It's twelve days before we depart for home (but who's counting!). Deciding to make a last trip to Bali, I chose what I hoped would be a fairly remote area on the northeast coast and known for good diving and snorkeling. The flight to Bali is just an hour and costs less than $100 round trip, but like all good places in Indonesia, this one is a slow, three hour drive from the airport. It's roughly 90 miles so you can see we averaged 30 mph. But, after almost a year, we have come to expect this. The place is a diving resort with a well known Japanese WW II shipwreck just offshore. The villas are up a steep hill with wonderful views of mountains and sea. The design is traditional Balinese with rattan roof and a large, covered terrace with dining table and day beds. It's hot in the sun but in the shade with the nice breeze it's very comfortable. Alas, that breeze is causing choppy water so we haven't been snorkeling yet. Nonetheless, it is incredibly peaceful and I could sit and look at the view all day. Traditional Balinese homes are all around us, chickens everywhere, the occasional pig, and many motorcycles. Simple rattan homes with tile roofs. The people are Hindu so a temple is nearby. They speak Balinese, but everyone says, "hello", even a toddler. The language is harsher and the people speak much louder than most Indonesians. One of the first things I heard this morning was some sort of a shouting match down on the road below us. That's very unusual in Indonesia. We had a surprisingly good dinner last night, so I expect we will continue to take all our meals here, although there are several local warungs nearby.
So it meets our goal of being off the beaten track. Bali in general is at risk of choking on its own success. This is now high season in Bali, with August being the peak and the infrastructure is just not able to cope. The domestic airport is a disgrace and supposedly a new one will open in 2013, but we'll see about that. Bali is quite a large and mountainous island, but most of the tourism is within an hour or two of the airport, so there are parts that are still quite traditional. It seems as though Amed, where we are, is getting "discovered", as there are many small resorts, albeit of a simple type, along the road leading here. It's the only place we have been in all of Indonesia that has no cell phone coverage at all. We slept wonderfully with just the sound of the surf.
Later. The water has remained choppy and murky so not very good for snorkeling. We have been very lazy, reading a lot. I am reading the Steve Jobs biography, which is quite fascinating. Tom has done some long walks and seen a lot of village life. It's very much a fishing village with narrow boats with colorful sails that look like windsurfers. They are coming in now in the morning with loads of fish and the villagers meet them and help haul the boats onshore. The fish are sold right from the boats. Tom thinks they are small tuna, known locally as tonggol.
A barefoot young man just brought up a breakfast for us to eat on our terrace while we watch the boats come in and go out below. We have a large fresh fruit salad, toast with jam and/or peanut butter, a yogurt parfait for me, cereal for Tom, and tea.
I think about the simplicity and sameness of everyday life here. There is not even a change of seasons to anticipate, unless you count the fact that it's somewhat rainier a few months. On the other hand, they have sufficient food ("mangos and bananas you can pick right off of trees", as the song says) and nice weather. Probably the highest thing they aspire to, other than a spouse, is a motorcycle.
On the way to the airport we stopped to see a traditional weaving cooperative, including dyeing the cotton with natural dyes made on site. Very interesting as they use plants and bark and dried fruits to get the different colors.
June 20. Arrived back home in Surabaya, well rested and anxious for the next ten days to pass quickly.
