We had an X in the Continental Breakfast box on our breakfast vouchers (it could have been American or Balinese [breakfast]). The Continental was the choice of coffeeus sludgeus [or tea] and toast with jam and fresh fruits. Actually, when the coffee had settled it wasn't too bad. Extracting the pip/stone from a lychee is quite hard without leaving some woody bark behind.
Luckily for us, Putu is running late as I get a phone call saying that, having filled in a survey yesterday, we'd won a holiday at one of Royal Resort's hotels. Well, that sounds good. I try to check with the hotel staff if it's kosher but there's a slight language barrier. Putu turns up and we pile in and head up the road. Putu suggests that the holiday offer is a scam. Boo! What happens next [on the tour] is a whole series of scams.
First to see some Balinese dancing. On the way we see our first few paddy fields with oxen pulling a plough. That's a rarity, though, as all our travel in Bali to date has been down congested town roads without a hint of countryside. We were dropped off outside the dance place and sent inside. At the door we were charged IDR50,000 each (IDR9,000 to US$1) which isn't a lot (US$6) but we were working to a budget of US$20 per day [for two]. That's a large chunk of your cash. The dance wasn't bad, very obviously SE Asian in style -- clink chink whine from the orchestra and some disembodied wailing from the female cast -- but virtually impossible to follow the plot of the famous legend even with the hints in English. Lots of symbolic posturing, wailing and, surprisingly, attacking people's crotches.
Next stop a weaving shop, a silver jewellery shop then a painting shop all of which followed the same ritual: a salesman shows you the manufacturing process then takes you inside to the purchaseable goods and follows you around. The workers look quite authentically [authentic?] producing goods by hand but (bar the painting) there's an element of mass production involved.
Driving up towards Mt. Batur we passed through a region of woodcarvers but didn't stop. "Low quality material," Putu said. At the top of the hill we paid IDR5,000 entrance fee each [not Putu, mind] before Putu dropped us off at a restaurant with great views from the crater rim over the crater below including Bali's largest lake and Mt. Batur itself rising way into the clouds. This was a great scam as we and a score of other tourists were faced with a fixed fee (IDR65,000) buffet lunch plus drinks. The buffet was OK but we really hit a problem as, including the government's 21% tax the IDR171,000 bill was much more than our cash holding. Luckily we had some US dollars on us and exchanged at a poor rate.
We hinted to Putu that this was a bum deal and (to fight our corner) we wanted to be driven into the crater. Putu weasled out of it (too long a journey to get to the dive site) so we paid visits to the second best temple (not a good tourist sport -- it's been left to nature for a while [and as Helen noted all the women making offerings were way up the road, obviously at another temple, hmm]) and a traditional village. Chosen for its orderliness (a clean straight main street) and gaps between houses. It used to be all wooden and thatched huts demonstrating the N, S, E and W multiple building nature of a traditional Balinese home (parents in one house, grandparents another, kitchen another, temple in the NE corner) but economic prosperity (notably tourism) has meant most householders have upgraded from wood to stone rendering the experience an bit untraditional. Temple and village both cost IDR3,000 to get in (only US$0.33 but you need IDR...) plus a donation to borrow sashes to get in the temple -- luckily Helen owns two sarongs as I made my "skirt" debut.
The final run in towards Amed on the East tip of Bali went through some of the classic Bali rice paddy terraces. Sweeping vistas of terraces from slow sloping valleys to tightly packed hill crevasses. Anywhere where you could get water to trickle from top to bottom and the oxen in to plough it.
Amed is another blink and you'll miss it town, more a locality than anything. We drop into a dive shop to secure some diving for tomorrow and the next day before finding a hotel for the night. The first one we picked appeared to be very nice (cold water and a fan, mind) but tastefully decorated. At a bargainous IDR150,000 per night (US$17) we say yes. In the restaurant there's no meat. There's only one other group at the [a?] table so we assume it's a bit quiet. Apart from the storm, that it, which brilliantly lights the sky from way east. Every night, apparently.
Kusumajaya Indah Bungalows, Amed S8.34144
E115.66644 Elev. 45m
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.