Bali, Indonesia

Please Note: Our blog is a few days behind because the ships’ Internet has been malfunctioning, and finding Wi-Fi on shore has been a real challenge. In fact, we found a McDonald’s in Darwin, Australia yesterday but it was so overcrowded with Wi-Fi users that their system was crawling. I’ll try to catch up over the next two days as it seems the problem on the ship has been resolved. Our sail-in to Bali was very picturesque, with local dinghies of every shape, size & color trailing our ship. We were here just two years ago and expected large crowds of crew family members at the pier similar to Jakarta, but that wasn’t the case. With the exception of immigration officials & a small music group, the ship terminal was practically empty. As we later learned, family reunions had been prescheduled for later in the morning to avoid a crush of people arriving at the same time.

We were off the ship shortly after 8am and together with friends Barbara & Orlin, negotiated a cab fare for the day - $15 each (plus tip). The ‘cabbie’ was an older gentleman with a new, air-conditioned vehicle, so we felt very fortunate – it was a hot, sunny morning with low 90’s forecast for the day. 

Bali is a province in the country of Indonesia. The province covers a few small neighboring islands as well as the isle of Bali. The main island is located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 34 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island. With a population of roughly 4.2 million, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority - about 93% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism while most of the remainder follow Islam. As you'll see in subsequent pictures, Bali has a varied landscape of hills and mountains, rugged coastlines and sandy beaches, lush rice terraces and barren volcanic hillsides, all providing a picturesque backdrop to its colorful, deeply spiritual and unique culture. They say this is one of the world's most popular island destinations - renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). I realize these dance names are probably meaningless, but they are nonetheless an integral part of one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world – they have paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, & public shows each year. 

Bali is also home to over 100 Circle K Stores. While much smaller than our typical footprint back home, I was very proud to share with our guide & driver that I spent over 32 years with this wonderful company! Along with Starbuck’s, Circle K stores are among the most modern retail facilities. Similar to Jakarta, the balance of the markets are in large measure, simple roadside stands or kiosks. I must admit – it was rather strange to see one of our stores sandwiched between sacred temples of worship. The temples are literally everywhere – thousands of them. Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by a combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardized about 40 years ago by a committee of Balinese officials and artists in order to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.

One of our primary objectives was to visit a Batik (shirts/blouses) factory/retailer, and Orlin (our friend) had the address of a facility he and Barbara visited a couple years ago. We were disappointed to discover that the facility had since closed its doors, but our driver was aware of another facility a few miles away, so on we drove. As some of the photos illustrate, we were able to see the actual manufacturing of the garments, and it’s a very intricate, time-consuming process involving a lot of hand painting & weaving. Cheryl and I purchased two garments each at a great price (much cheaper than Jakarta) as did Barbara & Orlin.

It was then on to Angel-to-Angel…a very unique, silver & gold jewelry manufacturer and once again we were able to tour and watch the creation & production of some very fine pieces…from inexpensive earrings ($10) to necklaces commanding prices of $10K & up – we didn’t spend much there, but very much enjoyed the education.

We returned to the ship around 1pm. The least expensive excursion offered by Holland America was $99.95 each, which was nothing more than a 5-hour shopping trip. As I’ve always said, if you’re in a reasonably safe foreign port and can find clean transportation with a driver who can understand you, you’re much better off going that route. Had we taken the cheapest ship tour, we would’ve paid $199.90. As it turned out, we spent a total of $40 (tip included) and saw much, much more.