Tropical wedding

The day of the wedding had arrived.  Renee and I got dressed up and headed down to the Ungasan Clifftop nice and early.  I had read a lot about how bad the traffic could be in Bali and I had experienced it first hand when I nearly missed my flight the last time I had been here.  Even on this trip, the traffic we had seen on our first day up to Ubud made us both nervous about being late.  So rather than risk it, we decided to go extra early.  This decision of course meant that there was absolutely no traffic at all and we arrived we ahead of schedule.  We walked around the wedding location, took some photos, and then with nothing else to do Renee played with her phone whilst I got a coffee.

Other guests started to arrive and so we all moved to the lawn which had been set up for the wedding ceremony.  It overlooked the water, the bridal arch looking small with the background of blue stretching towards the horizon and the sky.  The colours of the place seemed a world away from a traditional church and seemed to give everything a life that a wedding should have.

All the guests seated themselves and soon the music began.  The bridal party all entered and smiles were on the faces of everyone.   A close family friend of Alan presided over the wedding and gave the ceremony the formalities required in this casual setting.  The strong breeze which had been blowing calmed slightly for the ceremony itself, and so the bride's veil gentle floated in the air as if that had always been its purpose.  It was a happy affair and the smiles on the faces of the bride and groom beamed towards us all.

After the ceremony, there was some time for all of us to socialise before the reception.  Some decided to relax with a drink, some played games on the lawn, and others decided to look out into the distance from the clifftops.

It did feel like we were living a charmed existence out of a modern fairytale.  Everything looked a little bit too perfect.  Everyone dressed up in their formal attire, walking with glass in hand around the manicured gardens and lawns of the villas.  The blue ocean framed the entire vision we were experiencing.

As the sun set, we made our way to tables which had been set for our dinner.  The winds were a bit stronger than expected and so the tables were moved slightly in from the cliff side.  It wasn't a noticeable difference and it opened up more space on the side for people to dance later.  The bride and groom came in to rapturous applause.  The drinks flowed and the speeches were made.  People didn't seem to pay too much attention to their food and were soon mingling amongst the tables and laughing. 

Soon, no one was seated at their own seat anymore.  It was a truly happy time and as the music started to get louder, more and more people moved towards the dance floor.  It all continued into the early hours of the morning.

Dinner on the beach

After our grand tour around Uluwatu, Renee and I went back to the hotel.  We had arranged to catch up with everyone for dinner on Jimbaran beach.  We had been told that dinner on this beach was one of the "highlights" of any trip to Bali.  It helped that our hotel was right next door to it.  We arrived early to get the table we booked and we arranged it lengthwise to ensure that everyone would get a nice view.  I didn't want anyone with their back towards the sun and the water!  The reviews of the beach were on point.  We sat and watched the sun slowly set over the ocean as everyone started to arrive for dinner.

Everyone's gaze was transfixed on the horizon as the sun slowly made its way down over the water.  The haze in the air was helpful in this instance, as it shielded everyone from the most intense glare of the sun and provided a glow across the sky.  As the sun fell further, the shallow waters along the beach captured the last of the light and sent a pillar of fire towards us along the sands.  It was a lovely image and everyone jumped up to take photos.

Once the sun had fully set, the scene of the beach changed dramatically.  Candles were lit on each of the tables, and the entire length of the beach was filled with the warm glow of their lights.  Dozens of these tables stretched out into the distance, each with their lights shining out in the darkened sky.  It was an exceptionally beautiful scene.

We moved onto ordering food.  We were on the beach, so we would have a seafood dinner.  Jess did the ordering and we had plate after plate arrive on the table.  Everything was as fresh as you would expect and was barbecued for us at the other end of the beach.   It was hard not to be contented.  It isn't too often you are able to gather such a large group of friends in a foreign country and we were making the most of it.  I stood back to look at the scene and I looked towards my friends who had arranged themselves in what appeared to be a Biblical like scene along the length of the table.

After we had finished eating, we moved back to the rooftop of the hotel for more drinks.  We looked out across the beach from our improved view and saw all of the lights dotted across the distance, each representing a table full of happy diners.

Uluwatu

I had really enjoyed my time in the forests of Ubud.  I felt refreshed from the seclusion and the intense greenery of the jungles made me forget about the outside world.

That part of the trip was done now.  We were heading south towards Uluwatu.  The wedding we were attending would be on the cliff tops in the south, so it made more sense to move a bit closer for the second half of our holiday.  On our way there, we decided to include some sightseeing of Uluwatu.

We went straight down to the far southern end of the island.  There we stood and looked out on the cliffs towards the ocean.  The landscape around us was far drier than what we had experienced in Ubud.  It was a harsher environment, but still beautiful in its own way.

Whereas up north, everything felt a bit more intimate and enclosed with the dense forests, here I felt the open expanses.  Looking out towards the ocean, the strong winds coming in from the ocean was incredibly refreshing.

Renee enjoyed the walk and she seemed to suffer under the heat of the sun far less than me.

After walking around the cliffs for an hour or so (and seeing more monkeys), we jumped back in the car and went to the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park.  This park is in the middle of Uluwatu and it contains some enormous statues that almost all tourists to Bali will see at some point.  The largest of the statues is almost impossible to miss and it stands taller than anything in Uluwatu by some distance.  In fact, as you come in to land, if you're seated face the correct side you'll see the enormous statue rising out of the ground.  It dominates the landscape and it is un-missable.

This history and legends behind this figure and scene are lost to me.  To the Balinese, the combination of Vishnu and Garuda seemed to be deeply entrenched in their culture.  We walked from the carpark into this enormous area that had been set aside for the statue.  The closer we got, the larger it seemed.  It was quite amazing just how much it dominated the entire skyline of the Southern part of Bali.   

The whole park had been set up in grand fashion, with large open vistas and big areas that seemed perfect for large crowds to gather.  It felt almost like the courtyard of a Mesoamerican palace or city.  With the roughly hewn stone walls everywhere, it created this sense of history that wasn't actually there given this was all a relatively new development. 

It all felt very different to Ubud.  We had gone from the dense and lush jungles to far more open and sweeping views.  This was a different experience, but it seemed to add to the allure and appeal of this strange and incredible island.

Monkeys

There's a large sanctuary in Ubud dedicated to monkeys.  It's even in the name, the "Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary".  Renee and I went in to have a look and it was surprising how "Australian" everything looked.  From the welcome centre, to the paths, all the way through the signage, the whole place looked like it belonged in Australia.  More than likely this place had been built by Australians, or at the very least with the assistance of Australian designers.

Further into the sanctuary, things started to become less Australian and more Balinese.  There are several temples in the sanctuary and some lovely bridges which reach high above the river below.  The sanctuary was incredibly busy with tourists and visitors to the extent that it was outright crowded in certain areas.  The wooden walkways were well made, but even they seemed to creak under the sheer volume of people.

As beautiful as the surroundings were, the main attraction of this sanctuary were the monkeys.  So many monkeys.  There were hundreds of them running around everywhere and the comfortable surroundings, abundance of food and safety made them inquisitive and cheeky towards their human visitors.

Renee started the visit slightly terrified of all the monkeys, but she very slowly warmed to them and was able to get a little bit closer for a photo.  She stood nervously near a relatively calm monkey as I took a picture, smiling like she was relaxed, before retreating once I was done.

As we explored the sanctuary, we came across a monkey perched on the top of a railing furiously masturbating.  Renee's eyes widened in shock and terror as she asked me what the monkey was doing.  I told her.  She screamed and dragged us away from this monkey and its monkey business.  We walked further inside the sanctuary amongst a large group of other tourists.  People gathered to watch some monkeys being fed by one of the keepers, when we heard a slight yell.  A monkey had crept onto the shoulder of an Australian lady and had carefully lifted her gold earring straight from her ear and then placed it straight into its mouth.  Everyone around the lady was in shock and started to frantically move around trying to convince the monkey to give up its newly acquired bounty. The monkey looked at everyone calmly, took the earring out of its mouth, inspected it, put it back in its mouth and then shuffled off.  The lady had a shocked smile on her face as she realised her earring was likely gone, but she now had an experience to last a lifetime.

Rice paddies

Todd had left, but Renee and I were still relaxing in Ubud.  I really liked the place.  The mix of things to do and restaurants was ideal.  We walked around the shops, sat in cafes and went to some great restaurants.  There was a range of places to go, from the little side street food stands all the way to some very fancy and upscale restaurants.  It did feel like a small slice of the best parts of Australia had been transplanted into this tropical paradise.  We weren't doing too much either which was quite nice.  My normal holidays consist of rushing from one place to another as I try to see and do as much as possible.  It was a nice change to just slow down and to be calm.

In the middle of this relaxing time, we decided to break things up a little bit and to go out to have a look at some of the famous rice paddy terraces. 

It was the wrong time of year and so the rice had already been harvested, but the terraces remained exceptionally beautiful.  Since we were here, we were able to time everything so that Renee could do a photo shoot.

With photographers and support staff following her around, Renee posed for photo after photo in the midst of the farmers and other tourists.   I wasn't so interested in what was happening, and so I played with my phone and took in the view.  More tourists started to gather to take photos of Renee and she stood there posing.  She smiled at the tourists and gave them a twirl.

It was a scenic place to be standing.  They were all clearly still working rice paddies, but I wondered how much of the income was still being derived from that agricultural work as opposed to the tourist income.  That being said, there were plenty of rice paddies we had seen all through the island when we had driven around, so people were clearly still farming.

As I stood there and looked out, I realised that I hadn't been bitten by any mosquitoes.  We were surrounded by the standing water in all the terraces, yet I remained un-harrassed.  The harmony that our natural surroundings were in was such that there were more than enough predators to keep those biting mosquito numbers down.

Social media realities

After leaving the waterfall, we continued our tour of the northern part of Bali.  We started to move higher up and the forests started to thin out.  The driver suggested a place for lunch and we agreed.  The moment we walked into his suggested restaurant, we knew it had been a mistake.  We had been asking the driver to take us somewhere local, Todd had even asked him in Bahasa, but unfortunately he seemed to think that "local" meant "tourist trap".  We found ourselves eating an overpriced meal of poor quality food with other bus loads full of tourists.  The one saving grace was the view.  The restaurant overlooked some impressive rice paddies as well as one of the larger mountains in Bali.  The mountain was sadly shrouded by the clouds, but the rice paddies were a impressive. 

From there, we closed our eyes and napped in the car as the driver took us up to Lempuyang Temple, or the famously named "Gates of Heaven".  We had all seen photos of this place, and since we weren't too far it seemed like a nice place to visit.  Todd has been to Bali countless times given its close proximity to his home in Jakarta and even he had never been up here.  It was a bit too far out of the way of the usual places people stay.  The trip up took longer than we expected and the final part of the drive was an extremely steep and winding road.  Once we got out of the car, we still had a bit longer to climb to get up to the temple itself.

At the top, we saw the Gates of Heaven.  Two perfect halves to a doorway which frames the large mountain in the background.  Looking out at the gates, they were incredibly photogenic and it was understandable why so many people wanted to come and visit.  With the mountain in the background and a slight smattering of clouds, it presented a postcard like picture that almost seems fake.

What was far less understandable was the lineup to get that perfect photo.  We had heard stories about how long you needed to lineup, but none of us were prepared for just how bad it was.  If you want to get that perfect photo between the gates, the wait is anywhere between 3 to 4 hours.... even if you arrive early, it turns out you will still be waiting as others all seem to have the same idea and try to beat the rush.  The line has become so intense that the local authorities have built a large shelter to shade the poor tourists as they wait their turn.  Even the photographing itself is now controlled by the authorities who have employees seated in the middle and who direct people to come for their photos or to move along.  There wasn't the slightest chance we were going to wait that long, as none of us had that required level of desire to wait for a photo between the gates.  We stood around, admired the view and I was personally more intrigued by the lineup than by the gates themselves.  The pictures of the gates by the social media influencers don't show this brutal reality.  The perfectly crafted pictures they post make it look like they are standing at the top of the world by themselves, but the reality is that they have been standing in a crowded line waiting for only a brief moment to strike that insta worthy pose.

At this stage, Renee's jet lag was kicking in hard and she was getting grumpy.  She didn't say it, but I suspected that she had held out a slight bit of hope that she could have taken a photo between the gates.  We all knew this wasn't happening though, so we decided to move on.  We got back in the car and we headed off to what was meant to be our final location, a beach club on Keramas beach.  Renee and Todd quickly fell asleep in the car, but I wasn't tired. I looked out at the road and its surroundings as we descended the mountain.  The environment changed quickly as we moved away from the highlands and towards the water, and everything became a bit drier and sparser.  When we reached the beach, the sun was beginning to set.

The beach was serene and the air was refreshing.  We sat at the restaurant which was on the very edge of the sand and ordered some cocktails.  This was an incredibly calm part of Bali, far away from the crowded areas to the west of the island.  Here, there were far more isolated resorts and retreats designed with this calm in mind.

We enjoyed the calmness of this beach club.  The beach was beautiful and the drinks were good, but we didn't like the look of the food.  Other people were eating and it seemed to be the standard resort food you see everywhere.  Given the prices, it didn't seem worth it at all.  Todd looked at his phone then looked up and suggested we get BBQ back in Ubud.  It was only another 40 minutes drive, so we all quickly agreed.  We moved away from our original itinerary and instead of having dinner by the beach, moved instead to the loud and crowded tables of Naughty Nuri's.  It was a dramatic change from the calm beach club, but a welcome one as the long day meant we had built up strong appetites.

As it got later, we went back to the villa.  We were tired, but we convinced Todd to come with us for a few more drinks.  I had brought a few bottles of the wine I had brought back from France, and this seemed like a good time to have a few glasses.  With the promise of a nice drink, Todd agreed to make a diversion.

It had been a long day.  We sat out in the garden listening to the sounds of the waterfall and the croaking of the frogs.  I didn't expect to hear and see so many frogs.  I grew up looking for and catching frogs as a kid in Melbourne, but as I had grown older I had definitely noticed them becoming less abundant.  It was nice to see all of the frogs now leaping in and out of my small swimming pool.  I opened up the bottle of wine so that we could enjoy this whilst listening to the frogs.  The mosquitoes buzzed near us, but stayed away from the burning repellant coils I had lit.  It was a dramatic change of location we were in.  Only a few months before, Todd and I had been drinking red wine in the south of France, and now we were all here drinking a similar bottle of red in the Balinese humidity.

Rainforests and waterfalls

I hired a car and driver to take us on a tour of Ubud and the surrounding region.  Todd arrived at our villa nice and early and we set off for the water temple which was close by.  The timing of our trip couldn't have been better.  A local festival was underway and so we got to see a procession of locals, dressed in their finest clothes parade through the temple whilst playing traditional musical instruments.

The Tirta Empul temple is a special place.  I have been to many temples and religious locations before, but none that was working in the way that this place was.  The waters flowed from fountains in the rock walls that people bathed in and there were bright splashes of colour everywhere in the form of the sarongs we were all required to wear.  We didn't immerse ourselves in the water, but we dipped our feet in.  The water was incredibly cool in contrast to the warm air around us.

The entire scene was lovely.  There was a peacefulness to it all, and even the foreigners who were visiting were all very respectful.  You could sense the importance of this place to the locals and everyone who did enter the water, did so slowly and with great care.  Even children who went into the water seemed to appreciate that this wasn't a swimming pool and that it was a privilege for them to be able to cool themselves.  Behind the fountain, we walked around and we saw a small man made pool which contained the spring from which the water originated.  Looking closely, you could see the sand moving gently as the water forced its way through.

After we finished walking around the grounds of the temple, we jumped back in the car to head to the Tukad Cepung waterfall.  The waterfall didn't look too far from the temple on the map, but I failed to appreciate that the geography of Bali is such that you can rarely travel in straight lines.  Most of the roads sit up on the top of the ridges and so any movement needs to be along these mountain ridges and then back up along the next ridge.  There seems to also be a lack of bridges which forces long detours to be made before a crossing between any of these ridges can be done.  Eventually we made it to the waterfall.  We descended down from the top of the ridge before walking besides a long irrigation canal.  At the very bottom, we found ourselves in a deep and cool canyon.  Walking along the creek bed, we reached the waterfall.  It turns out the waterfall wasn't natural, but was rather the result of the water flowing from the irrigation canal we had been walking next to above the canyon.

Even though it was artificial, it didn't mean that it wasn't a spectacularly beautiful sight to see.  With the opening in the surrounding rocks, the light of the sky poured in with the water into the shallow pool below.  Some of the pictures that we took captured an image of calm serenity.  Sadly, this was not the reality of this place.  It was crawling with people and a long line of people snaked away from the waterfall as people waited patiently to get their photos under the falling water.  I was really starting to notice the power of instagram on this trip and its ability to dramatically change the purpose and motivations of people traveling.

Renee stood near the back and watched what was happening.  Todd and I had no patience and so we wandered around to the side to get a better look.  We had no need or desire to have a photo standing under the falling water so we didn't line up.  As we stood there looking, Todd walked closed to try and get a better look at the wall behind the water.  A girl called out at him for getting in the way of her photo.  He shot her back a look, shocked at her presumptuousness and then questioned why he wasn't allowed to walk in the area.  Her friend immediately apologised, and the girl looked back down.  At the end of the day, this was a place to be enjoyed by all, it wasn't just a photo shoot location.  

Bali

I was very excited about my first "real" trip to Bali.  Bali has an almost mythical reputation with tourists globally.  It seems to create an image for tourists that range for the tackiest holiday spots full of booze and backpackers, to spiritual yoga retreats, all the way through to the most unbelievable of luxury.  The last trip to Bali (which was the actual "first" trip) had been too short, a mere fly in and fly out for a wedding and I hadn't really been able to see enough of anything.  I had seen a beautiful beach, so good cafes and I had experienced some truly terrifying traffic.  This trip would give me the opportunity to look into this famous island in a far more in-depth way.

We had decided to split our trip in two.  The first part of our trip we would go North and stay in Ubud and for the second half we would go South and stay in Jimbaran (which would be closer to the wedding we were attending).  We arrived at the airport (which for a South East Asian airport, is in excellent condition and upkeep) and found our driver.  The drive up to Ubud took about an hour and a half, with traffic unsurprisingly causing us a bit of a nuisance.

What we found in Ubud was quite special.  Higher up in the forests of Bali, it feels intimate and protected.  The rainforests are lush and thick.  There are rivers and creeks running everywhere and so you can often here the sound of running water or waterfalls.  It does feel like a tropical, jungle paradise as you would have imagined it.

The town of Ubud itself is relatively modern and well kept.  The streets are tidy and there are countless restaurants and cafes which feel like they've been plucked out of Sydney.  My time in Ubud and Bali more generally was making me wonder whether the cafes I used to go to in Australia were really an "Australian" style or rather a "Balinese" style... or maybe there is such a strong interconnection between the two that there is a now melded culture that has now formed between the two.

We had also been lucky in our timing and arrived during a Hindu festival which meant that all the houses and businesses had been decorated with long and ornate bamboo pillars called "penjors".  Every street we drove down would have these penjors on lined up on both sides of the street.  It felt like every street had its own series of arches to welcome you as you went past.

Ubud is also the location of many of the rice paddies in Bali, so the drive in gave us spectacular scenes of these paddies full of life being worked by the locals.  It added to the authentic feel of this place which seems to captivating for visitors.

Back at the villa, Renee and I had our own private garden and pool.  She beamed as she saw everything and immediately sprawled out on the bed for a nap.

As she lay there and snoozed, still recovering from her jet lag, I went for a walk.  The grounds of the villa had a path that led all the way to the river below.  Down in that valley, the water surged past and I could hear a roar of a waterfall not too far away.  The feeling of nature was intense as I stood there by myself looking at the water.  It felt cool as the mist sprayed up and the roaring noise of the water was amplified by the walls of the small canyon.

Back at the villa, Renee was now fast asleep.  Normally I would wake her up to try and make sure she got over her jet lag, but since she was on holiday I thought it was best to let her sleep.  I pulled my computer out and started to do some work.  It was a peaceful place to be working, even if I would have preferred to do no work at all.

As night arrived, we headed into town for dinner.  A stroke of good fortune meant that Todd was actually in town as well.  He was staying in Ubud for a few days which meant we would be able to hang out for a bit.  We took the shuttle in and found a smiling Todd walking around the middle of town.

In town, in the light of the evening the penjors looked lovely.  They swayed and moved in the gentle evening breeze as though they were alive.  There was an almost magical feeling that they created, each looking down on us as those to offer some protection or coverage from above.  I could understand why people loved this place so much.

Kuala Lumpur

I had never been to Kuala Lumpur before.  This was quite strange given I used to live in Singapore.  The travel between the two cities is convenient and I would have expected that at some point I would have gone to visit.  Yet other than one airport transit, I had somehow managed to miss out on ever actually going into the city.

This all changed with a trip organised by myself and Todd.

He was on school holidays and I was looking for somewhere to visit whilst on my own break.  With him in Jakarta and me in Hong Kong, we decided to meet "in the middle" in Kuala Lumpur.

We spent the next few days just wandering around Kuala Lumpur, looking for interesting sights and enjoying as much of the local cuisine as we could.

From the perspective of two tourists who were well accustomed to Asia, there wasn't too much to the place that stood out for either of us.  The city itself was nice enough, but it seemed to be relatively inoffensive and maybe even lacking in a bit of the uniqueness that other cities in the region had to offer.  There weren't too many attractions or cultural locations for us to visit other than the Petronas Towers and after a bit of wandering, we felt like we had seen most of the city's highlights.

What stood out for us was less about the city and more about the local culture of the people.  In particular the food culture.

We spent most of the evenings we were there walking up and down the multitude of street food locations dotted around the city.  The most famous of them all is Jalan Alor.  It's definitely a bit touristic, but there's a great vibe to the place along with having a huge number of options to choose from.

It was all the Malaysian style of food I had grown up with whilst I lived in Singapore, but ultimately all a bit better.  The flavours seemed a bit more intense and all with a bit more character than what I remembered eating.  Todd was keen to eat everything, but he lacked the knowledge of the foods so he deferred to me to order.  It was an easy task to satisfy both our wants in KL.  The curries were lovely and well rounded.  The rice was fragrant and deeply flavoured.  All the satays were grilled to a perfect crispy exterior whilst still being juicy.  When I ordered the sambal stringray, I could see a grin come over Todd's face.  

It was a good trip, but I didn't think I would be racing back to KL anytime soon.  Being here reminded me a bit of the Singapore of my youth.  It was a fast modernising city that was still a little bit behind with some other places.  It seemed to still have that nice mix of the more innocent atmosphere that comes from a less developed place, but with the ever increasing streaks of modernity that were slowly taking over.  Singapore now is a place that barely resembles the memories I have, and I'm sure that KL is headed in that direction as well.

The Caveman

Hong Kong 7s always brings an influx of visitors into the city.  Some are here to watch the rugby, but most are usually just here to party.

Todd had made his now annual trip to Hong Kong for another edition of HK7s and this year he had managed to get into town earlier than his usual "day of".  It gave us a bit more time to walk around and hang out.  This year, I took him to have a look at Tai Kwun.  We were walking near one of the galleries when we spotted a gigantic man with an even more gigantic beard.

It was Sebastian Chabal!

The "Caveman" was once one of the most famous rugby players not only in France, but also in the world.  His distinctive look made him instinctively recognisable on tv and I can only imagine how terrifying it would have been to have had him running towards you for a tackle.