After a 10 minute puddle jumper ride we landed on a tiny, paved runway on Caye Caulker; a small island off the coast of Belize in the Caribbean. Luckily, ours was the only baggage in "baggage claim" (aka the cart they pushed over to the plane to fetch luggage) so it didn't take very long at all. We stayed at the Iguana Reef Inn, the place all the locals considered the nicest hotel on the island. Since we didn't know where it was, we approached one of the folks hanging out and looking helpful. Turned out he was a cabbie and could take us to our hotel via the golf cart he had parked next to him. We marveled at the cozy feel of the town as we rode through - people walking barefoot through sand-covered streets, golf carts and bicycles comprising the majority of the vehicular traffic, lengths of rope serving as speed bumps. Almost every restaurant had a Belikin sign advertising their name (we theorized that Belikin sold the signs cheap in exchange for free advertising. Belikin is the local Belizean beer and apparently quite good).
Once we got settled into our room, we pored through the tourist guest book as well as our own tourist guide book. It was almost disorienting having to plan our own meals and activities. Mystic River had served as an almost all-inclusive resort (we had the option of striking out at the nearby towns on our own but we didn't.) We were too hungry to fully appreciate the choices we had so we went with the hotel's recommendation, The Rainbow Bar & Grill on the beach. That was the lunch when I discovered that there were multiple flavors of Fanta and vowed to try all they had available.
That afternoon, we just wandered around the streets to get the lay of the land. It was a surprisingly short walk; probably only half an hour to walk the main areas. We spotted some of the restaurants and tour guide offices we had already read about in our tour book.
Later in the evening, we ate at Rose's Bar & Grill because they had fresh fish/seafood at the front of the establishment where we could pick out what we wanted grilled before we even sat down to eat. As we waited for our food in the back of the restaurant, we heard a commotion and some reggae Christmas music playing outside. Since most of the restaurant went to go look, we had to get up and check it out as well. And what to our wondering eyes should appear but a Santa Claus sitting in the back of a small pickup truck with some of his helpers waving to the crowd, spreading good cheer while a small parade of children followed the truck on foot. They even had a lighted Christmas tree in the back with them. Just another reminder that it was Christmas time in the Caribbean.
The next morning after brunch (had a delicious honey mustard chicken quesadilla with my Red Fanta - strawberry) we went on a manatee tour given by local legend, Chocolate (yes, he goes by that name). It was through his advocacy that the 9000 acre Swallow Caye Wildlife Preserve was established in 2002. While Chocolate's knowledge of the manatees was somewhat limited, his adoration for the gentle creatures was crystal clear and quite endearing. Manatee sightings were somewhat slow at first. We didn't see any at the first stop and even at the second stop where Chocolate and his apprentice would point them out in the distance, I wasn't able to differentiate water glare from sea creature. As luck would have it, a mother and calf took a liking to our boat for the last 40 minutes or so. They swam back and forth under our craft, surfacing on either side for plenty of closeup opportunities. I tried the underwater filming thing, but the Discovery Channel isn't hiring me for ocean footage anytime soon.
The following day was snorkeling day with Patrick and Rafael of Ragamuffin Tours. (Captain Patrick pictured below)
We were on the RaggaGal, a yellow wooden sailboat, for our 3 stop snorkeling tour. The first stop was the Coral Gardens, fairly shallow with plenty of interesting fish in the sea grass and coral. We were left to our own devices to snorkel around. Back on the 'Gal, we had some watermelon, papaya and pineapple while I noticed a chill in the air. One of our fellow snorkelers pointed to a horizon that had grown ominously dark to explain the chill (cue Gilligan's Island music). That same snorkeler asked with some trepidation if we were headed directly into that rainstorm. To which Capt. Patrick shrugged and replied, "That's how we roll," as donned his shorty wetsuit. The second stop was called Shark Ray Alley, where there was a proper downpour going on. Unwilling to brave the water when I was already shivering, I opted to stay on the boat while Rafael took most of the rest of the snorkelers on a tour just beside the boat. At least I didn't miss out on the nurse sharks and rays because Rafael picked one of each up, plopped them on his chest to point out their poor, confused features to the snorkelers. Meanwhile, Patrick was flinging sardines into the water to attract those sharks and rays and even a flock of seagulls looking for a free lunch. After Shark Ray Alley, we had our lunch and headed off to the crown jewel of snorkeling stops, Hol Chan.
That time, Patrick was our snorkeling guide. An accomplished spear fisher and free diver (he said he could dive 80 feet), he had no problems freediving down to the 20 or 30 feet to point out the fishes for us. Thankfully, the rain had stopped by then. We saw a giant grouper hanging out underneath the boat as soon as we got back in the water. It even came over to get a chin scratch from Patrick. We saw some green moray eels investigating a conch shell. The schools of fish were much bigger than the earlier stop, both in numbers and size. There was a tightly packed group of black margaritas looking very much like a black cloud underwater. There were also a few groupers trying to hang with the cool kids and blend in. Patrick showed us an underwater cave 20 feet down by freediving through it. Only Lee and one other snorkeler managed to make it through it. I was sticking close to the surface so I wasn't about to try it.
The highlight for me (and I'm bummed our camera glitched out so we don't have a picture) was when we swam to the shallow sea grass and found a grazing sea turtle. Poor thing had a stub in place of his right flipper, but seemed to have no trouble getting around. I swam alongside it for a while as it alternated between munching on the sea grass and getting gulps of air from the surface.
Back on the boat, everyone was treated to rum punch and shrimp ceviche. I had a Coke and chips and salsa. To our delight, the wind had picked up and Patrick and Rafael put up the sails to sail our way back home. I joked with Lee that he had gone native as he strolled through the sandy streets in bare feet, carrying his sandals and rum punch.
The rest of the time was low key. We tooled around Caye Caulker, spent some down time hanging out at the hotel "beach" which consisted of hard sand near a dock. I finished my Fanta tour of Belize - Orange, Red (or strawberry), Ginger Ale and Yellow (pineapple). We also made it a point to buy some foodstuffs from the wandering vendors as the tour book suggested. We had some of Charlie's Tamales, but my favorite was the Cake Man (The tour book tells me his name is Lloyd) who sold us a moist and delicious chocolate cake and oatmeal cookies on our way to the Lazy Lizard bar at the northernmost part of this half of Caye Caulker for some sunset viewing. We took in another half day snorkeling tour with Ragamuffin where I actually got to be in the water when we visited the nurse sharks and rays.
Christmas Eve was our final full day in Belize and we packed our schedule. We had breakfast and spa massage at Coco Plum Spa near the airport. It was a farther walk from the busy "downtown" but set in among a veritable jungle where it felt isolated and relaxing. I got a prenatal massage from a Mayan midwife who, in addition to providing me with the traditional Mayan womb centering treatment, found the baby's heartbeat and let me feel it too. We went back to Sobre Las Olas where I had my honey mustard chicken quesadillas again for lunch. We were befriended by a local dog who was happy to keep us company as well as a roaming band of neighborhood kids. One little girl, Teoni, took a liking to me, wanting to share my swing seat as we waited for our check. She grabbed my hand as we got up to leave and wanted to know where we were going. Then she was distracted by a jellyfish sighting by one of her friends and she scampered off to ooh, ahh and squeal in disgust at it. We found Cake Man again for our Christmas Eve chocolate cake and headed to the Catholic church for the very small Christmas Eve service. Besides us, there was a family from Chicago and a local family in the church with a service given by a Jesuit priest. We wandered back to our inn where Lee had some rumpopo (rum egg nog. Is there any liquid they don't add rum to here?) and rum chocolate fruit cake. I had orange juice and the white cake (and of course my chocolate cake from the Cake Man). For dinner we went to the Sand Box where I had the local favorite, stew chicken with rice and beans. Lee had his customary grilled lobster. Then it was off to the movies at the Paradiso Bar where for the price of a drink, we could watch a DVD being projected onto the side of the building by the beach. We watched Unstoppable with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine and I collected a whole lot more bug bites on my legs.
Christmas Day was a day of airports and family phone calls. Traveling went relatively smoothly, even getting through customs in Houston was palatable.
What a wonderful way to spend a tropical Christmas. We'll have do it again someday.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Christmas in Belize (Part 2 of 2)
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Christmas in Belize (Part 1 of 2)
I would be lying if I said I'd never before experienced a tropical Christmas, but I was a kid the last time I did. I do know that I have a bit more appreciation now than I did back then. Still, wearing shorts on the beach next to a palm tree decorated with Christmas lights and listening to White Christmas on the radio is a little surreal.
As the last Christmas BK ("Before Kid") and since we hadn't actually taken our annual vacation this year, Lee and I decided that a tropical Christmas would be the perfect thing. We wanted to visit inland to see the Mayan ruins and also get some beach time so we split our week and a half long visit between Cayo, in the eastern border near Guatemala, and Caye Caulker, one of the quieter tiny islands in the Caribbean. 
First off, Cayo. The picture is our humble abode at Mystic River. The jungle resort is owned and run by a French and American couple, Nadeje and Tom. On our first afternoon there Tom gave us a tour on his beloved Polaris four wheeler to the top of their hill where he had some unexcavated Mayan ruins he was excited to explore. Apparently once we started recognizing unusually geometrically shaped hills or mounds, it's quite easy to spot Mayan ruins and they're everywhere. On the way back down to the resort proper, Tom put the Polaris on coast as we bumped down three sizeable plateau steps that were once Mayan terracing. As someone later dubbed it - Mayan roller coaster sans rails.
The following day, we set out for a cave adventure at Actun Tunichil Muknal or ATM with our guide Ben. We had never been cave adventuring before but Gina, Mystic River's tour coordinator, insisted that it was a must-do. So off we went with another couple from Mystic River and originally from Colorado and a Dutch pair that we picked up along the way. The last part of the ride there was once again on bumpy, dirt/gravel road that is a common theme inland. Once we parked, it was about a 40 minute easy hike to the cave entrance. The hike in was also where we acquainted ourselves with the the water via three river crossings. It was cold but not unbearably so and seemed pool-like. At the entrance, we snacked on some watermelon, donned our head lamps and left any unnecessary (read: things we'd like to keep dry) gear.
And there was the entrance:
Yes, that is a swimming pool (though a bit warmer than the river crossings) to get inside. Inside, there was more moving water, sharp rocks and bouldering over, under and through said rocks. There were a few tight squeezes and narrow tunnels but they were always short passages so it didn't trigger any claustrophobic reactions. This was definitely an athletic tour. Once we clambered up a particularly tall rock, we came upon a treasure trove of ... shoes? It turned out that we were to shed our shoes and traverse the rest of the cavern in our stockinged feet. Ben made sure to carefully position us as we moved from area to area before we could look around. As we went on, it was clear to see why: calcified pottery blending into the cavern floor was littered all throughout. He pointed out several that had already been broken by previous careless tourists. He told us that the government had limited the number of licensed guides that could make tours through ATM to cut down on the traffic, but judging by the number of souls in that cave with us, we wondered if that were enough or if they would eventually have to shut the place down for tours.
The cave itself was primarily used by the Mayans as sacrificial grounds. As we swam and crawled and scaled rocks, I tried to imagine carrying that pottery with fire-making supplies as the Mayans must have. The pottery lying about was to cook their corn offerings. The human offerings they left whole.
The skeleton above was a teen-aged Mayan girl from the elite class that was sacrificed. Dubbed the "Crystal Maiden" because her bones have been calcified and look sparkly.
The way out went much more quickly than the way in and once back at the picnic area, we really appreciated the delicious lunch Ben provided. On a side note, I think Belize has the best banana bread I have ever eaten.
The following day, we went to Caracol. A two hour bone-jarring bumpy ride towards the Guatemalan border. The site itself is about half an hour's hike to the border. We were on the tour with the same couple from Colorado as well as another couple from the far-away land of San Francisco, CA. Along the way, Lewis, our tour guide treated us to many stories about the sights we saw. The most interesting one was by way of explaining the sign that we were to have a military escort into the Caracol site.
Apparently four or five years ago, Guatemalans were crossing the border to harvest leaves from a particular tree in Belize. When they had largely decimated their chosen crop, they decided it was more lucrative to rob the guides and tourists that were coming to the area of Mountain Pine Ridge where Caracol was located. It wasn't until an American tourist wrote about their ordeal on the internet that the government took action and installed a military presence at Caracol and required that all tours entering be escorted to and fro for the last 10 miles. This also shortened the hours that the tours could go visit (9am to 2pm). On an interesting side note, the crop that the robbers were previously harvesting was the leaves that would create the green dye used in US currency; someone was paying them (rather poorly at that) in order to counterfeit US dollars.
But back to Mayan ruins. Caracol is the largest Mayan ruin site in Belize that supported approximately 140,000 people at its height. The picture below is the top part of Caana, the tallest structure on the site standing at 140ft. above the ground floor. There are less than 100 steps to the top which made climbing up there a decent workout. There are still significant portions of the site that are unexcavated, but they're easy to spot as very geometrically shaped hills.
We learned quite a bit about their elite class who liked to flatten their foreheads and induce cross-eyedness by piercing the bridge of their nose with something bright and colorful to focus on. We also learned about a brutal ball game they played that involved throwing around an 18lb. latex ball. I didn't get to hear what the rules of the game were (I suspect it isn't definitively known) but it sounds like it would hurt.
After lunch and Caracol we stopped by a much shorter cave, the Rio Frio Cave. No water scrambling needed, but we did take some nice shots towards both entrances for the nifty contrast. A little farther away were the Rio Frio Pools where we could take a swim. We didn't actually go swimming, I just wanted to see how far I could get across the river by hopping from rock to rock without getting my sundress wet. I didn't manage to make it across the river, just halfway across, but it was fun nevertheless. Then it was back to the resort through some more bumpy roads.
I don't want to leave Mystic River without mentioning their very earnest bartender, Leo. Every meal he would come to the dining room from his bar at the hut next door to check to see if we wanted anything. He also had a daily drink special that sounded like he concocted himself and was very eager to have people try. I almost felt bad that I couldn't order any of his drink specials so I ordered some fruity smoothies instead. Our last night there, I told him about my favorite Forbidden Island drink, the Banana MamaCow and in exchange he told me about a new banana flavored drink that I'll have to wait to try out - the Dirty Banana.
The following day, we took the 2 hour drive back to Belize city with Angel, our cab driver, and the other San Francisco couple, David and Amy. The local airport had apparently suffered during the last hurricane as their terminal lost a wall they were still in the middle of repairing. Our ride to Caye Caulker was a prop plane. Sadly I couldn't sit in front right behind the pilot as we did in Costa Rica since we would be the only ones getting off at Caye Caulker. Everyone else was headed to Ambergris Caye, the more popular tourist destination.
In the interest of hitting the publish button, I'll save the Caye Caulker write-up for the next post. Stay tuned!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Bali
Last September (was it really that long ago?) Lee and I went to Bali, Indonesia for vacation. We were looking for a vacation spot that was a little more adventurous, with scuba spots, good food and pampering. From the reviews we read on the internet, it seemed like Bali was just the place.
The adventure started just with the flight to Indonesia. We flew out of San Francisco airport on Singapore Airlines. Although we flew in economy class, we found out just how bad service had gotten on airlines in the US by comparison. We flew in a 747, which seats about 400 people - we were boarded in about 10 minutes. The fleet of staff went down the line to check our tickets and passports, pulled out anyone that needed extra help and handled them separately. Inside the plane, anyone struggling with where they needed to be seated or with carry-on luggage was helped and efficiently seated. The seats themselves weren't too cramped. I typically don't have too many issues fitting since I'm short, but Lee noticed the extra knee room immediately. I had my own video screen where I could control my own programming with some hundred or so channels including around five movies. I could start and stop them whenever I wanted and I could even rewind or fast forward as I wished. We had full hot meals and even real silverware and hot towels before the meal. We each got our own "sock packs" as I'll call them - a packet that had some socks, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and tissues. We had pretty lengthy flights, from San Francisco to Hong Kong, to Singapore then Denpasar on the island of Bali. For breakfast, I was delighted to learn that I had a choice of Western breakfast or Asian. I opted for the noodles for breakfast simply to get a different experience. This was also the trip when I started my current fixation with English tea. Black tea with milk and sugar. Normally, I'm a green tea sort of person. On these flights, there and back, I ended up watching Get Smart with Steve Carrell, Kung Fu Panda, Forbidden Kingdom, Fearless, Ed Norton's version of The Hulk and skipped right over Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. I saw a bit of the last one and decided it was so bad, it wasn't even worth viewing on an airplane.
Even the airports were interesting to spend our layovers. The shops were very high end, especially in Singapore. I don't think I'd heard of most of the shops there, but the ones I had heard of were the expensive type. I got a kick out of finding the Asian eateries and trying out their fare in between flights. Tea and rice could be had just about any hour of the day.
After about 20+ hours of flying time we touched down on Bali. We marveled at the exchange rate of rupia to US dollars. We started off the trip by withdrawing over a million rupia from the ATM! This only amounted to approximately US $100. The number of zeroes on a given bill certainly felt extravagant.
We split up our vacation into two different hotels. The first was so that we could get some beach time and the second because all the reviews said we should go into Ubud, the cultural heart of Bali.
The beach hotel was at Nusa Dua. It was billed as the resort hotel part of the island. I had tried booking us into one of the more popular beaches, but it seemed we picked a busy time. I think we chose a period of time when Australians were having a holiday and Bali is a typical destination for them. The streets are pretty narrow and crowded with the lanes acting as mere guidelines. Most of the inhabitants are on scooters that weave in and out of the trucks and cars, in dangerous proximity to each other.
The hotel at Nusa Dua was beautiful and we got our first taste of Balinese sense of decor - in a word, ornate. There were water features everywhere, pools and fountains, replete with statues. All the corridors in the hotel were open to the outdoors. I was surprised at the lack of mosquitoes. There were a few insects around, but given the heat and humidity, I had expected to have to wield my Deet religiously. Thankfully, I didn't need to. Our room had a balcony overlooking the gardens and wood slats seemed to be its theme. We had a welcome plate of fruit delivered shortly after we arrived with exotic fruits that weren't all recognizable. There were apples and later we found out that one of them was called snakefruit. There was another fruit that we dubbed "snotfruit" because the inside edible bits looked like seeds in clear snot. It was much tastier than it sounds though, slightly sweet. We took a shower and determined not to sleep until it was actually bedtime to combat our jetlag. 
Come dinner time, we wandered off to the hotel buffet down a pathway through the gardens lit with candles. Bali, unlike the rest of Indonesia is primarily Hindu. One of their beliefs is that too much light at night disturbs the gods so they keep it very dim. I found it soothing and romantic. A dance troupe performed a traditional Balinese dance. I had to wonder if the performers weren't really trained for it. The music was compelling, but jarring in its tones and rhythm, but it sounded professional. Some of the dancers didn't seem comfortable with their roles as they kept looking towards the one confident dancer in order to mimic his movements. There was some sort of story to go along with the dance, but it was convoluted and hard to follow even when I read the synopsis later. It involved demons, some royalty, a rescue and death. The food was decent for buffet food, nothing too challenging. I had heard that they liked their food spicy here, but since we were at a resort hotel, it was probably watered down for the non-native palate.
We spent the following day on the beach. Sadly our beach was very shallow, but warm with no waves to play in whatsoever. Lee tried snorkeling a little bit deeper in, but didn't find anything worth reporting back. We rationalized that a bit of downtime was called for after our day of travel. Especially since the following day took us to the northeast coast of Bali for some scuba diving at Tulamben.
We had arranged for a day trip with Scuba Duba Doo (I wanted to buy one of their shirts because of their awesome name, but they didn't have any cool ones when we stopped in their shop). They picked us up, provided all the gear and meals for the day. We had 2 dives scheduled, both off the shore. The first was to a shipwreck of a US Liberty ship that had sunk in WWII. The boat wasn't very big and there wasn't really enough left to be inside a boat, but the skeleton remained. It wasn't quite as gloomy as diving under piers, but it had great atmosphere. Lots of fish feeding on coral. We even saw a school of tuna and a purple ray that was trying its hardest to hide in the sand away from our group of divers. Our second dive after lunch was to a coral wall. I found it a little less interesting than the first dive, but Tunas, our divemaster pointed out creatures along the way which included seahorses and a poisonous spiny thing that he pointed at with his fin so as not to get too near.
The following day, we hired a taxi driver to take us to our hotel in Ubud. There was no way we were driving ourselves in that kind of traffic. The custom with taxi drivers for tourists was to spend a day being taken to shops selling all sorts of crafts and souvenirs. The drivers would get a cut of what you paid to the shops. Bali has entire villages devoted to a particular craft, from batik to silver and gold jewelry, to wood and stone sculpture and painting. I was a little leery of the whole taxi system but our driver, Mudita, seemed very accommodating and only took us to places we were interested in rather than where he wanted to go. Of course, he was happy to wait as long as we wanted to stay. The only place we did go was to a batik shop. We marveled at the batik-making process, which they demonstrated to us. It's basically alternating between applying wax, dyeing, removing the wax, adding new wax, dyeing again, and so on until the intended pattern was realized. We spent quite a bit of time inside picking out souvenirs for family as Christmas presents as well as a few bits for ourselves. I was sorely tempted to buy a bunch of fabric myself so that I could make my own clothing, but that would have been quite a bit more expensive.
Mudita dispelled my wariness with his choice of a lunch place. He drove us to a restaurant in the middle of a rice field, somewhat off the beaten path. The restaurant was upstairs, overlooking the field as well as a beautiful pool that no one was swimming in. Lee ordered a sampler plate - rice, chicken satay, shredded chicken stew and some cone-shaped meat concoction that was very tasty. I had the mie goreng, a fried noodle dish with vegetables. The rice field was a lush green, with plastic bags fluttering on the ends of sticks, presumably to scare away the birds that eat the rice. The pool was a brilliant blue with a temple off to the corner. It was warm, but upstairs a breeze was blowing that made it very pleasant. After lunch, they brought out the standard fruit plate with papaya, snake fruit, honeydew, and watermelon.
Which reminds me that I forgot to mention the most memorable restaurant in Nusa Dua: Bumbu Bali. According to our travel books, the idea of restaurants is somewhat awkward to Balinese culture. When not eating at home, people are generally eating at a friend or family member's house. Bumba Bali was created so that tourists could experience that sort of home hospitality in a restaurant. They also give cooking lessons, but we weren't able to schedule one on our trip. We were greeted with plumeria blossoms to wear in our hair (and both men and women wear flowers in their hair there). We picked out two dishes, served family style, a beef in coconut milk and vegetables in peanut sauce. Luckily for us, they left us to add our own additional red spice in. They served it with three different kinds of rice, all grown on Bali. The yellow jasmine rice with turmeric, a brown wild rice and red rice. Each had a different texture and went wonderfully with the food. Perhaps they had also toned down the spices in the food as it wasn't too challenging to my palate.
Back to our trip to Ubud. We didn't stop in any other shop. We spent quite a bit in the batik shop and weren't up to more shopping already. It wasn't for lack of interest in the wares offered. We saw some benches and statues that would be fantastic additions to our back yard garden but would probably be cost prohibitive to ship. I thought it would be great to have one of the parasols with red fringe over a bench to replace the rickety one in our yard, too. 
The Furama Villas and Spa was just north of the center of Ubud. As I had mentioned before, Ubud is the heart of Balinese culture as the center of the arts villages. We had gotten a villa and frankly weren't expecting anything extravagant for the price. Boy, were we in for a treat. Our greeting included a cool towel and a lemongrass lemonade. We were also told that a free Italian dinner came with our stay as well as a 15-minute Balinese massage. I wondered faintly about why the dinner was Italian instead of Balinese, but I wasn't about to turn down free food. We were delighted but not quite done with being delighted yet. They loaded us up on a golf cart with our luggage to our villa. We rode past the hotel swimming pool and were told that we wouldn't care about that since we had our own. That comment was the preview for the awesome villa we saw next. When I read "villa" in the description, I didn't really take it seriously. I just thought it was a cute name for whatever room they put us in. But it was indeed, its own building, large enough for a huge bedroom and bathroom. With its own yard, and yes our own pool. In the yard, we even had our own pair of spa tables in case we wanted a massage at our villa. The front porch had our dining table. Behind the building, with tall walls around it, we had an outdoor shower - Lee's favorite. We had to spend a while marveling at the awesomeness that was our vacation digs. We had opted to have our free Italian dinner that night but we still had time before then so we went up to the spa for our free massage.
It was only the first of several massages we ended up getting at that spa. We even had a "surprise" one - we were planning on going for a second scuba day, but Lee got food poisoning and ended up having a villa and spa day instead. We kept doing their spa deal of the day (which saved some money) and was typically a package of some sort, involving a dry rub and tenderizing routine. The Balinese massage was one of the hardest pressure massages I've ever experienced. I could have sworn that my masseuse was standing on the table to apply that much pressure. It felt ridiculously awesome. Add to the fact that the spa room was elevated, open to the air behind screens and facing the sunset and you can see why we went back a few more times. We also tried Thai massage which is a combination massage and stretchy poses.
One of the activities I insisted on was catching one of the dance performances in the center of Ubud. Bali has a number of traditional dances, each telling a story in ornate, gilded costuming accompanied by similarly decorated instruments that looked like xylophones. The dances that we saw looked like the dancers were trying to mimic moving versions of the 2D sculptures that were all through their temples. They had exaggerated, wide-eyed expressions, and their foot and hand positions were mostly aligned sideways. It was a fun performance that was unfortunately truncated by a downpour. With the costuming and make-up they wore, I wasn't surprised that they beat a quick retreat, abbreviating their dance performance smoothly at the direction of the band leader. 
We were repeatedly encouraged to visit the Monkey Forest (one of a number, apparently) while we were there. Lee brought the telephoto lens thinking that it would be similar to our wildlife outings at home, beautiful outdoors with the occasional and faraway glimpse of the animals. We couldn't have been more wrong. An environmental and monkey protection group sold tickets to enter the forest, which was set among temples in the trees, but they also sold bananas for the tourists to feed the monkeys. We opted not to buy any bananas, which was a lucky thing since the hungry monkeys all hovered at the entrances waiting for such tourists. Apparently the monkeys viewed banana-bearing tourists as walking food trees. If they were unhappy with the rate at which they received the bananas, they had no hesitations whatsoever about climbing the person/banana tree to get their share. We even saw one monkey, climb one woman and dig into the tote where she had hidden her bananas. The monkeys were many, they were up close and personal and they were endlessly fascinating.
There were many activities in Bali that we didn't get a chance to experience. On our next trip there, whenever that may be, I think I'd definitely go back to Ubud, perhaps hit a different beach experience and try the northern coast for scuba diving. It was a sad day to have to come back.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Dancing Globally
When I could use a big smile, I watch this video.
The sheer exuberance of the dancers from all over the world captures the joy and magic of dancing for me. And the fact that their dancing is largely goofy, perhaps even dorky, unselfconscious and utterly gleeful is my answer to anyone who has deprived themselves of the experience of channeling the music into movement. Try it, you might even enjoy yourself like these people did.