Day one: I got on my scooter and headed north towards Ubud. Ubud (ooo-bud (like the dog)). The drive was supposed to be around 45 minutes north towards the center of the island. Alex gave me simple directions: take a right at the McDonald's and go straight. I somehow took a right and headed south. I'm a dumb ass. 15 minutes later I realized the signs said that I was headed towards Kuta (south). So I turned around and headed north towards the real Ubud. 1 hours later I arrived in Ubud and then right through it without even knowing it was a town. So 1/2 after I arrived in the town I actually turned around because I passed it. Wow. The thing about Bali is that the whole entire road leading to Ubud is filled with these little stores neck to neck selling stuff so you don't actually know where one town ends and the next begins. So the drive leading up to Ubud had a huge culture change. Bali is known for having a different culture in each city, and there right. Ubud had lots of wood working and craftsmanship on every corner. I mean, this is where all the product comes from. On top of that the people act slightly different. Much more relaxed and all dressed up in Balinese outerwear.
First thing I did in town was follow these signs to this monkey forest. This was a direct route that I knew for sure that I was in Ubud. So that was a relief. I finally arrived at this monkey sanchuary and walked in. Right away there were 10 or so monkeys at the entrance awaiting some bananas. So cool! I kept walking and more and more monkeys popped out to greet me and see what was going on. I mean this was a monkey forest so there had to be tons of them. You know
So, I walked around for a couple of hours hanging out with the monkeys. One time, I got real up close and personal with this baby monkey and he grabbed my hand and tried to take the camera. I got a great shot of this, but there was no chance he was going to take my G11.
I finally left this place in pursuit for a homestay to crash for the night. For some reason when I'm driving this scooter I loose all visibility for homestays. All I see are bungalows and there way more expensive to rent. I took some random alleyways to find some homestays and found nothing. Finally, I gave up and went into a bungalow hotel and asked them how much and/or if they knew of a homestay that would be cheap to stay for the night. The manager took me down the street, into a sketchy back alleyway, down a trail and into this oasis of homestays. At first I thought it was a joke but I checked out the rooms and instantly booked it. Although it was down this weird entrance I sort of liked it.
At this time, I took a shower and headed out to check out the town and get some food. Upon walking I found this open grass field where some little kids were playing soccer. Naturally, I busted out my camera and snapped some shots. So far this town has noticeably fewer white people than Sanur and Kuta. I probably saw 30 white people here.
That night I went to a Balinese dance show. I really had no idea what to expect but I entered this temple and found a Balinese band playing drums and different sets of dancers going to the beat. They would move to each thump to the melody. If they would move there arms one way, there eyes would look the opposite. It was really interested. Each set lasted about 10 minutes. So, I can check that off the list.
Next morning, I woke up to coffee and tea awaiting for me at my table right outside the steps. The owner came up to me and we chatted for a bit and then he offered to make me breakfast. He later came out with this amazing Balinese omelet and a fruit platter of fruit I have never seen before. What a quality breakfast this guy made. I ate and then pulled out my map to see where to head off next. He helped me with directions.
Onward bound I went. Into the mist and sunlight I went. Aimlessly driving into nomads land. The goal for the day was to make multiple site seeing stops and end up in Tulamben. So my first stop was Semarapura. This town was just a pass through city so I can get to Sidemen (sid-a-min) Sidemen was up deep in the mountains and was known for amazing hiking trails all over the mountains. The drive up was a slow go. The roads turned like "S's" and reminded me of the Mazda commercials when they say "zoom zoom". Anyways I got to the top and ended up in this shot down slum village. It was all little stores and fruit stands. At first I drove through the town pretty slow to get a feel for it and then parked my bike to wonder around and talk to the city folk. Up in the woods here I stuck out like white minority or something. Well I was. Everyone was starring at me with smiles and little kids would run up to you, giggle and then run off. It was so cool. I instantly went up to this fruit stand. I still don't have any idea what I ate but the lady would just grab a fruit that I was looking at, peel it and then feed it to me. All of them were delicacies. If you know me well enough, I love fruit and anything to do with sweet and sour is a must. This fruit stand nailed it all together and I was in flavor country. This one fruit I tried looked like snake scales, brown and very hard to the touch. The lady peeled it like an orange but inside was a huge white ball. There were different layers to it but each piece you grab looked like an garlic clove. It had a rubbery feel texture and bite but very sweet tasting. I ended up buying a bag from her for 20 cents. I sat outside on the street eating every last bit if it. Then got up and left. It was definitely a slum village but the area that they lived in was amazing. Rice terraces everywhere the eye could see and jacked up mountains full of trees. Hopefully the pictures will explain some of this.
My drive was still heading west towards Tulamben. The first town that hit the ocean was called Kusumba. All black sand and more run down shops. The first thing I saw was this huge temple. I pulled over and went for a look. Go figure I entered in this place where there was a big sign saying don't come in (mainly because you have to dress up in order to come in the temple) So they yelled at me and I went around to the entrance. Go America. I paid my 10 cents and this guy fully dressed me up in there Balinese outfit. I had this yellow and black robe that was tied around my waist followed by another piece of cloth that tied it all together, plus I had this rad necklace around my neck and of course my tank top. I was styling. So I walked in and snapped who knows how many pictures. Oh yea, the temple was called Goa Lawah. Little that I new this temple was known for there bat cave! So as I was walking around I heard all of these loud noises coming from this cave. I got closer and so thousands if not millions of bats flying all around this cave. It was crazy, it smelled like cow shit mixed with diarrhea but my pictures only capture the the Kodak moment. So you guys are kinda lucky in a way. I hung on as long as I could and got the heck out of there before I passed out from holding my breath. All in all the temple was well worth the show. Outside the temple there were plenty of hecklers trying to get me to buy stuff. Especially the guys who sell sunglasses. I mean, I'm wearing my sunglasses and there asking me to buy some. I point to my face but they still don't get that I have glasses on. Wow, there persistent, I'll give them that.
Okay, so I left and I'm heading towards Tulamben once again. So far I have been following all the directions from this rad book my cousin Kathy gave to me. The author of this book really knew what he was talking about. This next drive from Kusumba to Tulamben has been by far the best scenic drive of my life. It could have been because I was by myself, on a scooter, or because the mountains and rice patties were picture perfect and I have never seen this much vibrant green ever. This drive probably took me 3 hours to do only because I kept stopping to take pictures. Each picture sorta looks the same but its kinda what you imagine about a rice terrace. There set on a mountain range but over thousands of years of landscaping the hill they have massive level walking areas to grow the rice. Just look it up on google and you'll know what I'm talking about. The roads twisted and turned as I climbed up into the mountains. It slowly turned from sunny to overcast and a mist of rain. I really can't explain how crazy cool this drive was. It was really peaceful and you can really tell how much Balinese people love there land. The landscaping done is breathtaking.
Each time that I pulled over to take some pictures were all pretty sketchy. Bali doesn't have dedicated scenic pull offs like America so you have to make your own. The roads give little to no room to pull over to each time I had to dodge cars just to take a picture. One of the stops this Italian guy pulled over at the same stop. We were both in amazement. After talking for a few seconds we realized we were both heading to the same destination. We ended up driving down to Amed. This was another bypass town. It was pretty cool though. Really small, full of bungalows and homestays with a couple of restaurants. I got some food and of course it started to rain. I had to stay there for about an hour until it stopped. Hopefully. The instant it stopped I got up and headed out. About 20 minutes later I arrived in Tulamben. Well, actually I drove right through it because I was literally 500 meters long and no sign saying your in the town. But I figured that out and started to look for a homestay and scuba diving. I ended up staying at this place called "Ocean Sun". It was only 4 bedrooms and a restaurant. Super small. The people staying there were really nice. I ended up hanging out with these two people Dave and Sally. They were both here to scuba dive, exactly what I was there for two. We ended up finding a dive master that was going to take all of us out the next day.
Next day, bright and early we walked down to get ready to scuba. The workers fitted us and we put our gear on and walked down to the beach. Typically you get on a boat but in this situation you just go from the beach. The beach was all black but more in pebble form, not sand. We got in the water and I noticed my tank had a slight hiss noise to it. Meaning it had a tiny leek. I mentioned it to the dive master but it didn't seem much concern. We descended down looking for this old Japanese shipwreck. Right away there was wildlife everywhere. Lots of vibrant fish with cool patterns laced around them. Couple minutes later this shipwreck appeared. It took us the entire time to wrap around the boat. It was 120 meters long! We all chipped in and rented a underwater camera to take some pictures. The dive master was the photographer and later on realized it was a big mistake. Every 5 seconds he was asking us to pose for the camera and wave. It was cool at first but I really wanted pictures of the fish and reef. Whatever. By the end of the swim my tank was maybe 50 psi. This is incredibly low and I still had to wait 3 minutes to get the nitrogen out of my system. The thing I noticed was in Bali (third world country) you get what you pay for, and that is all the air in your tank. Out in Australia we had to come up to the surface at 100 psi. Making the dive pretty short. This dive was over 45 minutes! Probably the longest dive I have done. The next dive we did, the dive master was going to take us into the ship. This was really cool. Some of the holes we had to fit into barely fit our body and the tank. I got to hold the captains steering wheel. My favorite thing that I saw were these schools of eels in the sand. From far away they would all pop out there bodies from the sand about 1 ft. All synchronized with the riptide. They would be stacked next to each other, row by row. Maybe 10 in the first row and so on. Naturally I went in for a look and as I got closer, the first row would disappear back into the sand, then the second. As I backed off, they would pop right back up.
So the two dives I did were fantastic. Visibility wasn't at its best but that's because its in the wet season.
Next day I got my things packed up and ready to go. We were all sitting outside the restaurant and noticed a huge dark cloud rushing our way. 5 minutes later monsoon rains came plummeting down. I mean I've never seen rain like this. It was raining sideways and flooded the whole restaurant within minutes. Everyone had to move closer inside or you would be drenched by the rain. On top of that the thunder and lighting that was shouting out put Shiloh to shame. It was the loudest crackling and pop ever. The street outside turned into a river. I mean the whole 2 lane street was a river. 1/2 later the rain stopped and cleared up. I walked outside to look around. 500 ft down the street I noticed that the whole street had a new river that plowed through it and wiped it away. All the rain from the mountains came through the town and took out the whole street. Up closer was a huge waterfall that came rushing down off the street. All the cars around it couldn't get by. It was cool for me, Dave and Sally but everyone else was a normal thing to them. Later on when the river down down a bit from being 1 or more ft deep to 6 inches cars started to attempt to get back. All sliding out like they were driving through ice. The funniest part was when the first scooter tried to get by. Luckily he made it but he was sliding out on every turn and I thought he was gonna fall off into the waterfall. He charged through it like a bat out of hell. We all cheered him on.
We sat there for an hour of so in amazement then finally left. It was a perfect time for me to leave before the rain started again. So, I said my goodbyes to my new friends and took off. My next destination was Lovina. The north side of the island and 5 or 6 hour drive. There were no more rice patties but just all small shacks and stores the whole drive. Not too fancy.
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