Bali & Borneo

Live in the Sunshine, Swim in the Sea, Drink the Wild Air – Ralph Waldo Emerson

We didn’t really know what to expect when we were to arrive in Bali.  At this point in the trip we haven’t done too much research on our destinations, we pick a spot, book a place to stay with decent reviews, and dive in.  We knew Bali was a romantic getaway, a popular beachside destination, and pretty developed – so our best guess was something like Honolulu.  We had a few tips on activities from a friend who had lived in Indonesia, and he helped us get some amazing accommodation for our first few nights.  Our trip to Bali (from Darjeeling, India) was rough with medium length flights through the day and night, where as soon as you get the good sleep it is time to land, and then layovers of equal length. Here is a rundown:

  • 3 hour drive to airport closest to Darjeeling
  • 3 hour flight to Delhi
  • 7 hour layover in Delhi
  • 4 hour flight to Bangkok
  • 4 hour layover in Bangkok
  • 4 hour flight to Bali

So, needless to say that only added to our joy when we checked into gorgeous luxury.  And when we saw the kitchen in our villa, which we haven’t had access to in a long time, the kids were blurting out family recipes they want to make.  However, when we left to check out our ‘hood we found Taco Beach.  WHAT?!  And it was sooo good!  So, we ate there a lot and never did use the kitchen.  Every restaurant we ate at had great food; it was paradise in our villa and when we left it was a culinary paradise of foods we would eat at home.   Also in Bali, we had the fast internet we needed to kick Math roadschool into high gear.  So the kids spent a lot of time studying.  

Our initial impressions of Bali reminded us of Ko Sanh Road in Bangkok in 2002. This was backpacker central of Thailand (or maybe the world), lined with guest houses, cafes, shops, music, movies, and many other things all catered to the western traveler. We loved it then because it was a decompression chamber from the weariness of travel where we could refresh and rejuvenate before the next adventure. Bali seemed like one big Ko Sanh Road. As we spent more time there another comparison we made was that Bali is the like the Mexico for Australians. Cheap, easy to get to, great beaches, etc. Despite these references, Bali is still completely unique to anywhere we’ve been before. There seems to be an unusual richness to their lives.  They are very in tune with nature, their love for art permeates everything they do, and even adults seem to live with a childlike joy.  We enjoyed their faith too.  Whereas most of Indonesia is Muslim, Bali is Hindu – but they seem to have their own flavor of Hinduism. Earlier we heard a reference that Hinduism has thousands of Gods, because each one represents a different virtue of God.  They compared it to the countless unique types of flowers, with their own attributes, but they are all flowers.  In Bali where their faith is ever present and its flowers rain down from the trees this stuck in our minds.  They seemed to honor these virtues with thoughtful detail in every possible way from their homes, to their daily offerings, to the dinner table. They also have tourism down.  Tourism is immense in Bali and they embrace it, yet they haven’t let it affect their way of life or customs. They cater to every type of tourist, but at the end of the day they stay true to their traditions and loyal to their families.   Our guide on the cultural bike tour explained traditions and family structure to us and told us that this gig as a guide is fun now while he is young, and when the time comes for him to take over rice farming for the family, he will.  (He also will have his 6 front teeth filed smooth in a ceremony to shun the 6 vices of desire, anger, greed, drunkenness, arrogance and envy.  Ouch!)

Our next stop in Bali was Ubud, it seems to be Bali’s Boulder.  A little more yoga and organic food, lots of arts, beautiful nature.  This was our adventure capital of Bali.  We stayed at a homestay and went on a bike tour that combined gave us great insight into Balinese culture.  On the bike ride we rolled through the beautiful landscapes of distant volcanoes, rice fields, and villages.  Our guide explained to us that extended families live together in a compound.  Instead of a yard each compound has a family temple and family responsibility runs deep.  Family businesses are common, each working on a common goal together.  And we learned the youngest boy inherits the compound and the responsibility to care for aging parents (Congrats Liam!).  The next day we went river rafting on the Telaga Waja. The river was so narrow, but tumbling through lush jungle, delicate waterfalls, and the occasional village with a healthy amount of rapids was stunning.  The jungle in Bali is straight out of Tarzan with huge lush trees and vines hanging down from the canopy. We visited Monkey Forest – because apparently we still haven’t got enough of monkeys yet. Monkey Forest is a section of jungle in the center of Ubud and the monkeys here have become very habituated to Humans. They have also become very aggressive, so you dare not bring in any food or try to hide anything from them because they will “attack”. Apparently, three people a day get bit here on average. So, we were cautious…but the day we went the monkeys seemed relatively tame although we saw multiple instances of monkeys climbing on people.  We also did a family yoga class in a hut overlooking rice fields.  It was a really nice introduction to Yoga, the teacher told us a lot we didn’t know about the origin of yoga traditions and basic concepts.  Heidi loved learning that Namaste means “I see the good in you”, isn’t that a beautiful greeting to use?

Next up, we headed to Amed (on the North Eastern side of the island) so we could dive the USAT Liberty, which was torpedoed by the Japanese in World War II and beached near Amed. It remained there until 1963 when a nearby volcano erupted, which pushed it to its current location about 50 Meters off the beach and is now resting on a steep sloping ocean floor. It’s a great wreck dive for the kids b/c the top is fairly shallow (Liam can only go to 12 meters due to his age) and then descends down a couple hundred feet. There was some fabulous coral that has grown around the wreck and the aquatic life was great. Liam was so excited we kept having to pull him back up to 12 meters b/c he’d see something he liked and would start swimming down toward it. Like many places we’ve visited, we could have stayed a few more days in Amed, but it was time to move on, so we caught a ferry to a small island chain and spent the next 4 nights on Gili Trawangan (or Gili T for short). Here we did a ton of snorkeling (and saw a bunch of sea turtles), took a cooking class (Indonesian food is the best we’ve had yet), did some stand up paddle boarding, and a lot of biking around the island (it’s 4 miles to bike/run around the entire island). Not much swimming here..the island is surrounded by coral, which makes it great for snorkeling, not so great for swimming.  The unique thing about the Gili islands is that there are no motorized vehicles, so after being in traffic riddled countries, the break was nice.  Although the streets still had a bustle – just with jingle bell bedazzled horses pulling carts, bikes and backpackers instead of tuk tuks, motorbikes, and cars.    

After that back to Kuta (area in Bali where we started). During our last 7 days here we tried to enjoy Bali as much as possible, did some shopping, more beach time and checked some more things off our adventure list. One day we went to the water sports area of the island to do parasailing. It was a sight to behold and a bit of fear factor. There was a parasailing operation located about every 15 yards along the beach and at any one time you could see a dozen parasailers up in the air with speedboats going every which way. In addition there were dozens of other jet ski’s and boats pulling rafts, tubes, flying fish, etc. It was kind of like the water version of driving the streets in Delhi. It was amazing that there were no collisions or that parasailers didn’t collide or ropes get entangled. After a while though it seemed more like organized chaos and by the time it was our turn we were comfortable and confident and each of us loved the short rotation we got on the parasail.  We also had a fun surprise day planned for the kids.  We woke the kids and told them to get up for breakfast, when they questioned why they couldn’t sleep in, Heidi said she was wearing her “wet suit”,  that is code for mom’s actually getting into the pool!  Fortunately that was enough bait for them to put on their suits and get up.  We walked to a waffle house for breakfast – Chad had already ordered so shortly after we arrived waffles with ice cream showed up!  Then we walked to the waterpark instead of the hotel pool, they were so excited and surprised.  It was fun!  And in true Balinese fashion, the waterpark was small, but very well done and beautifully landscaped.  

After Bali we jumped on a couple short flights to get us to Borneo to track the Orangutan. The logistics of this seemed daunting in our research so we ended up finding a lodge and booked a door to door package.  As everything does, it had mixed reviews, and we didn’t quite know what to expect.  But if it involved a wild Orangutan, we were all in.  Turns out they did an exceptional job.  After landing in a rural airport we had a short drive to the boat dock and there we boarded the Rimba King.  We booked two nights at the lodge and one on the boat but in reality we spent almost the whole time on this boat, which was lovely.  Once getting on the boat we didn’t see a road for the 3 days. We quickly saw Proboscis Monkeys, which are endemic to Borneo and quite hilarious.  Little ones look like they are from Whoville and the big males look like a big nosed cartoon character.  After an hour at the lodge we got back on the boat for dinner.  We glided along after dusk amazed by the incredible stars in the sky.  It was a New Moon and we could see the Milky Way, Southern Cross, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter.  The star gazer app on the phone was helping us identify all kinds of wonders of the night sky. Then we stopped for dinner next to a tree swarming with lightning bugs.  The stars in the sky reflected in the calm wide river as the fireflies danced in the tree and it felt magical.  The next day we left early to head deeper into Tanjung Puting National Park.  

Amazingly we saw an Orangutan in the trees in the morning from our boat.  A mom with her 1 year old was near the water’s edge.  She wasn’t one of the apes living near a research station so she was more cautious of our presence.  But she stayed put and kept a close eye on us.  She taught us what I believe to be the origin of “Kiss Off”.  When we made her uneasy she looked at us with some definite attitude and made a very loud kissing sound.  I guess that is a typical warning.  It was all smiles as we moved on.  As we got to the narrow waterways the water changed from chocolate brown (colored by silt from prolific mining in the region) to it’s natural color of ebony.  Black water sounds dirty, but looking down it was so clear and it was beautiful.  Camp Leakey was our destination.  Named after Louis Leakey- who selected Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall and Birute Galdikas to research the great apes.  This was Galdikas’ base to begin her study of the Orangutan in 1971.  It remains a research station where they can come if they want for supplemental food and medical care.  Orangutan are solitary animals, except for the 7 years that a baby stays with the mom.  All the ladies do the work of a single mom without any help from the Dads.  They are the fastest arboreal primate, never caring to step foot on the ground.  Camp Leakey was the first of 3 stations we visited where they offer food to any nearby Orangutan who want to come.  In a world where the land allocated to these majestic animals keeps shrinking it seems these supplements will become more and more important – plus it keeps them from the incredible danger of entering human settlements where they often pay for a stolen snack with their lives.  

Sleeping on the boat was a lovely symphony of jungle sounds and after sunrise Liam and Heidi heard rather loud trees crashing.  Looking out we saw an Orangutan emerge from the forest.  On the other side of the river he came up to the dock and found a bar of soap left by the resident park ranger.  He proceeded to lather up his hands and forearms and lick the bubbles up and spit them out.  It was so entertaining to watch him play with the soap.  He eventually lost it in the river and moved on.  In the end we saw many Orangutan, including the King of the last research group.  He was huge and so strong.  He clambered through the trees over our heads as we watched the feeding.  He seemed to love an audience.  When he shifted from one tree to the next it was like seeing a 30 foot tall tree used as a catapult upon his release.  And the shift in appearance from a young male to a confident mature male with the massive cheek pads and neck pouch was fascinating.  Apparently with the right confidence and diet they can make that change within a matter of months.  We share 96.4% of our genes with Orangutan and it was a pleasure to be in their midst.  

We left Indonesia now, but it’s hard to say we “did Indonesia” when we only visited 3 of the 13,000 islands it has to offer, but the beauty and uniqueness of the islands we visited made us wish we had time to explore more of Indonesia.

You may also like...

2 Responses

  1. Kyra says:

    Sounds awesome. We tried snorkeling ourselves but that didn’t really work, always wanted to really try it though. Hope you are all having a good time!

  2. Cathy Kennedy says:

    Thank you – thank you thank you for blogging! I’m speechless trying to find words to explain how much fun it is reading about the joy of your trips! You all explain everything so well and with such an adventurous spirit and willingness to share! Thank you, Chad, Heidi, Shia and Liam! Love, Cuz Cathy

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *