Bali Kembali
February 1-8, 2013
We think that we deserve a little holiday. We have been living in a whirlpool of activities the last 4 weeks. First with getting ready for our sailing adventure and then the week Singapore to get our crew position on the Royal Albatross. I just need sun & sea and chill to get my body and mind in the adventure mode. Let's shake off the city stress and change to nature and tranquillity.
No better place than Bali, a tourist haven for decades! And of course of important Dutch history. In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali and, with the establishment of the Dutch East India Company in 1602, the stage was set for colonial control two and a half centuries later when Dutch control expanded across the Indonesian archipelago throughout the second half of the nineteenth century.
We found the most beautiful little family resort in Sanur, named Bali Kembali (= back to Bali).
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| The view from our little bungalow in Bali Kembali. It had all the ingredients for super chill |
But Bali has so much to offer, that we had to discover the island. Sadly I had to leave the swimming pool and my place in the shade under the trees. We negotiated a driver/ guide for the day for just RP 350.000 (= € 25). Bali is a great place for a hard core negotiator like me, especially in low season. You divide the asked price by two and start negotiating from there !
We started with Bali culture; the Barong dancing It is a story telling dance, narrating the fight between good and evil.
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| Barong is a lion-like creature and character in the mythology of Bali, Indonesia. He is the king of the spirits, leader of the hosts of good, and enemy of Rangda. |
Balinese percussion orchestra music, known
as gamelan, is highly developed and varied.
Agriculture is still the island’s biggest employer most notably rice cultivation. And it took some pictures and stops for the driver to find the nicest rice fields. It is one of the most impressive landscapes of what I have ever seen.
And further we went in the agricultural world of Bali. The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. consistency. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana”. According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production.
Billy tried to become expert in the Traditional coffee grinding and we did the tasting of several coffee flavours. Our favoured was the vanilla flavoured coffee. A little disappointment the next day, tasting sugar and vanilla with only a little hint of coffee. The typical tourist trap!
And we wouldn't be real sailors, not sailing the Traditional Bali Fishing boats, the jukung. We found the most lovely old fisherman, named Agung Randut, who was willing to take us out.
Jukung are colorful wooden outriggers with ‘arms’ on either side for stability. These single-masted sailboats have a triangular sail. Hulls are hollowed-out trees, deep and extremely narrow, just wide enough to seat one slim person. Arms are constructed from bamboo and wood then slashed together with ropes.
It was a leisurely sail with only a little wind, but
fantastic to see how the old man, knew every wave and blow of the wind
to keep the boat going. 
The
last part of the Bali experience is the food. Of course as Dutch we
know the Indonesian restaurants but the special thing is the open-air
food markets. Vendors cook their produce (for example meat on skewers
cooked on charcoal fires) for passing customers. This is the local
version of fast food. Other foods (meat, fruits and vegetables) are sold
for people to take home. These foods are usually wrapped in banana
leaves instead of paper.
So we enjoyed the nasi goreng, rending, sate ajam on the Sindu nightmarket and in the little restaurants on the streets of Sanur.
As in the title of the blog 'kembali' we have to come back to Bali. To learn more about the culture, temples and the Hindu religion, to enjoy the friendliness of the people and to eat more nasi goring and rendang .
Ahoy Charlotte
