This is more like a letter but it was easier for me to write this way. I will just tell you about the first few days of our trip--and maybe this is toooooo long.
Bali--
It was a 5 1/2 hour flight from HK to Bali and we arrived about 3 p.m. We filled out the forms that you have to declare if you are bringing anything the country but I was worried about going through customs with all of our vitamin 'pills,' The guy at customs looked at the forms and ask us to open Benny's backpack--the pills were in mine. He looked through it some and told us to go on. I was talking to someone later and she said that they do that hoping that you will give them money or a gift and then they leave you alone.
We got a taxi for $2 to take us on about a 20 minute ride to our otel. We should have gotten a clue from that ride. It was sort of like running an obstacle course. I guess we were numb from the flight but we should have figured it out since we were lucky enough to have made it to the hotel in one piece. Now is this crazy or what!!?? The first thing Benny wanted to do was to go to the car rental place to find a car to rent.
When we arrived at our hotel they handed us a paper with the following
message: "On March 18 at 6 a.m. through March 19 at 6 a.m. we celebrate Nyepi Day (Day of Stillness) when no fires may be lit, no lights switched on, no works done, no transportation taken and everyone stays home. In the evening if necessary please use the bed side lamp with shade only in your room. The hotel's coffee shop and pool area will be opened for meals and drinks." The hotel I had booked on Internet was not a place you would want to be caught and tied down for 24 hours. So we decided to look for a better one. We found the Melasti and they showed us a room and I ask what did they cost. She said they were $120 and I said that was more than I
wanted to pay. So she said we could have it for $60 and that was
expensive by Bali standards. It was the nicest place we stayed while in Bali. It was on the beach with a large pool and our room had just been completed. It had an all marble bathroom and was right by the pool. No one could even walk on the beach during their 'Nyepi.' About 90% of the Bali people are Hindu and I never thought to ask but it must have been the 'Hindu' New Year. I know the Chinese had their in Jan. They did tell us their Nyepi is always on March 18th.
The day before 'Nyepi' they build floats with 'monsters' on them. They
call them Ogo Ogo--or something close to that. I am certain some of them took several days to build. Some of them were maybe--10' tall and they were all made to look fierce. They told us there would be parades. So we walked down to the main drag and waited for the action. Before dark the kids started shooting off small firecrackers and then when it really got dark they started parading the floats. The carriers were young boys dressed in black and white, but dressed differently for each float ---but still dressed in black and white. Some would walk in front carrying bamboo with torches lit. In the back of the float there would be more torches. Some men with musical instruments followed and they played loud with just clanging and banging noise. Someone told us they only played theinstruments like that on Ogo Ogo once a year. There was a lot of excitement in the air and crowds of people. There didn't seem to be any organization about it as some would take the floats and go in one direction and then pretty soon one would come out of the side street and take off in
the other direction. They didn't stop the traffic and I just>knew some of the kids were going to get run over. If I hadn't know what was going on I would have been a little frightened.
At the hotel they fed us breakfast the next a.m. and the regular eople
that worked at the hotel worked that day. We ask one of them how he had gotten to work since no one could be on the streets. He said that they all slept at the hotel the night before and would sleep again there that night and go home after 6 a.m. We spent some time by the pool but we spent a lot of the day in chairs on the grass looking at the beach. They had up ropes to keep people from getting to the beach and a security guard that stayed in that area. That afternoon late we saw about four people at different times walking on the beach. Some were white and some were natives. The guard told us that the hotel would be fined $60 and that the people would be taken to the police station if anyone from the hotel should leave the grounds. This was serious stuff for them. We talked to a lot of different natives and they were all excited over celebrating even though it meant staying inside. Some of them said that they didn't eat all day but they
would feed the children. They were only to speak when necessary.
Back to the car rental------ I kept telling Benny that there wasn't any need to get a car because we couldn't go anyplace until after Nyepi, but I guess he wanted to get that taken care of. Someone had told us where they had rented a car cheap and that the people were honest. So we took to the streets and finally found the place in what we would call an alley here but there it was a two way street and they were allowed to park on one side of the street also. Seeing that should have put the fear in Benny but I think he had on blinders!! We got a Jimmy Suzuki(?), they don't import them here. They are a VERY small jeep type car with a very small back seat. They drive on the 'wrong' side of the road so of course the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. Benny was relieved that it was an automatic shift so he wouldn't have to us a stick shift--it had AC. Don't
think he could have handled a stick shift with his left hand. It didn't have gas so Benny talked the guy into taking us to the gas station to get it filled. Then we were afraid to drive to the hotel so they drove us to the hotel. This was the day we arrived. So the next day we were afraid to drive it so it sit at the hotel while we walked for miles. I don't think we would have been able to find a place to park it anyway--most people park so close to the buildings you can hardly walk between the car and the building. The next day was Hyepi and I guess they felt sorry for us because they didn't charge us for that day. We got the car with unlimited mileage--which should have clued us in--will talk more about that later. We got it for less than $9 per day including full insurance coverage. Fortunately we didn't have to test that part out!!
The maps they have don't really have all the roads drawn on them and none of the roads have numbers. We ask a number of people how to get out of town and they would sort of shrug and say to follow the traffic. So we got think every vehicle was on the road. After staying cooped up they were out running the roads. Most of them have motorbikes. I think most of the cars on the roads are drivers that you can pay to take you places. 'We should have hired a driver but of course that is hindsight!! We found the right road, which was a miracle and even found the road that cut off to go see a temple. We found our way back to the main road and even went to the area where the ferries were coming in from Java. We could easily see the
mainland where all the fighting has been going on. We saw several ferries come in. There were a lot of busses, trucks, and a lot of people that had walked on. They didn't have a place to dock they just pull up to the sandy beach. The ferry would just let down the metal front on the sand and they would take a shovel and throw up some sand. Some of them tried to put down a few boards and one had some metal--like tin, for the trucks and busses to drive over. None of them got stuck!!
The road from Kuta to the ferry landing from Java was extremely crowded. Their interstate roads are about the width of our secondary roads. Their trucks are fortunately smaller than our 18 wheelers. You could be driving down your side of the highway and a bus will start to pass a truck or something and flash his lights. We might be slow learners but it didn't take but about twice before Benny figured out that when they flashed the lights you headed for the ditch because they were making the road a three lane or sometime a four lane highway. Benny drove more with his two left tires off the road than on the road. After we left the ferry area and headed north the traffic got much lighter.
We stopped at the entrance of a National Park to inquire about going
snorkeling the next day and to ask about what type of roads or trails they had going into the mountains. There were no roads --just trails. We got about a mile down the road and a car with to young guys drove past us and pointed to our tires. Benny didn't pull over. They circled around and came back by the side of us and kept saying something and pointing. Benny wouldn't stop. Then they pulled in front of us and pointed to the left front tire. I jumped out and looked and it wasn't flat. So I jumped back in and we locked our doors. One guy came and shook each tire and walked around the car and said he must have made a mistake and got back in the car and drove off. When Benny had pulled off the road he ran over a stick and
when we started up again the rather large stick hung under our car for a distance. It finally broke loose about the time our car died deader than a doornail. Benny coasted off the road and we got out and Benny looked under the hood and under the car. He thought maybe the stick had pulled something loose. About two minutes later a young guy came walking down the road and said he was a mechanic and that his cousin had a car just like ours and he had worked on it. His cousin also worked at a parts store and he could get parts. He checked for a spark and took the hose loose under the hood and there was gas. Then he said that it was the fuel filter and that they went bad often on this type of car and his cousin kept some spare parts at his house. I told him it was a rented car and we wanted to phone them. He said his small village didn't have a phone. He said he would walk back to his village and get the part. He was back in about 10 minutes and climbed under the car on his back and 'replaced' the part. He then handed us a bill. If we had been around a few days longer we probably
would have bargained the price but Benny paid him. Then he said that
didn't include his labor so Benny gave him some more. It ended up costing $80 USA. Benny got in the car and it started up and we went on down the road. Then Benny got to thinking that it was a scam. We think they were at the entrance to the park as there were a lot of young guys 'hanging out' there, and they spotted us. When we got a bungalow for the night Benny was standing by the car trying to figure this all out. He could see the tubing and the gas filter as it was exposed on the inside area of the right back wheel. They can put their hand through the wheel area and pull the hose lose to the gas filter. This just gives you enough gas to go about 1 km down the road. While we were standing there a couple pulled in from Denmark and he said, "Did you have trouble with your car today?" They had the same thing happen to them but the guys were on a motor bike and it just cost them $60. They had driven in from a different direction. Needless to say we stayed there two nights so we could rest up for one day. (I will jump ahead a few days. We were driving through a town and saw a market and decided to stop. We walked around some and then went back to the car. We got down the road about a mile and the engine stopped again. Benny got out and crawled under the car and connected the gas line to the filter. He said I am going to sit here a minute and see what happens. A couple minutes went by and a motor bike passes us and stops on down the road about a couple of city blocks. The guy gets off his bike and starts walking back toward our car. We just sit there and he came up to the car and stopped for a little while and walked on. Benny started the car and we drove off. In our mirror we could see him turn around and walk back to his bike. It helped Benny's feelings to think he had won this time. That had to have been the guy that had just pulled the hose lose back at the market.)
We spent our first night out in a beautiful area on the China Sea. This was our first bungalow with no hot water or AC sit in beautiful gardens. The first night there it rained and the lights in the surrounding area was off until almost morning. So we couldn't have used an AC anyway! It had what they call a garden shower. The commode and basin were inside but outside there was a tall wall with vines and flowers and a spout with cold water. It is kind of like jumping in the lake--once you are in and you catch your breath then it isn't so bad. We did venture down the road about 2 miles to go to the Monkey Temple the next day. The monkeys weren't the pest I had heard they would be but the hawkers were there full force selling things plus peanuts and bananas for the monkeys.
Hawkers are a very big problem in some places and in other places they will ask you but do not persist. In Kuta, the first town we stayed in, they would follow you down the beach or street for a city block or so. Most of them sell watches--(one guy said it came with a two year guarantee), belts, hats or sarongs. When we would see something we wanted we usually ask them for their best price and paid that. I would rather give them some extra money that way than as it saved face and gave them some extra to feed their family. I really feel sorry for them as they make about $25 per month on the average. We never saw anyone that really looked like they were not getting enough to eat. They were all dress in clean clothes. They are a very happy people and we enjoyed talking to them about their selves and their country. They are a very proud people. We just saw a couple of people asking for money and that was at the ferry area and I think they had
come from Java.
This is just part of our adventure. Hate to bore you with a longer story. We really loved Bali and will go back the first chance we get. But I don't think we will rent a car. We will get a driver.
Rosalie