THE RACHELEN PROJECT
BALI
Kuta - Gili Air - Gili Trawangan
11th June 2016, 4pm
I’m still backdating but I’m almost caught up!
We didn’t plan on staying in Kuta in Bali as it’s pretty trashy but it’s also near the airport and we arrived quite late at night. It’s basically full of cheap bars and cheap shops and people that will rob you at night. We left Kuta fairly soon and took a ferry over to Gili Air, a teeny tiny island just of the coast of Lombok. The ferry was terrifying; at least 200 passengers + luggage in a people carrier going way too fast for its size. It was also very wavy (apparently there was an earthquake about 150 miles south around the same time) and at points the ferry would lose contact with the water for about 5 seconds to fall down hard back on the surface.
Needless to say we spent most of the journey planning escape routes in case we sank and wondering how to fend off sharks. We arrived on Gili Air at about 5pm. There are three Gili Islands: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. People say Gili Air is the most ‘chill’ of the three but clearly its reputation has attracted a very particular sort of crowd. It definitely has charm; it’s pretty, quiet and friendly, but after walking around its 2 mile perimeter in half an hour you find yourself at a loss for things to do. We left Gili Air the next day and took a slower boat to Gili Trawangan.
All three of the Gili islands have dirt tracks instead of roads and the main modes of transport are horse and carriage and bicycles. There aren’t any motors anywhere. They are very pleasant to walk around and the people are incredibly friendly.
We walked around Gili Trawangan, desperate for a private room, and eventually found a pretty little homestay for £6/night each. After our place in Gili Air, which was a mattress in a tiny wooden hut, it was a luxury to have room to unpack as well as an en suite bathroom!
Today we went swimming to look for turtles but didn’t see any. We might rent snorkelling gear tomorrow but I still can’t get Jaws out of my head. The beaches around the island are beautiful but quite stony and difficult to walk on. For me the most impressive thing so far about the Gilis is the view you get of Bali’s Mount Agung; as the only peak on Bali you can compare it directly to sea level and it’s over 3000m high! The Gilis are about 40 miles away but the volcano is still visible so it’s a very impressive sight.
Agung Cottages and Monkey Forest
14th June 2016, 10am
We left Gili Trawangan after two nights and took a boat/bus to a town called Ubud. You couldn't see much at night but you could tell on the journey that it was a busy town with a lot going on.
Having stupidly ignored warnings that Ubud hostels fill up fast, we ended up wondering around the town looking for a place to stay. After an hour or so we saw a sign for Agung Cottages and followed a dark alley down to a little house. Feeling doubtful but tired we asked how much it would be for a room (£6/each for a cottage) and followed the host behind the house to a lovely garden complex and several small cottages.
Our host went down some windy steps and showed us our "cottage", which was the ground floor of a building which looked like it used to be a temple. It was about 10x10 metres and was used as an artist studio. There were bizarre paintings all over the walls and a strange long bench coming out halfway through the room, dividing two beds (we were asked to only use one bed, even though the other was vacant). It had very high ceilings and it felt odd to be sleeping in such a large empty space. We also had a little table and chairs.
It was charming but clearly hadn't been used in a while! There were spider webs in the sink and behind the curtains and the tap water came out brown. Some pretty huge spiders lurked in the beams. Thankfully we were tired and fell asleep quickly. In the morning we were woken up at about 7am by a gecko making noises so loud that they echoed. We looked all over but couldn't find the gecko, but from the volume of its voice it must have been a foot or two long!
In the morning we got a proper view of the garden. It was very beautiful and well maintained, with little winding steps leading between the cottages. At the upper level there were several exotic birds but sadly they were all on short leashes or in cages. We ate breakfast and checked out, hoping to find a slightly cheaper hostel without having to carry our backpacks around.
After checking into somewhere new we found out about a monkey forest nearby and decided to take a look. We also got our first proper view of Ubud which is pretty despite the heavy traffic. It's full of art galleries, yoga studios and sushi bars, and also some cheap markets. Apparently Ubud has a strong cultural history and has been following artistic pursuit since the late 19th century.
When we arrived at the monkey forest we assumed we'd be lucky to see one or two monkeys. In real life the monkeys tend to ignore the forest and they roam the footpaths with the humans, presumably to get more food, and we ended up seeing hundreds of them! There are a few rules, for example don't touch the monkeys but let them touch you. One of the funniest things that happened was a monkey running up to Helen and pulling her water bottle out of her hands. He held it quite loosely and I panicked and worried about littering/harming the monkeys and stupidly tried to take it back. The monkey bared it's teeth at me and I backed off, and then incredibly the monkey unscrewed the cap of the bottle and drank all the water (when I say drank, most of it missed its mouth but it looked like it cooled itself down anyway)! A few seconds later the monkey's baby came along but there was no water left, so it started drinking it up off the floor.
The monkeys just lazed around completely unfazed by humans. Some had babies which clung to their stomachs but we avoided these because the parents could be quite aggressive. They picked fleas out of eachother and ate them, especially to asleep monkeys. Some monkeys climbed on top of people and would just sit there for ages. One woman kept trying to hide her purse but the monkeys assumed it was food and kept climbing up her clothes to try and get to it.
We spoke to a keeper about the monkeys. At one point about fifty monkeys started running off in the same direction and the keeper told us that they were following their leader. Apparently there are four leaders as the monkeys in the forest have naturally divided into four territories which sometimes fight if they cross over. Their leaders are chosen by fighting which is why there are less male monkeys than female monkeys in the forest.
All in all it was a great experience and we were lucky to get close to such intelligent creatures. Today we're going to wander around Ubud and maybe take a cooking class, and tomorrow we'll get motorbikes to the nearby waterfalls and rice fields.
Ubud
21st June 2016, 8pm
We ended up spending 5 days in Ubud and it was my favourite place in Bali, which was probably partly because we spent so long there. We made some good friends despite having to move room every night due to the hostel being so busy and our habit of only wanting to book one night at a time.
On our second day we took a cooking class in the afternoon where we learnt how to make several local dishes. The little house was in the middle of rice fields and we were able to do all of the preparation and eating outside; the food was delicious and took us two or three hours to prepare. We were given recipes at the end but half of the ingredients aren't available in the UK so I doubt we'll be able to replicate it back home.
That night we got up at 2am to walk up Mt Batul, which surrounds a large crater but isn't the tallest volcano on Bali. The trek lasted 2-3 hours and we reached the summit in time for sunrise. The sunrise wasn't the best part (it was covered by cloud anyway) but the view from the top wad incredible. On the way up there was nothing to see anything further than the rocks that our torches lit up, but from the top there was a view of the crater, the lake and the mountains on the other side of the crater. The volcano is still active and there's a huge pool of dried black lava with a temple built right in the centre.
We got back to the hostel at about midday and relaxed for the rest of the day. Someone recommended a Pedang restaurant back in Ubud, which we decided to go to for lunch. Pedang is a style of cuisine in the form of fast food; it's like a buffet but you get charged very cheaply for whatever you put on your plate.
There were large paintings of faces on the walls. While there we met a Dutch man who told us about a local cinema which shows two set films a day which rotate every week. City of God was showing that evening so we decided to go for it. Entry was £2.50 but this also included a £2.50 food voucher which we spent on chocolate cake and ice cream. The entire food menu was vegan free and everyone in the shop downstairs had dreadlocks which was a bit much really, but the cinema itself was very pleasant and relaxed. City of God is an incredible film and definitely one to watch more than once.
The following day we slept in late following our early morning walk and then took at taxi to see at local freshwater waterfall and some nearby rice fields. That night was England v. Wales in the Euros so we headed to a bar with some friends from the hostel to watch the match and bring in my 23rd.
Inevitably we barely left the hostel the following day; we were exhausted and preparing to take a night flight to Australia. Nevertheless we had a couple of drinks by the pool and ended up sitting by a local supermarket (they usually have tables and chairs outside) until our taxi at 10pm. There grew to be such a crowd with us that passers by kept stopping to look for a drinks menu. It was pretty difficult to say goodbye at this point but we made it brief and headed to the airport for the last time in Asia.