Fai Tira blog Saturday 6th November 2010

 Fai Tira in Bali

 

We spent a two-night excursion on Fai Tira to the island of Lembongan to get away from the marina, which has little to offer and is very dirty. What a contrast.  This small Island is invaded by tourist boats from Bali each day but when they leave at 4.00pm the island resumes its peaceful self.

 

 

What a contrast to the marina.

 

 

John and myself went for a bike ride around the island whilst Jeremy went for a walking tour.

 

Temples are everywhere on the island. 

 

They cover their graves with umbrellas.

 

The main industry on the island is seaweed gathering.  They wade out into the sea to harvest the weed and lay it out to dry before it is bagged up and sent off, for the production of cosmetics and food for the Chinese and Japanese markets.

 

 

Here are couple of the local women preparing strings which we think the seaweed attaches itself to. Unfortunately they spoke little English and we speak no Indonesian.  

 

A local village that produces only seaweed.

 

This bridge links two of the islands – Lembongan and tiny Ceningan.  It was a very rickety suspension bridge with lots of the wooden planks either broken or missing.

 

We rode over it just to see how scary it was.  The locals didn’t worry, they zoomed across at great speed on their motorbikes.

 

We arrived back at the beach in time for a beer or two before the sun went down.

 

 

We sat watching the local boys performing daredevil jumps into the sea from the top of a tour boat.  The floats on the outriggers of this type of boat are big pieces of bamboo.

 

It’s a hard life out here in Bali.

 

The next morning we headed back to Bali Marina after trying to untangle our anchor chain from the coral.  The volcano on Bali popped out from the clouds for the first time.

 

The evening saw us heading off to a Hindu temple called Ulu Watu where, we’d been told, we would see a great sunset, a traditional Kecak dance show and lots of monkeys,  They weren’t wrong. 

 

 

Don’t get tooooo close to me.  Jeremy had his expensive rimless prescription glasses stolen by one of these animals.  Luckily the culprit was enticed to give them up in exchange for a banana but not until he/she had pulled the plastic coating off one of the arms.

 

The culprit hanging his head in shame.

 

The temple is located in a spectacular setting on the top of a two hundred foot cliff.  We had to wear sarongs to enter the temple precincts, incidentally.

 

The show started with fifty men singing a Kecak song which carried on throughout the performance.

It basically went kecakecakecakecakeck for an hour.

 

 

The story is complicated and we only got a taster, which also lasted for about an hour.

 

The girls were so precise with their hand and body movements.  They were also very pretty. 

 

The next day we employed the services of Romano who drove us on a tour of Bali in his friend Endro’s car. (The latter had driven us to the temple the previous evening).  We headed for a town called Ubud.  This is the artisan area of Bali where different craft skills are assembled into different areas:  e.g. Stonemasons, Woodcarvers, Weavers, Artists, and Silversmiths, etc.   This makes it handy for looking around at your chosen craft(s)!

 

 

The first stop was a Batik printing works. 

 

Next we visited a silversmith factory and saw how they produced hundreds of pieces of very intricate jewellery.  Each person was paid by the number of items they completed each day.  We were then invited to buy at the factory shop.  The quality of the work was outstanding.

 

Next we drove to the glass manufacturing area.  I was fascinated by the multitude of different colours and shapes as you can see below.

 

 

 

We then moved onto the woodcarving area. 

The skills of the woodcarvers were amazing.  The piece above had taken months to complete and was in relief (3D).

 

If I had the money and the space to put it, this is the piece I would have purchased.  A humpback whale with calf.

 

 

We saw this fantastic example of British engineering: an Austin A50, a throw back from when England supplied the world with cars.  Jeremy also spotted a near-mint condition Morris Minor tucked away in a roadside woodcarving yard. Now the only cars you see in Indonesia are Japanese.

 

After all visiting all of the workshops and retail outlets we headed off to the Swan Inn.  This was located right in the middle of Ubud and was fantastic.

 

The accommodation consisted of bungalows with hot and cold showers.  We even got an excellent breakfast.

 

 

On arrival we found that we weren’t the only BWR people staying there.  The Tippys had been there for a few days.

We chilled out with a beer or two before we headed off for dinner.

 

The next morning gave us time to explore the town and even have a swim in the pool. 

 

Ubud has a massive market. John and David, our American friend off Moonshadow, spent most of the morning exploring it.  David even managed to buy a Rolex (Bolex!) watch.

 

Romano turned up at 11.00am and we headed off to Mt Batur, a volcano.  The trip up there was lovely and it was great to get away from the hustle and bustle of the sprawl that Bali seems to have developed into.

 

 

We stopped at a tiered paddy field which was beautiful.  Unfortunately this was the first place we encountered the hard sell locals who would not leave you alone.  This was to shape our day, each time we stepped out of the car we were hassled to buy stuff.

 

 

We sat in a lovely restaurant on the rim of the volcano’s crater. The views were stunning, but it reminded us of the plight of the people on Java who were having to deal with yet another eruption.  People are living within half a mile of this active volcano; if or when it decides to blow they will stand little or no chance of survival.

 

After lunch we headed off to Besakih the largest temple on Bali.  It is massive and unfortunately plagued by vendors and “guides”.  At least there were no monkeys.  It’s situated on the slopes of Gunung Agung, the holiest and highest mountain on the island, also volcanic we think.

 

John and I were taught how to pray for good luck.  I think it worked because Judy rang me within minutes to give me some good news.

 

 

The spectacle of this was yet again spoilt by the fact that you were asked for money everywhere we went.

 

Here is one of the prettier vendors trying to sell yet more postcards.

 

 

After this we were cultured out.  John and Jeremy headed back to the Swan Inn while David and myself headed for Edith’s 60^th birthday party.

 

Here are a selection of photos from the party held at Carol and Pete’s house here in Bali.

Young and not-so-olds had a great time as you can see. 

The party finished about 5.00am and was a great success and as you can see we all spent too much time drinking punch in the swimming pool.  The wrinkled hands being the proof.

 

Yesterday saw us visiting a stonemason which was fascinating.  He exports his wares all over the world.

 

 

 

What craftsmanship.  This is the boss, I Made Mardawa, who speaks remarkably good English, thanks to watching lots of movies and talking to Anglophones.

 

We have had lots of experiences here in Bali, too many to mention, but I hope this blog will give you a taste of what we have encountered.

 

 

 

Thousands of these offerings are placed everywhere every day.

 

Pete, John and Jeremy.

 

We leave Bali today heading for Singapore.