Well '83 it was. Young dumb n full of ... // yes, the smell is memorable (but all smells are, i equally remember the smell of Fiji when I first went there as a kid), got a bemo to Kutu and as soon (I mean straight away) as I got out onto the street was offered some hash, now I didn't want to get any, just yet, but outa curiosity I had a look, and just as I was holding a cop car came cruising by, i thought to me self 'great, just of the plane and now I'm gonna get busted' and way didn't but did learn the hash scam (some sort of tar covered in a brown substance..) .I then fell for the oldest trick in the books, agreeing to go to hotel i hadn't seen and prepay for 3 nights..got there, thought ‘Oh this room, above a pond looks amazing.nice'..sun goes down, lie down for a nap and then they started 1million croaking frogs. It was impossible to sleep in that room. My friends were arriving the next day so I swallowed my pride at being ripped off and cut my losses and went to their place, the mandira hotel when it was still a losman. Had a room right down near the beach, could hear the sea, no power, hurricane lamps for light. On the wall were this spiral of smoke stains, couldn't work out what they were, then realized they were mozzie coils, had never seen or smelt them before. .while I was at the Mandira - I was sitting on my friends porch when I saw I bedraggled looking dog walk down the centre path, it turns goes straight into my room, jumps on my bed and - dies. Sounds like a bullsh*t story but it actually happened. (I've heard when dogs are very sick they actively look for a safe, quite place, why you often find dead dogs under houses etc)
Get up , a thermos of tea and a little jaffle, a line of ants. I loved that breakfast. Then into Denpasar, get a motorbike licence by negotiating 4 witches hats, awesome, got a license with a photo on it. Didn't have one at home! Ended up riding all the way to Lovina and back, had a run in with some trouble at Penelokan , slept in the open neat lake Batur. (climbed Mt Batur for the first time this year -the sunrise was fantastic, reminded me of a tim storrier painting or a piece of Eno music).
Back in legian, there was a distinct break between legian and kuta (and seminyak was sooo far away you rarely went.) , there were still rice vacant blocks filed with palms and little tracks down to the beach. Cassette shops, think I got about 50 which i thought was a huge amount but is nothing compared to 200 dvds I regularly get now. I liked the cassettes with the little Indonesian tax/customs sticker - they seemed more ‘authentic'.
Saw my first real live prostitutes at some bar in Kuta, went and talked to them , thinking it was the most naughty thing I'd ever done,.. me and my friends hightailed it outa there and found ourselves some Arak - 2 days later I wake up with my tongue stuck to the floor -arrr ..then the restorative powers of a swim in the surf, no plastic bags back then..the some pruit, pruit, ---a whole fruit salad cut in front of you (still can get that now but it was better back then,,well everything was better back then)
While on the beach I have a look at a wood carving, go through the usual 'maybe later, OK tomorrow' routine.. the next day (tomorrow) the same hawker sits next to me, I say no etc..he then pulls a knife and puts it to my neck, there is a long pause-- I don't flinch and he's looking at me...then he pulls it away and laughs.3 seconds have passed.... I'm a bit freaked out( of course) but pleased I stood my ground, the man was hoping I'de just put my hands up and say ‘Ok Ok I'll buy yr freaking carving'.
Now ..this is the ONLY violence I've ever experienced while in Bali (15+ trips), he was Javanese (don't want to generalise, cause it's easy to blame them for everything..but he was).
Went to Besakih, no one hassling you, had the run of the place, it is ruined for tourists now, look up at Agung and say to myself I'l climb it one day (did in 94, a year before my first child is born and my travelling style changes somewhat).
Ubud ...ah Ubud, love it now but back then, ...bliss
(might not love it for much longer, the traffic is getting outa control, and some of the developments are a bit out of scale...but who am I to buck progress..) Stayed near Peliatan , a groupie of the famous gamelan group Gunung Sari, all night shadow plays up in the hills, keeping slightly inebriated with plastic bottle full of an arak mix and nibbling on the occasional mushroom..just to keep the magic at an optimal level. ...Sunrise and home as the roosters are crowing and the ladies are already on the way home from the markets.. a bit like any young nightclubber coming home in the harsh glare of morning and reality..but much nicer with bare feet and in the warm Bali air..
This JBR has sort of gone of the rail as I wander through my memories, better get back to work..Times have sure changed for both me and Bali.