Back to Tuesday

Well, Steve found my phone charger. It was hiding behind a curtain in our place on Gili Trawangan, and thank goodness he has a reflexive habit of tidying up Airbnbs before we leave them. I normally would, too, but was in a funk...due to the missing phone charger. Suddenly everything felt sunny again, and we headed out for breakfast and to book the ferry back to Bali. When we left Padangbai, they explained that we just need to give a half hour of notice to get a ferry, but we found instead that the early fast boat, leaving at 10:30, was already full. So we were looking at two extra hours to kill before the 12:30 and decided to walk over to the west side of the island for breakfast. We ordered pizza and juice, which was a mistake because both were terrible (though it's worth noting that ALL the other juices we've had have been more delicious than I even could imagine. It's just that this one tasted like drinking pureed ginger root), but the location was spectacular. We sat in chairs overlooking Serene Beach and it lived up to its name beautifully.

To get to the beach we walked across the middle of the island rather than the beach route because of time concerns. It was pretty eye opening. We had been talking a lot about how Gili Trawangan was a weird place, a little like Disney World. Everything is happy and fun, but you definitely aren't supposed to look past the veneer. The middle of the island was much more of a reminder that we're in an impoverished place, despite tourist attractions and pricing that might say otherwise. Everywhere we've gone, trash is a real problem. On the beaches that cater to visitors, staff are really attentive to cleaning it up and raking the sand to get it even and clear. On the dirt roads across the island it just sits. The horses that are used to draw carts are left in pastures that are covered with trash, with maybe a small clearing where they can walk on grass and dirt.

We took to calling the strip near the dock where we stayed Wildwood - filled with shops selling overpriced tee shirts, jewelry, food and tchotchkes. A lot less neon, but the same habits of overcharging tourists for crap. If you walked to the center, the same goods cost significantly less and were sold without the beautified shop space.

Anyway, we made it back to the ferry in perfect time and made our triumphant return to Bali. We hired a taxi to drop us off in Ubud for our next stay, only to learn that the house isn't "right outside" Ubud, but is, in fact, a whole different town 10km north. We have slowly been realizing that 10km is more than just an extra few minutes down the road... It's more like an extra 40. Because Ubud is very much the cultural capital of Bali, the tourist season is always going. As such, traffic is a nightmare. Our kind and patient driver took us all the way up to Tagalalang to the rice terrace our Airbnb was located on.

Thus far, the weather has been spectacularly cooperative on our travels. Rain might sprinkle in the afternoon for a minute or two, but the heavy storms have all come at night and the skies have been mostly clear and blue. Totally not what we had been expecting for our trip during the less expensive rainy season. That was not the case during the trip to Tagalalang. The skies absolutely opened up as we reached Ubud, and the roads were so filled with water that everything slowed. It became dangerous for the ubiquitous scooters to drive so they mostly pulled to the side to wait it out, but that still left cars jockying for space on already cramped roadways, made more narrow by the channels of water churning down the street. It was a mess. Our driver handled it like a champ and got us to the rice terrace village, but then seemed a little confused about where to go. The directions on the Airbnb confirmation just said to have our driver call for directions to the house, which he had done, but there was still some confusion. Fortunately the directions mentioned that the place is located next to the Dewi Cafe, and we were able to spot it amidst the downpour. It was a little touch and go for a second there though!

Two guys met us at the bottom of this rain washed hill, one exuberant and one decidedly not. They were expecting us, so that was a definite upside to the driver having called. They ushered us quickly to a rocky set of steps and away we went, trekking up to our house (trek is truly the best verb to describe the trip). We scuttled over rocks and wet leaves and used the stepping stones that were meant to make the walk easy, and 3 minutes later found ourselves on the front porch of a traditional Balinese home. That happened to be built on the rice terrace. After a VERY thorough introduction to the space by the exuberant fellow, we were happy to just sit down and relish the air conditioning that we hadn't expected. It was an exhausting trip.

We managed to shower and get out on the porch to watch the lightning storm over the ride paddies and I was ready for bed despite it being about 6:30. Steve, however, needs more frequent feedings than I do, and doesn't allow sleep to dissuade him from eating. Wayan (the exuberant one) had left us a cell phone to use to call him with questions and concerns, and also to let him know whether we would like to go trekking up the rest of the terrace in the morning. We called to confirm that, and asked him about places to eat dinner. He replied, " but it's raining!" Apparently that was supposed to mean that no one goes out so restaurants and warungs would be closed. He quickly recovered and said he would call us right back. *Click*

So we waited for maybe 4 minutes before he called back to say that the restaurant was closed but don't worry, his uncle would come by soon to get us and make us traditional Balinese food to eat at our place. Considering we didn't have a kitchen, that was a curious explanation. We didn't get a lot more detail though, so we just sat tight and wondered what the hell we had gotten ourselves into.

About a half hour later, Dina knocked on our door. He escorted us back up the hill towards the main road through town and explained that he owns a warung there. It seemed like he opened specifically to feed us! So obviously we felt like total buffoons, causing all these people to have to change plans to feed us, but he and his wife, Ketut, were so so so kind and wonderful that we got over it. They made us Balinese fried chicken and rice and soup and we chatted about Balinese life and they answered all my questions about Hinduism as practiced here and it was amazing. They could not have been kinder. Dinner wrapped up around 9:30, and one of my last questions was what time Balinese eat dinner usually. Apparently that's between 4-6. So they definitely went out of their way to feed us. We apologized for keeping them up, made plans for Dina to take us on a tour the next afternoon and to drive us to our hotel in Denpasar. Back to the house in the dark and rain, and to sleep under the thunderstorm that was still rolling.