Wild and Crazy Bali!!!

First off Bali is CRAZY!!!  I'm not talking normal crazy, because Thailand was kind of crazy in its own right, but Bali is on another level crazy.  We got a glimpse of the craziness when we drove from the airport out to Canggu, but having your own scooter and driving in it is a different story.  What isn't so nuts is that the laws surrounding scooters and the enforcement of these laws is a lot more prevalent.  Good laws like having to wear a helmet and having to have a license in order to drive a scooter.  There were a couple of people that we talked to that said don't worry about getting a license and suggested paying off the cops if we got pulled over, but our lonely planet guide said that the fine for not having a licence was 2 000 000 IR which is like 200 bucks, the insurance that comes with the bike is null if you don't have a license and the license only costs about 300 000 IR to get.  It would also let us get a glimpse of another country's DMV.  After the fact I don't think I want to see another country's DMV ever again.  Also, it was a little ironic to decide to drive our newly rented scooter to get my license, but I wasn't going to pay for a cab, oh well.  

I've read that you aren't supposed to take pictures of Balinese POs so I didn't take a lot of photos, but we did take this one sitting in the waiting room.   

You can't get a glimpse of the craziness from this one, but this was after waiting for about an hour

We drove up to the police station which looks about the same size as Beaverbrook and actually that is a pretty fair comparison.  Anyone that went to Beav or some other large High School can picture a parking lot full of people and cars, then change all of the cars to scooters and motorbikes and you got the DMV.  Then picture line ups that extend around two or three rooms on the top floor and extend half way down the stairs and you have the first line we waited in.  We waited in this line for about ten minutes before a PO started giving us the executive treatment.  I had read that there was an exam and that there was some paper work to fill out, but this guy took it upon himself to give us the VIP treatment.  He filled out most of the paperwork for us and then he even filled out my exam.  I could have aced that exam though, I saw some of the questions and they were like "If you come upon a pedestrian in a cross walk, should you: a) Honk and swerve around them, b) speed up, c) slow down or stop until it is safe to proceed d) hit them and drive away."

Other questions involved construction signs, what to do at traffic lights, whether you should drive away from an accident... stuff like that.  I think I could have passed it.

Anyway after this gentleman wrote my test for me, we then went downstairs to get processed.  We fought our way into the waiting room, filled with probably a good 150-200 people, then the first thing we needed to was to to pay, then we dropped our paper work off and waited a half hour, then they called my name up, then I stood in line to confirm my information, then lined up to get my picture taken and my fingerprints scanned, then I got a little temporary piece of paper that says I can drive.  Sweet right.  Lessons learned, don't go to another country's DMV if you don't have to, even if you are trying to get a legitimate license the POs may nullify that attempt by writing the test for you, and anything that has to do with public services in a foreign country is much worse than it is in Canada.

Also regardless of all of their laws while driving in Bali, the only rule that matters is Don't Hit What's in Front of You.  Smaller rules about driving in Bali don't swerve around because there are other drivers everywhere, drive on sidewalks, and drive on the other side of the road to get around slow moving vehicles, and honk a lot!

Anyway enough of that.  After going to the DMV we decided to go to Kuta, because we had heard that it was supposed to be pretty cool.  Not so much.  We went down Poppies One and it was craziness, out of control consumerism everywhere.  Literally we walked for an hour and there were shops, restaurants, and small hotels every inch of the way.  Fake bag's, board shorts, t-shirts, necklaces, bracelets, perfume... etc.   We did find a good place to eat and I had some Gado Gado and Cami had something decent as well.  We also went into some legitimate stores expecting cheaper than canada prices, nope more expensive than what we pay in Canada.  I found board shorts for $200.00; there is no way I would ever pay $200 for board shorts.  Weird.

Don't squeeze, them even though you want to

Then we came upon the beach.  Craziness.  Sooooo packed, people for miles and here is a picture of the surfing.

Nuts

I paddled out on a boogy board and fins the same morning in Canggu and the waves were 3m or 15' tall (so scary) ; none of these people should have been in the water, even in the wash. (the wash was protected by the Kuta reef, which was pounding and no one was really out there)  There was also this crazy back wash that would collide with the incoming wash and toss people all over the place.  Lifeguards were blowing their whistles constantly telling people to come in if a big set was coming in and yelling at people if they went too far.

I did want to pick up a rash guard and a hat while we were in town, so that took a little while, and I got a hat from Rip Curl and a rash guard from another surf shop, no deals on the rash guard, because apparently there isn't a market for knock off rash guards, but the hat was only 12USD and way better than the knock offs.

Here is a picture of two guys cruising down the street on some sand.  Near the poppies.

So we went back to our place, which is practically the country compared to the craziness of Kuta and finished off the night with some dinner from an italian place that was really good.

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As I'm long winded, I'm going to try and make this shorter.

We did plan for Bali to be a bit more relaxing and scheduled a lot of beach time, so on Friday we were going to take advantage of the beautiful beach right near our place.  It is a black sand beach with lots of sparkly sand, although I don't know if you can tell from the picture.

Sparkly Black Sand

I sat and watched the surf for a little while, saw some other Kooks - inexperienced surfers - get in the water that no one else was in and decided I'd give it a whirl as well.  Although again these waves were double over head and I had no business getting in the water.

What followed was a pretty decent paddle out in a lull a good paddle for a wave a stand up for maybe a second or two on something overhead and then the washing machine started.  I got washed and rolled by the wave that I caught, then came up for air, then got washed again, then rinse and repeat till I scrambled to the beach huffing, puffing and looking like I just narrowly escaped from a four-eyed-giant-man-eating octopus that wanted to drown me.  Needless to say I didn't get in the water again until the water calmed down on Saturday.

Running out to get through the Lull

Coming back after getting rolled

So after this attempt I went to go drop off the surfboard and when I came back Cami was surrounded by a crematory celebration that had been set up in the half hour I was gone.  Crazy, but cool right?

Crematory Ceremony 

And she was talking to Mimi the lady that I am in the picture with here.  Super nice, friendliest lady ever.  She told us all about the ceremony and just wanted to sit and chat with us.  Balinese people are so so so nice.

MiMi and Me

Then they started playing their music.

MiMi and CaMi

Jamming out

After hanging out at their funeral celebration we left to go visit a temple that was nearby called Tanahlot.

Sunset at Tanahlot 

Picture of part of the Tanahlot Temple 

Picture of another part of the Tanahlot temple.  We stood on the land bridge too - no railings -

Sunset from the land bridge 

So the drive up to the Tanahlot temple was again kind of crazy and then there was a huge market, not what we were really expecting.  When we actually made it to the temple grounds there were literally hundreds and maybe even thousands of people everywhere, apparently a lot more of a tourist attraction than we were anticipating, but none of the pictures really highlight this.

There was a Kecak dance scheduled in about 15min so we bought our tickets and headed that way.  When we got there, surprisingly there were very few people sitting ready to watch the dance, like less than 30.  Then it started.  I don't know why no one went but it was awesome.  

When it started a whole group of men came out in plaid skirts chanting chak a chak a chak a chak a chak chak chak chak it sounded really cool and they told the following story in point form.
-  Rama and Shinta were out hunting a deer
-  When they weren't able to get the deer Rama had Laksama come and take care of Shinta
-  So Laksama put a wall of fire around Shinta to protect her, but then the evil Ravana tried to steal Shinta away, but was unsuccessful in his attempts to get Shinta out of the wall.
-  Then he transformed himself into a priest who flattered her out of the wall and stole her away and tried to force her to marry her.
-  Rama sent a monkey as his messenger to Shinta,
-  It ended with an epic battle scene where Ravana was defeated by Rama.  VERY COOL!

Sunset in front of the Kecak Dance Area

Shinta and Rama looking for the deer 

Ravana trying to force Shinta to marry him

Ravana tried to trap the Monkey in the fire right before the Epic Battle 

It was an awesome show and then afterwards, all of the actors stood around to get pictures taken with us.  It looked like this was their favourite part.

Ravana and Cami And I 

Cami and I with the Kecakers 

The Deer, Rama, ME, Shinta, and Laksama 

So that's it that's all and thanks for reading.  You should post a comment, yup you should!