✈️ CONTINUAL JET LAG ✈️

She knows, now, absolutely, hearing the white noise that is London, that Damien's theory of jet lag is correct: that her mortal soul is leagues behind her, being reeled in on some ghostly umbilical down the vanished wake of the plane that brought her here, hundreds of thousands of feet above the Atlantic. Souls can't move that quickly, and are left behind, and must be awaited, upon arrival, like lost luggage. Pattern Recognition – William Gibson

Bali is a long way from Rhode Island. It took ~ 24 hours of total travel time, both ways. Boston --> Hong Kong --> Denpasar

The first breezy 14 hour flight featured not one, but two crying babies. You want to be annoyed, but you mainly feel bad for the parents. But seriously, who brings a baby baby on an international flight?

Bali is unique in so many ways. The majority of its population is Hindu, so that alone sets it apart from the rest of Indonesia, which is over 85% Muslim. Our guide for much of the trip recounted the influence of Dutch colonialism, which was far more of an economic agent than cultural or religious. Indonesia has the fourth highest population in the world at 280 million; Bali has around five million.

Bali seems to have opened itself up to tourism in myriad ways (historically, perhaps this wasn’t the Balinese’s own choice?). High-end resorts have existed on Bali for decades, and new ones were under construction in many of the metropolitan areas we visited. Per our guide, there are many expatriates from countries like Australia living here, in addition to a great many visitors. Many tourists are from Europe, but we met a good number who were from other places in Indonesia. A very large percentage of the economy, naturally, comes from tourism. People go where the money is, and so it makes sense that universities here feature robust hospitality programs. Bali also has a rich history of artisan woodcarving, glassblowing, metalworking, and other crafts. We passed through several villages which carry on this legacy, with the products ending up in metro areas like Ubud for the visitors to buy.

Across the twelve nights in Bali, we spent three nights each in:

• Kerambitan – village on the coast, beaches and surfing
• Munduk – mountainous town, coffee plantation
• Bali Barat – a National Park, numerous monkeys, fish, coral reef snorkeling
• Ubud – cultural center of Bali, Balinese dances and cuisine

🏄‍♂️Kerambitan 🏄‍♂️

We stayed in a very swanky, very new resort called Waka Gangga. We made the traditional offerings you see everywhere on the island: bamboo leaves woven into baskets, held together with bamboo sticks (a stapler helps!), with differently colored flowers to represent Brahma, Mahadeva/Shiva, Vishnu, and Iswara. We also visited two temples in this area. I’m unfamiliar with Hinduism as practiced in India and the United States, so with only Balinese Hinduism as a reference point, I am enchanted by these daily offerings as part of quotidian life. Incense is burned to signify the offering, which may also contain sweet treats and cigarettes as other gifts.

I surfed for the first time here! The water was as you would imagine: crystal clear and warm.

☕️Munduk ☕️

Here we stayed at Munduk Moding Plantation, with its main draw of coffee. Sweet, sweet coffee. Rich, flavorful coffee. Luwak coffee. What is luwak coffee? Thanks for asking! These are ripe coffee beans that are eaten by a cute mammal called the Asian palm civet, digested and fermented along with whatever else the little buggers eat, and then pooped out. The coffee beans are said to obtain a rich flavor profile once dried, roasted, and prepared into coffee. I did try some, but I lack the sophisticated palette of coffee sommeliers who declare it a treasure.

There is a shady side to this practice. While the luwak coffee at the resort is obtained from wild civets, there is an abundance of coffee obtained in inhumane conditions, with civets in small cages force-fed the coffee beans. I suspect a great deal of the luwak coffee sold in cities is from these sources, which are not worth supporting in the least.

The resort itself was magical, and our honeymoon villa was pretty spectacular. There are two restaurants with lengthy and impressive menus. This was also the only place we stayed where I was not pouring sweat constantly, with its elevation and mountain breezes. We went exploring in a homemade dune buggy, built from the engine of one of the innumerable scooters/motorbikes on the island. A little scary, but an adventure all the same.

🦌Bali Barat 🐒

This was the most rural location we stayed, and one of the least traveled by visitors. We stayed at a resort that is part of an Indonesian National Park. Our first day there, we went to lay on the beach, only to turn around and see a couple of monkeys drinking out of a foot bath by our door (to get sand off your feet before entering). How cute! We turned around again in a minute to see another five monkeys had joined. Aww, a family! Then we looked to the peripheral forest and observed about 20-25 other monkeys joining the party. These black monkeys, referred to as “vegetarian monkeys,” are rather timid, truth be told, and all they eat are the ripe leaves of various trees in the forest. There are other monkeys present, gray macaques, that are omnivorous and these are the cheeky monkeys that the hotel staff warn about. We saw one such gray monkey steal bread off a neighboring table at breakfast. Anyways, the roof of our hotel room was a sort of drum set for the monkeys, who would swing off trees and land on our roof as they went about their business. I have no regrets.

This is a baby monkey.

There are a great many other animals present here, checking in on the humans. The deer are very well publicized (far more than the monkeys), and they walk on the beach and in the water. They are apparently not an endemic species of deer. We also saw a wild boar, who visited the restaurant and walked around in the sand like a good boy, probably looking for morsels from the hotel guests.

This is also where we went snorkeling, which we did off the coast of a different, uninhabited island. The reef was something out of Planet Earth, and I really wish we had an underwater camera of some sort to corroborate our memories. There were so many fish of vibrant colors, giant purple clams, and we even saw two sea turtles. Sea turtles are the most majestic creatures I’ve ever seen. They fly through the water at their leisurely pace, and seeing them come up for air is really something. Erica was also “attacked” by a batfish, which is reportedly a very friendly fish.

🥙Ubud 🎶

For our last stop, we stayed in a city that is described as the cultural center of Bali. It is to Cusco, Peru what Denpasar is to Lima. The most notable things we did here were watching the traditional dance called the Kecak dance. The music is solely acapella, and it’s really incredible to hear. Apparently we saw a troupe that all come from the same village near the city, and it was a sincere privilege to see the performance in our short time there.

Back Home

Being back in the normal flow of things is a huge change of pace. Our honeymoon was so spectacular and meaningful. It really cemented how close we became as a newly married couple, and it’s something we’ll remember forever.