Trip to Balian Bali

A friend of mine Miguel had informed me his 34 th birthday was coming up and wanted to do something special for it. Working all the time I really didn’t have much spare time to arrange anything so we ended up agreeing to visit a friend of Miguel’s in Balian on the SW coast.

The plan was we’d arrive, Miguel wanted to surf and then we’d relax and he could share some personal time while celebrating.

Saturday morning came and I recieved several text messages regarding our departure time. Miguel showed up at my house around 1pm with a new friend, Anastasia from Jakarta who works at the Kuta Paradiso hotel. I did a report on the Legian Paradiso and know one of her colleagues, Fivi who showed me around.

We decided to take motorbikes this time and swung by Bintang supermarket to pick up some breakfast supplies. Miguel said some of the people we would be staying with were veggies and if we wanted meat we’d have to bring it. He had cleared it with our host that cooking meat wouldn’t ruin his place.

I picked up 2 packs of assorted saugages and a can on Heinz beans. I also bought a cheap bottle of rum as it was his birthday and maybe he wanted to let his hair down. Miguel bought similar stuff plus a package of bacon.

Looking at our stuff at the checkout I could imagine the locals thinking what weird creatures we foreignors are?..meat, beans and alcohol.

The day was beautiful and I covered up well with the bottoms of my convertible pants on my forearms and my pollution mask in position. Miguel thought this whole get up was hilarious and said he has some elastic bands at his house he’d lend me to keep the pants in place. Oh well, we can’t all be tanned and beautiful.

The ride to Balian passes Canggu and we stopped at Miguel’s place near the beach to pick up his surfboards and pack the meat and cheese in his cold bag. Taking off his bike was quite packed with Anastasia holding on, plus the luggage.

Our route took us along one of the busiest roads in the direction of Tabanan. Trucks and buses play a game of tag and the amount of fumes they kick out is incredible. We wound up behind a convoy of 3 Pariwisata tour buses and Miguel told me later there are about 3 key places where we could pass them. We missed the first opportunity meaning we spent a lot of the trip sucking their exhaust. We managed to squeeze past them on switch back without running into trouble coming the other way and just as I thought things were cool we hit a long winding downhill stretch. I was nearing my maximum comfort speed when I hear this fog horn on my shoulder?..one of the buses was trying to pass me. I wasn’t going to go head to head with a bus so I let him by, back to square one.

The whole trip took maybe a couple of hours including the stop in Canggu and we finally arrived in Balian. This place has virtually no tourism and our friend Maurice owns a place here.

Miguel’s surfing friend Ben from New Zealand has kindly offered a couple of rooms in his house to us for the weekend. The access road was basically 2 ruts cut by tires in an area that was heavily forested with palm trees. It ran on a cliff that was parallel to the beach. Next door to Ben’s place area a few local buildings made from bamboo. The locals here are very friendly and came out to say hi when we arrived.

Ben’s place is perched right on the slope of the cliff with an upstairs deck that is perfect for sitting and watching the waves. Its almost hypnotic. The warm weather, ocean breezes and waves crashing, you could catch up on your rest quickly, I actually took a nap on the grass under the shade of a tree.

Ben kindly brought us a selection of mats and cushions to relax on we got comfortable, I made sure my bed space had at least one wall next to it, don’t want to take a wrong step over the edge.

The afternoon was fading into evening and Miguel grabbed his board and went for a surf. Balian has one of the most reliable waves in Bali, though not maybe as spectacular as some of the others on the Bukit peninsular. The waves come with a price, heavy undertows and currents. Ben told us about people who had drowned here and where they find the bodies. One guy was found way up the river estuary that is close by. Losing your board wouldn’t be pretty here, though enjoying every wave is the bonus as Balian is virtually devoid of tourists.

I swim like a fish finger so took the advice of avoiding the beach and went instead to the river estuary. It was lovely and opens up into a river that is maybe 50 meters wide and reasonably deep in the middle. I swam up it a fair way and loved how flat it was. Looking both ways I could see densely packed palm trees and a blue sky on top. This is another moment that I think many of the folks back home would love, cruising up a tropical river all by yourself. Crocodiles did pass through my mind but I know they were all turned into satay long ago.

Back at the house Ben laid out a straw mat on the grass and everyone got comfortable. He placed a dozen small candles ( sorry Joe E. no lanterns this time ) around us and we sipped on a Bintang chatting.

For dinner we hit a little place on the main road called the Globe that I had visited before with Ron and Tina. This time I ordered a proper dinner and was rewarded with a large piece of snapper with Balinese sauce. The sauce had chunks of garlic and a lot of chili which is okay with me. We were the only customers in the restaurant and the 3 ladies on duty sat behind the counter discussing us.

Miguel, Anastasia and I got into a discussion about food ( the Balinese tendency to avoid trying any other food than their own ) and national identity. I suggested that the Balinese see themselves first as Balinese and second as Indonesian. We put this to the test by asking the waitress if she came face to face with a space alien who asked her what she was and her 2 choices were Balinese and Indonesian which would she choose. She said Indonesian, because Bali is a part of Indonesia. So I was wrong. I suspect that like many places the situation greatly affects the answer. Inter island rivalry can be pretty intense and the Balinese have no trouble in blaming the other islands particularly Java for everything.

Miguel then followed up my question with one of his own. Using the space alien theme he asked them if they had to say which one of the following they’d least like to hold in: 1 pee pees, 2 kentut ( gas ). They loved this and laughed out loud. Miguel wanting to be ?king of the waitresses’ followed on with a deluge of related questions, finally threatening to ignite himself.

He was rewarded with a 10% discount from our bill because he was funny. I think this was the highlight of his life.

Back in the upstairs room Miguel, Anastasia and I talked about how we all met, where we’ve been and what a birthday means. Miguel was born at 1am and Anastasia set her watch?.I’ve got to take lessons form this guy.

Ben had given Miguel and Anastasia one of his cottages and so I slept alone under a woven local blanket.

We were expecting a visit from our friend Ebong who lives in Jimbaran next morning and when I awoke Miguel and already hit the surf with Ben.

Ebong ( tadpole) arrived with Marcel and his buddy Jake from Colorado. I went for another sortie up the estuary, further this time to avoid the locals who were fishing lower down. I reckon Ben should put a raft here were people could swim up to and relax.

Arriving back at the house I said hi and watched the waves for a while. Ben’s girlfriend has brought us a plate of pisang goreng ( fried banana ) which we ate with the coffee that Ben made. He’s a really mellow guy and has been coming to Bali for 15 or so years.

The breakfast of champions was already underway and Miguel was managing the bacon and sausages with Anastasia in close support. We had brought a few loaves with us too and it was a decent feed.

I went downstairs to do the washing up and Anastasia ended up doing it all.

Miguel wanted to go hiking so off we went up the road and parked the bikes at a place that looked like it might offer us a trail. We quickly decended to a paddy field and Miguel sharpened a stick to impress Anastasia who being a city girl doesn’t venture into the ?jungle’ very often.

Walking along a thin paddy wall we were slipping and after reaching a dead end turned back. This time the thin paddy wall had our footprints in and second time around had no desire to bear our weigh. I sliced off large chunks of the wall accidentally and Anastasia fell on her backside, a moment made worse for her by Miguel’s laughter. We found a small water channel at the back of the paddy to wash off the mud before we left.

Walking through the forest is fascinating because you can observe so many different species of plants and animals. This large Jackfruit wasn’t ripe yet.

Down the road from our motorbike parking area these folks were manning the ?human seive’.

On the ride back to the house we stopped at a small local market for a drink. This campur stand offers a local drink that contacts, sugar, flavours, coloring and milk. I’ve had one before but wasn’t in the mood this time.

Tourism meets tradition.

Anastasia wanted to get back to Seminyak quickly so we wrapped things up, said our goodbyes and took off. The ride back was uneventful except for an SUV cutting in on Miguel very aggressively. I also saw a bus almost wipe a motorbike off the road as it came roaring up the wrong side of the road, the rider ending up in the dirt, arms waving. We neared Canggu Miguel and Anastasia swung off while I kept going.

Ben was a wonderfully relaxed host and having a place like his, simple but cool would be a dream. The place has running water and the mozzies were no problem.

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Writing this article it’s the day after. Miguel just sms’d me. He said he still had some of my sausages in his bag and wants to do a bbq tomorrow and I should bring some chicks…………….as if it was that easy.