Beautiful Bali, part II... Monkey Business!

 

 

 

 

 

We travelled to Ubud with our friends Neal and Ruthie from s/v Rutea and enjoyed their company immensely, as always. One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to the Sacred Monkey Forest. Words simple couldn't tell the story as well as these photos do! What a wonderful encounter! The monkeys will go digging in your pockets or bags and they will find food and water if you have any on you. Roger was trying to teach one of the little monkeys how to open a pocket with a zipper... thankfully he was not successful. Can you imagine all the havoc that would cause if the monkeys started unzipping zippers? :)

 

With Equanimity and Joy



Beautiful Bali, part I

We are enchanted with Bali… the architecture, the landscape, the many temples, the warm smiling people, contributing to a wonderful energy. We are anchored in Lovina Beach on the north side of Bali... quieter than the partying, shopping, and beaching down south where most tourists go. Sail Indonesia festivities were rolled into the Lovina festival "Lovina with Love" and we enjoyed some lovely dancing at the welcome ceremony.

We hired a car and driver to take us to the town of Ubud, which started as an artist community and has grown to be the cultural center (and a tourist center) of Bali. It is a few hours south and over the mountains, and we stopped at a strawberry farm then a lovely temple by a lake on the way.

In Ubud, we enjoyed some wonderful restaurants and two dance performances. The first was the "Legong" dance which took place at the Ubud Palace. It was wonderful despite the fact that we weren't really sure what the story was all about. The second performance we saw on the following evening in a small village a ways out of town. It was the "Monkey Chant Dance" and instead of instruments a chorus chanted. They did in fact sound like monkeys chattering at times, which was the desired effect.

and speaking of monkeys... stay tuned for Beautiful Bali, part II... monkey business!

Lombok

We arrived at the Medana Marina on the north west side of Lombok Island and anchored. Lombok is just east of Bali. It is a lovely little spot and we made ourselves at home, booked a city tour, brought laundry in to be done (very inexpensive and much easier than trying to hand wash and line dry sheets, towels and everything else that gets dirty and salty). The city tour was fun... A long and full day with many stops including temples, ATM, monkeys, supermarket at the mall (provisioning at a "real" supermarket is a highlight for sure!), beach resort, hand-made pottery shop, traditional weaving village, and pearl shop. We were taken by bus all over and it was a little like a grade-school field trip including box lunch sammies and soda.

 

The evening before we left to head to Bali, there was a buffet dinner and blues band. This local group from Lombok did a wonderful job with blues and then all the classic rock and roll tunes. The lead singer did a great Mick Jagger imitation (strange, but true). We danced every dance and had a great time. The band played until about 11pm and then we headed back to the boat, showered and danced some more, then slept for 4 hours before getting up at 3:30am to catch the tide to Bali.

with Equanimity and Joy

 

 

Dragons or bust!

We set out for Rinca and our much-anticipated dragon encounter. We anchored mid-afternoon and walked to the ranger station with a guide (you most definitely need to have a guide carrying a dragon stick) to see about booking a dragon trek the following morning. We were told that they are active in the morning and then find a place to snooze in the shade when it gets hot later in the day (the dragons, not the rangers! :) ). Still, I couldn't wait another day before seeing a dragon, so the guide took us to see what I now call the "kitchen dragons". These are the ones that smell the food in the kitchen building for the rangers and hang out below the building in the shade. The rangers say they don't feed them, so you think that eventually they would get the idea and give up on the kitchen, but there they were.

The following day at 7am we made our way to the ranger station and started our long trek (only 5km). On the way to the ranger station we saw our first dragon, and then many more followed. We saw one walking through the compound, flicking his tongue along the way. They have only a fair sense of smell through their noses, but excellent sense of smell using their tongues. Their noses are particularly sensitive however, so the sticks the rangers carry are forked at the end. If a dragon starts getting too close, they poke it in the nose and apparently that diverts them. We walked by the dragon nest where one female was sitting. Dragons mate in July and August then lay eggs in September. It takes 8 - 9 months for a baby dragon to hatch out of its egg, and then the hatchlings go immediately up into the trees. The adult dragons, and even the parents, will eat the baby dragons... how's that for bad parenting? MomCat, I have an even greater appreciation for having you rather than a Komodo dragon as my mother... and you are a lot prettier. :)

We continued along the way and saw other dragons walking around. Then we headed back to the riverbed and saw one of the wild water buffalo in a water pool. Later on in the trek we saw another one, likely injured, sitting in a mud pool and we watched as a dragon slid over to the area and perched on the side of the mud hole above the buffalo... waiting for his opportunity to strike (we didn't need to hang around for that particular event). Dragon bites are filled with 65 types of bacteria and so the large animals once bitten will become infected and/or bleed to death. Then it's feast for the dragons. The rest of the hike was uneventful, but wonderfully enjoyable if a tad hot.

Back on board EQ, we decided not to spend another night in the small anchorage with all the other dragon-fanciers and headed out towards the west coast of Rinca and Komodo Island. We were against the current all the way, which slowed us to just about a standstill. The following day we headed to the Komodo ranger station late because of the strong currents, so we didn't see any dragons along the hike... just a few "kitchen dragons" at the end.

Sailing south across the Flores Sea to Labuan Bajo

We had the most magnificent overnight passage from Tanajampea to Labuan Bajo across the Flores Sea. 10 - 15 knot winds on our beam and calm seas along with a blanket of stars above and what looked like a mirror image of phosphorescence in our wake below. We arrived at the first outer islands just at daybreak and saw how different the terrain and vegetation was from just 100 miles to the north, dryer and much more sparse. After anchoring in Labuan Bajo, we set out to take care of our first priority... getting our internet topped up.

We caught a local "Bemo" (bus) to the "Pasar Besar" (big market) on the hill. The buses are actually little mini-vans with benches along the sides and are painted with a variety of interesting patterns and colors. They all have a variety of stuffed animals on the front dashboard, often including a large rainbow-colored fuzzy stuffed caterpillar... not sure of the significance, but there were more than a few of these. For about $1.50 we both were transported about 3 miles out to the market where we bought fruits, veggies, eggs, nuts and then went out on a limb and bought local tofu from a bucket and a chicken, likewise from a bucket. I can feel my Mom gasping at the thought of buying a raw chicken from a market the likes of this one, but I cooked it then ate it up and survive the experience to write about it. :)

After returning to the boat and puzzling all the market purchases together into our fridge (always a challenging task) we went back into town to arrange diving and pick up the loaf of bread we ordered from the bakery. Along the way, we stopped by a little t-shirt shop and bought our must-have Komodo Dragon shirts for about $5 - 6 each. That evening we joined our friends from s/v Rutea for a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant called "Made in Italy" and it was superb! I wasn't sure whether that was because we hadn't had a fine dining experience out  in so long or if it was actually that good, but in the end I decided it was great by any standards. We both ordered pizza and ate way too much of it (enjoying every bite!)

The next day we took a dive trip out to the northern islands of Komodo National Park. We did three dives... Castle Rock, Crystal Rock and one other they call the "slingshot". The dives were very nice... one of them was a fast current dive which was a new experience for me. Roger said it was an advanced dive and that I did great! On the first dive we saw a pair of white-tip sharks (Mom doesn't want to hear about sharks either and probably can't decide whether the sharks or the market chickens pose the greater threat!) and one of them was very pregnant. That was cool to see. The dives were great and the boat trip to and from the sites (about 1 1/2 hours each way) were also very pleasant. So glad we did the dives here.

 

After yet another "gala" (not really what you think of when you hear this term) dinner, with buses transporting us and tons of people we headed out the following day for Rinca and Komodo Islands... Dragons or bust!

Taka Bonerate

Taka Bonerate rocks! Some of the best diving I've ever done. The diversity of coral and fish was amazing. The reef system sits right in the middle of the Flores Sea with only small sand cays for islands and a couple of small villages, so the water is crystal clear (no run-off) like in the middle of the ocean. The constant current provides much nutrients, so the coral and fish thrive without any manmade or natural pollution to disturb it. Hence, very dense coral growth of everything you could imagine. Spectacular wall dives!!! And the water is so clear, floating along in the current next to bottomless walls is like floating in space. Imagine being absolutely still, no swimming or paddling, just hanging in space using your buoyancy compensator to control your ascent/descent and letting the current swept you along the vertical wall, around heaps of colourful coral and through big schools of fish. Spectacular is an understatement for sure!

It's a hard place to get to for most people, so very little tourists go there, which also means there is little damage to the reefs. But we did meet a lovely gentleman from Jakarta who was there to film some of the reef, so we got to go diving with him, and make a new friend, Mr Muis. My GoPro case leaked in Banda, so I lost much footage and the camera. Major bugger! :(. But Mr Muis was so kind to give me his footage of which I will put together a film when I get a chance. Terimekasi Mr Muis! :)

The weather started to change and we needed to get south and keep moving to get to Labuan Bajo for the next set of events (and more diving), so we sadly had to depart. But we are off to see some dragons! We are having such a great time, Sherry is now talking about spending another year here in SE Asia, as there just isn't enough time in a day to see and do it all. But that's another day, so we'll see :).

So that's the news from EQ, where the winds are fair, the seas following, and the crew content. :) Cheers, with Equanimity and Joy