caspar and joni, the owners here, "go down south" (a 3 hour ride to the southern coast) every now and then....and this time i was invited to take advantage of the chance and go with them since i needed to see a travel agent there, and thought that it would be interesting to see another part of bali that i have not yet spent time in.
the ride starts from the north coast where i am and begins to climb the tropical forest mountain ranges of the center of bali, and then winds down thru more forests again to the south. It is the route i take each time to and from the airport and ubud, so i have seen it, but each time at a different time of day and season, so it is always interesting. especially seeing little kids walking to school on this narrow winding steep road with motorbikes and cars and trucks going in each direction...and they are right there on the road, at 6:30 in the morning walking to school, which is located on the hanging slopes of the mountainside. no one seems too concerned about danger...and as busy and fast as everyone is overtaking each other, there is an easiness about it all....tu tu tu haven't seen any accidents...and that is amazing...
we stopped for breakfast at a roadside place that overlooks magnificent rolling mountains with rice and vegetable fields, and lakes with mist covering the opposite mountain peaks. the rice and egg meal was served on a piece of paper placed in a little straw basket...so no need for washing dishes!
a few hours later we reached the congested area of the city! full of boutiques and bars, and wholesale shops and surfers and foreigners...no sign of rice fields and village life here! and for the next 6 hours i roamed the streets, realizing that this too is bali! tons of tattooed old and young men with surf boards on motorbikes, at least a hundred of them in the morning waves riding them as best they could, and tons of tourists sunning on the beach beds or getting a massage or their ears and toes cleaned, or the hawkers selling hats (which reminded me of the story of the hat seller and the monkeys on the
tree that stole them all ) and kites and sunglasses and ice cream....it was very interesting...i stood there for quite a while slowly realizing that a surfer is always going to get hit by a wave and fall off the board. period. no matter how good he is and how long he has ridden the wave, the end is, crash into the waves, board flips up and they head over into the huge wave, and then swim out a little and up again....what an interesting way to approach life!the streets were less interesting, after a few attempts at bargaining just for the fun of it with the prices outrageous since it is for tourists....insane...
but a fun relief from it all was a nice vegetarian restaurant, whos' motto is: nothing with a face or a mother" and is called..."ZULA" owned by an israeli woman....so that felt like home, more like home in ann arbor, with that same funky atmosphere of all wood tables, blackboards with chalk funky printing of the daily specials all in english and all organic and healthy. and shelves filled with himalaya products and dr. bronners magic soap and weleda creams etc...naturally i felt at home and bought all the things i need or may need and especially some tehina to pour over my daily salad, and some organic flaxseed and pumpkin seeds and sea salt...ahh...felt like a new woman this afternoon when i had all of that on my food again...just the touch i needed to feel healthy and satisfied here....grateful...
i took a few photos of fashion boutique windows and even asked one of the saleswomen in the shakuachi boutique that was...sweeping...if i could photograph her, since she was wearing this amazing dress that looks as if someone took some afek
material and just knotted it around their body...great...also another photo of how all the sellers in these exclusive boutiques still prefer "moms home made cooking" rather than the fancy western restaurants and hotels all around and awaited the woman that walks with the big aluminum bowl on her head from boutique to boutique selling little plastic bags filled with all kinds of typical balinese snacks, whether a thin slice of watermelon, or some spicy chicken bits or a hot curry spinach treat....all costing a few cents...
by the time we got thru the traffic jam on our way out of the city, i was happy to be returning to rice fields and a quiet sea and beach, and village life...appreciating it all even more!
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