. Likewise, trying to capture the parking lots of fifty or sixty ships or the vast land reclamation projects was unsatisfactory. However we sat out on the bows for most of the passage and will have to count it as one of the most memorable!

Greg steered us up West Reach, the first leg of the channel that completely encircles Singapore like a moat separating it from Malyasia. Just before the high span of Second Crossing Bridge, we turned into Raffles Marina. Raffles is an historic name in Singapore. Sir Thomas Stafford Raffles....

Raffles Marina is a large pinkish resort complex and marina. There is a high-and-dry storage and haulout facility neither of which we should need, but more importantly several nice restaurants and a sumptuous pool with slide and jets, pool bar and snack area, separate little kiddies pool with a big yellow submarine and another separate jacuzzi, all of which Michael and I made fairly immediate use of. Hey, I had to be there....kids 12 and under require a chaperone!

In the evening we joined Jimmy and Char of Tarahumara, friends of Greg and Chrissie's who've been here a week, for dinner at the one of the resort's restaurants. Don had Pad Thai and I had Laksa, a popular Singaporean dish. How nice to have a menu beyond Indonesia core five dishes!

One more luxury being in the marina affords is air con! Whew, what a relief from the heat! Only, Greg had it set rather on the low side. After Don and I were already asleep, Greg turned it off. Several hours later, Don and I woke up hot and stuffy. WE opened all the ports to the cool evening air...only to have to jump up and close them all about an hour later when a thunderstorm rolled through! The wind was howling and the rain torrential! Closed up, the cabin grew hot again, but Greg kick the air con back on again and by morning, we were once again shivering! Yikes. Land life is complicated. Greg says the hours we put on the air con last night is more than it has been used before!

It is still raining this morning. Greg is working at getting us all checked into Singapore and Don is working at getting us all checked into the marina Internet. Once we are checked in we can start our touring. Once we are checked in to the Internet...we can get a weather report!

By the way, that was the shortest time change we've ever experienced, because upon arrival we had to change right back to 12 hours from home time.

October 2-3, 2011 -- To Batam and Nongsa Point Marina

2011-10-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

Greg let us all sleep in until about 5am, which, given the plan for an early departure, was generously late, especially since we had an hour's time change. (We are now only eleven hours ahead of Eastern US.) Still we were underway in the cool morning dew long before the sun was up. In fact, for the first time, the sky was actually overcast which kept us all quite a bit cooler...for a while at least.

We were expecting ship traffic to increase on this leg as we got closer and closer to Singapore. There were a few more AIS targets on the screen, but the gray sea stayed relatively empty...until nightfall. Heat lightning flashed in the west over unseen Sumatra, and fishing boats with blazing lights materialized on the horizon as if they'd somehow popped up from the bottom. Even then it was nowhere near what we'd anticipated. The worst surprise were several fields of small buoys marking drift nets marked by only a weak strobe...or not marked at all! But once we'd coasted through the first group without collecting a snarl behind us, we at least knew what to expect. And it gave us the chance to play with the spotlight.

The next morning the sea abruptly got lumpy and we had actual rain! This was the first rain beyond a few droplets anyone had seen in months! It was enough to force us to bring out all the isinglass windows but also enough to give the boat a good rinse.

By mid-morning the rain was over, and we were into the long channel between Bintang and Batam islands, part of the Riau island group off western Sumatra. Geographically, this looks like it could have made a fun cruising ground if the islands weren't essentially industrial suburbs of Singapore. According to the Lonely Planet guide, even where resorts have been built, tourists are diverted to golf courses and swimming pools and discouraged from swimming in the sea.

(Note Ivory Street heading to the left at the bottom right of the photo (by the yellow arrow.) Singapore and the major lanes of ship traffic are at the top of the screen. non gas Point Marina is just aheaad of the boat on the bottom of the picture.)

Greg's AIS display was suddenly working overtime with up to 90 targets listed, most of them huge ships and even one oil platform. Fortunately, most were anchored along the sides of the channel and in ports and few were actually underway. However, the burden of responsibility may have been too much for the chartplotter because just as we turned down the home stretch to Nongsa Point Marina, the chartplotter locked up.

This failure was the closest to unsettled we've seen Greg get...and it probably didn't help matters to see, as we approached the marks for the marina, a yacht on her side on the reef with shredded sails flapping! It was a very confusing approach to the marina, but fortunately they'd sent a boat out to lead us in.

So, suddenly, after many months, finding ourselves tied up in an upscale marina/ resort is a bit disorienting. It is a nice change to be motionless for night, but it is hot, still and there is the odd mozzie. The boys got into the arrival beers a little too quickly, especially when a fellow Kiwi turned up to discuss rugby scores, so that the power cord never got unearthed which meant no air con in the still night. Frankly, I hardly noticed. After a week of two night watches a night, I was glad for the chance to sleep through.

So today, once our papers and passports come back from customs and we are cleared out of Indonesia, we will make our last bit of passage over to Singapore. The adventure is not yet over. There's the busy straights to survive yet, not to mention touring one of the largest cities in the world.

Ivory Street Crew Tries to Keep Cool

2011-10-03T20:34:00.001-07:00

October 1, 2011 - Belitung Evening

2011-10-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

As planned we went ashore in the evening. Approach was a little tricky thanks to coral formations off the beach despite some white markers that had been set up to guide people in. To our happy amazement the beach that looked like soft white silica WAS soft, white silica -- a pure joy for the feet after weeks of hot black and grey volcanic sand.

We were greeted by smiling faces and more English than we might have expected. Even though we are a week early for the Rally festivities here scheduled for October 5-12, we were met by two men acting as rally liaisons. Both had decent English and were quick to offer us rides to town 25k away for shopping and sightseeing.

The locals grin and laugh readily, often as if they can't help themselves. Some of it is eager enthusiasm, some of it nervousness. One of the liaison fellows had the habit of hiding his grin with his hand. They are very fired up at the thought of all the yachts coming. I felt like such a heel having to tell them we were leaving in the morning. If we could do this again, we would go a lot slower. this could be a nice place to hang.

When we'd arrived midday there were two cruising boats in the anchorage. By evening there were five. We met up for a beer with the other crews at the palapa on the west end of the string, recommended as the best by a boat that had been here a week. But there were five businesses in the string, all in brand new buildings, so we decided to spread the business around and take our dinner in the middle one whose owners had come to the beach to greet us.

We were not sorry with our choice! We had terrific calamari even as the squid boats were heeding out for the night. Could it get any fresher? A slight misunderstanding delivered three orders of it, plus we had nasi goreng, the ubiquitous Indonesian fried rice dish and Cha Kah Kuhn, stir fried water spinach. Way too much, but all that for five people with drinks came to a total of about $20, and everything was delicious! Does life get any better?

Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad

September 30, 2011 -- Hot, HOT, HOT!!!

2011-09-30T18:45:00.000-07:00

I have just realized that we are only a few degrees shy of the equator a few days after the equinox. No wonder we have felt like we are on the BROIL setting the last few days. Whew! It's gotten hot!

At this moment, we are anchored of the north end of the island of Belitung, yet ANOTHER spot being promoted by the Indonesian government and organizers. Our anchorage lat/long (for any Rally participants who might be looking for it) is: 02*33.389'S; 107*40.678E. The waypoint provided by the rally had a typo in it and, 10k offshore, gave no clue to the actual anchorage location!

It looks gorgeous. There is a long white sand beach (rare in this part of the world) and a whole bunch of little rock islands reminiscent of the Baths of the BVI to the west which Greg and Michael are currently exploring for a possible afternoon dive. Perhaps even better, there are several cell towers and a fast data connection! And best of all, there is a string of beach palapa-style restaurants where we aim to let somebody else cook our "tea" (i.e. dinner) this evening.

Two weeks from today, "they say" the President of Indonesia will be coming here for the final party before the fleet crosses into Malaysia. We're told he wants to mingle with the cruisers and learn what we think about the country and what is needed. I think that is a hopeful paraphrase. I think they will be lucky if there are any boats left in the country to hunt for the place.

We won't be here. The plan is a middle of the night departure tonight for another multi-day sail north. Sigh. I do miss the leisurely approach.

September 28, 2011 - Free Dive

2011-09-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

In Bali, the rally sailors were given yet another full-color glossy brochure for a stopover to which the government wanted to lure us, this time for Karimunjawa, the aforementioned island archipelago. In expensive glossy blues (and typically random Indonesian English), the brochure depicts a refuge of sandy beaches and great diving.

We should really know better by now that these brochure do not reflect reality, at least not reality for cruising boats.

The diving in Karimunjawa, according to Lonely Planet, a far more reliable resource, is handled exclusively by the Kura Kura Resort, which turns out to be on its own island of Menyawaken. Using our state of the art resources, we looked up Kura Kura on the Internet and saw a nice areal view of the reef-fringed island and its little manmade harbor. I was suspicious of the scale.

Greg called the resort on the telephone (wonderfully convenient gadget!) to inquire about diving with them and of availability of a mooring or place in their harbor. Our dream was a wonderful afternoon scuba dive, capped by a meal at the resort's restaurant and a night at the dock. They said call back after 1pm because the seas was too rough to enter.

So we used the morning to clean the boat, forming a bucket brigade to sluice off the worst of the dirt. (Don and I were amazed that the boat didn't have a salt water wash down system...until we realized that with fresh water heads, there is no inlet for salt!) Greg and Don also took the opportunity afforded by the calm water to go up the mast and cut out the bit of chafed halyard.

As 1pm approached we raised the anchor and motored out to Menyawaken. The resort looked charming through the trees, but the alleged harbor appeared even more minute than we'd feared! No hope for a boat Ivory Street size to enter let alone turn around. At best, a possibility for her dinghy!

I expected we'd just motor onward, but, not to be daunted, Greg shut the engines down and let the boat drift on the slight swell, then launched the dinghy and loaded up gear for himself, Michael and me. Leaving Don and Chrissie in charge of the big boat, the three of us ran over to one of the dive buoys off the resort island. Man, it felt like shades of my old charter days...although it is a bigger dinghy!

It is always nice to get in the water, and, in Michael's opinion, the dive, his sixth, was quiet enjoyable. From the adult viewpoint, however, it was a pretty mediocre dive. Viz was poor, fish were few, and everything was monochromatic beige. The coral seemed healthy enough...in between chutes of damage (Whether the damage was natural or from dynamite fishing, I couldn't tell you.), and there were a few soft corals struggling to be pink and purple in the beige. In other words, much ado for not much.

Apparently, while we were underwater, the resort's dive boat whizzed by Ivory Street with one diver and a crew of three. Perhaps had we tried calling them again, we might have arranged a pickup and run to a better site? Perhaps. On the other hand, at least this dive cost us nothing but time and effort!

Gear and dinghy stowed away, divers rinsed and dried, we turned our bows toward the next stop, the island of Belitung, about 280 miles away. There was not a whiff of wind, not unusual for afternoons, but I can't say it wasn't nice to motor gently over the placid sea.

And I also can't say I was disappointed that the wind never came up last night or this morning. Ivory Street's rocketing speeds are exciting, but they are tiring! Instead, everybody has taken the opportunity to sleep well in their off-watch time. Because the distance is far enough we can't make it in one overnight, there is less pressure to push hard. This means we are proceeding at a more civilized pace, one in which there is a hope of catching a fish, should any be left in this sea. Also, this morning, Greg and Don put up the spinnaker, what the IS crew calls "flying the strawberry." I am hopeful that come the heat of the day, the strawberry will provide lots of shade!

Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad

Sunset over Java Sea

2011-09-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

Very unusual halo around last night's sunset. I realized yesterday that we are just a few degrees below the equator and the sun is just a few days past the solstice. No wonder we feel suddenly like we're on "Broil"!

Sailing the Strawberry

2011-09-29T22:44:00.001-07:00

Putting up "the Strawberry"

2011-09-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

Michael in the Crows Nest

2011-09-29T17:24:00.001-07:00

Our Spontaneous Dive

2011-09-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

Don Finds a Cool Spot

2011-09-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

Fishing Structure

2011-09-29T17:10:00.001-07:00

This is one of maybe fifty stretch across the shallow bay!

It's Not Sinking

2011-09-29T17:09:00.001-07:00

This is the most unusual of unusually shaped boats!

Two Prows

2011-09-29T17:09:00.000-07:00

Sunset

2011-09-29T17:07:00.001-07:00

Sundowners

2011-09-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

Nice Helm Station

2011-09-29T17:05:00.001-07:00

On Watch on Ivory Street

2011-09-29T17:05:00.000-07:00

27-28 September 2011- Passage to Karimunjawa

2011-09-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

I've lost a few calendar days somewhere?! It always feels that way after a multi-day passage, but I really can't seem to find them!

We were up early and underway from that first anchorage after a good night's sleep. We motored out through a narrow cut between the ends of two islands, with wharfs and villages on each side. The crews of boats -- from freighters and ferries to small oddly-shaped punts -- called out as we passed and waved "Hallo!" or "Assalaamualaikum" ("peace be on you" -- the standard Muslim greeting, and these islands are reportedly traditionally Muslim.) Most vessels of whatever size were heavily loaded with big blue bags which we guess to contain rice.

On the far side of the cut was a shallow bay, whipped to a brown frenzy by the strengthening morning breeze, stretched across which was a formidable line of bamboo fishing structures that we would have to get through. It's a strange feeling motoring through this motionless unattended "fleet" of spectral structures

It seems in this part of the world, wind builds in the mornings then dies off in the afternoons. Hence, Ivory Street starts the day sailing hard and ends it motorsailing hard. Her mainsail is 95 square meters, the genoa is 74, plus she has both a genoa (74 sq. meters) and a screecher -- a larger, lighter headsail -- that is about the same area as the main. Like most skippers, Greg has a motoring "rule" -- a threshold of speed-made-good below which the engine comes on. Or in the case of catamarans, one engine comes on. Also like most skippers, that threshold is always pegged a little too high, so that to get where they're going in the time planned, odds are there will most often be a little motor assist.

During the daytime, the vessel traffic on the Java Sea is relatively modest. There are the odd (in all senses of the word) local boats that pop up from the sea either to protect their nets or drift lines (marked Mexican style with a jerry rigged buoy of lashed timbers with a black flag!) or to intersect your course just for a closer look. These are easy to see and avoid, if their flagged nets are not! There are also, of course, big ships -- freighters and cruise ships, but they all appear on the plotter as we do on theirs via AIS, the automated radio-based position information service which is a damned handy development since our day.

At night, however, the sea seems to become a congested highway, filled with vessels of all types undertaking all kinds of unidentifiable endeavors, mostly to do with fishing, we suppose, on top of the same ships trafficking during the daytime. The radar screen is filled with blips, large and small, and they display a whole range of lighting schemes.

Through all this, Ivory Street hurtles along at her warp speed of 8-10 knots. It is not the most relaxing of sailing, and it will only get worse as we get closer to Singapore.

From Bali to Singapore is 1000 miles, more or less. Our deadline to get there ASAP is pegged to getting 12-year-old Michael back to Mooloolaba for his fourth semester of eighth grade (he attended semesters one and two and missed number three), most particularly, in time to sign up for team sports. So we are moving more quickly than the typical leisure cruiser. Our hope of time to stop at Kumai to partake of the orangutan experience fizzled with the visa delay in Bali.

However, at the moment. after two nights at sea, we are stopped for an overnight in the quiet anchorage at Karimunjawa, the main island of a group of 26 in a small archipelago off Java where we are hoping to get a dive in this afternoon. After the dive, if it happens, it will be back to sea for another two nights!

Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad

28 September 2011- Passage to Karimunjawa

2011-09-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

I've lost a few calendar days somewhere?! It always feels that way after a multi-day passage, but I really can't seem to find them!

We were up early and underway from that first anchorage after a good night's sleep. We motored out through a narrow cut between the ends of two islands, with wharfs and villages on each side. The crews of boats from freighters and ferries to small oddly-shaped punts called out as we passed and waved "Hallo!" or "assalaamualaikum" (peace be on you -- which is the standard Muslim greeting, and these islands being very traditionally Muslim.) Most vessels of whatever size were heavily loaded with big blue bags which we guess to contain rice.

On the far side of the cut was a shallow bay, whipped to a brown frenzy by the strengthening breeze, stretched across which was a formidable line of bamboo fishing structures that we would have to get through. It's a strange feeling motoring through this motionless unattended "fleet" of spectral structures

It seems in this part of the world, wind builds in the mornings then die off in the afternoons. Hence, Ivory Street starts the day sailing hard and ends it motorsailing hard. Her mainsail is 94 square meters, plus she has both a genoa and a screecher -- a larger, lighter headsail. Like most skippers, Greg has a motoring "rule" -- a threshold of speed-made-good below which the engine comes on. Or in the case of catamarans, one engine comes on. Also like most skippers, that threshold is always pegged a little too high, so that to get where they're going in the time planned, odds are there will most often be a little motor assist.

During the daytime, the vessel traffic on the Java Sea is relatively modest. There are the odd (in all senses of the word) local boats that pop up from the sea either to protect their nets or drift lines (marked Mexican style with a jerry rigged buoy of lashed timbers with a black flag!) or to intersect your course just for a closer look. These are easy to see and avoid, if their flagged nets are not! There is also, of course, big ships -- freighters and cruise ships, but they all appear on the plotter as we do on theirs via AIS, the automated radio-based position information service which is a damned handy development since our day.

At night, however, the sea seems to become a congested highway, filled with vessels of all types undertaking all kinds of unidentifiable endeavors, mostly to do with fishing, we suppose on top of the same ships trafficking during the daytime. The radar screen is filled with blips, large and small, and they display a whole range of lighting schemes.

Through all this, Ivory Street hurtles along at her warp speed of 8-10 knots. It is not the most relaxing of sailing, and it will only get worse as we get closer to Singapore.

From Bali to Singapore is 1000 miles, more or less. Our deadline to get there ASAP is pegged to getting 12-year-old Michael back to Mooloolaba for his fourth semester of eighth grade (he attended semesters one and two and missed number three) most particularly in time to sign up for team sports. So we are moving more quickly than the typical leisure cruiser. Our hope of time to stop at Kumai to partake of the orangutan experience fizzled with the visa delay in Bali.

Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad

Ivory Street at Lovina Beach, Bali

2011-09-25T17:26:00.001-07:00

To Sea Aboard Ivory Street

2011-09-25T16:43:00.001-07:00

We departed Bali this morning for a lively day trip across to an anchorage in the lee of Java aboard our new ride, the 57' luxury catamaran Ivory Street.

It turned into quite an evening last night, not our usual pre passage scenario. We went ashore mid-afternoon to the local sports bar for the NZ-France Match in World Cup Rugby (our hosts -- Greg, Chrissie and 12-year-old Michael -- are Kiwi!) which was well attended by much of the fleet.

In the course of the sporting revelry we made the acquaintance of the family on Silver Lining, a 104' custom sailing yacht that had just come in. Built in Thailand and only recently recently launched, the boat was designed and built by its owner, a Canadian restauranteur based in Hong Kong. Chris, Vicki, and their two kids joined us for dinner that ran late, and then invited us aboard for a nightcap. Despite our planned early morning departure, none of us wanted to pass up the invite!

Wow! What a boat! 5 crew (one of whom is the kids' tutor). Handsome modern interior with all the trimmings, furniture and accents also designed by the owner, including a teak bathtub! We had the soup to nuts tour and the kids played Xbox on wthe giant screen. We didn't get home til 12:30...

...Which made the early departure especially painful. Lovina, quiet for one day after the farewell ceremonies for the rally, was all a hubbub at daybreak with music and loudspeakers for a bicycle race! And the dolphin- watching outriggers were motoring past our portholes as we tried to squeeze our eyes shut. Ivory Street Has large ports so I envisioned the tourists peaking in at our tangled sheets!

It was not the perkiest crew that wrestled Ivory Street's anchor aboard (did I mention the windlass is broken!?) and it took us a while to grasp some of the quirks of the state of the art Ratheon nav system (oops part of the auto- pilot control isn't working!). We were not even ten miles offshore -- barely time to get down a cup or. Two of live-restoring coffee -- when wind abruptly came up. Up go the sails. Uh oh, there's a chafed area in the main halyard to worry about; we'll put in one reef. and so it went.

Please don't get the wrong picture. This is a gorgeous boat. She sails like a dream. And counters one of our frustrations with Quantum Leal about being engaged with the environment (At the helm seat you are in full air...and sun, and it is easy and nice to sit out on the cabin top with a bean bag chair.). But a) she's a boat and things do go wrong with boats, and b) she's a boat with some fancy systems, and stuff goes more wrong fancy systems sometimes (as per the list detailed by Chris on Silver Lining!). And c) Greg pretty much singlehands this vessel. He's a very capable guy, but there's only so much one person can fit in. The chief reason we were invited aboard was to help spell Greg at the helm on long passages. Of course, no soon did he go below to rest than the wind came up to flirt with his limit as we rocketed across the top of the bouncy Bali Strait. This boat goes literally 2x the speed Tackless did!

Glad this first day is not an overnight passage. And glad the conditions settled down after we cleared the strait. We wended our way into a protected spot in a mere two meters of water off a village (with lots of cell towers for Internet!), plopped down that anchor, and enjoyed a sundowner as the sun set blazing red in the haze over Java. And then the five or so mosques started their competing calls. Ah, well.

Gwen Hamlin

Cafe Getaway

Sent from my iPad

September 22, 2011 -- Finale and Farewell from Lovina, Bali

2011-09-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

Indonesians, and the Balinese in particular, love ceremonies. Ceremonies are the framework of their society. I'm reading an interesting book which provides an inside look at daily life called Fragrant Rice by Janet De Neefe, an Aussie who marries a Balinese and raises a family in Ubud, and she details the sequence of ceremonies and the preparation those ceremonies demand of the neighborhood organization throughout the year.

So it shouldn't surprise us that everywhere we stop a big deal is made of the fleet's being here, and it shouldn't surprise us that the Balinese do a particularly good job. Following the week's displays, tours and evening performances, we had last night the Farewell ceremony and dinner hosted by the Buleleng Regency.

The evening began with alternating performances on the stage by two Joged-style bamboo gamelan troupes, as the cruisers assembled and we all awaited the arrival of the regency officials. After these important people arrived and filled the front rows there followed some speeches. It was touching that the chief official, after his speech in Balinese, did his very best to do his own translation to English. Peter Benziger of Peregrina who has become the cruisers' de facto spokesman, then delivered a suitably flowery and gracious speech of thanks, and this time Raymond Lesmata, the Indonesian liaison for the Rally translated his comments back.

After the speeches came two Joged performances with the dancers seeking partners from the audience, just as they did in Ubud. The hit of the evening was an older cruiser from the catamaran Starfire who did a impressive job mirroring the dancers flirting moves.

From there we moved to a farewell buffet hosted by the Regency at the Sea Breeze Restaurant, a pleasant beach restaurant to the west of the dolphin monument. Lining the approach to the restaurant were individual styrofoam posters from each of the local sponsors welcoming the Sail Indonesia Rally to Lovina. Up close, we realized that each of these posters were carved styrofoam with raised and colored graphics, probably hand done, each unique to this event! Being as they were in Indonesian, this effort may well have been overlooked by the cruisers!

The buffet was the best yet, the tables needed to host the crews of the 74 boats in the anchorage plus all the invited officials and sponsors spilling over onto the beach. It was capped by an impressive fireworks display (including one series of Vegas-like fountains of sparks that we had never seen anywhere before) bursting right over our heads! Then this was followed by dancing and Karaoke, and no one was terribly surprised when our Starfire dancing star turned out to be pretty darn good at the microphone as well!

I do wish the organizers of the rally would give us a little more guidance on expected behaviors for such events. With the details of Balinese life fresh in my mind from reading Fragrant Rice, I realize that we Western cruisers are a rather self-centered lot, dressing too casually (some of us), overlooking details (like the personalized posters), taking orchestrated events too casually (forgoing a scheduled performance for another beer at the bar), or pushing to the head of the buffet line like cattle that haven't been fed in a week. And what does a culture where couples do not touch in public think of our style of whirling and twirling and slow dance embrace? Granted, they did provide the music!

As I type we are mostly moved off of Dedalus and onto Ivory Street. We should be underway to Kalimantan, but the Ivory Street passports have not come back yet with our visa extensions. It's Friday, and if they don't make it back today, can we imagine they'll be here before Monday? Unfortunately, the delay is likely to cancel plans to visit the orangutans in Kalimantan.... which ironically would mean we probably don't need the extensions in the first place!

PS! Got our passports....but New Zealand is playing in the World Cup Rugby tomorrow, so....??? Who knows?

Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad

September 19-22 -- Lovina, Mountain Sightseeing, and Rally Events

2011-09-21T21:27:00.001-07:00

Lovina Beach is a name given to a string of villages that cater to the laid-back beach tourist who has been adventurous enough to leave trendy Kuta in the south of Bali and venture to the north shore. The nearest big city up here is Singaraja -- the second largest on the island -- and a handsome place it seems to be, based on a quick drive through. In the old days, it was Singarajah that was the seat of Dutch power here.

The Rally is actually centered on the village of Kalibukbuk identified by a iconic dolphin monument on the beach. Every morning as we ascend to our flybridge aerie for coffee we see the fleet of local boats loaded with tourists motoring BACK IN from the predawn dolphin watching excursion!

Sail Indonesia Events

The Sail Indonesia events started Monday with craft and culinary expos during the day at the top of the beach and a dance exhibition on a stage in the evening. We were among the first to check out the former -- yes, buying AND eating! -- but I'm embarrassed to say that by evening we couldn't face dressing again after our swim so listened to the gamelan orchestra from across the water. Sitting in the aerie at sunset, sipping wine, watching the scattered lights come on across the mountainside, and listening to the orchestra -- a pleasant tinkle at this distance -- was about as nice as it gets.

North Side Tour: Munduk, Waterfall, Twin Lakes, Singaraja

Tuesday morning (after running the engines on the three boats we are looking after!) we found ourselves a driver for a bit of a nosy (as the Kiwis say) around the north side of Bali. Hustled by a young man whose English was pretty good, we discovered he was a front man for drivers who don't speak much English! Our driver, Koko, was a very nice father of four, but our communications were limited to essentials. Even my Lonely Planet phrasebook couldn't much help with the kinds of questions I wanted to ask!

Our first destination was another coffee plantation in the Munduk region. Munduk is village, but also a steeply mountainous region centered on one of the watershed valleys north of Bali's central cluster of volcanos. Villages cluster on ridge tops or valley bottoms, their roofs tightly packed together in a sea of green. At lower elevations we passed multi-tier rice terrace cut into the hillside, and, finally, lucked into one community in the midst of harvesting. Most amusingly a clutch of dozens of baby ducks had been turned loose on a cleared area to gorge themselves on any remaining edibles.

The plantation our driver chose in truth was a clove plantation with coffee and all the other typical "panaculture" spice species -- three coffees, cocoa, cinnamon, vanilla, ginseng, turmeric, etc -- sharing the roughly terraced hillside. Like our previous coffee stop, this venue was more a garden showplace, with the larger plantation elsewhere! Still, we had an informative tour, by an attractive young lady this time, and got a more evocative photograph of what the Luwak coffee beans look like in civet cat poop! The ground seemed very very dry, but our guide said this year's clove crop was poor because they had had too much rain. After the tour we enjoyed a couple of Bali-style coffees -- one ginger, one mocha -- poured from quaint coconut-shell coffee pots into carved wooden coffee cups!

Next stop up the mountain was a hike in to a spectacular waterfall. Oddly, the pool at the bottom was three-quarters filled with gravel and silt and didn't seem to have enough room for the volume of water coming down let alone any swimming. On one side, a three-gate stone sluice channeled water into an aqueduct that snaked away through the forest to service some rice terrace below.

We stopped at a restaurant just up the road from the waterfall path for a quick lunch and the spectacularly cool and misty view north.

From there on our our sightseeing was mostly from the car as we climbed up to the ridge top to look down on two mountain lakes in an old caldera. Even here the rough land was thoroughly cultivated with the primary commercial crop being blue flowers, like a single-stalked hydrangea! At a roadside overlook, a man was proffering the chance to hold/touch an huge iguana, three fruit bats, and a huge python. We left just as he was draping the snake in several coils around a tourists' neck! Eeeecccch! Our route back brought us down through Singaraja .

Welcoming Ceremonies

The evening event on the beach was the official welcoming ceremony for Sail Indonesia, complete with relatively brief speeches by the local government officials. The program was a surprising mix of traditional music and dance and more modern interpretations. This included a Balinese rock band which mixed electric guitars with gamelan, Balinese drums, cymbals and flute. It was terrific!

Surprising to see some more modern-style dances performed, and even more surprising to find I preferred the traditional ones! Having seen these dances several times now, we are beginning to have a feel for what we are seeing. The first two very traditional dances were definitely our favorite, particularly a dance by three women in gold symbolizing a battle (I believe.)

The troupes performing were drawn from a number of villages in the regency. There was an attempt to merge several dances into an interpretive suite about man needing to return to "God, Nature and Society" to save the world from all the negative trends of the day, the final piece of which performed to a female singer singing in a sort of nightclub style, in Balinese English. This came across a little too overt for my taste! Were we Westerners being lectured?

The rest of the week has been more of same: evening dance events; some meetings by rally organizers regarding our visa extensions, boat export, and cruising plans for Malaysia; and, of course, socializing with other cruisers. We have put some elbow grease into making Dedalus look good for George & Melinda's return tomorrow; we sure have enjoyed the chance to treat this big boat as our own.

This morning we moved our packed bags over to Ivory Street, another handsome vessel. We sure are cruising on the cream of the crop. The original plan has been to depart Lovina tomorrow aboard Ivory Street, but there is some suspense about whether our passport extension will be back yet today. None of us are too keen about moving on with a promise of passports down the road!

Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad

Balinese culinary treats

2011-09-19T00:05:00.002-07:00

More Balinese crafts

2011-09-19T00:05:00.001-07:00

Basketwork

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Michael of Ivory Street displays a Balinese rice sifter (for shaking the chaff off the rice grain)

Sail Indonesia Event at Lovina

2011-09-19T00:03:00.001-07:00

The Sail Indonesia Folks have put together a nice presentation for Lovina, including this display of local crafts. Students from a nearby "International School" are doing their best to provide translating services.

Early Departure

2011-09-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Casting of the mooring for early departure from Gili Aer...Lombok looking gorgeous in the background.

September 17-18 2011 -- Yacht Sitting

2011-09-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

On the morning of the 17th, George, Melinda and George's brother Stan took off on their own week-long exploration of Bali and the two captains were left in charge. This morning our cruising friends on Sabbatical III and Wind Pony also took off for a few days leaving us with their keys. For the next couple of days, we will be busy running engines and generators to keep batteries topped up and fridges chilled. All the space we left between Dedalus and other boats has been filled in!! Let's just pray that no big weather system comes through to test anchors and elbow room!

Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad

September 16, 2011 -- mv Dedalus and the Voyage Back to Bali's Lovina Beach

2011-09-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you are wondering why we went to the effort and expense to backtrack to Gili Aer when we could just have easily rendezvoused with Dedalus by taxi in Lovina Beach? Well, we just felt that if we were going to be responsible for this big boat for a whole week, we wanted to see how the engines and windlass worked -- just in case.

And I suppose we were curious about how this very different catamaran would feel underway.

The strait between Lombok (and the Gilis) and Bali is a major dividing line in this part of the world. Originally it was noticed by the English naturalist in Alfred Russell Wallace based on the very different animal life to be found to either side, Asian to the West, Australian to the East. His observations shared with Charles Darwin played a part in Darwin's developing theories.

What Wallace noted has been shown to be based on the islands' tectonic foundations, with I believe (sorry, don't have a reference here to check and my Internet is out!), a plate boundary plunging to great depths in this strait. More to the point for navigators, strong currents race predominantly northward during the southeast monsoon season that we are in now, so that crossing the strait can be quite lively depending on the tide.

Casting off the mooring for early departure from Gili Aer...Lombok looking gorgeous in the background.

Quite a few of the rally boats left at the same time we did, just before sunrise. At first the ride was very smooth as our big Cummins 450 Turbo diesels overtook the sailing fleet. Within 20 minutes, however, Dedalus was leaping and bucking around as the current hit us broadside! My goodness! Drawers jumped from their tracks and as we were thrown violently left and right, Don and I were thinking we had made a major miscalculation.

However, a slight course adjustment to the north put the seas on the quarter and the ride settled right down. We crossed the Strait on the backs of the engines smooth hum and arrived mid afternoon. (For you engineering types, the we ran these big engines at only 1100 rpms with fuel flow at 2.4 gph which, making 8 knots, generally averages 1mpg. With a 4000 gallon fuel capacity, that gives Dedalus a very big cruising range...not to mention a horrific fuel bill!) I must admit to feeling a pleasant nostalgia for my years on the dive ships in response to the engines' steady hum.

Dedalus is a very unusual vessel. It was designed by George's brother-in-law, whose wife put the kibosh on any cruising plan. So George ended up taking the plans and having the boat built in Chili. It may be 60' long, but it is only 24' wide (whereas Quantum Leap was 28'), so for its length, it is a bit narrow. Each hull is narrow, too, for the knifelike slice through the water, but that results in narrower accommodation space in the hulls. The master cabin, however, is forward and very spacious, sort of a split level space under a raised cabin deck, with, another split level above and aft of that -- a divine bridge deck which houses the nav station and a long banquette and table behind it to starboard and the all electric galley to port. Aft and down a level is a den-like cabin with a big flat screen TV and behind that is the aft deck with a table and chairs.

One of the nicest spots on the boat, especially in this climate, is the fly bridge which has a small C-shaped bench area around a raised captain's seat. Although George and Melinda say they rarely use the control station there (and why would you need to when the inside station is such an awesome setup), they use it more for morning coffee and evening sundowners. This eagle's nest of a spot provides the 360* view and breeze one misses on other catamarans. Although I'm sure I'm glad I wasn't up here during our rough half hour, for the rest of the trip it was my preferred perch.

Lovina turns out to big a big open roadstead of an anchorage along a coastline of black sand beaches. Behind the shoreline the mountains rise up more steeply to the east where the big volcanoes Agung, Batur and their buddies cluster, while the skyline slopes off more gradually to the west. Backlit at sunset the high profile of nearby Java emerges from the haze; otherwise you wouldn't have a clue it is there!

Quite a few of the Rally boats were already in Lovina and more have arrived since, resulting in a crowd of boats we haven't seen the likes of since Kupang and Darwin. The Rally schedule of events is due to start on Monday the 20th, with a ten-foot high poster on the beach detailing the sequence of activities, performances and dinners.

Ashore is a string of tourist restaurants along the shaded strand, and we've been surprised, actually, by how many land-based tourists seem to be about. Not enough, however, because the streets, beach and even the waters of the bay itself are populated with folk trying to find someway to make a rupiah (or two hundred thousand!) off of you. This high-pressure -- if polite -- salesmanship quickly becomes exhausting.

However, I have just picked up a book Melinda lent me called Fragrant Rice by Janet De Neefe. About Bali from an ex-pat's point of view (Aussie De Neefe and her Balinese husband have a famous restaurant/cooking school in Ubud called Casa Luna), the book begins with the October 13, 2002 bombing in Bali. The bombing not only sent shock waves around the world, but, easy for outsiders to overlook, shockwaves through the Balinese community and its economy.

Just this morning, Don's parents asked, with a tinge of concern, if Bali was Muslim. In fact, as I have detailed in our Ubud escapes, it most definitely is not (although much of where we have been traveling to this point is!) Bali is 95% Hindu. But the association between the evocative island name and the horrendous terrorist act still lingers. It is ironic to realize that this island that is so conscious of spiritual balance, of live-and-let-live, is still tarred with the bad aura of that one act.

So I will try to be more tolerant of the full-court-press of everyday people trying to get ahead rupiah by rupiah after enduring nearly a decade of oh-so-slow economic recovery.

Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad

September 15, 2011 -- Back to Gili Aer

2011-09-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

We barely got a slurp of coffee down before our early departure from Ubud for the fast boat back from Bali to Gili Aer. For anyone following, take note: the Sea Marlin fast boat is a much pleasanter ride than Eka Jawa!

Back on Gili Aer, the anchorage was packed with Rally boats. Hard to believe that when we first arrived we were the only one! It was nice to see again old friends, some of whom, of course aren't so old, but friends made in Darwin, Kupang and Alor! Oddly, the tourist population ashore seemed much diminished.

Quantum Leap, of course was long gone, on their way to Kalimantan and the orangutan experience, so, as planned we moved aboard the 60' power cat, Dedalus. Our hosts George and Melinda made us feel like honored guests. We enjoyed a lovely last dinner ashore with George's visiting brother Stan at Scallywag's, then it was home and to bed for an early departure.

Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad

September 11-14, 2011 -- More Bali, Part One

2011-09-14T07:25:00.000-07:00

(Please Note: This is a long post I have broken up into three parts with photos in between!)

If I had to sum up Bali in one paragraph (hardly likely, huh?), it would start with a list: Gates, temples, shrines, offerings, walls, sarongs, flowers, petals, touts, deals, kharma, traffic... and rice -- on the table and in the fields.

We were trying to explain to our driver yesterday the meaning of the English word opposite (he asked) -- good/bad, black/white, rich/poor, north/south, good kharma/bad kharma etc -- but in my mind was also the contrast of Bali's philosophy of serenity and balance in a reality of hierarchy, obligation, caste, and constant hustling.

Although Tom and Bette Lee gave us the name of their driver, somehow he never got called. At Ubud Inn we had Gusti, for his connection to the coffee plantation owner, and here at Sagitarius, our room steward Eddie precipitated us toward "a friend with a car" -- Putu. In such a way, tourists are pulled into our place in the hierarchy.

I'm not sure Putu's tribal heritage, but he has an almond-shaped face, golden skin, and long slightly kinky hair he twists up in a tight bun or lets down according to some system I never deciphered. He drives a chocolate-colored Toyota vehicle the shape of a Ford Explorer, with standard transmission and more years on the road than most of the taxi fleet. The windows are heavily tinted so the polisi don't see that he has Western passengers in the back, because he does not have a full taxi license In other words, Putu is working hard to get ahead.

His English is pretty good, but like most people here, it's been learned on the fly and is not infallible. However he is keen to communicate especially when you ask questions about real life in Bali, or about all the Hindu paraphernalia we are constantly driving by.

Unlike the Indonesian islands we have visited previously which were, first predominantly Catholic (despite the loud mosques) -- Timor and Alor -- and later predominantly Muslim --Flores and Lombok --, Bali is 95% Hindu, but a Hinduism that is uniquely Balinese.

According to the Lonely Planet (my bible!), Balinese officially "worship the same gods as the Hindus of India --- the trinity of Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu -- BUT they also have a supreme god, Sanghyang Widi." However, Lonely Planet goes on to say, that in general the trinity is "never seen" nor is Sanghyang Widi often worshipped, but that daily deference is paid to spirits that "are more animist than Hindu." This explains why a young guide at the Mother Temple talked of Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu while Putu insisted that "there is only one God, one God!" It is all subject to interpretation, but you'd better not fall down on your daily offerings to the spirits whether you are a store keeper, a taxi driver, a restauranteur or well-to-do hotel owner. Kharma is precarious.

For example, we can delight in the simple charm of the typical daily offering -- a small square basket of plaited palm leaves filled with a flower, a tablespoon of rice, several tiny slices of chili, and often a stick of incense. In the morning, these are placed everywhere -- small shrines, niches in walls, on the sidewalk, or on the steps of a business establishment where patrons must step over and walk around. Today, a particularly holy day that repeats every 15 days, the offering were particularly prolific, heaped in piles that made getting down the sidewalk somewhat of an obstacle course.

Then there is the odd (to us) Balinese habit of dressing their statues in black and white checked sarongs and providing them with parasols. Statues are placed at gates, gates being anything you pass through to enter virtually any kind of a space. According to Putu they are there to provide "security," his English word for standing guard against unwanted spirits. This custom exists at doors to stores, hotels, restaurants, temples, and even villages. Dressing the statues is a "courtesy" (my word) you extend to the statues for special days and ceremonies, or longer if you can afford to do it.

The temple phenomenon is also something you can't really grasp until you've experienced it. Every village has its community temples, every house its family temples no matter how rustic, every temple its shrines, every shrine its offerings. The community's temples are the temple of origin, dedicated to the village's founders; another for the spirits that protect the village, and one for the dead.

Every family compound has much the same, a walled yard with a shrine for the gods to inhabit, one for the "head" (best translated to sanity and perhaps good sense), one for the spirits of the ancestors ("but not their bodies, you understand!), and some I'm still not sure of what/whom they are for...and neither, I suspect is Putu!

When you build a house, you must first build the family temple, and you must build it to the best degree you are able. The gods/spirits aren't greedy, but they will know if they've been stinted! Your returned kharma will be based on your investment, and as you make progress, then it's expected that some of your gain will be put into your shrines to upgrade them.

So as you drive around you see everywhere the industry this supports, the stone (or cast cement?) statues, the stone plinths, the shrine toppers in skeletal form, the elaborate carved panels that get added, the thick grass roofs, the fancy paint and gilt that get added. Where we might lust for a new flat panel TV, Putu lusts for a "quality" shrine topper made by the best craftsmen who are found on the slopes approaching Mt. Agung.

Please don't get the impression that I am belittling this. It just bewilders me, and yes, at the end of the day our American practicality hopes that the tip we leave goes to school books for the kids and not to a fancier shrine. But one has to respect utterly the structure all this gives to a very definite way of life.

Back Lane Wood Carving "Factory" in Mas

2011-09-14T06:59:00.000-07:00

Carved Panel of Hibiscus

2011-09-14T06:58:00.001-07:00

Find sanding

2011-09-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

Rama and Sita and the Golden Deer

2011-09-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

From the Ramayana Saga and the Kecak Dance

Panel from Ramayana Story (and Kecdcak Dance)

2011-09-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

Buddahs

2011-09-14T06:52:00.000-07:00

Will this fit in my suitcase...?

2011-09-14T06:50:00.000-07:00

Close up: New Planting and Irrigation

2011-09-14T06:49:00.001-07:00

Rice Paddy

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Rice paddies

2011-09-14T06:47:00.001-07:00

46 Terrace Levels (at Least) to this Huge Rice Field

2011-09-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

Plowing the Rice Paddy

2011-09-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

The 2Cs Captured by the Temple Keeper at Pura Kehen in Bangli

2011-09-14T06:44:00.001-07:00

700 Year Old Sacred Banyan Tree at Pura Kehen

2011-09-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

September 11-14 -- More Bali, Part Two (Craftsmen and Temples)

2011-09-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

September 11-14, 2011 -- More Bali, Part Two

We spent several days touring about with Putu. We visited many of the typical craftsmen that Bali is famous for. We viewed several awesome rice fields, one with at least 46 levels of terracing! We collected views, and meals at tourist restaurants (where the driver surely gets a kickback), and many temples.

The two temples that most impressed us were Pura Kehen, in Bangli and the temple of most importance to Bali as a whole, Pura Besakih, also known as the Mother Temple high on volcano Agung.

Pura Kehen had no tourists other than ourselves. It is built up a steep hillside with an ancient banyan tree at its base. After donning our sarongs and sashed and climbing the steps, we found a wizened old man who introduced himself as the temple keeper. He told us what every shrine was for and positioned us for the best pictures, many of which he snapped for us with us in them! The ground was littered with the debris of offerings,k surely not just from that morning!

Pura Besakih, high on the slopes of Bali's highest volcano (which, of course, couldn't be seen for the day's misting weather, was the exact opposite (there's that word again, Putu!) Although it is the most important temple to the Balinese, it is the one most abused by hustlers. It's reputation precedes it, from Lonely Planet to Bette Lee to Putu, we are warned not to say yes to anyone for anything. Buy your ticket, don your sarong, and keep your eyes forward and say "No/Tidak" to everyone demanding payment.

It's a long walk up the hill to the temple (Putu was turned back from the shortcut to a closer parking lot!), but perhaps because of the misty weather the tourist traffic was slow and actually the full-court press was relatively lethargic. Once in the temple complex you climb steps and more steps to wander amongst the 23 "separate-but-related" family temples therein. Having climbed the steps we were then told we could not continue without a guide because ceremonies were in progress and only with a guide could we continue. To make a long debate short, in the end we caved, and took the services of a quiet young man who in the end earned the $5 he charged. We did not however pay him until we were on our way out

However, in the end, we were glad we went. If you can ignore the hustle -- the old ladies selling snacks from tubs on their heads, the children pushing postcards at 3/$1, and the hustlers at the entrance -- it is undeniably a most beautiful and spiritual place, perhaps particularly so in the misty weather.

The Handsome Main Street of the Restored Traditional Village

2011-09-14T06:38:00.000-07:00

Meals for the Day

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A Traditional Kitchen

2011-09-14T06:36:00.001-07:00

September 11-14, 2011 -- More Bali, Part Three

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A very different highlight was an early morning stop at a preserved traditional village --a sort of Balinese Williamsburg -- except that people actually live there. We beat the tour buses in Putu enjoyed showing us the community meetinghouse with the community gamelan which it turns out he can play, and together we admired the tradition bamboo "tile" roofs being put on a building. We were then issued a ticket with a number, which turned out to designate which house we were to visit (thereby ensuring all residents got some traffic and no one resident was overrun!)

At the front of the family compound, a long slot away from the main lane, was, of course, the family temple. Behind it was a traditional kitchen in which the lady of the house did the cooking on a wood fire, with oven space the size of a toaster oven and one burner for a kettle and a sort of wok shaped utility pan. Meals for the day -- steamed rice, vegetables, and perhaps some meat -- are cooked in the morning and stored in dishes in a cabinet. Like Pacific islanders, Balinese do not expect hot food. We sat on our hostesses bed (she likes to sleep where its warm) and she made us a cup of Balinese coffee that she claimed they grew themselves in the back garden (it was excellent) and served us delicious sweet rice cakes.

Across from the traditional kitchen was the formal beruga used for ceremonies, but then behind it were several more modern structures that were, she said, her sister's house (this included a more modern kitchen!) Out back was a garden, some coffee trees, and a pig sty with three tidy pigs.

Although it was a lovely and interesting stop, the modern buildings suggested that it was no longer very typical of how real Balinese lived. We asked Putu is there were villages still like this off the beaten track, which may be why, at the end of the day, he decided to take up to his home!

I'd expressed an interest in trying a Durian, that notorious SE Asian fruit of the prickly hide and obnoxious smell. People say you either love it or hate it, yet for sure it was in season because we saw piles of them all along the roadside. Putu said his son particularly liked Durian, so he stopped by the road to buy three. But then he was a a loss to where to carry it. It seems they are odiferous even before cutting into, and I made the mistake of teasing him about the smell, so he stoped and tried to rig a way to carry them hanging from the front bumper. This earned us a lot of hilarity from people we passed on the road...pedestrians, motor bikers, other drivers. We gave up and brought them inside.

Putu's family live in a seaside community not far from where we arrived on the ferry. The rains having failed for the past five years, his father has abandoned agriculture and resorted to collecting and sorting black stones, desired by hotels for decoration, from black sands of the beach. From the street the impression is of some sort of familiar suburbia, but reality is very different. Putu's house, shared not just with his wife, three children and parents, but also with another family, is more "traditional" than the one we saw in the traditional village. The whole long building of "rooms" is open on one side and the "kitchen" was also focused on the very same wood stove we'd seen in the morning...although there were some propane burners around too. Putu proudly pointed out his family temple (although he shares that with the other family, too) and the relatively new carved topper he'd been able recently to add to a shrine.

The wife and the three children were presented - aged 8, 5, and 1 -- and the two Durian were hacked into and shared around. The pulp comes out in pods from chambers, and you sort of tear it from the "button" or seeds. I do not know if I can describe the flavor; it is for sure unique in my experience. I think to say it is sort of like a sweet blue cheese brie, is the closest I can get. We did not dislike it....but the follow on burps were odd!

The day going late, Putu pushed to get us back to Ubud by 6pm following the route he takes everyday up, shifting up and down through traffic like a Nascar driver. When we compliment him on his driving, he sighs and explains that his workhorse Toyota (the best) is a good and bad thing. It is old enough he can afford it, but not new enough to really gain him proper entrance into the taxi/tour business. The Japanese, he says, take one look at the older car, and take their business to something newer. As we land cruised back to Ubud through the bustle of late afternoon villages after such a day, you can't help but reflect on all the lives going on in such a different style all around the world. Interestingly, he leaves the car parked in Ubud at night and makes the commute on a more fuel efficient scooter.

A postscript to hierarchy and a Balinese reality check: This morning Eddie, who initially hooked us up with Putu, seemed a bit miffed. Someone had already beat him to delivering our breakfast, but when we thanked him for introducing us to Putu, I said something like "He works hard" intending it as much as a compliment to Eddie for referring us as for Putu. You could almost see Eddie's feathers ruffle. "Not so hard," he said longingly, " he has a car

Trying to Transport Stinky Durian Fruit

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Black Sand Beach

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This is the beach from which Putu's father (and fellow villagers) harvest black stones for sale; 15,000R (not quite $2) per five kilo bucket!

Harvesting Gravel from the Seashore

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Putu Cuts the Prickly Durian in his Kitchen

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Gwen Not so Sure about Durian?

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Putu's Kids enjoying Durian

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The Lotus Pond Plaza at Pura Saraswati

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On the far side of the beautiful Lotus Pond is the plaza where Don and I saw the Jegog Dance Performance. During the daytime one can sit at the elegant Lotus Cafe and watch dance students practicing. At night the temple is strikingly lit with floodlights

Joged Bamboo Flute Player

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Jegog Cymbals player

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September 12, 2011 _ Jegog Dance

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September 12, 2011 - Jegog Dance

After the Legong evening we were in no great rush to attend another cacophonous performance, but after a night off we regained our adventurous spirit and went to see a evening of Jegog Dance.

The venue for this performance was the lovely plaza between the Lotus Pond and steps at Pura Saraswati, the temple just behind the Lotus Pond Cafe on the Ubud Main Road near the Palace. It is hard to imagine that any locale could have more atmosphere than this place, especially lit up so beautifully at night. Although several misty showers threatened to drive the performance inside somewhere, in the end it held off and the show was able to go on as planned.

Jegog is similar to Legong, only the gamelan instruments are made of bamboo. It is a MUCH PLEASANTER sound, actually more melodic, like an orchestra of busy wind chimes! They featured an amazing bamboo flute player whose cheeks made me think of a bagpiper who must sustain a steady flow of wind, breathing in through the nose while blowing out throughout the mouth. Also several percussionists on drums and cymbals.

The dances themselves were also quite similar to the Legong dances we saw. Although the dancers did not quite seem the same calibre (it may be that we are gaining a little critical perspective), they were in fact more accessible. Three ladies in white did a dance mimicking the movements of birds of paradise, and the woman who performed the "Warrior Dance" which in Legong had been a Masked Dance, did an even better job without the aritifice of a mask. How she kept her face that way throughout the dance I can't conceive.

For a finale, two women came into the audience for partners. Guess who was one?! They were quite impressed when I stood up that I was already dressed appropriately!

Oh, My! Who is that Sashed Dancer?

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Gwen with Jegog Cast

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Serene Plantings

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Family Shrine

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Sagitarius Front Forty

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Sagitarius Pool

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Note the fountain dispensing water into the pool!

Sagitarius Staff

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The Sagitarius Back Forty

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A Close Fit!

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Sagitarius Bungalow Door

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September 11, 2011 -- Hotel Hopping

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One of the great sports of Ubud is hotel shopping. You cannot really know ahead of time, even if you have done careful research via Lonely Planet and/or TripAdvisor, if the hotel you have first picked is the right one for you. I believe TripAdvisor lists a total of 96 hotels in Ubud, and I'll bet there are even more when home stays and new start-ups are thrown in. (The IPad TripAdvisor application is a terrific tool!)

So, pretty much every time Don and I walked down the street, we'd check out a handful of the lodgings announcing their presence on the street. Until yesterday, none of them measured up to better than what we had at The Ubud Inn -- on the criteria of price, atmosphere, and value --especially since we'd been moved to the bigger and more private room.

Then, yesterday, we wandered down the alley behind the Sagitarius (sic) Restaurant at which we'd had such a good meal and asked at the relatively unprepossessing front desk about their rooms. We were led back -- everything in Ubud is developed in a long slots leading back from the street -- behind a shrine to a collection of bungalows and buildings centered on a slightly raised pool. The landscaping, though not as riotously colorful as Ubud Inn, was tastefully understated, evoking serenity.

Just beyond the pool they showed us a bungalow with ornately carved doors, a covered porch, simple, tasteful Balinese furniture, a king-sized bed, a sexy greenhouse bathroom, all of which, because it had only a fan and no air con, could be ours for only $25...half what we'd managed to negotiate The Ubud Inn down to!

So this morning after breakfast, we said goodbye to Charlie, Ubud Inn's resident fruit bat, and checked out. Used to tourists with flexible plans, Ubud Inn gave us no grief, although it was a little embarrassing to me to not need a taxi for departure since our new hotel was less than 100' down the sidewalk!

Ubud Inn's strength was its elaborate gardens, which actually almost border on the gaudy! Its weakness was its rooms. Perfectly serviceable and comfortable, there was little about them communicated the very special feel that is Bali. Staff was friendly and all, but just a little impersonal (except, of course, for our coffee connection), and wifi was only available in the front restaurant. And, again, it was twice the price.

In our first day at Sagitarius -- which we have mostly spent just hanging around -- it has already felt much more personal. Within an hour after we dropped our suitcases, a coffee tray was delivered to our patio with a fresh flower arrangement. When we discovered -- egad! -- that the only electrical outlets in the room powered the reading lights (and we with seven rechargeable devices), one of the guys hustled up a 220v version of a power strip giving us two additional outlets! Knowing we plan to take the fast boat back to Gili Air on Thursday, they have already arranged out tickets!

We'd already determined that the Sagitarius Restaurant is our favorite for quality and value, and just to cement things, it turns out the gift shop I have been buying a few items in is also part of the Sagittarius enclave. The girls there and I are becoming fast friends, to Don's dismay!

So, here we are in our new digs, recharging for the rest of our week. Did I mention that they have Wifi in the rooms!

Ubud - Monkey Forest Road

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Our First Room at Ubud Inn

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Small and tucked right behind the office.

Breakfast is served at Ubud Inn

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Daily Garden Tidying

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Because of Ubud Inn's extensive gardens, the daily tidying was a big job. Fallen petals blossoms are used in for pond art and offerings, fallen leaves placed as compost at base of trunks. This is the sound we woke to every morning. (Same at Sagitarius!)

View from our Porch - Ubud Inn

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@nd Rooom at Ubud Inn

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More Flower Art

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Daily offering

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These small offerings appear daily everywhere! On sidewalks, in doorways, on ledges. They are brought out, usually but not always by women, and placed with incense and slight ceremony with droplets of water flicked over them with frangipani blossom.

Street Art in Flower Petals

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Monkey Maintenance

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This guy is actually scraping off the moss from the stone carvings...to eat I presume!

monkeys' Temple

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Grooming Family

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Naughty Monkey/Silly Tourist

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Bapak Monkey

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September 10, 2011 -- Day 3 in Ubud -- Monkey Forest, Couples Massage and Legong Dance

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Today was meant to be a slow day, but we still managed to pack it full.

MONKEY FOREST

At the south end of Monkey Forest Road is the actual Monkey Forest Preserve. It is a park situated in a gorge of old growth forest and river with three temples built in the mid-14th century. The sanctuary provides a home for somewhere around 300 Balinese Macaques. Males weigh 8-10 kilos, and females 7-8 kilos. The flyer you are given upon paying your small park fee lists other distinguishing characteristics like teeth and facial hair, but really, there is no doubt which are males and which are females...if you catch my drift (as Don would say!) The park's monkeys are said to live in three groups using different sections of the preserve at different times of day, and squabbles can break out over territorial infringement. However, they share the paved public spaces not just with each other but with the human visitors.

The monkeys of the Monkey Forest have a bit of a reputation for naughty and forward behavior. Visitors are urged to bring nothing with them but cameras, but there is always someone with a bag in which the monkeys are sure there is food and, of course, there are vendors at the gates selling bananas. It is not wise to resist a monkey who has taken your water bottle or who wants the whole hand of bananas in your left hand when you are offering him a single one with your right hand! I remember a story Judy tells of a monkey actually pulling a chunk out of her clothing, and the cruisers were full of tales of monkey bites and rabies vaccinations! Yikes.

So it was with some trepidation that we made our visit.

Anxiety was for naught. The monkeys ignored us and went about all their daily rituals -- cleaning one another, feeding and snuggling infants, eating and even swimming with great glee! Several monkeys were even hard at work cleaning the moss off the temple carvings! It was hard not to think of it as doing their part towards maintenance!

COUPLES MASSAGE

Our next new experience was a couples' massage. You can't walk ten feet down Monkey Forest Road without picking up a half dozen fliers urging you to try their spa services. Printing costs must be very cheap in Bali!

The costs for a a one-hour massage vary from for anywhere from 70,000R to 25,000R (about $8-30.) Bette Lee and Tom had tried the 70,000R massage, so we figured we were game. Let me just say it was not utterly relaxing. The atmosphere couldn't hold a candle to our lovely little beach spa on Gili Air. It was a little more on the line of your Vietnamese nail joint. Our massage tables in the back were two out of a half dozen and were segregated off from the rest by hospital style curtains.

It is one thing to strip down with a masseuse, and a bit of another thing for both of you to do so in front of two young female masseuses!

And then there was the sniffle. It was Don's girl, and it repeated about every 30 seconds. Sniffling a runny nose is one of Don's pet peeves. If it wasn't relaxing for me, I could imagine how squirmy it made him feel.

And then there was the after-massage shower, done together in a pink bath tub with no curtain and hot water that never made an appearance. Like I said, short on atmosphere.

Still, it's hard to argue with any situation where someone is willing to rub all your aches away! And do it for about $8!

After the massage we came back to the Ubud Inn, sat by the pool awhile with our Kindles, went back to the room and really showered with HOT water, and dressed to go to the evening performance of Legong.

LEGONG DANCE

Legong dance is incredibly different from the Kecak we saw two nights ago. Here in Ubud it is set on a very ornate stage across the street from the Ubud Palace. Everything is red, carved and gilded with gold, and unlike the Kecak, brightly lit! (We forgot the camera; so sorry!)

The gamelan orchestra -- collectively called a "gong" -- was divided on the right and left sides of the stage -- I'd guess about 36 strong -- mostly older men (but for one young virtuoso!) dressed formally in red and gold jackets and dark sarongs. This Balinese gamelan orchestra was a far cry from the simple gamelan we saw played in Timor. It is hard to describe! It is essentially a whole range of timpanic and cacophanic devices, arranged almost like zylophones in different timbers, some played with hammers made of horn! In the back are huge gongs, separately in front two seated drummers playing cylindrical drums, and to the left one solitary wood flute! The music produced is a great crashing, frenetic noise!

Against this are very stylized, ritualized dances performed by mostly women, beautifully costumed in very tight ornate sarongs, headdresses and various adornments. The whole thing is in the details. The dancers faces are carefully made up to be as identical to one another as possible. The eyes are accentuated, held wide open, and totally choreographed. Their expressions are neutral...except when they aren't. Eyes slide suddenly right or left in unison, a frown or expression of puzzlement fleets across the brows...in unison, heads tilt or slide or wiggle...in unison. Lips hold only the barest hint of a smile, until...wait..an expression is here and gone...yes, in unison. And so this goes for hip, butt, shoulder, ribcage, knee-bends, foot, arm, and hand movements.

The hands! While the arms move and bend this way and that like a statue of Shiva, the hands have a life of their own, cocked like birds and fingers vibrating, first and index finger, then the pinkie, then either of the other tow. Yes, you're catching on, ...in unison. Throughout the audience you could see tourists surreptitiously trying to even reproduce one movement!

In between are mask dances, where a quasi-comic male character wearing a rigid painted mask and other comic appurtenances -- like six-inch vibrating fingernails -- prances back and forth across the stage.

Each of the seven dances performed represents a story that Westerners can only catch the gist of, even with the "English" program notes, which as the Aussie behind us commented, "I can read these words, but I don't understand what it's telling me." Example; "A mask dance. Exhibits a demon be alone in the jungle who was his freedom to play move and be happy. watch the ancient costume the dancer turns around."

In sum, Legong was an experience I wouldn't want to have missed, that I find myself thinking about, but that we wouldn't be in an hurry to repeat. I'm sure it is is the fault of uncultivated western sensibilities, but there is a sameness to it all -- the movements, the ornate costumes, and most especially the migraine chaos of the Balinese gamelan. (note: other islands have much gentler gamelan traditions!)

Koi

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Koi Pond at Water Temple

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Now these are some big Koi!

September 9, 2011 --Coffee Plantations, Volcanos & Temples

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(NOTE: More photos that go with this post are posted individually below in reverse order to the text. To see them all you will have to page back several pages! Clumsy, but it's a step in the right direction!)

COFFEE PLANTATION

In the course of checking in yesterday, we mentioned to the guys at the front desk an interest in seeing a coffee plantation.

The idea had germinated in conversation with one of our roasters for Cafe Getaway. We had been buying beans from him from Papua New Guinea and East Timor, and wondered if he had any contacts in Indonesia we might call upon while here to educate ourselves in the origins of our product. He was not especially encouraging about either Timor or Papua New Guinea's immediate future in the coffee industry because of weaknesses in the organizational structure of the coffee cooperatives, among other things. (We have since also heard that much coffee in PNG is being left unpicked because the workers have been lured to more lucrative employment in Australia's mining industry.)

However, our roaster said, he had heard that Bali's coffee industry was rebounding, and he urged us to look into it while here. We'd done some poking around on the Internet, but hadn't come up with much. Hence, our inquiry. The desk clerk said he had a friend with a plantation and, much to our surprise, had it all arranged for us first thing today! The visit ended up being as interesting and educational as we had hoped.

A driver collected us and whisked us off to the Kintamani region to the Weden Sari Agro Wisata, about 45 minutes away from Ubud. We were met in the parking by the owner Wayan Dharma and later joined by his younger cousin Jati.

Although the word plantation conjures -- at least in American minds -- farms of vast acreage, most coffee plantations in Bali (and in fact in most coffee growing regions of the world) are actually small, family-operated endeavors. Dharma's plot here was about one hectare with another plot of unmentioned size on the other side of the river.

"Coffee Plantation" also suggests a single crop operation. Here nothing could farther from the truth! As they walked us through paths wending through the thickly planted land, we saw not just robustica and arabica coffee bushes growing side by side, but cocoa, cinnamon and papaya trees, plus ginger plants, ginseng and lemongrass plants beneath them along the paths. They called this "pentaculture" (which I can't find in my online dictionary so perhaps I misunderstood) but the gist of it is to cultivate multiple species in one space to provide something to harvest at different times of year and different stages of the growth cycle. In another area, for example, they were growing chili peppers between rows of young mandarin trees that won't be ready to produce for several more years!

This philosophy is so typical of what we have so far seen in Bali, that every morsel of land is intensely used, and nothing is wasted. Even to the point of chickens being allowed to wander amongst the plants to leave their nourishing poop behind!

And speaking of poop, we also got the indoctrination to Bali's famous (infamous?) Cafe Luwak. Cafe Luwak is a very expensive coffee. $5 for a demitasse cup at the plantation; more in a coffee shop, even more overseas! It costs about $25 for a half pound of beans!

What makes it so special? Cafe Luwak is made from coffee beans that have been eaten as fruit by an animal in the fox family called a civet cat ....and then excreted! Apparently, the passage through the fruit eater's digestive system does something to the chemistry of the bean, reducing the caffeine yet intensifying the flavor. As unappealing as this may initially sound, it turns out the bean itself comes out still protected by an outer skin. Evidently they are gathered up where they fall, conveniently directly under the coffee bushes during periods when the coffee cherries are ripe, then washed and dried and skinned of that protective layer, and dried again.

At this stage you have the green beans that are sold to brokers and shipped to roasters around the world. Since Bali's production is relatively small, what isn't processed and used locally is sold to coffee brokers in Java who frequently resell it as Javanese beans. At Weden Sari, most of their output is actually roasted and ground on site in small batches by hand to be sold in their own little store.

After the tour, Jati sat us down at a sort of picnic table for a tasting of all their coffee products. He prepared about eight small cups, mixing them from prepared powders. (Not to be confused with instant, these Balinese coffee powders are very finely ground coffee mixed with other ingredients like chocolate, ginger, vanilla, ginseng etc. that are stirred into hot water, and then allowed to steep until the grounds settle in the bottom! The one thing Weden Sari does not mix in is rice, even though that is a very traditional Balinese coffee ingredient!) There was also hot chocolate, ginger tea and lemongrass tea.

Our least favorite was probably the unadulterated coffee, perhaps because they don't brew it quite as strong as we do. However, all the blends surprised us, especially the ginger coffee. I commented that I might have expected to see cinnamon coffee among the choices, being as cinnamon is the health craze in the US, and Jati smiled and admitted there was some cinnamon in the mix. Additionally we quite liked the ginger and lemongrass teas.

After the sampling, we of course couldn't leave without trying the Cafe Luwak. This they don't give away! Indeed the coffee was markedly smooth and rich tasting, not unlike an espresso. I, who rarely drink black coffee, sipped my share right down!

As you might guess we bought a few samples to bring home, but perhaps lucky for us, they don't ship to the US. However, anyone visiting Bali is welcome to visit Weden Sari, not just coffee mavens like us. Coffee tourism is just one more aspect of Balinese "pentaculture" land use!

Volcano Vistas -- Gunung Batur and Gunung Agung

Since Kintamani is high on the side of Gunung Batur (1717m) we continued on with our driver for the stock tourist lunch on the rim of the old volcano's immense caldera. Five cones poke up in the center, each former by distinct eruptions, the biggest in 1917, followed by smaller ones in 1926, 1963, 1974, and 1994. There is a large apron of lava spreading black and tan desolation from these reaching right to the edge of homes and greenery. To the East is a huge crater lake, across which looms Gunung Agung (3000 +/-m) Bali's tallest mountain and the focal of much of Bali's spiritual orientation. We ate at a bar built along the edge of a terrace built over the precipice. Our waitress told how the residents make ceremonies every year to propitiate the volcano spirits. She also told us we were very lucky to have such a clear view of it.

The Water Temple

On our way down the mountainside, we diverted a bit more to the East make an unplanned to visit to our first temple, known as the Water Temple. Bali is reknowned for its temples. Every village has at least three (not counting the shrine is every family compound!), but many temples have national significance and the Water Temple is one.

It is required to dress properly, so we had to rent sarongs and sashes. The Water Temple is centered on a holy pool in which at least a half dozen springs that we could see were burbling up through the black sand. Nearby a holy man was seated cross-legged in a tiny stand chanting and ringing a tiny bell. Three girls knelt nearby praying, one in the grip of emotion. A number of pavilions and towers dotted the plaza, some large some small. Since our driver was not an official guide he did not come in, and on our own we really did derive all the meaning of what we saw, but there is no denying they are beautiful, complex and serene places...at least until you leave and you are forced to walk through a veritable maze of stalls selling sarongs, trinkets and artifacts.

Time to Relax....New Friends....and a Good Restaurant Find

Back in Ubud, we found that the staff of the hotel did indeed want to keep us enough to move us into a nice room. From a small room just behind the office they moved us to a large room at the very back of the compound with a king-sized bed, air con (don't need it), TV, fridge, (don't need them either), and a terrace surrounded by flowers and the fragrance of frangipani.

We enjoyed several relaxing hours, before coming up to the hotel restaurant so I could use the wifi. Whilst I tinkered on my keyboard, Don befriended a Kiwi couple Dave and Megan who, it turned out, live on a boat in France. They were in the restaurant to watch the first round of the Rugby World Cup -- FYI The NZ All Blacks trouncing Tonga. Dave made more headway than previous tries in explaining the game to Don, but after watching Invictus just last week, it all seemed a bit more graspable.

Afterwards we set out in a light drizzle (what is this? -- water from the sky!) to a nearby restaurant called Sagittarius. I mention this only for cruisers following us, because we had a truly lovely meal of fresh salads and grilled spanish mackerel for the kind of reasonable price we had expected ...as opposed to our very expensive snack the night before!

More Water Temple

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Gilded temple

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Praying and making offerings

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