Hiking boots

It's a good thing we brought our hiking boots all the way to Bali, because this weekend we definitely needed them. I was starting to think that bringing big, bulky hiking boots halfway around the world had been a mistake. Almost everyone around here just wears flip-flops or sandals. Not only because it is warm, but also because of local customs. Among the Balinese, it is customary to take off your shoes any time you enter a building, especially someone's home. There are enough Westerners in Ubud that the locals here seem accustomed to our antics and they don't care too much about your shoes when you enter their shop or restaurant. But the locals kick off their shoes without a second thought and leave the flip-flops at the door. We have done plenty of walking around Ubud and its surrounding towns, but nothing so far that couldn't be done with a decent pair of sandals.

This weekend we went up to the mountains, which has a cooler climate, and where the guidebook had mentioned something about hiking. There are 3 large lakes, and the guidebook said that there was much hiking to be done around the lakes and up into the mountains. I like doing outdoor activities and was pretty exciting about our weekend plans. Until we got up there and realized that we had no idea where to go. Was I really expecting there to be marked trails in Bali? Did I think that a travel office would magically appear in this small town and hand us trail guides? Somehow I just thought that if we went to the lakes, the trails would be everywhere and we would find them. After 2 weeks here, apparently I am still very naive about Bali.

We took a bus from Ubud and showed up in Bedugul at around noon on Friday. Unfortunately, it rained for pretty much the rest of the day. It is the rainy season everywhere on this island, but apparently the mountains get even more rain than down below, and clouds start rolling in almost every afternoon. We were starting to feel a bit down about our hiking plans. We had no idea where the trails were, and even if we found them, would it all be a swampy mess from all the rain?

Just when we were trying to figure all this out, we ran into Amin (although I think that it is more likely that he saw us walking around the town and tracked us down). He promised us trekking. He pulled out a book and promised to show us things that are not even in Lonely Planet. He promised us a car and driver to get around the whole area and see other villages. He said that food and water would be provided. And he promised us a ride back to Ubud when all was said and done. He basically turned the prospect of a complicated day of trying to find taxis, find trails, find our way around, haggle for prices, stay another night in a hotel, and find a shuttle back to Ubud - into a totally stress-free situation where everything was planned and taken care of. Isn't that part of what vacation is about anyway?

We wanted to get started early, partly because of the weather, and partly because there was a lot to do. So we met our driver at 7am the next morning. Our first stop was the Bali Botanical Garden. I am told that this is the largest botanical garden in Indonesia. And really, it did look quite nice. Many parts of it reminded me of the "Fairmount Park" of Bali. There were grassy areas, and wooded forest areas, and many Balinese families like to escape from the cities and come up to the mountains for a relaxing day to picnic in the Botanical garden. So that reminded me of Fairmount park, because on a nice Philadelphia day in the summer, you will definitely see lots of families BBQing and setting up little encampments for the day. Perhaps the Balinese are not so different from us after all? The Bali Botanical Garden also has other sights such as an orchid garden, a begonia garden, and an indoor cactus garden. Unfortunately for us, these were all closed because it was a very important Balinese holiday called Kuningan. Kuningan is the follow-up to Galungan, which I wrote about in an earlier post. On Galungan all the spirits and ancestors are welcomed in, and 10 days later on Kuningan they all leave. So we didn't get to see that much of the Botanical Garden, which was probably poor planning on our part. But we did get to have our picture taken with Kumbhakarna!










We left Bedugul and drove through the mountains, getting some pretty nice views of the 3 lakes.

And then, the hiking boots! Amin took us on a several hour trek through the back areas of Munduk. We saw waterfalls, which Dov proceeded to hop into.

Amin took us through winding trails, as well as areas that were not trails at all. And all of us sudden, after climbing downhill where no trail existed, we would pop up in... his uncles backyard. Amin seemed to know every person who we passed, and every house. He also knew every plant and whether or not you could eat it. He told us that there were over 100 species of fern in Bali, and in a short period of time, we was able to gather about 15 different specimens.

Amin showed us all sorts of plants growing in those mountain rain forests including nutmeg, coffee, cocoa, bananas, pineapple, avocado, macadamia, cloves, and vanilla.

 

And of course everything that was ripe, we got to taste. The coffee berries are red when ripe, and the berry itself has a sweet taste. The coffee bean is the seed inside. The fresh macadamia nuts were sweet and delicious. We also saw flowers of all kinds - nothing escaped Amin's view. Overall, well worth the money we spent to have a tourguide. But there is more to tell - that was only the first half of the day! The rest of the story will have to continue in a new post.