April 27, 2005

10:45:41 am The Old Man and the Sea, Part II  

Monday, April 18, 2005

After the last post was written, Nick went surfing a second time in Bali--this time without instructors--while Deanna shopped. The familiar sports analogy of the sophomore slump did, in fact, apply. Where Nick was a rookie phenom, his second outing was a different story altogether. Standing was no problem on Saturday, but he was not able to stand during any of his first 10 attempts on Monday. At no time on Monday did he conquer a wave as well as any of his top half dozen waves on Saturday. It seems the sea had it in for him. Apparently, the ocean was tipped off to his braggadocios earlier post, and decided to teach this old man a lesson.

Afterward Nick had as many excuses as Dusty Baker following a loss to the Cardinals. "Clearly, the tide was too high, except of course when it was too low. The waves broke much further from shore than on Saturday, but when I moved out, the waves moved in. Obviously, I had a different board, and that was a big problem, as my second board was clearly too small. There is no doubt that Deanna is to blame, as she forced me to put too much sunscreen on, and of course, that made the board too slippery. I don't know what she was thinking."

Apparently the cost of lesson provides not only the lesson itself, but also an instructor who: positions you in exactly the right place at the right time; spots the perfect wave and tells you exactly when to begin paddling; and pushes or holds your board if you are paddling too slow or too fast.

The lesson price also provides a wetsuit top, a rather invaluable piece of equipment, as Nick learned the next day when--after not wearing a top while surfing on Monday--his nipples were as sore and chaffed as if he were a new mother with a baby who did not know how to suckle. By Tuesday, he had tiny scabs on every mole on his chest from the friction of lying on top of the board while waiting for a wave. And so, the arrogant beginning surfer, imbued with the false confidence that an instructor provides, was reduced to a scab-crusted old man by the mighty sea.

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April 18, 2005

07:54:51 am Bali, Indonesia  

Country Background:
Population: 234 million
Per capita GDP: $3,000
Size: slightly less than three times the size of Texas
Currency: Indonesian rupiah, 9450 per US dollar
Independence: 1945 from Netherlands
Language: Bahasa Indonesian (modified form of Malay; official); local dialects; English and Dutch are leading foreign languages; English is common on Bali, the major tourist island.

Itinerary

Thursday, April 14, 2005 - Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Qantas flight from Darwin, Australia to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Three nights at Mercure Hotel, Kuta Beach
Driving tour of island, ending in Ubud
One night at Adi Cottages, Ubud
Van transport back to Kuta
One night at Mercure Hotel, Kuta Beach

Bali
Temperature high/low during our stay: 90/75
Temperature feels warmer than this due to extremely high humidity
Bali is the top artistic and tourist island in Indonesia, itself an archipelago of 18,000 islands. While Indonesia is nearly 90% Muslim, making it the largest Muslim country in the world, Bali is mainly Hindu. Both the country as a whole and the island of Bali are quite secular, however. There is little sympathy on Bali for terrorism, as the island's tourist economy was crippled following the October 2002 bombing (it's mostly recovered now) of the Sari Nightclub in Kuta, which killed over 200 people, most of them foreign, with the largest group from Australia. (Australians travel to Bali like Americans travel to Cancun, Mexico.) Signs, posters, and t-shirts here promote a shall-we-say rather hostile attitude to terrorists.

There are many destinations within Bali. We went to two, Kuta, which is on the beach and close to the airport, and Ubud, which is inland. People describe Kuta in a Yogi Berra sort of way, "Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded." Nick tended to discount this advice, as he had been to Bali in 1990, and did not consider Kuta to be overcrowded. Besides when you are traveling for one year, you don't really need to get away from it all. We are away from it.

We have found in general that it is difficult for people to calibrate their recommendations to what would appeal to two people traveling for one year. They are forever suggesting places that are too low-key and often too expensive, because when you are working--as our recommenders are--you value your time and your relaxation more than your money. But you can't fill an entire year with expensive beach resorts. Boring! The recommenders with the best advice? Rich and Mary Miller, who we visited in Argentina. They are taking a year off to live in Argentina--although they would have just returned to the US now--so they could relate well to our experience and needs. Everything they suggested in South America was right on the mark for us.

Getting back to Kuta, Nick discovered upon arrival that Kuta must not have been where he stayed in 1990, for he recognized nothing. It was actually quite crowded and congested, just as everyone said it would be. We went to several neighboring towns during our stay, but Nick did not recognize anything there either. Yes, Bali has grown tremendously, but it could not have grown that much! So where he vacationed previously remains a mystery. Nevertheless, we enjoyed Kuta just fine.

Bali Activities:
- Shopping--everything is cheap, cheap, cheap. In general, Bali may be the cheapest place we have been yet for lodging, food, taxis, and souvenirs. It is a major tourist destination, so you can spend hundreds of dollars per night for a hotel if you want to, but there is no need to. Our hotel in Ubud cost us $30 with breakfast included and it was quite nice. You can spend a lot of money here buying thing--and we did buying two paintings and a number of gifts--as it is an artist colony and the quality is high for the price you are paying.
- Surfing lessons. Neither of us had surfed before. Now with the onset of middle age (at least for one of us), we regret not doing this earlier. It was much easier than we expected. Nick stood on his second attempt, and Deanna was not far behind. See Image Gallery.
- Island tour visiting temples and artist areas: wood carving, stone carving, painting, and hand painted batik cloth.
- Visiting Monkey Forest on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud. Hundreds of monkeys roam in the wild in a tropical setting. It appears that a monkey's life here consists of playing, eating, and sex.

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