Island update

In the Malaysian highlands we met Sebastien and Pushpa who were on vacation from their residence in Kuala Lumpur (with their four lovely children). Certainly a highlight of our travels was accepting their kind invitation and spending a few days with them in their home in Kuala Lumpur. We had a wonderful time experiencing life in a KL suburb; we got a real sense of the extraordinary complexities of this multiracial\religious country and its challenges from our discussions with Sebastien and Pushpa. And we ate at their favorite outdoor restaurants!! Fantastic!


Kuala Lumpur retains lots of diverse character from its rich multicultural and colonial history. Not only is one able to appreciate the monumental 19th century architecture of the British colonial administration including government and commercial buldings and churches; there are also large sections of the downtown dominated by the colourful old Chinese shophouse structures and some wonderful Mosques. And then there is the modern business district dominated by the twin Petrona Towers (ringed by its gorgeous parklands) until recently, the tallest buildings in the world.

We arrived in Bali, Indonesia on a cheap Air Asia flight on January 8. We spent the first few nights at the famous\infamous Kuta beach, one of the great surfing destinations and sight of the Bali bombings in 2002, from which the tourism industry continues a slow recovery.
Our first impressions of Bali were not too positive. The otherwise spectacular beach is awash in plastic garbage and the touts and hawkers are insufferable. But we felt good about seeing the bombing monument and spending some hard cash in sight of it. Screw the bombers and their kind.




We spent a week in Ubud, the cultural center of Bali. Again first impressions were not too good; the town seemed to show the worst aspects of a commercial Santa Fe art rip off; a thousand galleries all selling the same copies of the famous Balinese schools. But just behind the main streets are the rice terraces, the fruit and vegetable gardens and the small villages and artists workshops; we enjoyed walking the countryside and talking with all sorts of friendly people many of them carvers, painters and musicians. And we visited some great museums. At night we went to the traditional dance and music performances held in various temples around the town. These are wonderfully skilled and moving performances. we are not art critics but the standard of craftsmanship in the visual arts and the polish of the performing artists we saw, was of higher quality than any other place we have been.


We ended up in Ubud after a day of touring parts of the island with Michael, a not too young Australian surfer and high school teacher.(we're going to recruit him to northern Saskatchewan and trade in his surfboard for x-country skis) We drove up to rim of an ancient collapsed volcano and looked out towards a second volcano that erupted in the center of the old caldera, not too many years ago. It was a spectacular sight. In fact Bali is dominated by a string of volcanoes that can provide dramatic views. Often when you are not expecting it, they loom out of a break in the cloud. Agung, the largest, is 10,500 feet.



Leaving Ubud we rented a Suzuki jeep and travelled for eight days to the north and east coasts of the island. Public transport is available but slow, confusing and frustrating. You need your own wheels. Driving the highways of Bali was intense and often hair raising. Driving a motorbike was at least some preparation for the left lane traffic flow, but four wheels is another story with the intense traffic and total disregard for the rules we take for granted. The back road drives into the countryside and up the gradual and incredibly luxuriant slopes of the volcanoes were a treat. Some climbs were so steep the jeep did not come out of first gear for five minutes at a time. Meanwhile you climb up from the rice paddies into the cool mists and occasional rain where clove and avocado trees dominate and where coffee is a major crop.



On the the north and east beaches, tourism is more of a sideline, with fishing and agriculture dominant. Guest houses are often joint ventures between the Bali operators, fishing families on their "traditional lands", and foreigners (many Australians) who have put up a lot of the cash. We had a great time getting to know the guest house family members and their stories. They took us fishing and snorkeling in their 20 foot dugout outrigger canoes. I have to brag that I upheld the honour of northern Saskatchewan fishers, handily winning the red snapper jigging competion we held one night on Lovina bay. That actually meant I ended up buying the Arak (rice wine) for all, so I'm not too sure how legitimate the victory was.

At Ahmed on the east coast, a series of sandy beaches was packed end to end with thousands of these gaily painted outrigger dugouts. From our beach we watched the fishers (yes, some are women) from the deck of our simple bungalow as they launched at 5 am for the mornings work. By 6 am, as the sun rose, you could see the fleet, a thousand strong, tiny triangles on the horizon. Meanwhile the sun was rising on the sea and on the the Island of Lombok 30 kms distant. Dominating the horizon in shades of pink and blue was Kinjani, a 12000 ft volcano. By 9 am the boats are returning, all under the power of multicoloured triangular sails, each with its own design. A true spectacle. A few years ago the same boats were primarily powered by Yamaha, but the rising costs of fuel and the continued low price of mackerel, mean the engines are rarely used now. Sounds familiar.




We spent the last week on the island on Lembongan, population 7000. Tourism is 5 % of the economy, growing and harvesting sea weed is 85%. You eat this product when you consume ice cream. Again we find the "working beaches" so much more interesting and alive than the tourist strips with their full time push to sell and annoy. We found a cheap bungalow ($20 cdn) with a large deck overlooking the entire three km stretch of beach with its sea farming fleet. Across the 20 km. strait is the panorama of Bali's east coast with five huge volcanoes rising through the the haze.



We hiked and snorkeled and were lucky to see the giant manta rays. In recent years the locals have taken up surfing and many of the young boys surf the "killer" breaks around the beach. The locals are proud that some them have sponsors and attend competitions around the world.

The wildlife has been a real highlight. The fabulous coral reefs and extraordinary visibility (often 30 meters) have kept us in the water a lot. The bird life is rich and varied, as are the lizards. There are gecko lizards of all sizes and colours and they are much valued around the Bali household for controlling the insect population. However these ones growl and bark from the rafters all night long, and with such ferocity, I think my own dog Chomper would be terrified.

Bali is great place to visit, especially the out the way places. We have not found friendlier people anywhere.

We return to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow and then will work our way up the Thai beaches towards Bangkok and Pattaya where we hope to see Gerry and recover some our stored gear before our return to Vancouver on Feb 21.
We (with Ted's help) have posted a few more pictures on our blog but the uploading has been painfully slow so we will try again in Thailand. Go the blogger.com and search lostinbigchang