After a delicious breakfast at our hotel in Ubud it was time to head into town to get our chores out of the way. The walk took us through the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, a beautiful wooded park hiding three temples and inhabited by hundreds of Macaques. We bought some bananas to feed them and straight away a big alpha male started chasing Rhys and he gave him the whole bunch to get rid of him. Although cute, when a monkey comes at you bearing his teeth it’s a bit scary. We let a few of the little ones climb onto our laps and sit on our shoulders before continuing to town. Ubud is a really pretty place, inland in central Bali, surrounded by rice paddies and full to bursting of shrines and temples. The main streets are lined with restaurants and hotels and little boutique shops and souvenir stalls - it’s a shopaholics dream and although it is extremely touristy we found it to be really appealing.
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| Rhys with his new monkey friend in the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, Ubud. |
We dropped our passports in with an agent to extend our visas (yes, we could have done it ourselves but it would involve three visits to the immigration office in Denpasar and a lot of faffing that we’d rather pay to avoid), rented a motorbike for the next 9 days (at a bargain price of £1.80 a day), and dropped our laundry in to the cheapest place in town.
At lunchtime we wandered back to the hotel to relax by the pool and enjoy our lovely room for a couple of hours, waiting for the heat of the day to pass. We had arranged to meet Mario for dinner in town and walked in, through the monkey forest, a couple of hours early to browse the shops and markets, marveling at all the knickknacks, furniture and fabrics we could waste our money on. We met Mario in the Oops bar where we had some super strength mojitos before finding a little European wine bar for dinner and cheap carafes of wine (wine is a real treat!). On the walk home I managed to trip over my own feet walking down a dark path by the monkey forest. Rhys had to pretty much carry me home and clean off my grazes before bed.
The next day I woke to a foot twice it’s normal size and unable to put any weight on it. At breakfast Rhys called over the hotel manager to ask him to arrange a taxi to the hospital. The manager was keen to suggest we went to see the Balinese healer rather than go to hospital, the same advice you’ll get from any Balinese person, it seems the hospital is a bit drastic and they’re scared any aliment will lead to surgery. The healer didn’t open until the afternoon so we had a couple of hours of chill time before hopping to the car where the hotel owner drove us over an hour to the Besakih Temple, the Mother Temple, the biggest and most important temple in Bali, located at the foot of Gunung Agung where the speacilist bone healer practiced.
Once we arrived we entered one of the smaller temples and took a seat on the temple stairs waiting to be seen. While we waited, the hotel owner took Rhys to make an offering, with a little basket of flowers and a small cash token, Rhys knelt, prayed for my foot and took part in a ceremony involving water and rice. Of course we’d seen Canang Sari, the small daily offerings made all over Bali every day but this felt more intimate, we weren’t there to see it as tourists but to take part, it was very beautiful and I wish I knew more about it. (For instance I know that different coloured flowers are for different gods but thats about the extent of my understanding). In Bali, Hinduism permeates every aspect of life, incorporating local animism and ancestor worship. The fundamental principle is that there is order in the cosmos and balance and harmony needs to be maintained in order to be free of the never ending cycle of reincarnation. There is one supreme god and then other deities that look after everything from rice to the mountains.
Before too long I was called into a little side room where I sat on a table and they x-rayed my foot before we took our seat on the stairs again to wait to speak to the healer. He had a look at my x-ray, realised nothing was broken but that a bone had moved, readjusted it and with a laugh, sent me on my way. With the hotel owner as translator we got the aftercare advice of soaking it in hot water and rubbing sandalwood into it and grateful that nothing was broken, hopped back to the car for the return drive. Back in Ubud, Rhys had to run a few errands (since I was immobile), we ate at the hotel restaurant and headed to bed.
The next day the swelling had gone down slightly and I could limp for short distances. We packed our bags and put our backpacks in storage. We had decided to take the bike out for a couple of days to explore the island. Our first stop was Jimbaran. Our original plan was to stop at a couple of temples on the way, drop off our daybags at a hotel, then head back north to see the beaches that line that stretch of coast. We wanted to see what all the fuss was about with Kuta and Seminyak, the roads however, were crazy busy and not particularly pleasant to drive around on (apart from the new toll road over the water with a whole separate bridge for motorbikes). Along with my inability to walk anywhere we figured going up to Kuta was a bad idea and instead rode to the beach in Jimbaran.
Rhys left me in the car park while he tracked down a seafood restaurant with seats on the sand and we stationed ourselves there for the afternoon. The beach is a thick swath of golden sand bordered to the north by the airport runway and is famous for its seafood eateries at sunset - we beat the crowds and had our stretch of beach pretty much to ourselves by going at lunchtime. As they wouldn’t let us order small portions we ended up having a massive seafood feast after which Rhys explored and swam while I sat on the sun lounger watching the world go by.
My foot was a bit better again the next day and we decided to take the bike and explore the surfers paradise which is the Bukit Peninsula. Our first stop was at Balangan Beach where Rhys went ahead and found somewhere for breakfast with views of the surf, close to the path. Walking on soft sand was beyond me so we were a bit limited in where we could go. Breakfast turned out to be delicious and we toyed with the idea of taking a sun lounger and staying at Balangan for the rest of the day. Not wanting to miss out on seeing some of the beaches further along the coast though we went back to the bike and continued.
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| Balangan Beach, Bukit Peninsula. |
Our next planned stop was at Bingin, like Balangan, supposed to be a good surf beach with decent sand. We found the turnoff only to discover the road ended at a car park and you had to walk the remainder of the way, not an option for me. We continued further, to Padang-Padang, a world class surf break where international competitions are often held. There was only a small beach in a cove, crowded with umbrellas and beach towels but the closest we could get was to peer at it from the cliff top road bridge, again, my foot meant we couldn’t get down to the sand.
Our next stop of the day was at Uluwatu Temple, one of the security guards lent me a stick to help me limp around and once inside the temple walls Rhys propped me up in a corner to fend off monkeys while he walked around. I don’t think I missed out. Although the temple is located in a great spot on top of a cliff, the buildings themselves are hardly mindblowing.
Starting to think the day was going to be a bit of a write off, we rounded the corner and arrived at Pantai Suluban, one of the prettiest areas of the Uluwatu coast. We parked up and hobbled to the cliff top where there were dozens of cafes, bars and souvenir shops built into the cliff face with stairs winding up and down Escher like. We found a table at a cheap bar and stopped for lunch. Although we didn’t make it down to the beach we spent a pleasant hour or so watching the surfers and marveling at the waves crashing in to shore, we’d never seen anything like it, it certainly wasn’t for beginners.
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| View from the cafe of the surf at Pantai Suluban, Bukit Peninsula. |
Leaving Suluban we headed off to find a beach that I could actually get to. Then the van in front of us stopped abruptly right on the brow of a steep hill. A wheelie and a broken tail light later and Rhys rodeoed the bike into the grass verge. That made us decide to call it a day and we rode back to Jimbaran in search of a bike garage. Luckily, there was one about 20m from our hotel and within no time they’d tracked down and replaced the parts. We ended up eating at a local cafe across the main road from our hotel and I honestly think it was some of the best, and cheapest food we’ve had in Indonesia.
My foot had improved a little again by the next day and we set off again on the bike, this time destined for Candidasa in East Bali. Although still a busy road, leaving the Kuta/Sanur area behind was a relief and the traffic thinned. The road was straight and pretty boring and we pulled over at a couple of disappointing beaches on route. The Lonely Planet suggests there are some real beach gems in this area, like Lebih and Klotok, but the tide was in and the bits we could see where pretty unappealing. The whole ‘Bali as a paradise’ image that we’ve grown up with was starting to fall apart, it’s not particularly tropical, the beaches aren’t great and there’s a lot of litter and traffic congestion, the surf is amazing but we don’t know how to surf and they’re not beginner waves.
About 10km before arriving in Candidasa we stopped by Padangbai, a supposed backpacker town with decent beach that we had heard good things about. We didn’t even bother stopping, we rode through and didn’t think it looked that appealing. One stop on route to Candidasa that was worth while was at the Goa Lawah Temple, one of Bali’s nine directional temples, serving as a guardian against the dark spirits from the ocean. There was a ceremony going on at the time so although we couldn’t get into the temple to visit the bat caves behind, it was really interesting to see the locals all dressed up walking in to the complex with offerings balanced on their heads accompanied by the sounds of traditional musicians.
Candidasa itself is a resort town with a non-existent stretch of beach. With the building boom in the 1970’s the reef was destroyed to make cement leaving the waves to crash in to the shore shifting all the sand. Since then, artificial reefs have been built and small sandbars are starting to return. Our hotel was lovely with an infinity pool overlooking the water and we were happy to spend a couple of hours there relaxing. That evening we walked north to the lagoon, a huge pond filled with lily pads where we stopped for a drink while the sun set.
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| Me enjoying the pool a tour hotel in Candidasa. |
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| Lily pond in the centre of Candidasa. |
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| Me lounging on the beach at Pantai Pasir Putih, near Candidasa. |
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| View of the mountains and rice paddies on route to Amed. |
As it was still quite early in the day we decided to climb back on the bike to explore the coast a bit. We only went as far as Aas, a village at the southern end of the Amed, where we’d read about decent snorkeling. We had to ask some locals how to get to the beach and after walking along a litter strewn path, were a bit disappointed to find it was pebble and every inch was covered with fishing boats leaving no where to sit. The whole coast of Bali seems to be fenced off by resorts and actually getting access to the sea, especially at the nicer stretches of coast, can be difficult. We didn’t fancy sticking around and walked back to the bike. A couple of villages over in Lipah, we could see a nicer stretch of beach and noticed a path offering access by the side of a hotel. We set up camp by one of the boats and Rhys went for a brief snorkel. The surf was quite fierce so with my foot, I wasn’t able to join him.
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| View of Amed Village. |
We’d spotted a sunset bar a few hundred metres from our hotel perched up on the hillside and pulled in for a drink. It was a lovely place with happy hour cocktails, beanbags and views over one of the bays and out to sea. We stayed until nightfall when we headed back to our hotel for dinner.
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| Rhys enjoying a cocktail at the Sunset Bar, Amed. |
We had another night in Amed and spent the following day exploring the area. First, we headed north to Tulamben where the wreck of the US cargo ship, the Liberty, torpedoed by the Japanese in 1942, towed to shore and then broken up by a volcano eruption, can be snorkeled just off shore. Again, the waves were hammering into the shore and the beach was made of big black volcanic rocks so it was extremely difficult to get in and out of the water even for people with use of both feet. Rhys waded in while I waited on shore with the hundreds of divers who were preparing or debriefing from their dives. It was the first decent wreck snorkel we’ve come across and Rhys seemed to really enjoy it, seeing a variety of big colourful fish and coral growing up around the boat, before being slammed into the rocks when he tried to get back out of the sea.
Back on the bike we followed the winding inland road we’d taken the previous day, through the rice paddies to Tirta Gangga, a water palace built in the late 1940's by Gusti Gede Djelantik, heir to the former Kingdom of Karangasem. It was a lovely place full of fountains, stone statues and water mazes and well worth the stop despite the hordes of tourists. We paid a little extra to swim in one of the pools and had it to ourselves, a peaceful little haven fenced off from the rest of the complex. Rhys made friends with a praying mantis, which some mean lady flicked, and we continued along the road south before happening upon another water garden, Taman Ujung, built in 1901, by the predecessor of the King who constructed Tirta Gangga.. We were the only westerners at this one and although it wasn’t quite as pretty as the first complex, being far bigger and more modern, it was still peaceful and a pleasant stop.
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| Statues at Tirta Gangga Water Palace, near Amed. |
Continuing on our route we turned off onto the coast road that we’d intended to take up to Amed the previous day. The road was incredibly winding, following the mountains and passing through local villages, we felt like we’d actually found a corner of the real Bali, not the one put on for tourists. It was a challenging ride but one of our favourites with views out to sea and down into the coves, the beaches of each filled to bursting with traditional outrigger boats. We stopped for lunch at another little restaurant built into the cliff before returning to the hotel. I sat by the pool while Rhys chilled watching TV before we wandered back to the Sunset Bar we’d been to the previous night for dinner and drinks. All up, we enjoyed Amed, the beaches aren’t great and i’m sure we would have got more out of it on a snorkel trip as the sea is supposed to be teeming with life, but it was pretty, albeit dry and windswept, reminiscent of the Mediterranean, I felt like we could have been in Greece.
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| Rhys making the most of the hotel pool in Amed. |
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