March 6

March 6

Gunung Batur-Lake Batur

Sunday.

This is the second blog I am writing for this day. Somehow, when writing my list of questions, for Tante Riet, I must have dumped the entire "march 6" blog....
Dumb and dumber...... Me !!

We had our standard breakfast of pineapple pancakes and sliced fresh fruit in the dining area.
At about 8.15 we were met by Khuman, her husband and 3 kids, who came to bid us farewell. What lovely people they are. They were on their way to visit some relatives who live a 2 hour motor cycle ride away. One of the kid's uncles was there as well, because he was needed to ride two of the daughters since the oldest son, Madeh decided not to go and preferred to stay home with HIS motorcycle and eating his potato chips.
His poor parents, in keeping with ancient Balinese tradition, have devoted most of their means to this oldest boy, even although their daughters show much more potential. For example, Madeh goes to the best school they can barely afford, but because his other (Madeh) friends, go there, he feels he should as well. He threatened that he would drop out of school if his parents would not allow him to go to this private institution. He had several years of English and claims to speak it rather fluently....he does not. His little sister Tini is the one with the smarts, as far as I am concerned, Madeh is a sloth.
As it happens here, probably Tini will get married at age 16 and move to the village of her husband and be integrated into his family, too bad, she is the one with all the brain potential and the most likely to make something of herself, if she was given the opportunity.
Enough about this..... I needed to vent....

Foot hills of Gunung Batur

 The feeble ride, creaking and whining awaited us, on time in the parking lot. The driver was a youngish fellow, who's behasa Indonesia was as bad as his English.
We decided on a route that would take us, through the mountain passes of east Bali, opposite to the way we came up here to Lovina.
The mountain passes were gorgeous, the vistas were incredible, so much so, that I did not take too many pictures, because I knew that my lens would never record what I really saw.
We stopped at the summit of one of the higher ranges, and looked out at Gunung Batur and lake Batur. What I immediately noticed was the rivers of solidified lava, that had streamed down this volcano
during the last eruption. Solidified rivers of lava, miles and miles wide, had cut a path though the jungle on it's way down seeking an equilibrium with gravity. Sterilizing everything in it's path, this sunami of 10000 degree of molted rock had left it's mark of destruction.
Immediately adjacent to the rock-rivers the jungle had recovered, and in time, the lava will prove to have it own fertile quality, but for now it is just as sterile as surgeons scalpel.
To our left we saw the tips of Gunung Agung, the highest volcano of Bali in all it's smoking glory.....one day, this mountain too, will blow it's top again...that is Bali. People live here daily with that possibility, we just hope that modern science will give them a bit of warning that will be heeded. The past has shown that each time there is an eruption, there are many who refuse to leave their meager abodes and choose to stay, with horrible consequences.

Lake Batur

 Just across the lake Batur there are a couple of isolated villages, inhabited by people who prefer to stay on their own and are not much interested in "the outside world".
These folks have the curious tradition of hanging their dead in trees. The trees are usually ever flowering with a very heavy sweet scent
(I can imagine why...)
A visit to this village and it's folk we missed, because it needed advanced reservations.

We arrived in Sanur, a city that is much more "Western" than it's Balinese. Everywhere the signs are in English and some even in French.
It seems that the accepted currency here is in US dollars.
Even our hotel charges in US dollars ($50 a night for 2, including breakfast)

Balinese dancers

 We rented some motor cycles, because we are quite a ways out of town, and set out to discover the sights.
First we stopped by a kind of supermarket, where we bought some green tea, for Tine, and I found tons of mangistans for 30.000 rupia per kilo. Tomorrow we will eat mangosteens, after all the price is only about $2.70 per kilo.

Last hotel room in Sanur

We ate some nasi goreng at a muslim warung, Menno chose the nasi goren ikan asin and I choose the nasi goreng makanan kampung.
Both were delicious and the ikan asin was cut into tiny chunks and tasted just like I remembered it....ikan gereh....

We went to hunt for available fruits and found that only bananas (45+ varieties) papayas and durian were in season. All the other fruits of my youth were not in season until about august or so.
No duke, no manga, no Jambu, it seems that only the scent of the sum of these fruit lingers... Or maybe it only lives in my memories, so strong, that I feel and smell that which only exists between my ears?

We ended up at the beach, which had thousands of locals enjoying their lives, it is after all a holiday....New Years Day.....
There were many many food vendors, from donuts (go figure) to roasted corn, to sate, to mie bakso (meatball and noodle soup)... even a soft ice-cream wagon. Everyone was eating, picnicking and enjoying themselves with their kids. There so many smiling faces...they make you feel so welcome....it's almost like I belong here amongst them....

This town is full of ex-pats, somewhat like Benidorm or Marbella in Spain.

I will be sorry to say goodbye, to Indonesia, I love it, and I guess that know I now, that I always have....