My friend and I were at Girls' Night Out at The Melting Pot in Lahaina recently, talking about our favorite subject. Not boys, silly. Girls just wanna . . . girls just wanna . . . talk about BALI!
She begged to hear all about my recent trip and I wanted the lowdown on hers. We were just getting to the juicy details, when four Maui women behind us squealed over their own Bali and Lombok stories. These adventurers were knowledgeable and loud and one bellowed out her intriguing tale.
I stopped midsentence and we cracked up, hands over mouths, like school girls. It just goes to show how wildly popular exotic Bali and its neighbor islands such as Lombok are with the people of Hawaii.
In fact, Bali has been a haven for movie stars and millionaires since the 1930s, when Charlie Chaplain and other illustrious travelers helped put it on the world map. It's even rumored Chaplain learned his famous duck walk in the upcountry Bali village of Ubud, watching the Barong dancers.
I've been to Bali and a few other Indonesian islands 11 times and still want to go back for more. But many other Mauians are lured by the "island of the gods," so I've asked some to share memorable experiences as well.
"I LOVE Bali," says Bobby Watanabe, the customer relations representative for Kapalua Farms and Maui Pineapple. "It's basically been like a second home to me over the years. The culture, food, people, it's all so great. The best of all has to be the people. The Agama-Hindus of Bali truly perpetuate the ideal of the aloha spirit on the complete opposite side of the world. In terms of wealth and prosperity they have nothing, yet they have the greatest attitudes one can come by. I've traveled and surfed in a lot of different places on this strange planet (Europe, South America, the U.S., Japan and other places in Asia) and there is no other place I would even consider trying to live outside of Hawaii but Bali."
"One of my favorite experiences in Bali was visiting the John Hardy design studio and Kapal Bambu Showroom," says Shelley Kekuna, the executive director of Kaanapali Beach Resort Association.
"While producing some of the most exquisite jewelry sold in Saks and Neiman Marcus, he has created a sustainable village. He supports the locals and their nature-driven culture by creating employment and focusing on his commitment to operating a carbon-neutral business. His workplace and bamboo village are available for tours where you'll see the jewelry making process as well as the organic gardens that feed his 800-plus workers. You'll also learn about his bamboo reforestation project on the island of Nusa Penida."
From the poorest rice farmers in the terraced paddies to the richest of expats exporting goods around the globe, the people of Bali are chock full of colorful characters.
Bali is a Hindu anomaly in the world's largest Muslim country and the world's largest island archipelago of 17,000 separate land masses that span 3,000 miles. There are meals, hotels and activities in every price range and it's easy to "puddle jump" to other islands by speed boat, ferry or small plane.
"We come to Maui three or four times a year for a month or so each trip," readers Brooke and David Sunderland e-mailed me, having read my recent column about the trip. "Our second most favorite destination is Bali. We love the Balinese culture and the gentle people who live it. The Amandari in Ubud is a wonderful place to soak up the art and dance expressions of Bali. I don't know how many times we have watched and laughed through the Barong dance but it will never be enough."
The Sunderlands were also very curious as to how I got there. "Your column says you came home through Tokyo and . . . What routing did you use to get there?"
So I explain in the sidebar story, below, about the routing. But before you go to purchase your plane tickets to this inexpensive and super fun tourist island, I must add there are a few upsides and downsides. Let's start with the downsides to weed out those who may lose interest after they read them. The U.S. Department of State has a travel warning "urging American citizens to evaluate carefully the risks of travel to that country."
The last time I was in Bali before this most recent trip was in 1998, when their President Suharto was forced to step down from his 32-year dictatorship. Now, that was tense and the travel warnings were way more forceful with the message, "we strongly urge Americans to defer travel to Indonesia."
After two bombings on Bali in recent years, the police presence is powerfully strong (3,000 military were brought in to guard Kuta on my recent visit because of Ramadan, the Islamic religious observance, in which Muslims flock to Bali on holiday).
There were hotel and restaurant guards with bomb-sniffing dogs and sweeping equipment. Some places, like the upscale and super trendy Ku De Ta restaurant in Seminyak, even checked our bags in the car.
"Just avoid crowds, maintain a low profile and be vigilant about security at all times," says the Department of State.
But we started in the thick of it, very close to Ground Zero, as they also call it there. That's where many of the top restaurants, nightclubs and shops are stacked on top of each other all near the monument that honors people bombed at the Sari Club in 2002. (The other bombing was in 2005 in Jimbaran.)
As people such as myself payed respects at Ground Zero, a performing artist on stilts in a red devil costume of the Bali kind with G-string and whip, traipsed through the crowds and "whipped" the tourists. Girls in giant curlers, miniskirts and high heels stood in front of the Sky Dome demurely passing out brochures, right where a foam machine spilled well, foam, into the street.
Raucous music boomed from each restaurant and pub. Traffic was at a standstill. We walked faster than a taxi could transport us. The air was thick with clove cigarettes. It was Halloween in Lahaina, 10 times over.
During Ramadan, Bali is a mix of modestly dressed Indonesians and underclad tourists from all over the world. Like Vegas, many places stay open 24 hours a day. Happy hours serve two drinks at a time. Laser beams and mini stages with poles for customer dancing are everywhere. One oceanfront lounge lets you bungee jump while seated, "riding" a motorcycle. Internet cafes, Circle K stores (like ABC stores) and foot massage parlors ($5 U.S. for an hour) are every 100 meters or so. This Kula-Legion scene is attractive to college-age kids, and yet it would be the Maui Liquor Commissioner's absolute nightmare. Of course, there's a calm in the storm at such classic restaurants as Kopi Pot, Kori and Made's Warung, the latter now with two locations.
Older lounge lizards are better served in nearby Seminyak, where expats and Indos mix at Deja Vu, Baccio, The Living Room and 66 clubs.
Kuta, Legion and Seminyak all offer moderately priced accommodations. Our hotel, Matahari Bungalows, cost $40 per night total (deluxe room) with lanai, pool, air-conditioning, refrigerator, gardens. It included breakfast buffet daily, welcome drink and airport pick up.
Bali was at full-tilt boogie because of the Ramadan holiday. We only planned to stay at Matahari Bungalows two nights, but everything elsewhere was booked, so we hired a driver each day to check out the other tourist areas.
But before we talk about that, my safety words of wisdom are to watch the money exchangers very carefully or simply go to a bank or your hotel's front desk; and to take the Blue Bird taxis in lieu of others. In addition, tax and gratuities to the tune of 21-plus percent are added everywhere, so do ask for change.
On the upside, Bali's infrastructure has been vastly improved. I didn't get Bali Belly even once. The ice in drinks was good everywhere (although I still brushed my teeth with bottled water). The dollar to rupiah exchange was exceptional even in this volatile world market, and aggressive street hawkers seemed to have vanished from the landscape.
Four elephant parks have cropped up on Bali and the one in Taro just opened a spa and lodge a few months ago. The spa is rated among the top 10 in the world by Conde Nast. "One of the highlights of my first trip to Bali was being picked up by an elephant at my villa door and being taken to dinner on his back," says Tracy Johnson of Spreckelsville.
"This was our third trip to Bali and everything that I expected it to be," says Chef Mark Ellman, who coincidentally was there at the same time I was. He and his family's stay at Ubud Village Resort & Spa was "wonderful," and the "food was fresh and creative.
"Another highlight was the fantastic dinner at Amandari Resort in Ubud. Amandari is a cut above the already fantastic resorts that are in Bali. We enjoyed the chef's dinner, a masterpiece. French techniques with flavors of Bali. I particularly loved the soft shell crab cake and it was served overlooking the Ayung River gorge."
Ellman and family also went white-water rafting, jet skiing and elephant riding, visited the monkey forest and the zoo, where he played with an orangutan, and went bungee jumping
"And yes, we relaxed by the pool drinking margaritas in the middle of the jungle," says Ellman, who attended the one-day Bumbu Bali Cooking School, as did my friend and I.
"Cooking school was so much fun and educational. We met at 6 a.m., and our first stop was Jimbaran morning market to collect the food we needed. There were 20 people from all over the world. Our first lesson was how the Balinese kill the chickens by hypnotizing the birds first. It made my wife, Judy, and my daughter, Michelle, run away not wanting to see the birds die. But this is the reality of life in Bali," reports Ellman.
Ditto for my experience. My friend was upset by the chickens at the market, and I waved to her not to stand by me because I was next to a basket of chicken heads. But she was sort of prodded in that direction. The next thing I knew, the guide picked up a head and put it two inches in front of her face and mouthed, "Hi, Tracy." It definitely broke the ice.
Chef Morgan Lonergan of Amandari Resort in Ubud also does a cooking school I eagerly attended. "It's not strictly about cooking. It's about the experience of going to a village market and then to a Balinese home where you meet the family and learn traditional methods such as cooking over an open fire," Chef Lonergan says. Originally from Wanganui in New Zealand, he adds, "It's amazing the amount of men who take the class. One bloke even gushed on about Hamburger Helper."
In addition, Four Seasons Resorts in Bali both at Jimbaran Bay and near Ubud in Sayan offer a cooking school with your choice of Balinese, Asian and spa cuisine in four-hour modules. The Four Seasons Jimbaran features the Six on the Beach that we drove to and checked out one evening. Thousands of candles were lit in the sand, jegog music and dance played, art was set on easels and diners reclined on giant, cushy day beds. We checked out the brand new St. Regis in Nusa Dua for lunch, too. The restaurant Boneka, means "puppet" in the Bahasa language.
Giant puppets hang from the Bedouin tent-shaped roof and items such as venison sate are served with young coconut lawar. We viewed the massive saltwater swimming pool and saw that each villa has steps leading into it.
Speaking of saltwater pools, Ritz-Carlton Bali in Jimbaran boasts the new Aquatonic Pool filled with 150,000,000 gallons of fresh seawater from the Indian Ocean. It's similar to the Grand Wailea spa, except it's coed and outdoors and you exercise through a system of streams. Cost is $40 to use it. Plan to go around sunset for the awesome ocean views.
In cool Ubud, we savored cuisine from two places that eccentric Food Network TV star Anthony Bourdain has put on his show. Ibu Oka's serves the best suckling pig on the planet, all cooked in a home. The pet dogs there were so fat, they couldn't even jump for scraps anymore. And Naughty Nuri's is famous for its ribs and cosmo martinis.
We also saw the royal healer who is supposedly in the New York Times bestseller, "Eat, Pray, Love." He pokes you on your toes with a wicked stick to tell you what is wrong with you. Other highlights were the fun excursions to Lombok, Sumbawa and Moyo in the Nusa Tenggara chain.
Moyo Island is the size of Singapore with 6,000 natives. It has arguably the best scuba diving and snorkeling and coral formations in the world. The remote national park and marine preserve has wildlife such as eagles and monkeys and deer. Camp or stay at the Amanwana Resort in upscale tentalows with marble floors, air-conditioning and an expert service staff to cater to your every whim. The hidden jewel is a few islands east of Bali. It's off the beaten path, but getting more accessible. People from Hawaii love it. Just ask the girls at The Melting Pot.
Carla Tracy can be reached at carlatracy@mauinews.com.
