back at it again in bali....and lombok

straight off the plane in bali, my senses attacked by a myriad of new sights, smells, and sounds, i set off to explore the island paradise in search of all the best it has to offer and found exactly what i never knew i was looking for....perfect beaches, great surf, lush green rice terraces, delicious food, towering mountains, and some of the friendliest people on earth. i started off in kuta, the one place many tourists never venture away from after touchdown in bali, made some valiant attempts at surfing and moved on to see what else i could find. this contemplative pose among the rice fields is brought to you from Gunung Kawi just north of Ubud, the cultural capital of bali.


Gunung Kawi, giant stone carvings set among some of the most beautifully lush scenery you've ever seen. looks like i'm showing off a little leg there from under my sarong. oooohhhh


more rice fields. these things are everywhere, they're beautiful, and they're a huge part of the culture.


ubud, one of the most interesting towns in bali, and dripping with culture. every night several traditional dances are held throughout the town. this one, a kecak fire and trance dance, was like being at an a capella techno show with giant white monkeys and pretty ladies prancing about. wish i could tell you the story behind the whole it but my translation skills weren't up to par at that point and i forgot my interpreter at home. helluva show though.


it is truly incredible how much time, money, and effort the balinese dedicate to their religion. hinduism on bali is supposedly quite a bit more relaxed than that of india, but i certainly wouldn't know it. the family i stayed with in ubud spends hours every night crafting offerings to the gods using coconut leaves, flowers and rice, just to set them out the next day to be withered in the sun and trampled by passing tourists. but like clockwork they get right at it again the next day. i spent an evening trying my hand at their craft, which made for a lot of laughs and some quality time with my adopted balinese family.


typical offering


part of the fam and fellow homestayer dan the man


probably the cutest little girl ever. they like to start 'em early on these things. i think the ratio of mopeds to cars on bali is approximately 487 to 1


standard sight when entering any city of respectable size in bali: giant statue of a hindu deity with a moped or two cruising by.


pura ulun danu, a nice little hindu temple parked on the shores of a volcanic crater lake. very yummy.


outside a temple during a full moon ceremony, we forgot our sarongs so couldn't enter, but the vendors outside were still happy to see us there. religious offerings rather than ballpark franks are sold outside these events


in lovina for a couple days, i woke up with the sun one morning to see some dolphins. actually a lot of dolphins. actually, the most dolphins i've ever seen in my life. literally hundreds of them. unfortunately those pics didn't turn out, but this one of an offering hanging off the pontoon of our boat did.


our dolphin guide.


as much life and vibrancy as there is on land in bali, there's even more just below the surface of it's turquoise waters. a couple dives in tulamben on the northeast coast at the wreck of US cargo ship Liberty from WWII revealed a technicolor array of underwater life, plus a 5 foot barracuda that almost had me for lunch.


big waterfall. automatic timer on the camera. fuzzy hand.


took a week or so to bomb around bali on this badass bike. great way to see the island and pick up chicks while wearing the aviators. and no worries mom, i wore a helmet almost the entire time.


the temples of bali are numerous, and more than a few are quite impressive. this one, pura ulu watu, is on the southern peninsula hanging off a 350 foot cliff. not a bad spot.


the mother of them all, pura besakih, is actually referred to as the "mother temple" by a lot of balinese, and for good reason. it's got several different sections each dedicated to a different hindu deity. this is the entrance to the whole thing. the split gate is supposed to represent separating the parts of the mind, good and evil, as you enter the temple so as to have a neutral and open mind while you're inside. this place is still in use and has ceremonies, from weddings to funerals, going on daily.


classic backpacker shot. sunglasses, dirty hat, and lonely planet in hand while on the ferry to lombok, bali's muslim counterpart. some people say lombok is like bali was 15 or 20 years ago - not yet spoiled and overridden with tourists. whether that's true or not i don't know, but it is an incredible place. like bali in a lot of ways but even more relaxed.


annika the swede and george the curious, and hungry, monkey. monkeys are all over the place on these islands. these ones just wait on the side of the road for tourists to stop and give them snacks. cheeky monkey!


spent a few days on gili trawangan, a tiny little island off lombok, where there are no cars, no mopeds, no police, and no clocks. add a few bars and great snorkeling and diving and you get the perfect island life. this sunset vista from its western shore features the silhouette of gunung agung on bali in the distance.


the only mode of transportation other than your feet or a boat is the pony-drawn carriage. it only takes about an hour and half to walk the whole island though.


dive boats off the beach.


the second highest mountain in indonesia is gunung rinjani at 3726 meters (approximately 12,296 ft.) and it's poised in northern lombok, silently standing guard over the surrounding islands. of course i had to hike it, and of course i couldn't do it the normal way. the normal way, 3 days and 2 nights to reach the summit, hang out at the crater lake and hot springs, and descend back to base camp is itself quite a tall task. compress all that into 2 days and 1 night and you get some very sore legs and a bad case of early onset oldmanhood for eddie. ouch. it was still worth every step though just for the view. here i stand at sunrise atop the summit with my guide Alam, and one of our Estonian trekking companions (the first estonians i might add, to climb rinjani). what a feeling


alam all bundled up at the top. even next to the equator it gets cold at 12,000 ft.


rinjani's shadow. stretches almost to bali at sunrise. it's a big mountain.


looking east to sumbawa and eastern island of the indonesian archipelago.


these porters are amazing! they carry 35 kilos of gear along some of the most difficult paths i've ever hiked using nothing but a bamboo stick and a couple of bundles tied to the ends. and in flip flops no less, yikes! i was struggling with just a day pack and hiking boots.


a much needed soak in some hot springs before the long walk back.


we made it! as thanks for putting up with my ridiculous request to hike rinjani in two days (we hiked from 3 AM until 7:30 PM the second day) i bought alam a bintang, the beer of choice, and gave him my boots. well needless to say he was pretty pleased to have some new footwear to replace his old swiss cheese shoes so as a gesture of gratitude, and a very nice one at that, he invited me to.....


yup, you guessed it, a traditional muslim circumcision ceremony! haha, wow. well i won't lie, i was a bit anxious about seeing a bunch of young boys having their wizard's sleeves* surgically removed, but once the band got a rocking and the procession started up everyone was all smiles (except the boys) and i just went with the flow.


all they needed to numb the pain was a glass of ice water.


like i said, all smiles (toothless smiles, but smiles nonetheless) except for the kid being hid under the blanket, i think he's got quite a different expression on his face. all in all though a really interesting experience and great to see how friendly and open people are here with their local customs.


hate to close with a downer, but this one's important. the memorial to the bali bombings of 2002 in which 202 people died, mostly aussie and indonesian. it's an incredibly powerful sight, a la the vietnam wall, except these people weren't soldiers. they didn't have guns, they weren't hurting people, but they were the victims of a cowardly act of violence. this place has some of the friendliest people i've ever come across. you can't walk down the street with out seeing a smile on every corner, but their livelihood is tourism and it's been decimated by the bombings of 2002 and 2005. i don't know what to do about it, but it's terrible to see and it certainly makes you think.....