Where to wear your frangipani blossom - and other mysteries of Bali

 

This grinning stone statue would look a bit strange I think, if she didn't have those frangipani blossoms behind her ears. Balinese people like to do this. It's partly as an appeasement to the gods, but often it seems to be just pure whimsy.

Bali, Indonesia's enigma, is its second most populated island (out of a total 13,676) with over four million inhabitants. A tiny 5.5 thousand square kilometre island, it clings to Hinduism rather than Islam, favoured by the rest of Indonesia, but here it comes with a pantheistic slant.

To keep the spirits out, they simply poke flowers into any orifice of their many carved images, until every crevice is in bloom.

Many visitors come for the surfing on the southern beaches, such as Kuta (above), belting across the sand that is really not sand at all – just minute round balls like couscous – into the creaming waves at dawn and hardly pausing until sunset. Others come to hang out at the ritzy hotels – Nusa Dua is filled with just about every five-star hotel you could name – baking by the iridescent pools, rousing long enough to change for dinner in restaurants that seem to serve any cuisine, any time.

There is a centuries-old tradition of craftsmanship and artisans on Bali. This is the place where you may find quality batik fabrics and clothings, woven sarongs, puppet-making, silverwork, marble, wood and stone carvings, jewellery and much more. 

At this batik factory you can see up close the meticulous process the workers use to create these delicate cloths. The pattern made by these blocks is then outlines in hot wax before the cloth is dipped into a dye bath. As the wax is removed, the familiar white outlines are revealed.

Other workers work on looms, creating lengths of bright intricately patterned fabric called endek. Sometimes gold and silver threads are also included for special purposes, and this is called songket.

COME WITH US as we explore Bali in THIS VIDEO

Roadside, near the capital of Denpasar, were a multiude of showrooms for huge glass sculptures and vases. In fact Bali does 'huge' very well. Nearby were carpentry workshops turning out doors that would fit a palace, and just along the road a little more, massive looming stone carvings, ideal if you have a mansion with gateways to match. On a smaller scale, it is easy to pick up a set of teak outdoor furniture for a bargain price, and of course shipping to anywhere in the world is happily organised for customers.

If you are thirsty in a tropical country and don't trust the water, this is what you should ask for. The cool water inside a green coconut is absolutely sterile - so much so that in emergencies it has been successfully used to replace plasma in transfusions. Just ask the vendor to chop off the top. With a straw inserted it is the most thirst-quenching drink you will ever have. Ask for a spoon to scoop out some of the tender inner pulp too.

Bali is also known for another drink which has grown famous as much for its weirdness as its flavour. Some time ago, it was discovered that the local civet cat had a taste for raw coffee berries. Partially digested, they passed through the cat and of course ended up on the forest floor as droppings.

Now who would think to then wash out those same berries and dry and roast them and sell them as coffee at ten times the regular price?

This could be just a charming weird and wacky coffee story, except you may already know that it has become a big business and those cute little animals are now being bred to be kept in captivity which is  much more cramped than this  showpiece one (above), eating pretty well only coffee, and never setting their four feet in the forest where they belong.

However if you are interested in walking through some lovely gardens, watching coffee being hand-roasted.....

.....and tasting the range of teas and flavoured coffees available on a coffee plantation, do visit Satria Agrowista in Gianyar on the eastern side of Bali.

 

Dance is also an important means of expression and religious belief. The dancers in this VIDEO come from near Ubud.

Aaah! the fruit. Here it is as if God rained down a handful of his best seeds into one of the world's most fertile spots. Watch for mounds of prickly durian, that love-it hate-it fruit of south-east Asia. Those that hate it, avoid its smell, pulling faces and getting out of range. "How can you bear to put something that smells so bad, so near your face?" one wide-eyed tourist asked me once. Easy! Durian lovers don't see it that way at all. That 'unique fragrance' speaks of creamy delight within the horned exterior. But the fruit that won me and has me pestering greengrocers back home here, is the markisa, essentially a yellow skinned passionfruit. Its off-putting greyish flesh looks unappetising, but its perfume and sweetness made me an instant addict.

If you want to see more than just the hotels and beaches and shops of the south, hire a car for a day and head inland. Here in Kintamani, at the north of the island with a view of the volcano, Mount Batur and its lake, you can dine outside on affordable food from the buffet.

There is plenty of variety and vegetarians are well catered for.

If you take a boat tour to Lembongan, another island outside the reef, you can see Mt Agung rising so high at first you mistake its ruff of clouds for skyscape. This is Bali's holy mountain, over three thousand metres high, and every temple or shrine on the island must face in its direction.

Travel just a few kilometres from the coast and you will find terraced paddy-fields that harvest several times a year, and people working them as they might have done for centuries. Depending on the season they will be cutting or threshing or winnowing, or you may come across a side road hijacked for use as a drying space for the grain. Inland, though, the jungle rules, taking over anything that allows it.

There are dining spots everywhere, Here with a view of the lush paddy terraces.

Religion in its many guises is paramount in Bali. At the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary filled with a couple of hundred of rollicking macaques (see the video below to get the idea) the Holy Spring Temple hidden down several flights of stairs is just as much of a drawcard.

Feeding monkeys can be perilous, and here the keepers keep a copious quantity of sweetcorn available to stop visitors being harassed too much.

It seems to work, as there's even an opportunity for a little beauty therapy!

Just see what these monkeys get up to on THIS VIDEO!

Please note: the person teasing a monkey in this video is one of the park's keepers and he has a friendly relationship with the monkey. He was firm in saying that on no account should visitors attempt to play with the animals.

Other visitors fall for the island's more unique charms. They struggle inland to visit crumbling temples and palaces whose wounds are now healed by scarlet-flowering vines. They take a bus north to an extinct volcanic crater; they haggle in the markets – that is, if they can deal with the stall owners who just keep on harassing, trying to get you to buy two for the price of one, or three for a good deal – half a set or a set and a half – anything to jiggle the price around again. But there are other compensations: batik for a song, carved wooden animals and toys, and that amazing fruit

Just across the road from the town's bustling markets, the former Palace of Ubud, home of the last king of Ubud in central Bali is grandly empty, save for some remaining members of the royal family who might just happen to hob-nob with you in one of the ornate and airy pavilions in the tropical evening air. For a small price you could staye here in one of the several simple, clean and affordable rooms, each with an en-suite, air conditioning or fans, and hot and cold water.

The grand outdoor verandas are where you'll want to hang out, though, cooling off and hoping for a glimpse of the royal clan. In fact visitors are welcome to venture into the ornate inner courtyards to see thatched pavilions furnished with heavy Dutch-era armchairs.

As a bit of added interest, there are nightly dance performances in the outer courtyard. Best pavilion, we're told, is number Four which shares a courtyard with the household of the current head of the family.

Unlike Kuta, the town of Ubud is firm in saying that it is 'not a party town'. Bars close relatively early and the locals – many of them artists and retired people from many countries - like it that way. There are, however, many places to dine on everything from simple local fare to upmarket restaurants.

But these dishes are not to be eaten. They are canung sari and you will see them everywhere, placed on altars, outside shops, in homes, or being carried from place to place. They are offerings of leaves and petals, herbs and rice to the gods - pleas for protection and gratitude for blessings. 

Bali is eight degrees south of the Equator with a hot tropical climate, so once you leave your air-conditioned hotel room, do not expect much relief from the heat. Here, some people have found a way to cool off and also cleanse themselves spiritually at Holy Springs. Notice how many younger people are participating and, for a delightful modern-meets-ancient twist, see the girls on the right taking selfies. 

 

It would be wrong to mention Kuta without also showing the memorial to those lost in the 2002 Bali bombings.

The tragic roll-call on the huge board is heartbreaking enough.....

....but personal tributes like this are expecially touching.

Jammed with motorbikes and shoppers, the traffic in Kuta can be alarming and choked. But the place is what you make of it. Settle in a bar with a long tall drink, trawl the endless shops lining the main roads and gather your bargains...

...or disappear to the beach with a book and stretch out under a shady tree. That's if the waves don't entice you in!

Opened just last year, in 2014, a ten-kilometre causeway links the airport and port to Nusa Dua, making your hotel room that much more easily accessible.

The Nusa Dua Beach Hotel & Spa was the first hotel in this area, and continues to welcome many visitors annually.

Beachside, especially near the hotels, commerce comes to you. You can buy a sarong or a sunhat, have a massage or purchase a kite to fly as you walk the beach, all mere metres from your hotel boundary. Where else but Bali, can you do your souvenir shopping without stirring from the sand?

They call this place the 'morning of the world' so one morning, I rose uncharacteristically pre-dawn to take some photographs. Within moments a child with a basket of shells staggered towards me. Yes, I thought, it is pushy and in some ways being spoiled by tourism, but Bali is still special.

Paradise may come with the serpent of sales pitches and price-tags but where else could you shop before sunup on a deserted beach?  Where else are shells delivered right to your lap with a gap-toothed smile that persists even when you decline the offer?

More information on Bali....  and Indonesia....

(Text and images: Sally Hammond. Video: Gordon Hammond)

 

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FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT BALI

• The word Bali means 'offering' and you will often see canung sari, offerings of rice, fruit, and flowers in private homes, at little footpath shrines, and in temples throughout the island.

• The Bali mynah (a type of starling) was designated the faunal symbol for Bali in 1991. Also  known as the Rothschild’s mynah or Bali starling, it is endemic to the north-western tip of Bali, and is found nowhere else in the world. It is also  Bali's only endemic bird species.

• The major religion of Bali is a form of Hindu, and there are around 50,000 temples on the island. There are often celebrations called odalan to mark the birthday of a local temple. Offerings of fruit and other food are carefully assembled into tall arrangements that selected  Balinese women will carry on their heads in the procession.

• Brem is the Balinese version of arak, an alcoholic drink made throughout the Indonesia from the sap of the coconut palm. Brem is distilled from cooked black and white rice with yeast added. While many people drink it, brem is also a temple offering for the gods.

• Dragonflies captured in the paddy fields make a good snack – say the Balinese people – especially when they are roasted.

• Balinese years are different to the rest of the world, with just  210 days in each one. This means that  Balinese traditional  ceremonies fall on a different date every year! 

• If you visit Bali, you will almost certainly hear a Balinese gamelan, or orchestra. This is an ensemble of indigenous instruments that include small bronze metallophones tuned to a four- or five-note scale, as well as various gongs, flutes, drums and other percussion.

• Bali is possibly not the place you would expect to find wine grapes growing, but Hatten Wines, est. 1994, is the only winery in Bali making wine from the grapes it grows. The vines are evergreens, due to the tropical heat, so the grapes are harvested continually and the winery has celebrated an amazing 100 vintages in the past seven years.

 

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