Singapore & Bali

Singapore

Tuesday 13^th and Wednesday 14^th March

The City State of Singapore is small, humid, sticky and very clean indeed. When you leave the causeway bridge that links this island to Johur Bahru on the mainland, first impressions are of wide, tree lined avenues and green spaces as you approach the gleaming towers of the centre. Traffic is busy but very polite and everything works, and so we are in a dreamlike state on the way from the bus station to the hotel as the cab driver turns on his meter without the slightest encouragement from us and then says we can pay by cash or card, whichever we prefer. The whole place is on another level above anywhere else we have been in South East Asia as far as western sensibilities are concerned. Orderly and calm, some call this place Singaboring. The pay off for adhering strictly to government rules and regulations here is a high level of income and security, lack of corruption and a good education.

We check in to the Value Hotel Thompson in the Balestier area and immediately get dressed up and go down town to the famous colonial style Raffles Hotel bar and neck back a couple of dry Martinis whilst shelling peanuts and throwing the shells on the floor in time-honoured fashion. It's full of tourists like us and is fun.

Next, we move on to the Snooker Bar in the hotel proper. There is no one else there and the staff are most attentive and we choose two ridiculously complex cocktails and start playing snooker on these full size tables in this beautiful room.

Celia orders a 'Cowerd Martini', that arrives with dry ice steaming up from a container underneath the glass, and she promptly picks up the wrong part and smashes the whole lot onto the tiled floor. The staff are sympathetic and get her another, apologising for not explaining how to hold the concoction. John is highly amused and has a field day at Celia's expense. Anyway, the important thing is they didn't charge us for the second cocktail so the night is not a complete disaster.

Then we head to the part of town that is famous for it's 'Steamboat' restaurants. You sit at an outside table and the owner plugs in and lights a gas burner in the centre of your table, brings a large saucepan that has two compartments and fills one half with normal broth and the other side with a spicy broth. Then you go inside the restaurant and choose whatever you want to cook for yourself. The array is amazing, fish, shellfish, meat, all manner of vegetables and then all of the stuff that we have absolutely no idea about. It is a fun way to eat and very sociable. As the friendly group at the next table tell us 'Here in Singapore, we like to eat with friends and family, go to the cinema and go shopping!'

View from loo, Singapore Airport

So, taking our friends from the night before at their word, we did as Singaporeans do, we went shopping. We bought an Apple ipad and a replacement camera at the Sim Lim Square Mall – if you like electronic stuff then this must be paradise! Less successful with clothes but great success at Boots – best insect repellent in town and more Malaria tablets.

Then it was off for the short flight to Bali.

Bali

Thursday 15^th March

Incense in the air, tiny, hand-made baskets, holding offerings of flowers. Exquisitely dressed, very beautiful women, are constantly placing these around and inside their houses, hotels, shops and warungs (small eating houses), motorcycle seats, temples and cars. As they carefully place them they recite prayers and light incense sticks, completely oblivious of anyone or anything around them.

These rituals are embedded in the whole way of life here and nothing stops them happening. They vary from a few moments spent placing a small offering on their doorstep, to carrying large arrangements of fresh fruits, in decorated silver containers, on their heads to the temple.

They will also be seen riding side saddle behind their father or husband holding a finely woven basket on their knee, containing the family meal of rice, vegetables and meat. This is taken to the temple for blessing and then back home to be eaten. This is going on all around you all the time in Bali. The spiritual life is a living part of everyday life, not just for one day of the week (although everyone has special temple days as well according to the Bali calendar and the priestly interpretations of your birth chart).

We arrived in Kuta, near the airport, and had booked a hotel for a couple of nights while we sorted where we wanted to go and to meet up with Barbara Smith and her family from Bristol, friends of friends, who live and work here.

We were invited for a meal at their home and it was such a novelty for us to be in a house with friends eating dinner. The house is a Javanese traditional design called a jogla. The living/dining/cooking area is completely open plan and has no walls – it's just straight out on to the garden. This way, any breeze that is around is wafted through the house and keeps it a bit cooler.

Barbara's daughter Amelia, husband Stuart and children Evie, Stan and Ruby made us so welcome, we felt very spoiled. Amelia runs one half of Angel and Jackson – gorgeous handbags, and Stuart DJs at all the big clubs – and there is a huge scene here.

John's Birthday!!

Friday 16^th March

Lazy breakfast and Skyped Katie. Out for a walk on the beach and the wind was really picking up. The surf was pounding and nobody was surfing, just the occasional swimmer in the shallows being tossed around by the huge waves. We sit in a bar and watch the beach-side parade of hat sellers, surfers, beach boys and Aussie tourists, sprinkled with every other nationality and age. 

 We drink John's health and he declares it a top ten birthday and orders another beer. We think back to Celia's birthday in November, when we were in Rajasthan and find it difficult to compare the two places in our heads. as we have seen so much since then, but one thing we do know is that booze is freely available here and we regard that as rather civilised!

Later we go and see Stuart spinning the platters at Potato Head, a fantastic beach side club with beautiful furniture, scenery, people and prices to match and all highly sophisticated. 

 He is a great DJ and we really enjoy ourselves and it is somewhere we would never have dreamed of going without this connection. We meet up with Barbara and friends and go to Bebe's restaurant for dinner, with birthday cake and candle, plus good wine. This was all spontaneous and was more fun because it wasn't planned. After dinner we go to see Stuart at an even more classy club called Ku De Ta in a stunning cliff top location.

Barbara has a significant birthday a couple of days later and we are invited to her party, again at her daughter's, and meet all sorts of expatriates from many countries, plus the rest of Barbara's children, who flew in as a surprise, so it was a lovely day.

We stayed in Kuta 2 nights and it is a pounding mess of traffic, shops, huge bars, restaurants, clubs and hotels, and lots of tourists. We moved up the road to Seminyak – that is marginally less crowded. Booked in to Grandmas Hotel, near the beach and it is quieter.

Many of the restaurants and bars near us have musical entertainment to tempt you in. One night it was a 3 piece combo of excellent guitarists and singers – as usual we know all the words because this part of the world is firmly stuck in the 1970s, musically speaking.

The next night we are eating a pleasant meal in a quiet restaurant when the band arrive. The lead singer is a diva in looks and temperament; giving orders and pouting in her skin tight outfit. However, she must be the girl friend of someone with money and/or influence, because when she opens her mouth we all run for cover in the form of eating our food as fast as possible and leaving. The wailing is almost overpowering and the group of Australian girls at the next table are reduced to hysterical laughter.

On our third night in Bali a huge tropical storm hit the coast just as we got back to our hotel and we were soaked in seconds and and the storm raged all night.


Ubud

Tuesday, 20th March

We are, by now, desperate to get away from this area and find out what the real Bali is like and so book a car and driver called Wayan to take us to Ubud.  It is up country and is the renowned cultural heartland of Bali.  It lives up to all our expectations and more.

We took Sheila with us, a friend of Barbara's visiting from the UK.  It was her Birthday and she spent the day with us, we ate at a lovely garden cafe, and she returned down to the coast that evening.  


En route we stopped at a beautiful temple, where we were loaned a sarong each and ceremonial scarf for a belt so that we could enter dressed correctly.

Ubud itself is full of temples and they are very busy at present because it just before the Balinese New Year.  

This means all the gamelan orchestras are rehearsing and the courtyards have temporary workshops where huge mythical monsters are being created out of carved polystyrene or papier mache and painted in gaudy colours.  

These are then put on carrying platforms, made of bamboo poles, ready to be paraded through the streets as part of the New Years eve celebrations, enacting tales from the Ramayana.

Rich flowers and foliage abound here, in pots on the doorstep, through family courtyards, roof tops, temples, outside shops, restaurants and hotel gardens. 

They are all lovingly tended and they enhance the unique character of the Balinese architectural style. The eye is constantly delighted around every corner by so much grace in person and building. 

Detail of the Day: There appears to be a moving mountain of household cleaning implements, progressing in a stately way down the street in front of us. Brooms of every sort, brushes, feather dusters, cleaning cloths, buckets and mops. As it gets nearer you see a small motorcycle and driver hidden behind all the goods – sight and steering are a mystery. He stops and starts, talking to all the housewives as they come out to talk and barter with him. It is a most endearing vision.

Our hotel is called Artini 2 Cottages (Numbers 1 and 3 also exist). It is a garden paradise of delights with a swimming pool, sitting at the bottom of a long path of steps from the road. The pictures will have to describe it – we fell in love with it and stayed a week in total as we couldn't drag ourselves away.

We have a meal at the very cool Jazz Cafe, where an excellent band with a great Surinamese singer entertained us. John was invited up to sing with them and so another entry is added to the gig list! Later, two very drunk Australian girls come in and start dancing - it is like the worst cabaret in the world and extremely funny to watch. We have a drink and a talk with the band afterwards and, as ever, it is the people we meet and chat with that give us the most rewarding and insightful views into the country and people we visit.

We go to see a Balinese ballet performance, at an open air theatre, of scenes from the Ramayana. The setting is breathtaking and the dance is accompanied by an all female gamelan orchestra - the pictures will have to describe the scene as it is quite dazzling and difficult to put into words. Suffice to say we loved it all.

New Year & Nyepi

22^nd March is New Year's Eve here and there is much excitement and preparation for the evening parade of mythical monsters, temple ceremonies and enactments from Hindu myths that are acted out and narration is intoned from loudspeakers. 

The gamelan orchestras play, gongs and bells sound, chanting echoes through the streets, children shriek in excitement, lights flare up and illuminate the statues as they are carried in crazy lurching runs down the streets by schoolchildren, young people and adults. 

The final act of the evening is when the monsters are all burned amidst much noise and is then followed by all night celebrations.

Then, from dawn the following day until the following dawn, it is the day of silence or Nyepi Day. The whole island shuts down, no flights, buses, shops or restaurants. 

 Everyone stays in their homes and has no fire or lights, music or noise of any kind. This is to ensure that any evil spirits that are around believe that there is no one there and so they leave the island. It is also a time for everyone to reflect on the previous year and make plans for living a good life in the year to come. (This is very simply put and we apologise for not being knowledgeable enough).

For us tourists it means staying in the hotel and grounds all day and night. Dinner is served at 5.30 as they will not put lights on in the kitchen, dining area or any of the garden walkways at nightfall. You are asked not to put on music or use the computer. We really enjoyed this day of total peace and quiet. Apparently, a tourist tried to go out in the town from a nearby hotel and was quickly marched back by the teams of local temple security guards who make sure no one steps out of line. They all wear black and white checked head scarves and sarongs and cars painted in the same way. These colours signify the warding off of evil spirits.

One day we visit the small monkey forest at the bottom of the hill. They are long tailed Macaques that are very well fed by the park keepers and as a result they are not all over town pinching everything and causing all sorts of problems for fruit sellers and cooks in general. However, they are still aggressive and when a group of young backpackers allowed the monkeys to jump on them as they held food bags, one young man was bitten on the ear in the scuffle between two monkeys for the food.

We walked through the reserve and the monkeys were playing round the central pool and fountain, leaping off the sides into the water and chasing each other. There was a temple and views out to the fields round town. We also visited the Community Art Gallery.

There is a lively arts scene in Ubud, wood carvings, batik, painting, printed sarongs, jewellery, clothes, basket weaving and all manner of lovely things. We went shopping for gifts and sent a big parcel home by sea. It was so hard to choose what to buy as the sky is the limit in quality and cost here.

Sunday 26^th March

We booked a car and driver for a day trip out of Ubud. We visited the famous Goa Guara elephant temple. It is in the jungle and has an ancient cave temple with worn and blackened linga on primitive altars inside. 

The entrance is covered in fantastic carvings. This is the oldest part of the complex. There are also Buddhist temple ruins and deep baths where a spring comes out with beautiful statues.

We then went on to Thirta Empul, a large temple complex with a series of beautiful fresh water pools fed by mineral springs. Again, we are given sarongs and sashes to put on over our clothes so that we can go in. 

This is a lively and very popular temple with many pilgrims and lots of ceremonies going on as we walked around. You are expected to behave with respect and not intrude or go too close to the priests and worshippers with cameras but apart from that you are free to wander freely. There is a bathing complex where all the pilgrims line up and go in to a deep pool that has statues spouting the holy waters over them.

Hinduism is the majority religion in Bali but is in a form that is only practised here and although there are similarities with India, there are many more differences, plus elements of Animist and Buddhist belief. One Balinese musician we spoke to said that his father is a temple priest and he doesn't even know what he does and would have no hope of explaining it to us!

We moved on into higher and cooler country to a coffee and spice plantation, where you can try the famous coffee that has been through a civet. John tried it (Celia didn't - guess who had a bad stomach the next day?)

Last call of the day was Mount Batur, a live volcano. We had a ring side seat as we ate a lunch buffet at a restaurant looking out over the plain to the mountain beyond and a lake to one side, shimmering in the sunshine. This was when it sunk in why Bali is also called The Land Of The Gods!

Monday 26^th March

Our last day in Ubud is no fun for John as he is very poorly and stays in bed. Celia goes for a wander round town and drinks iced tea and goes swimming in the delightful hotel pool and wonders how they can leave this enchanting place.

Lovina

Tuesday 27^th March 

Our driver Suka turns up early in the morning and we bid a fond and lingering farewell to Ubud and set off through the beautiful mountain scenery to go to the north coast.

We checked in to the Banyualit Hotel. Lovina is everything that Kuta is not and it gives you a chance to enjoy a more authentic Balinese experience. It is still geared for tourists but is much more laid back and the local people are happy to engage in a way that is impossible in Kuta. There is hardly anyone around and even the hawkers are laid back.

There is a black volcanic sand beach and we walk along it for dinner under the exquisite stars. All is tranquillity until a sudden screech comes from one of the waitresses walking from the beach on to the hotel terrace steps. There is a commotion and we see a large brownish-grey snake hissing and writhing as a waiter pushes it towards the bush where it disappears.

Later a guitar duo sing and play for us. They have exquisite voices. John is invited to sing and play with them and it is a magical session with the few of us in the restaurant singing along.

The next evening we eat at a small warung (cafe/bar) near the hotel called Mr Dolphin where they have a great band playing and enough guests to make a good crowd and we have loads of fun - although we are still firmly in the 1970s music-wise. John is invited up to play and we are all singing along in no time – loads of fun!

Wednesday 28^th March

We are up at 5 am to catch the very narrow, small outrigger boat that is going to take us out to look for dolphins. We are sharing with a Dutch couple plus the boat owner. The outboard engine is halfway down the boat and you sit either in front of it and get soaked (Celia and Dutch lady) or behind it and get choked with exhaust fumes and deafened (John and Dutchman).

"Who's that?"

However, as we set out to sea and the sun starts to come up we enjoy the scene of the other 40 or 50 boats that are doing the same as us. That is chasing up and down looking for dolphin pods. We are not sure how good this is for the dolphins, because when we come across some, all the other boats come tearing over and get much, much too close to these beautiful creatures. So some regulation of how these boats are used is long overdue. 

"Oh, it's you"

We saw a further pod before returning with ringing ears and damp, numb bums from sitting on boards for two hours,` but it was a worthwhile trip.

All too soon our little sojourn in Lovina came to an end and it was time to pack after 3 nights in this sleepy little place and start our early morning journey to Java – but that is for the next blog.