As much as we wanted to, we did not spend the entire honeymoon
lounging around our villa. Our first off-resort activity was a tour of the island. We worked through our resort to book a private driver and tour guide that customized our tour to the things we wanted to do and see. The morning of, we met our guide Nyoman and he reviewed the itinerary, and even threw in a few additional suggestions on things we might want to see that we had not considered. One of my initial concerns was much of what I read suggested the drivers would get commissions from any purchases you made, and would take you to places you didn't want to go in hopes you'd buy something. Luckily, there was no such pressure from Nyoman. In fact, most of the places he suggested didn't even have the option to make purchases. I'm sure he made some commission on the things we did buy, but I'm fine with that.
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| One of the bedrooms in a traditional Balinese home |
The first stop we made was a traditional Balinese home. This was probably the most unique experience of the trip. We went to an actual Balinese home, not one staged for tourists. The traditional homes are nothing like we expect in the West. There aren't simply four walls, rooms, and a roof. In fact, each "room" is typically it's own building, and the rooms often don't even have walls. The beds don't have mattresses, but are made of straw mats. The kitchen was open and powered only by a wood burning stove. Perhaps most impressive, though, was the obvious commitment to religion that we saw consistently throughout the trip. While Indonesia as a whole is Islamic, the island of Bali is actually Hindi - though interestingly enough, they seem to have no issue eating beef. Each traditional Balinese house have their own temples. This custom might extend to even non-traditional houses, as all the businesses we visited even had temples. Every day, the family would prepare small offerings to the Gods consisting of some flowers and rice on a banana leaf in a little palm basket and would place them in each temple. These are to appease the spirits and to give back to the Gods what they have given to you. We'd frequently find these around the island in different places as the locals looked for blessings and positive spirits going about their daily activities.
We visited several local villages where they specialize in various crafts. In Celuk, we stopped at a jeweler. Almost all jewelry is silver in Bali - of course often embedded with semi-precious stones. The jewelers tend not to negotiate prices, or negotiate very little. We were able to tour the production line and see how they actually make the jewelry. Mas Village specializes in wood carving, so we made a stop there as well. The detail with which the craftsmen work is incredible. Some of the carvings were absolutely huge - I can only imagine how long it must take. Prices are negotiable at these shops. Lastly, we stopped in Ubud at one of the many art galleries. Every subject and style of art was available, including very unique works that used actual sand on the painting. Negotiation was expected here - in fact, when I first inquired about a price, the woman was very quick to add that all prices were negotiable.
For lunch, Nyoman took us up a mountain to have our meal at a restaurant overlooking an active volcano, Mount Batur. The food was great and ridiculously cheap by US standards. For both our meals and a couple beers, I think our total was around $20 USD. We enjoyed a mix of Indonesian foods while taking in the scenery. You could see the areas of the volcano that still showed black from the most recent eruption's lava flows. At the base of the mountain was Lake Batur, the largest freshwater lake in Bali. After lunch, we went to a rice paddy and saw some incredible views of the fields. This was the place we ran into the most aggressive street sellers. Nyoman had warned us that if we were approached, we should ignore them because engaging with them would tell all the others that we might be willing to buy something. The woman was trying to sell us postcards and really gave us a hard sell. She followed us for a good 200 feet down the paths. We also made a stop at a Balinese temple (the best I have for the name is Obyek Wisata Gunung Kawi Sebatu Tegallalang), where we donned our sarongs and got a tour of the grounds. The temple was gorgeous, with statues and flowers everywhere, koi ponds, and, strangely enough, chickens in bird cages. Another interesting fact about Balinese temples: women are not allowed during certain times of the month.
Our final activity of the day deserves its own special post. We went to the
Monkey Temple. I GOT TO PLAY WITH MONKEYS!!! Keep your eye out for that one next. In the meantime, here are a handful of the other pictures we took that day.
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| Traditional kitchen |
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| The start of a day or two's worth of offerings |
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| As Nyoman described it, this is the "honeymoon suite" or where the newlyweds would live |
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| One view of the family temple |
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| Detail work on the family temple |
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| Inside the wood carving shop |
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| At lunch overlooking the volcano |
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| Mount Batur and Lake Batur |
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| One of the many statues in the temple |
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| One view of the temple |
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| Another temple view |
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| The statues were pretty cool |
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| Rice paddy |
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| I thought the different levels of the rice paddy were so cool! |
We visited several local villages where they specialize in various crafts. In Celuk, we stopped at a jeweler. Almost all jewelry is silver in Bali - of course often embedded with semi-precious stones. The jewelers tend not to negotiate prices, or negotiate very little. We were able to tour the production line and see how they actually make the jewelry. Mas Village specializes in wood carving, so we made a stop there as well. The detail with which the craftsmen work is incredible. Some of the carvings were absolutely huge - I can only imagine how long it must take. Prices are negotiable at these shops. Lastly, we stopped in Ubud at one of the many art galleries. Every subject and style of art was available, including very unique works that used actual sand on the painting. Negotiation was expected here - in fact, when I first inquired about a price, the woman was very quick to add that all prices were negotiable.
For lunch, Nyoman took us up a mountain to have our meal at a restaurant overlooking an active volcano, Mount Batur. The food was great and ridiculously cheap by US standards. For both our meals and a couple beers, I think our total was around $20 USD. We enjoyed a mix of Indonesian foods while taking in the scenery. You could see the areas of the volcano that still showed black from the most recent eruption's lava flows. At the base of the mountain was Lake Batur, the largest freshwater lake in Bali. After lunch, we went to a rice paddy and saw some incredible views of the fields. This was the place we ran into the most aggressive street sellers. Nyoman had warned us that if we were approached, we should ignore them because engaging with them would tell all the others that we might be willing to buy something. The woman was trying to sell us postcards and really gave us a hard sell. She followed us for a good 200 feet down the paths. We also made a stop at a Balinese temple (the best I have for the name is Obyek Wisata Gunung Kawi Sebatu Tegallalang), where we donned our sarongs and got a tour of the grounds. The temple was gorgeous, with statues and flowers everywhere, koi ponds, and, strangely enough, chickens in bird cages. Another interesting fact about Balinese temples: women are not allowed during certain times of the month.
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