Sunday, 14 June 2009
We had asked Jamming to come to Pemuteran and the take us to Amed on the west coast, and when he was 20 mins late we were beginning to think of alternative transport, but we need not have bothered. This time he came with his guitar. First we set out to Singaraja (Bali's second city) which was on route but went first to deliver cans of milk, a rarity in these parts, to his mother who was in the state hospital there. It was a single ward with about twenty beds and his mother was in the last bed on a drip with her two daughters the younger one lying with her, both crying thinking their mother was going to die, exactly as their father had done 5 years earlier of a fever that he could not combat. Joan asked if they had carried out blood tests to at least identified the disease, but because of the language problem did not get a clear answer. She was clearly having big temperature swings and had a cold cloth on her forehead. When Jamming first spoke of her he had told me she was mad - delirious is almost certainly a better word. They had seen their father die of a similar fever, and there was something very fatalistic about the attitude of Jamming and his sisters and their mother who felt her husband was coming to get her.
A short diversion to a Fuji shop in town to buy another camera memory, for we had fears we would be running out. Then at as our previous request we went across country instead of by the coast road to Lake Batur close to Agung the highest volcano on Bali. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant with fabulous views and a lake fish in covered in Bali sauce, which basically was lime juice onion and chili - delicious.
Then we set out again intending to go cross country but ending up on Bali's only dual carriageway (newly completed) on the south coast - which appeared dotted on the map of Bali we bought at an early Brecon Jazz festival, some 20 years ago, shows how quick things happen here!
After a long days drive we finally reached Amed, not only a village but the start of several fishing villages, separated from each other with a headland, a la Costa Brava, and each it seems with a character of its own - one for instance being the cemetery for the rest. We told JJamming we wanted to go to Ponduk Vienna as recommended by the Australian we met briefly at Pemuteran, it had been a word of mouth recommendation to him as well. He said he knew it and took us along the coastal road to about the fourth village south, Lihan. Where we checked in as the Aussie had said we would toa a fully equipped bungalow a few yards from the high tide line.
Before leaving for the long coast road back to Kalibukbuk Jamming started to play his guitar and sing, inviting to choose from a book where he kept the lyrics of his favourite songs for oldies, Beatles, John Lennon, Dylan, etc and soon had the the table in the dining area listening as well - it turned out that they were not in fact residents but had come by public footpath to share the beach and had stayed to buy drinks and chat. A few days later a tour party of Belgians did the same.
Jamming would not accept our offer of a meal, so we were relieved when the hotel gave him a free meal of Nasi Goreng for bringing us guests. We invited a Belgian woman who was sitting alone to join us and were soon in rapt conversation with her which Jamming could not understand and on finishing his meal he slipped off only waving as he was half way to the exit - I worried all night that I had not got up to chase him and say goodbye properly. To me this episode highlighted the gulf between the rich middle class of the developed world with the desperately poor of Asia. Remember he alone is responsible for supporting two school aged sisters, his mother and his own daughter all for the few tens of US$ he earns during the tourist season, say May to September and Christmas, by hiring people carriers and driving. The only good feeling it gives me that at least most of our money, unlike a package tour, goes directly to deserving poor people like him.
We spent the next day taking stock, helped by Chris and his wife Dale, Americans, from near Los Angeles. They made regular and long trips to Pondok Vienna and had over the years made friends, initially through the delightful kids with parents across several of the adjacent villages. He had been a warden of national parks in the USA from Alaska south, and was like Joan exceedingly interested in wild life. particularly birds and fish. He had been retired a few years whereas Dale had finished her work as a teacher specialising in autistic children. They had also travelled extensively in Indonesia from Java east to Guinea and really recommended Sulawesi, somewhere we had long contemplated but which went off the tourist map following the murder of a few tourists. He said the worst they had encountered was to be shot at with arrows in Guinea by a tribe who mistook them as enemies come to right a tribal wrong.
Amed, or Lihan to be more precise, is quite the best coastal area so far, how many times have I said that before!! The sand though still black is finer in texture than Pemuteran but best of all is the size of the beach above the high tide line, not massive by the standards of South Wales but allowing plenty of space between the outrigger fishing boats which line the shore with plenty of beach for walking or sunbathing and twenty yards off shore is a magnificent coral reef.
The second day we hired a boat from a local young sailor Odon who speaks excellent English and can be contacted by email, though he confesses to problems to reading and writing in English - nevertheless he is another who will progress thanks to tourism. For 27$ he took us out for two hours, snorkeling at the site of a sunken Japanese war boat and also over a deep water reef. Since he had a ladder Joan was able to join in the fun this time. He said that the fisherman operated as a co-op and shared everything, because of his English he interfaced best with the tourists and was allowed to keep a 20% cut of his earnings but the rest went into the pool.He told us to keep the snorkeling gear for the rest of the day. When he came to fetch the gear at sundown, we told him we had arranged through the hotel to go to Gili Trawangan Lombok by dugout fishing boat tomorrow. He just expressed regret at not realising our willingness to do something rather unusual - he said he had done the trip with tourists years ago, but not since the halt of tourism brought about by the Bali Bombing.The Internet in this village is still dial up only and we did not attempt to use such a slow link. I am writing this posting in Lombok and even there it took an hour to field about 15 emails, most of which were deleted without reading took, on the so called fast satellite broadband link in Gili Trawangan.
I guess that some would consider it hazardous to cover four hours of ocean in little more than a large (dugout) trimaran dinghy, (one gaff rigged sail, an outboard, no radio, no flares, no compass, no line of sight until the half way point, though the clouds were a sure sign of the all but 4000m volcano on Lombok. When we came to live in Swansea I took up dinghy racing, the best 75 pounds I ever spent was on a kit to build a Mirror dinghy and teach myself to sail, though I graduated to a Laser when I ran out of children keen to crew. That is the way we chose to cross the Wallace Line, which divides Bali (extinct tigers and all to India) from the more easterly islands which are Australasian in flora and fauna.
An overriding memory of Bali will be the continual sound of birds often Cocks kept in baskets at the roadside for Cock Fighting, which is of course illegal, but widespread for gambling. But ironically three fights are allowed for each religious ceremonial occasion. It was in Amed that Joan first observed how the owner would lift his birds out of the cage one at a time to get them used to handling, would massage them and she felt train them for fighting. Many losing cocks die, others merely run away to survive but not one suspects to fight again.
Why will Amed remain in the memory, as the best beach destination so far. For the best coral within easy swimming distance of the shore, but above all with the best integration of locals with tourists, meaning that so far locals were still easily in the majority - and long may it remain so.
Pondock Vienna Beach
Lipah
Bunutan
Abang
Amlapura
Bali
viennabeach@hotmail.com
Tel 62 363 23494
Boat Person
Made Odon, who calls himself Odon
madeodon@yahoo.com
same address as Vienna Pondok but he calls it Lipah Beach with postcode 80852
A short diversion to a Fuji shop in town to buy another camera memory, for we had fears we would be running out. Then at as our previous request we went across country instead of by the coast road to Lake Batur close to Agung the highest volcano on Bali. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant with fabulous views and a lake fish in covered in Bali sauce, which basically was lime juice onion and chili - delicious.
Then we set out again intending to go cross country but ending up on Bali's only dual carriageway (newly completed) on the south coast - which appeared dotted on the map of Bali we bought at an early Brecon Jazz festival, some 20 years ago, shows how quick things happen here!
After a long days drive we finally reached Amed, not only a village but the start of several fishing villages, separated from each other with a headland, a la Costa Brava, and each it seems with a character of its own - one for instance being the cemetery for the rest. We told JJamming we wanted to go to Ponduk Vienna as recommended by the Australian we met briefly at Pemuteran, it had been a word of mouth recommendation to him as well. He said he knew it and took us along the coastal road to about the fourth village south, Lihan. Where we checked in as the Aussie had said we would toa a fully equipped bungalow a few yards from the high tide line.
Before leaving for the long coast road back to Kalibukbuk Jamming started to play his guitar and sing, inviting to choose from a book where he kept the lyrics of his favourite songs for oldies, Beatles, John Lennon, Dylan, etc and soon had the the table in the dining area listening as well - it turned out that they were not in fact residents but had come by public footpath to share the beach and had stayed to buy drinks and chat. A few days later a tour party of Belgians did the same.Jamming would not accept our offer of a meal, so we were relieved when the hotel gave him a free meal of Nasi Goreng for bringing us guests. We invited a Belgian woman who was sitting alone to join us and were soon in rapt conversation with her which Jamming could not understand and on finishing his meal he slipped off only waving as he was half way to the exit - I worried all night that I had not got up to chase him and say goodbye properly. To me this episode highlighted the gulf between the rich middle class of the developed world with the desperately poor of Asia. Remember he alone is responsible for supporting two school aged sisters, his mother and his own daughter all for the few tens of US$ he earns during the tourist season, say May to September and Christmas, by hiring people carriers and driving. The only good feeling it gives me that at least most of our money, unlike a package tour, goes directly to deserving poor people like him.
We spent the next day taking stock, helped by Chris and his wife Dale, Americans, from near Los Angeles. They made regular and long trips to Pondok Vienna and had over the years made friends, initially through the delightful kids with parents across several of the adjacent villages. He had been a warden of national parks in the USA from Alaska south, and was like Joan exceedingly interested in wild life. particularly birds and fish. He had been retired a few years whereas Dale had finished her work as a teacher specialising in autistic children. They had also travelled extensively in Indonesia from Java east to Guinea and really recommended Sulawesi, somewhere we had long contemplated but which went off the tourist map following the murder of a few tourists. He said the worst they had encountered was to be shot at with arrows in Guinea by a tribe who mistook them as enemies come to right a tribal wrong.
Amed, or Lihan to be more precise, is quite the best coastal area so far, how many times have I said that before!! The sand though still black is finer in texture than Pemuteran but best of all is the size of the beach above the high tide line, not massive by the standards of South Wales but allowing plenty of space between the outrigger fishing boats which line the shore with plenty of beach for walking or sunbathing and twenty yards off shore is a magnificent coral reef.
The second day we hired a boat from a local young sailor Odon who speaks excellent English and can be contacted by email, though he confesses to problems to reading and writing in English - nevertheless he is another who will progress thanks to tourism. For 27$ he took us out for two hours, snorkeling at the site of a sunken Japanese war boat and also over a deep water reef. Since he had a ladder Joan was able to join in the fun this time. He said that the fisherman operated as a co-op and shared everything, because of his English he interfaced best with the tourists and was allowed to keep a 20% cut of his earnings but the rest went into the pool.He told us to keep the snorkeling gear for the rest of the day. When he came to fetch the gear at sundown, we told him we had arranged through the hotel to go to Gili Trawangan Lombok by dugout fishing boat tomorrow. He just expressed regret at not realising our willingness to do something rather unusual - he said he had done the trip with tourists years ago, but not since the halt of tourism brought about by the Bali Bombing.The Internet in this village is still dial up only and we did not attempt to use such a slow link. I am writing this posting in Lombok and even there it took an hour to field about 15 emails, most of which were deleted without reading took, on the so called fast satellite broadband link in Gili Trawangan. I guess that some would consider it hazardous to cover four hours of ocean in little more than a large (dugout) trimaran dinghy, (one gaff rigged sail, an outboard, no radio, no flares, no compass, no line of sight until the half way point, though the clouds were a sure sign of the all but 4000m volcano on Lombok. When we came to live in Swansea I took up dinghy racing, the best 75 pounds I ever spent was on a kit to build a Mirror dinghy and teach myself to sail, though I graduated to a Laser when I ran out of children keen to crew. That is the way we chose to cross the Wallace Line, which divides Bali (extinct tigers and all to India) from the more easterly islands which are Australasian in flora and fauna.
An overriding memory of Bali will be the continual sound of birds often Cocks kept in baskets at the roadside for Cock Fighting, which is of course illegal, but widespread for gambling. But ironically three fights are allowed for each religious ceremonial occasion. It was in Amed that Joan first observed how the owner would lift his birds out of the cage one at a time to get them used to handling, would massage them and she felt train them for fighting. Many losing cocks die, others merely run away to survive but not one suspects to fight again.Why will Amed remain in the memory, as the best beach destination so far. For the best coral within easy swimming distance of the shore, but above all with the best integration of locals with tourists, meaning that so far locals were still easily in the majority - and long may it remain so.
Pondock Vienna Beach
Lipah
Bunutan
Abang
Amlapura
Bali
viennabeach@hotmail.com
Tel 62 363 23494
Boat Person
Made Odon, who calls himself Odon
madeodon@yahoo.com
same address as Vienna Pondok but he calls it Lipah Beach with postcode 80852
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