Singaraja

Monday 11-22-10 in Munduk

We had our 7:00 yoga class.

After breakfast we loaded up our two vans and headed north to Taman Sari Bali  on the Java Sea.

Our room (Butterfly II) is great!

We have an outside sitting room overlooking a garden pool

And an outside bathroom.

And even another outdoor  room upstairs overlooking the garden with its own sitting area and mosquito-netted bed. 

 We had dinner with our group outside overlooking the ocean.

We both have some mosquito bites, but not too bad.  We have internet here, but the connection is very bad, and it costs 50000 rupiah/hour (about $5).  We had our 7:00 AM yoga class in a beautiful space overlooking a fantastic garden.

Then we had breakfast overlooking the ocean.

Barbara is going with some other members of the group to Menjangan Island National Park.  It is supposed to be the best snorkeling on the island, but I feel like relaxing and getting a massage.

Munduk and Luwak Coffee

Sunday 11-21-10  Doron led our first yoga class at 7:00 Sunday morning.  After a buffet breakfast we loaded into two vans for a tour of the rice fields and coffee plantation.  One the trip over I sat next to a Dutch woman who told me about Luwak Coffee that could be obtained in London for one hundred pounds per cup!  So I was very interested when Wayan told us we could sample luwak coffee on the tour for two dollars per cup.  The luwak is a small animal about the size of a cat.  They live in trees, and their favorite food is the ripe coffee cherry.  While the bean is in the critter’s stomach, it apparently undergoes fermentation and expensive chemical treatment.  The bean finishes its journey through the digestive system and exits.  The still intact beans are collected from the forest floor, cleaned, roasted, and sold for exorbitant prices.  I must say, the flavor was rich and smooth.  I am bringing some beans home for friends to sample.  On the way out I saw a luwak.  He was not running around eating coffee cherries – the poor guy was locked in a cage with a grill floor so that his poops would fall through.  I could just imagine the animal handler prodding him – hurry up and poop, we have customers waiting!

The terraced rice fields were very beautiful. 

Wayan told us the rice has different colors because they grow traditional Balinese rice that matures in four months and ‘government’ rice that matures in three months.  The Balinese prefer the traditional rice with the larger seeds, but  the government requires farmers to grow the genetically modified type as well in order to feed more people.   Wayan told us each farmer keeps a cow to help with the plowing and to manure the fields.

The work is very labor intensive.

Barbara and I skipped the evening yoga class and got massages.

A Frog For Felix

Felix said I should be sure to take pictures of any Balinese frogs I might encounter.  As I sat relaxing on the deck of our cottage near sunset, I could hear frogs everywhere.

They must be very happy in the rice paddies.   

Then I heard one very close by, so I started searching.  Sure enough, there he was.

I looked for him after dinner, but he must have gone out to play with the other frogs.  I peeked again in the morning, and there he was, back in his little house.

Jimbaram Puri to Munduk

11-20/10.   We had breakfast at our favorite table in front of the lily pond. 

Our bird friend was back for his usual breakfast.

After breakfast we got a ride to the airport to meet up with other members of our tour.  Our driver was from a small traditional village in the north near the place where we will stay at the end of our trip.  He told us his father had five wives.  He must be strong – one is all I can handle!  We learned that Balinese cars do not have heaters.

We met another couple, David and Martha, our Balinese driver Wayan and our Balinese guide, Wayan.  If you are a firstborn son in Bali, your name is automatically Wayan.  They also have names for the second, third and fourth (Ketut), and then they start over again with Wayan.  The two-hour drive to Munduk village made me nervous.  The road gets narrow and winding, and Wayan was fearless about passing on blind corners. 

When we arrived at Puri Lumbung Cottages we were warmly welcomed with marigold leighs.

We met the other members of our group – 15 in all, and had dinner.  Our cottage (#7) was lovely, with bath downstairs

And bedroom upstairs

At dinner Balinese musicians played for us on traditional Balinese instruments.  I was amazed that such primitive instruments made from bamboo could produce such lovely music.  I was especially impressed by the flautist.  He employed a circular breathing technique so that the music continued seamlessly while he was inhaling.  I could really appreciate this after my short experience with the digireedoo.

Snorkel Day

Our Birdsong Alarm Went off at 5:15 - first the songbirds, then the doves. They awoke with such joyful enthusiasm, and it's contagious - ah, another glorious day in Bali. We had breakfast in front of the lily pond.

A beautiful bird flew down to wait for his breakfast.

Then he sat down on a water lilly to order seconds.

The bus from Ena Dive Center picked us up and drove us to the boat.

The ride to the dive site with 7 divers and 5 crew was likea 45-minute ride on a bucking bronco.  One woman lost her lunch and all enthusiasm for snorkeling.  The water at the first site was very rough, and I kept getting water down my snorkel tube.  We were treated to a great show by a giant manta ray.  When I first saw him swim towards me I thought he might take me in one gulp.  Fortunately, he was more interested in plankton.

The second site was the best.  The water was calm and clear, and we swam for about an hour in the same direction just a few feet from the reef.  The colors of the fish and the corals were amazing.  I had to look up occasionally to connect with Barbara and make sure we were still swimming in the right direction.

This is our last night at Jimbaram Puri.  Tomorrow we will meet the yoga tour group at the airport.

Bali Travel Tips
Money
It isn't possible to exchange currency that is dammaged in any way.  I took a hundred dollar bill with me to pay for the snorkeling, but they would not accept it because it had a small tear.  I'm still not comfortable with the Indonesian currency.  Each bill has so many zeroes it strains my eyes.  I tend to confuse the 10000 rupia note (a little more than a dollar) with the 100000 rupia note (a little more than ten dollars).

Jimbaran Puri

This is the life.  We woke to the soft cooing of doves, went for a swim in the ocean, then went for a swim in the pool.  The ocean is warm, but the pool is like a bath.

Then we had a lovely breakfast.

The flight to Bali

We left San Francisco at midnight for the first leg of the journey on a 747 crammed with 397 passengers.  I took an Ambien (thank you Dr. Dover) and gratefully slept for 8 hours of the 14-hour flight.  The second 5-hour leg from Teipei to Bali on an A330 was  not crowded.  I started rereading "The Untethered Soul" until dinner and then checked out the movies on the personal screen in front of me.  With many to choose from, I chose "The Kids are OK".  With languages to choose, I chose French and then focused on the Chinese subtitles to see if I could make any sense out of it.  I was amazed at the complexity of it.  A simple phrase like "J'en sais rien" would generate two lines of intricate characters.  And then I got swept into the drama and forgot I was watching a movie at 30,000 feet.  Just like life.  I forget who I am and I forget I'm on a planet whirling around a star in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  As Michael Singer was saying, "When the consciousness gets sucked in, it no longer knows itself as itself.  I t knows itself as the objects it is experiencing."

We were met at the airport by a really sweet man from our hotel.

He steered us through customs and drove us 20 minutes to our resort.  I was surprised by the right-hand drive. 

Our room is fabulous.  This is definitely the most luxurious place we have ever stayed in!
We went for a swim in the ocean and had a seafood dinner right on the sand overlooking the beach.

Staying Healthy

We are so blessed to live in a part of the world where we have pure water and clean food.  I never think much about infectious diseases.  I'm grateful to Barbara for reading the health section of the travel guide and getting us to see Doctor Dover in Aptos for a travel health consultation.  We got immunizations for Hepatitis A&B, tetanus, diptheria, and typhoid.  The risk of contracting malaria in Bali is extremely low.  However, we are going in the wet season, and one can become sick with malaria up to one year after returning home.  Dr. Dover suggested we try the tablets for three days to see if we experienced any side effects.  We did not, so we decided to take the tablets. 

No medication is conpletely effective against malaria.  And there is no vaccine and no cure for dengue fever, a deadly viral disease.  The only protection is to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes, so we purchased several products to protect us from mosquitoes.  We will spray all our clothes before we pack.

We are so blessed to live in a part of the country where we are not at war with invasive diseases.  Yet.  I recently read about "The Coming Plague" in Discover Magazine.  As the planet warms, the two species of mosquito capable of spreading dengue fever are moving north, even as far north as New York.  Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.

How do we get to Bali?

This Google  map shows where Bali is in relation to Soquel.  We'll be flying from San Francisco to Tapei, Taiwan.  The Google directions to Tapei include a ferry.  I think we'll skip the ferry and take China Airlines.  Flying time is 14 hours, but it sure beats the ferry!  Fortunately, Barbara and I have isle seats accross from each other, so I can do yoga in the isle.  We have a 3.5 hour wait in Tapiei, then we take a 5-hour flight to Denpasar.  And check this out -- it looks like we fly right over Santa Cruz!

Barbara arranged our travel through Casto Travel.  They did a great job for us on a trip to France in 2007, and they have been very helpful.

Let's try this out

So I'm thinking about creating a blog about our trip to Bali.  This will be an adventure in blogging as well as travel.  I got to Blogger.com from Picassa.  I clicked on Blog This! and one click led to another.  Let's see if I can upload a picture to start with.
Yeah, that seems to work.  Barbara and I met Doron Hanoch at a yoga retreat in Mexico with Mark Stephens -- my favorite yoga teacher and good friend.  In May of this year, Doron lead a retreat about yoga and nutrition at the Esalen Institute this summer.  When Doron announced that he was going to lead a yoga tour in Bali, I said YES.  I have often fantasized about going to Bali for a yoga retreat.

Barbara did all the work of preparing for the trip.  She studied the travel guide, did a lot of research, made reservations for a place to stay before and after the yoga tour, got travel insurance, arranged to get vaccinations against pesky diseases.  I bought myself to a new Manduka mat -- a lighter one for travel, and did some light reading.  I read Elizabeth Gilbert's inspirational spiritual adventure  "Eat, Pray, Love".  I loved this book!  Here are some favorite lines from Ketut, the medicine man, that I have shared with my yoga students.

"When you meditate, only you must smile.  Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy.  Even smile in your liver... Not to hurry, not to try too hard.  Too serious, you make you sick.  You can calling the good energy with a smile."

I loved the way the book is structured like a japa mala with 108 beads.  It took me back to a time in 1985 when I spent some time at that ashram in the Catskill Mountains.  Kathy and I had a wedding ceremony there.  Blair was just 18 months old.