Bali - differently exotic

Bhuta ia, dewa ia. (Bali expression meaning: Man is a demon, man is a god.)
[Quoted by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of "Eat, Pray, Love" (known as "That Damn book" in Bali! [LP])]

Ayodya Resort in Nusa Dua:
We arrived late night and were met by the heat and not the least humidity of the tropics. We had decided to start our Bali adventure on the beaches in the south of the island (not too far from the airport), and was picked up by Bodi (recommended to us by Jovy in Sydney, and our driver for the rest of the stay). Ayodya resort was very nice, and was a sudden change from our campervan life. Breakfast was lavish, and interestingly, the place had a lizard running around (on separate island next to) "entertaining". The hotel was quite large, and had done a lot to include the Balanese style. We spend the time at the beach and by the pool, also going for a walk up to a blowhole and small temple a little further down the beach.



Beaches and Temples in south Bali:
We took an outing to cross the peninsula, in order to visit Pura Luhus Ulu Watu (hindu) temple and Padang Padang beach (panorama photo on the top). The beach was situated at the foot of about 50-70 stairs leading down between the rocks and simply fantastic (though we were probably lucky that a team had just been there to clean up). The temple had a significant number of monkeys, which Storm and Astrid loved, and we found outselves walking around in sarongs during music practice. On our way to Ubud, we passed by a nice restaurant, which not only had great food, but also three puppies and a bamboo xylophone that Storm played on.



Night time in Nusa Dua:
The resort had quite lively evenings at the beach, featuring both light, music, and dining. So most evenings we went there for dinner, which also allowed the kids to run around, while we finished eating at a normal pace. And surprisingly, the DJs actually played very fitting and calm music, which still allowed for dancing - especially done by the kids.



The Rice Joglo in Ubud:
After adjusting to Bali life, we moved north to more cultured Ubud. A bit of a surprise was to find, that the our house was not accessable by car, but only by scooter about a kilometer into the rice fields. However, once there we found the most fantastic house, in fact a Joglo (traditional vernacular house of Javanese people), which was 150 years old, moved to Bali fra Java, and given fantastic surroundings (and new incredibly cool bathrooms). The end wall of our bathroom was a once-in-a-lifetime thing: Jungle! Here is a more complete description and history of the Rice Joglo.
In order to make it easier to get into Ubud, we rented a scooter, and to both Storm and Astrid it was one of the best parts of living in Ubud. Another was the fact that there were several animals around the joglo, and finally a Danish family with kids the same age moved in on the last day. What is not to like? Also, living among the farmers, we had a few "less ordinary" experiences, for example a very different harvesting than at home. One day a man was climbing a palm tree cutting down coconuts outside our house.



Mount Batur:
Bali's geography is dominated by massive volcanos in the northern part of the island. The largest (Mount Agung, 3142m) is currently active and inaccessible (and a hard climb), but Mount Batur (1717m) next to is a classic trip, which can be done in a morning. Also, spectacularly it is surrounded by a large lower crater, and then rises from the middle of this as a steep mountain, with a crater in the middle. To one side of the large crater lies Lake Batur, which gives rise to fog that is kept inside by the larger crater, making the view of sunrise from the top an awesome sight to behold. A strenious trip, Troels went alone, leaving one night at 2am, making it to the top before sunrise.



Temples around Ubud:
With a very old culture, and as the only part of Indonesia with a predominant hindu population, Bali has many temples and ancient burial sites. We visited a few of these, most notably the Monkey Forest in Ubud (which had both monkey statues and lots of real monkeys), the holy water temple of Tirta Empul, and the "Indiana Jones"-like Gunung Kawi with millenium old shrines/memorials. And a great part of the temples was meeting the Balinese a little more, either in their formal or informal attire and places.