Bali 2005, and then more stuff

2006-03-20T23:15:00.000-08:00

Front

2006-03-20T23:12:00.000-08:00

Bikes side by side.

Daytona 675 Exhaust

2006-03-20T23:10:00.000-08:00

2006-03-20T23:06:00.000-08:00

Russ brought his new bike over on Saturday. Man. Nice and narrow.

2006-03-20T22:25:00.000-08:00

Another shot of the bike.

2006-03-04T13:10:00.000-08:00

2006-03-04T13:07:00.000-08:00

Meditating on that first bite. So good!

Superb Super Burrito

2006-03-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

Went to casa d's tonight. Leaned across the counter, asked how the carnitas was tonight. He lifted the lid, looked sort of dry, I asked if he could scoop the nasty old stuff out of the bottom for me, and the man obliged.
Told me that this was "The Bud Burrito", Bud had been there for years and had quit just the day before to go work at R&R adult toys. Dude set me up with the finest burrito of my life, two huge fistfuls of fermented carnitas, #4 hotness, guacamole, lime, cilantro super burrito. Absolutely the largest a super can be.

2005-12-22T21:44:00.000-08:00

Warung Komang, similarly empty.

2005-12-22T21:42:00.000-08:00

Main street in seminyak had 5-10 fancy bars, all pumping music, and all totally empty. Sort of scary. Wonder how long they can tolerate being open without any business.

2005-12-22T21:41:00.000-08:00

Goodbye sun.

2005-12-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

Niels running randomly in the shallows.

2005-12-22T21:38:00.000-08:00

Niels playing.

2005-12-22T21:30:00.000-08:00

Another shot of wayan riding another wave in.

2005-12-22T21:22:00.000-08:00

Wayan, boogie boarding at Kuta on our last night.

2005-12-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

Wayan buried in sand at Kuta beach. Oliver is helping to bury him (dutch family staying at same hotel), Niels is easily recognizable in the background from his expensive salon cut.

2005-12-22T21:17:00.000-08:00

Niels at Dyhana Pura with morning croissant.

2005-12-20T04:49:00.000-08:00

Sadness didn't last long, he found a cool stick on the way back from the beach.

2005-12-20T04:46:00.000-08:00

All wet and sandy. Ready to go back for a shower and new clothes.

2005-12-20T04:43:00.000-08:00

The agony of defeat. Wayan surveying the damage. He lost his balance when the shallow water was moving over his feet.

2005-12-20T04:41:00.000-08:00

Here Wayan finally ready to test himself against a wave. Standing steadfast...

2005-12-20T04:38:00.000-08:00

Here are there first tentative frollics with the waves. Wayan is wary and doesn't get wet. Niels gets his toes wet and runs like hell.

2005-12-20T04:36:00.000-08:00

The boys at the beach before breakfast. Wayan in his new freshly laundered clothes that he'd chosen specially. They've never been at a beach with waves before...

2005-12-20T04:30:00.000-08:00

So we left Kuta, headed back to Seminyak and the quiet comfort of the Dhyana Pura. I was in a lot of pain at the time that I checked in, but what clinched it were the kids toys in front of some rooms near the pool. I had some sort of flu whose primary symptom was a headache and pressume behind my eyes so I could only look down, left/right or up caused big pain and ringing in my ears.

This photo is a view of the beach from in front of our hotel (it is beach front!) This is Sunday, all the people are the baliniese out for sunday morning exercise walk. Lots of walking groups, each has a separate color combo adidas uniform.

2005-12-20T04:26:00.000-08:00

Kuta. We're in Kuta? A trusted source recommended a place in Seminyak, I insisted on seeing some spots in old kuta. Took 2 minutes to decide I never wanted to stay there again, and there are hardly any tourists here. This is traditionally high season, I don't think the economy can support so many empty hotels for too long, so I think Julia and I are witnessing the beginning of a painful decline in bali tourism. Amazing to see so many fancy hotels, discos, bars, etc, all pumping out the rock like usual, but now without the crazed throngs of drunk australians.

2005-12-16T23:20:00.000-08:00

Niels composed this story while I was taking care of him this morning:

I went snorkeling at Bali. I wore face mask and snorkel, and floaty suit and I used my water wings. That was fun. I saw lots of fishies and I ate snack. The fishies were blue, and some were yellow, and some were stripey. I didn’t see a nemo fish. I also saw scuba divers, I waved at them and they did see me. They were right underneath me. They waved at me too. That was fun seeing the fishies, I went with my mom, and I went with wayan, and with my daddy. Wayan had a floatysuit on too. I also saw coral. I saw one coral, it was white, and it was in the ocean. The end.

2005-12-16T23:18:00.000-08:00

Julia at breakfast!

2005-12-16T23:16:00.000-08:00

Back in Ubud, staying at a perfect eric place, ur, well, it is a little upscale, but it’ll do.

Spent a few hours yesterday being very patient with wendy. So far I’ve dived into town and picked where I wanted to stay, wendy follows and doesn’t argue much. So for once I’ll let her find a hotel. She doesn’t know the correct name, doesn’t know where it is, etc. several stops to check the internet for directions, etc. We end up way out of town, price is too high, rooms are too small, tons of mosquitoes. And worst of all? Some other guests are from America. I actually heard one say: “Naw, the Kechak is at night, bra.” Bra? Bra? Like in zoolander? Ewww. We don’t even get to the part where we negotiate about room price. With a big thumb down I finally tell her I’m going to go find a room for the kids, we drive in and find this place.

Dirty narrow path leads past a restaurant, through a narrow arch and into an unkept garden, rooms have marble floors, full marble tile bath. But not so clean, so yes, a little run down. Balcony looks down on a deep gorge that runs through Ubud, the same one that is viewed by Casa Luna. Best part, the place is in the epicenter of Ubud, right across the street from Casa Luna, just down the way from the royal palace and the grocery store. Place shares a pool with the neighboring hotel “Saraswati”, which is swishy and fancy and $60/night. What more does one need? Is a clean bathroom worth $40/night? Ha! I’ll post pictures of the breakfast they brought. Whoa! Full on bali hotel breakfast. Coffee, tea, huge fruit salad, omlette, toast, the works. Julia walked around the place, says that right below us is a room with a large veranda with outdoor seating. No AC, but Ubud isn’t hot so I don’t care. Only thing holding me back from a room move is that I enjoy the garden view, and like being close to the neighboring pool (35 feet away, a door through a high brick wall ornamented with plant growth).

After a quick dip in the pool we dress and head across the street to casa luna. I have the vegetarian nasi campur, which might be the yummiest thing I’ve had in Bali. Funny thing: Wendy asked the waiter what the difference was between the vegetarian and regular nasi campur, of course: “The vegetarian nasi campur has no meat.” Sweet answer, eh? Kids weren’t real hungry, we return early to sleep, then I go with wendy to make an internet deposit. We stop at a few spots. The first is fast but is 1000rp/minute for laptops. $6/hour! No way am I paying that outrageous rate! Second is 300/minute, but is phone dialup AND the modem isn’t working. We settle at Bali3000, 512kbit. 1 hour + small aqua + 18 megs of upload was… 20,000rp ~$2.15. I think they might have screwed up, but I asked them to check and they were sure.

Next morning Wendy wakes us up, she is carrying a black stormcloud of evil fury. Furious, she has had it with this hotel, she couldn’t sleep, the bathroom disturbs her greatly, etc. Fine, go next store. What is the problem? Why tell me? Julia notes later that wendy is again desperately searching for tickets to Singapore. I guess she really doesn’t like it here in Bali. Her ticket to seattle leaves several days after ours, she doesn’t want to be here alone.

So what am I doing now? Well, I was up late doing internet, went to sleep at about 10pm, feeling fatigued. Today I wake up feeling sick. I’m on my back in the room, blankets pulled up, feeling shitty and tired and sleepy, and my head hurts. Julia left me with wayan, we talked about the trip so far, then Julia returned with a screaming Niels, he doesn’t like walking with her. So now I’ve got him poodling around the room, certainly looking for trouble. Having a long running conversation about darth vadar, Anakin, etc. He rolls up a spare rupia note, I ask him if he’s darth vadar, he says no darth vadar only has place mats, referring to his common restaurant practice of rolling up his placemat and pronouncing himself to be darth vadar. Hmm. Ok, we’ve moved back to playing legos, him telling sories about the emperor getting thrown in the oven at the end, mixed with a little Wallace and grommet “Cracking Toast Grommeeet”.

Now he’s acting out a multipart theater involving Anakin, Darth Vadar, the Emperor and Obi Wan, I played the executive assistant head switcher since he only had two lego figurines, and Anakin frequently switched from being good to being bad. After one particularly arduous head-swapping, he composed a story for me, about his snorkeling adventure:

So I’m on my back, laptop propped up on my stomach, typing away. Pretty darn comfortable actually. Wish the hotel had wireless internet so I could surf from here.

2005-12-16T23:14:00.000-08:00

Arriving in Ubud. Kids are ready to get out and swim.

2005-12-16T23:13:00.000-08:00

How come julia won't let me take the kids to school on the bike. All those Balinese parents do...

2005-12-16T23:11:00.000-08:00

Bali Driving. I should have waited until we were about to head-on a motorbike or a truck full of basketted pigs, but this is what you see 99% of the time.

2005-12-16T23:10:00.000-08:00

View of the western "beaches" of candidasa. Note pertemina refinery in distance.

2005-12-16T23:09:00.000-08:00

We pass through candidasa, a living testament to idiocy. This story’s been told a hundred times, but I’ll summarize it here. Once there was a small fishing village called Candidasa. Lots of fruit, lots of fish. A beautiful white sand beach, awesome snorkeling right off shore, and maybe some surf too. So there were a few small bamboo hotels on the beach for backpackers. In the late 70’s some enterprising hoteliers decided candidasa was big time, and built a bunch of concrete buildings. Unfortunately, the concrete bids were contracted out to the locals, who obtained material for the concrete from the coral reef right off shore. Quick easy money, they were paid by the ton. So eventually the reef is broken up and made into hotels. Ok, so no reef anymore, no snorkeling, no fish. Bummer. But then the surf came in and washed away the beach too. Government comes in and builds seawalls, but too late. Today, 30 years later, we have a bunch of hotels with no beach, no coral, no nothing. Then Ketut chimes in that in the ‘90s the state oil monopoly put in a gasoline refinery on the shore a few miles away from candidasa. This being Indonesia, there are frequent spills, so now you wouldn’t want to swim in the water either, it reeks of oil product. Sweet. Civilization rocks. What was surprising to me, I thought that the whole place folded, noone in their right mind would go there, the hotels must have long ago crumbled to dust, but not so. As we drove through candidasa we spotted many restaurants half-filled with tourists. Surprising to us since at the current time there are very few tourists in Bali. Why are they in Candidasa? Do they know something we don’t? They looked like hip backpackers…

Outside of town we’re presented with a view of the waterfront. I snapped a few shots from the car. It looks better than I’d expect, but not by much.

Right after Candidasa we pass the entrance to the AmanKila, and exclu$ive Aman resort. Huh? Is there a discount for oil spill? Must have some other redeeming qualities.

2005-12-16T23:07:00.000-08:00

The two chirp-monks in the back seat. Having a time back there. Who likes being in Bali? MEEE!!!

2005-12-16T23:06:00.000-08:00

Ketut with ricefields.

2005-12-16T23:05:00.000-08:00

More mountains on our way across to the north side. At the pass we stopped,the driver recieved a drive in blessing. Sorry I don't have a photo of it.

2005-12-16T23:03:00.000-08:00

Gunung Agung (the volcano whose 1961 explosion pushed the U.S.S Liberty into the ocean.)

2005-12-16T23:01:00.000-08:00

Very nice scenery driving out of Lateh. We head west for a few miles, then hook a left and up a narrow valley and over a pass to the south side of bali. Beautiful country here, only an hour from PadangBai.

This is the pass we took up over the center of Bali and down to Candidasa.

2005-12-16T22:59:00.000-08:00

After coming up bare in our internet search, wendy and I decide to leave lateh. Julia is fine with it, and it is only 10:45, so why not check out and go back to Ubud? We find transport, Ketut from the hotel, for 280,000rp (~$29) for the 3.5 hour drive to Ubud.

2005-12-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

The beach: 10-15 meters off the beach the reef can be seen clearly through the waves, and I’m sure the rocky outcrops at either end of the beach are good for snorkeling as well. There are also several excellent spots within 2-3 km of the beach.

There are two Coral View hotels, I think with the same owner, and the one to the west is rundown and kind of scary, the one to the east is nice, and is where we stayed with ocean view. Ours was called “Coral View Villas”, the other was called “Coral View Cottages.” Our hotel had an unusual pool, full-on Jurassic park, with moulded cement waterfall. Negatives were: Too Deep for wayan everywhere except the single set of steps. Cold. Dirty. Waterfall had a two-level effect, was fun for wayan to swim around and under. Would be terrific if it was warm, instead of cold pouring rain and windy. Good weather for hot cocoa.

Walking around outside of town we see big rock farms with a few goats, then a super-deluxe seaside villa with sat-dish. Then a straw shack with a broken bicycle, a goat tethered beside it.

2005-12-16T22:56:00.000-08:00

Niels putting his face to some jam-toast.

2005-12-16T22:53:00.000-08:00

Goodbye Coral View Villas, refugees flee wind, rain, head for lunch.

2005-12-16T22:52:00.000-08:00

The beach at Lateh. In the distance you can see the aztec steps up to the empty fancy hotel up on the bluff.

2005-12-16T22:27:00.000-08:00

Dork with Pool. Lateh. Note rain.

2005-12-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

Our hotel is really the place to stay in Lateh. Situated right on the nice sandy beach, the seaside cottages were available for $40 for our family of 4, including breakfast. For wendy’s single it was $35. There are at least 3 other places on the beach, plus indah-something up on the hill above the beach, which looks like its full of ghosts. The places down by the beach have fishing canoes tied up en-mass. This was an arrangement by the hotels to keep the locals happy. The place up on the hill doesn’t allow the locals to tie up on its beach, with the result that 20 local kids will occasionally storm the pool while it is filled with guests. The story from our driver is that the hotel started out really nice, then it changed owners and the salaries were too low, despite charging $200/night. The hotel workers that came from the other hotels all returned to their previous employers, and the place has deteriorated ever since. A pity, its got a fine location and from the beach the stairs have a sweet Mayan thing going on. Right now the pool has got a little algae problem, nothing terminal, I’d swim in it, but it ain’t a $200/night pool.

2005-12-16T22:22:00.000-08:00

Father and son in Lateh.

2005-12-16T22:20:00.000-08:00

View of land around Lateh.

2005-12-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

Baliniese Motorcycle attire, no shoes, no shirt, no helmet.

2005-12-16T22:12:00.000-08:00

Wendy strolling through town with her parasol.

Usually in Bali one is confronted with “Where you from?” Then “You need transport? Yes!” Here in the northwest of bali its “Where you from?” Followed by “You go diving? Yes!” Diving is way expensive, by my standards, it must be amazing to the locals.

2005-12-16T05:28:00.000-08:00

Another view of the hill above Lateh.

2005-12-16T05:27:00.000-08:00

Tough country around Lateh. If I return to bali, it will be to this area in the not rainy season.

2005-12-16T05:25:00.000-08:00

Julia sleeps. I walk into town with the boys, look for viable restaurant, internet, something. Not much to see. Stores shuttered. We stop at a market and buy an umbrella and some oreos.

Niels slips and scrapes his arm on some scum., I give the boys a bath to get them warm bath in the huge bathtub. Treat Niels’ scrape with antibiotic, then all of wayan’s mosquito bites.

I take our bag of roaster peanuts out on the balcony, sit with Niels. I leave him there to play with Wayan. Niels is out there for at least an hour, singing, poodling, cracking open the peanuts with the hull of his lego boat. Generally a good time for him.

Head to the restaurant for dinner. Julia still sick. Food is good! I have an Arak Attack, an alchohol drink made from local distilled cane alchohol. Good! Wayan feels ill so has soda then leaves to go sleep. Niels has a Lemon pancake, piece of wendy’s pizza, about half of my white rice. He’s doing great!

Return and watch 20 minutes of Wallace and grommet on the laptop.

Fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing 40 feet from the front door of the cottage.

Next morning, wake early to sound of rain and more waves. The storm won’t end. I go out on the balcony with the laptop and start writing until Niels wakes at 8am.

Breakfast is ok, not exciting. Wendy learns that there are plenty of dolphins out, the locals will take us sailing to see them tomorrow morning if we’d like. Wayan says “Yeah!!” Lets hope the weather is better, we need to leave tomorrow morning. There is a slight drizzle this morning, grey overcast. Largish waves. We return to our room, I sit out with Niels and type more. Niels is playing Legos. Looking out on the ocean, fine view, we see a large bank of rain about 500meter off shore. Slowly approaches. Suddenly the rain is coming down in sheets, huge rain. Continues sheeting hard for an hour or so, then settles into a strong rain. I guess its time to go find some internet. Make use of that umbrella.

Nope. No internet. The phone lines don't work because its raining so hard. Need to wait until we get to Ubud.

2005-12-16T05:23:00.000-08:00

So this is the rainy season! View from our balcony to wendys.

2005-12-16T05:22:00.000-08:00

Niels, naked, with legos and peanuts. He'd occationally smash a peanut open with the legos. The whole time he's singing to himself. He was out on the balcony doing this for about two hours.

2005-12-16T05:21:00.000-08:00

As soon as we check in, the rain starts. The waves get larger. We try to go swimming but the pool is cold and deep. The tide comes in, the rain gets harder, the waves get bigger. Julia and Wayan feel sick. Darn. This looks like such a great place, if only it was blue skys and calm, like it usually is. We can’t snorkel in that chop. Bummer.

2005-12-16T05:20:00.000-08:00

We drive on to the first hotel, which is owned by the same person as owns Tauch Terminal. I’m skeptical after the price gouging, but go in anyway. Wow. Very nice room, super clean, basically new. Full inside bath, well lit, with great ocean view. Clean pool, two guests, and the price is good: $35 for the best room, $25 for wendy’s room. Problems? Steep tall cement steps to/from the room. No railing to guard against an 8foot drop onto cement. Not child friendly. The hotel is situated on a point, the beach is relatively steep coral down into pretty large waves. Not great for kids, even if it wasn’t stormy. And the menu read like Tauch. And there are not other hotels nearby, so we’re stuck with their food. Hmm. Well, a good principle is to always check out more than one hotel, we ask to see more.

Next stop is Paradise Beach. Really dark and dumpy. Depressing to see after what must have been a hard rain. Tons of puddles and it didn’t smell good. We went to see the beach, there was a honeymooning couple from spain standing at the beach, they’d just checked in. Nice big sandy beach, kids playing soccer on it. Looking down the beach, we see Aztec-like stairs leading up to some dramatic looking structures. Since Julia and the kids are waiting in the car, I run down the beach, up the steps, past the pool, up more steps to the top of this hotel, its reception area. They get a key and we meet Wendy on the way to the rooms. Nice place, rooms are ok but a little dirty. This is Indra Puri. Rooms have Balinese wood-shutter windows. Dark. Hmm. Wendy gives a definite thumb down. Then we’re told the kitchen is non-op because this is the low season. We need to walk down the road to eat. Hmm. Ok. Back down to the beach to the other dingy hotel. Back to the car. All ready to go back. Julia asks if there are any other hotels, driver says no. I ask if I can take a quick walk through town since there are shops and restaurants ahead. Just a little way down the street is another hotel called Paradise Cottages, looks nicer. We walk in, they will let us have a two story, seaside ac bungalow for $40, wendy gets one alone for $30. Nice second story covered balcony. Wendy wants to stay at the first place, but grandy agrees to stay here because its better for the kids + there is coral right off the beach.

2005-12-16T05:19:00.000-08:00

View of Amed.

The last two days in Tauch were highlighted by the kids’ snorkeling, but we saw a big stormfront move in each night, high tides, big waves, lots of rain. The day we left dawned drizzly and overcast, no sun.

We asked at Tauch how much a ride is to Amed (about 20km), they said $15/person, then $15 for all of us. Not good enough though. I went out on the street and shopped for transport, arranged for $8 ride with a nice driver, Wayan. He picked us up at 11am after spending the morning in the pool with the kids, and drove us to Amed. Very dramatic change in terrain. Very steep hills, larger boulders in the fields, road is narrower. We are definitely in the sticks. Still drizzling, the village of Amed is large mud puddles and dumpy storefronts with lots of garbage. Garbage stands out in the dim overcast light, it probably looks nicer in the sun. Lots of signs for paradisical tourist bungalows, but its clear there are no tourists now and that most are not open. Driver tells us how most drivers would just let us out here in Amed, not take us to where we really want to go, which is another 5-10 km to Pemlikan, where the good hotels and snorkeling is.

2005-12-16T05:16:00.000-08:00

The nightly gauntlet back to Tauch from Mimpy. The waves crashing against the seawall in moonlight. Here we're about to attempt the most trecherous part, took the photo in case wayan didn't make it.

2005-12-16T05:15:00.000-08:00

Tauch Terminal is well run, but is really configured for german package dive tourists. Nice room, nice grounds, well run, but the restaurant prices are in dollars and are exorbitant by Indonesian standards. And the menu is boring to the point of being inedible. Why pay so much for such boring food? At least its safe, I guess.

Anyway, I went up and down the beach, checking out all the restaurants. One stood above the others, Mimpy. No guests, restaurant always empty, but the food was good and the prices were lower than Tauch. We made a deposit arrangement with them. I gave them a $100 bill as collateral while we ate there without paying with Rupia. When we leave we charge the entire sum on Visa and get the $100 bill back. This saves us from having to change money in such a small town, and keep our Rupia for local purchases at the small markets.

2005-12-16T05:14:00.000-08:00

Post snorkle wind-down.

2005-12-16T05:12:00.000-08:00

Wayan swimming with dad (better than walking on that beach in bare feet.)

2005-12-16T05:11:00.000-08:00

Yes, dad wore lots of sunscreen.

2005-12-16T05:09:00.000-08:00

Niels out with dad.

2005-12-16T05:08:00.000-08:00

Then back to the beach I take Niels out. He LOVES it. Tons of fishies. “Some were blue and some were all colors. There was one coral on the sand. Didn’t see a Nemo. It was good.” Found the cuttlefish hole, tried to show him the cuttlefish, but he wouldn’t come out, then the chop got to Niels and filled his snorkel so I zoomed him back to the beach.

Pretty cool to see that little guy snorkeling in the ocean! Such a trooper! Especially because he doesn’t know how to swim yet!

2005-12-16T05:06:00.000-08:00

Wayan psyched about the shark book, niels I think is going for the unprotected juice.

2005-12-16T05:05:00.000-08:00

Niels won't take the snorkle and mask off, hes afraid his brother will steal them.

2005-12-16T05:04:00.000-08:00

Two boys swimming in the pool.

2005-12-16T05:03:00.000-08:00

Back at the pool I rigged Niels up with the new mask and a snorkel. He was resistant to assistance, and went away from us wearing the mask and floaty-suit. I watched him over by the steps. He was experimenting with the snorkel. First he sat on the steps and put his face in, practiced breathing. Then he floated on his tummy holding onto the step. He did that 4-5 times, coming up and wiping his mouth each time, and letting his dad readjust the mask each time. He’d alternate from being alone, practicing, to instantly demanding my help with the mask or snorkel. Finally he repeated his stair exercise, but let go of the steps for a split second, then a second, then tried paddling backwards and then forwards back to the step. He was totally teaching himself. Was great to watch. Within an hour he was out away from the steps. Then swimming across the shallow end, then swimming across the 3meter-deep deep end. Wow. At that point wayan was afraid to swim across the deep end.
Maybe Niels wants to see the fishys too? “Yes!” So next day we get everyone ready, walk down the beach to where the wreck it. I take Wendy out, she is still scared to look over the edge of the hull. Lots of divers down there, so no big fish. I take wayan and Julia out. We swim the full length of the ship this time, but don’t see much new on the ship. On the way back though, while I’m waiting for wayan to clear his snorkel for the 27th time (holding onto me while I float), I see a brown cloud move across the rocks, then settle down into the rocks. After its gone I realize its an octopus. Cool. I wait by the rocks, sure enough out comes a tentacle, two big eyes blinking. Then it zooms across the rocks like a cloud, beautiful! When it reaches its choice rock it instantly changes its color and shape to match a barnacled rock. Cool! Not an octopus. Cuttlefish! When it swims back to its house its tenticles are bright blue. Wayan and I watch for a while, but the cuttlefish is wary of us and won’t come out. I try to remember where the cave is, and mark the spot on shore where I am.

2005-12-16T05:02:00.000-08:00

At Tauch I went to work with Wayan, practicing snorkeling with him. He did well enough in the pool that I took him out to see the fish. Of note was Niels’ sincerity in also wanting to see the fish. He was constantly stealing the mask and snorkel to try it out, but needed help since the mask didn’t fit well.

I went out again in the afternoon, this time going east to see the wreck. Better snorkeling this way, in my opinion. Didn’t really know where the wreck was, supposedly about 25 meters offshore, so I kept to the deep water, so long as I could see the bottom. Kinda scary not seeing clearly. Feeling exposed over blue water. Not finding the ship, looking, kicking, then suddenly there was a craggy steel wall covered in coral and fish, only 6 feet away and projecting up to within 3 feet of the surface. Shit! Cruised around it, saw lots of fish. Also spotted a few divers down in the wreck itself. One cool thing is to be above the large bubbles they emit. The bubbles are silver and reflect the sky. If you’re right above it you can see your reflection so clearly.
Waited around for a while, the fish out there follow you around like dogs. Unnerving to have one so close when you turn your head. They’re about 2 feet long?

I practiced with Wayan, and concluded that the snorkel was a bonafide piece of shit. Walked into town with the hope of finding a good used one. First 3 places wouldn’t sell, but the local restaurant had a cabinet full of snorkeling equiptment, and seemed eager to sell. I pawed through them, picked a couple viable ones and asked how much. $15/snorkel. Seemed fair to me given their fine condition, and an assurance that I could return them for a working replacement if I had any trouble. I asked about the masks, $30. Since I had Niels with me, I went through them all, testing them with his face. Found one that was unusually small, seemed to fit Niels! Rare for a pro-quality silicone diving mask. I talk them down to $20 for the mask.

Back at the pool the mask is a hit with both wayan and niels, so are the snorkels. Wayan does great with the combination. Next morning, before breakfast, Wayan and I hit the ocean after a quick final practice in the pool. Wayan wears his floaty-suit and did great. He was astonished by seeing so many fish so quickly. I took him from in front of the hotel, all the way up the beach to the wreck. Its fun to approach the wreck from the beach-side. A wall of coral on the exposed side of the ship, then across the top of the ship to see down the long deck of the ship that extends down into the dark. Since it was 7am, there were no divers out yet. Way down in the dark I made out the shapes of some big fish, three humphead. To my eyes they were about 6 feet long, but tall and wide too. Massive, maybe 300-400 pounds. At that point wayan had trouble with his snorkel, the chop was picking up, so we headed back. Wayan didn’t see the humpheads.

On the way back we saw a little moray eel swimming over the rocks. He spotted us and backed down into the rocks to wait for us to leave. He was about 2 feet long, reddish brown with blue spots. Little beady eyes were very attentive. Occasionally a larger fish would pass by, he would rub his jaw against it, but not take his eyes off us. We circled, and the eel swivled and maneuvered to watch us, little mouth opening and closing. To wayan this was cooler than the wreck.

2005-12-16T05:01:00.000-08:00

Man on beach at Tulamben trying to sell me a blow gun. Hey? Maybe I need one? Yes?!

2005-12-16T04:59:00.000-08:00

Niels with a face full of wave.

2005-12-16T04:58:00.000-08:00

Tulamben play group. Note cactus in background. Not a lot of rain here.

2005-12-16T04:56:00.000-08:00

I went out the day after arriving. Beach is of black rounded pumice stones, about 3-6 inches across. A little hard to walk on, but not terrible. Straight away I see fish. In 3 feet of water there are 1 foot long fish, and little yellow and black crabs about 4 inches across. In 6 feet, still pumice stones, I see spots of coral, and deeper there is more coral, more fish, schools of silver fish, parrotfish, angelfish, little blue ones, big yellow and black ones. Wow. I head along the shore to the east, towards mimpy and it clears out into a deep sandy bowl. Wendy had been out previously and said she saw some 3-4 foot long fish, so I kept my eyes out. There was a big fish! Looking more carefully, it was a 5-6 foot blacktip shark weaving its way efficiently into deeper water, away from me. A beauty. Also saw a ray digging its way along in the mud. In front of Mimpy there are cages similar to what we saw in Pemuteran. I don’t find them so attractive, but saw a large parrotfish who’d made one of the upsidedown bowls his home. I didn’t mention the shark to anyone except the diving instructors at the restaurant. Didn't want to scare the kids out of some snorkling...

2005-12-16T04:54:00.000-08:00

Here're were seen enjoying our complementary welcome drinx at Tauch Terminal. Behind is the ultra-delux room that we stayed in.

Tulamben is a tiny, poor little town. Looks to have grown up because of the shipwreck. In WWII a Japanese submarine torpedoed the USS Liberty, a us navy transport, while it was at anchor in a harbor. Noone was killed, the ship was damaged but not sunk. It was towed to Singaraja, but the harbor was too full to unload the liberty, so they beached it here at Tulamben and manually unloaded the supplies, with the intention of repairing it later. We’ll, time passed, the war ended, the ship was up on the beach. Then in 1962 gunung agung erupted, the lava reached the ship and pushed it out into the ocean. Lava probably didn’t help the local agriculture either.

Anyway, 150meter long ship is now on its side in between 15-20 meters of water, meaning that until recently its bow and stern showed above the water. All that iron acts as a reef, promotes coral growth, causes the ship to become festooned with fish, and that attracts divers. The divers need food, new facemasks, fins, oxygen tank refills, beds, ect, so the town now sports many hotels for divers.

The first we visited was Mimpy (Balinese for dream.) Being low season, they had no guests. Their standard room wasn’t so great and was $80/night! The bungalows were $100+, and they wouldn’t move much on the price (just 20%). Oh well. I’d have stayed in a bungalow for $50.
We visited a few others recommended by our driver. The rest were geared toward diving, with prominently 3meter deep swimming pools (for instruction and testing), and lots of large rectangular tiled baths for cleaning diving gear. The prices ranged from $10 to $25 for these spots, but they were kinda, sorta really dirty. Finally visited Tauch Terminal. You can look it up on the internets. A german diver resort francise. They had guests, and a nice room on the grass with ocean view, hot water, ac, etc, for $64. They also wouldn’t move on the price, but it was the nicest spot yet, and did I mention that they had guests, books to read, and clearly were the only folks in town with diving business.

At the lesser hotels the room rate depended on whether you’d go diving with them. Diving support is the lifeblood of this town. Room rates pale in comparison to a single piece of diving gear, so that’s the focus.

Only Tauch and Mimpy had swimmable pools, that was necessary for the kids.

2005-12-16T04:53:00.000-08:00

Turns out the scenery changes near tulamben. Dramatic erosion, large bounders and torn foundations litter the road. Lots of signs of flash floods, very dry so no rice. The “rivers” we passed were all dry, but were places where the water flow had worn through the meter thick layer of volcanic accumulation (cemented ash, I think), and then formed a deep sharp channel underneath. Lots of places where it overran its banks though, and lots of big round boulders choking the riverbottoms. Entire place is one big, steep floodplane coming down from volcanos. The worst terrain is where two floodplains meet.

Anyway, not a place for sissys. Tough farming, hot, and lots of natural disasters. And roughly one large boulder every square meter. The walls of stones next to the cleared fields are awesome. Hope the snorkeling is good.

2005-12-16T04:52:00.000-08:00

We hired the Aditya hotel driver to take us to Hero sports in Singaraja, then onward to tulamben. Regular rate was 250,000 for the trip, but I told him I wouldn’t pay more than 150,000 (since transport is easy to obtain on the street), and he got the hotel management to accept it. This is for 5 people plus baggage for a 2.5 hour trip + 2 hours looking at each hotel. Not cheap for Bali, but it’s a good car and a known driver.
Stopped at Hero Sports in Singaraja, a dingy Chinese-run sports store, crammed with all sorts of different western sports equipment. I bought wayan a mask and snorkel, the mask wasn’t bad, but the snorkel was pretty darn cheap looking.

2005-12-16T04:50:00.000-08:00

We left Aditya with heavy heart. We’ll miss that green grass, fresh coconuts, great ocean view. Same morning as we prepared to leave we met the first traveling child of our trip, a brit mom and her daughter Eva, age 7. Turns out Eva is a big Wallace and Grommet fan, has a legit british accent to bring authenticity to her imitations. Wayan and her take turns saying “Nice bit of Wenslydale”, etc. She swam with Wayan and Niels for a few hours before we left. They are having a whirlwind 5 day tour of Bali, so have no time. They opted against the dolphin cruise because of what lonely planet says, in my opinion it doesn’t represent low season. We did convince stubborn eva to practice with her fins so she could go snorkeling. Excellent swimmer, but didn’t want to use the snorkel.

2005-12-16T04:48:00.000-08:00

Where are these kids parents? Here are two little boys frolicking at Lovina at low tide.

2005-12-16T04:46:00.000-08:00

Here is Eric feverously trying to change the channel. He is feeling sick and sunburned, and wants to be left alone. Recovery was quick.

2005-12-16T04:42:00.000-08:00

Rainy season? That means its mango season. Here we are attacked by the fearsome mangosaurous. Never tasted a fresh mango? It sends a shiver down your spine. Haven't had one in the states, but they grow on trees here!

2005-12-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

And another of Niels with coconut.

2005-12-10T23:24:00.000-08:00

Niels a proud father. He spoke of smuggling one back to Beaux Arts to grow his own tree.

2005-12-10T23:23:00.000-08:00

And wendy got one too.

2005-12-10T23:19:00.000-08:00

Security personel have been kept busy supplying coconuts to the kids. They clear them from the trees so the kids won't get cracked in their coconuts with a coconut.

2005-12-10T23:17:00.000-08:00

What still remains outside my reach is a shot of Julia, Wayan and Niels all smiling and looking at the camera and not blinking. I am starting to think that this never happens; subconsciously they are wired together, and that their 6 eyes can't all look at the same spot, some sort of group survival trait?

2005-12-10T23:16:00.000-08:00

Wayan dressed himself for breakfast today with newly laundered clothes.

2005-12-10T23:14:00.000-08:00

We did finally obtain new shoes for Niels in Singaraja. Magnatic clasps like Wayans. Niels didn't make it home and slept until the next morning.

2005-12-10T23:13:00.000-08:00

This guy hauled ass in traffic, passed us at a busy traffic roundabout. We finally caught him about a mile down the road.

2005-12-10T23:12:00.000-08:00

Wayan in SingaRaja, thinking whistfully of the chrismas to come.

Yesterday I went in search of fins/mask and snorkle for wayan. Hired a driver and we went to 11 different places in Lovina and Singaraja. Can't find any fins that fit. We were pretty lucky to be able to rent in Pemuteran. Community consensus was that we could definitely find some in Denpasar, but that’s too far away for me. On Monday I'll go pick up a mask and snorkel, I delayed buying any for hope for a package deal. Good news is that I found some reasonably priced fins that fit me, my 5 year old rubber ones have shunk, kill my feet, and finally the heel ripped out of one (they were too tight).

Laptop and Camera are really the ticket for travel. Pretty cool to be able to take as many pictures and you want! I click feverishly all day, throw away the bum shots at night. I'm left with a pretty thorough record of the trip in the form of 1800 pictures taking 10 billion bytes, roughly the same as 60 rolls of film. Especially essential for people shots, since I usually only get the one shot I wanted when I click 5-15.

2005-12-10T23:11:00.000-08:00

Street view of busy metropolis of Singaraja (Lion King).

2005-12-10T23:10:00.000-08:00

And another of Niels with new shoes, stomping down the street.

2005-12-10T23:08:00.000-08:00

Of course Niels could barely walk in them, but looking fine.

2005-12-10T23:07:00.000-08:00

Shop owner was quite a character. Had kids the same age.

2005-12-10T23:06:00.000-08:00

Niels came to town with no shoes, his old ones were too small and gave him blisters. Here he is after obtaining a temporary pair of flipper-floppers from a local store. Idea was to tide him over until we could get him to a proper store in SingaRaja.

2005-12-10T23:04:00.001-08:00

Niels deciding he needs some hugs from dad (at the thai place).

2005-12-10T23:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we got off the bemo in the middle of Lovina. There is a nice upscale backpacker area with good restaurants (and nearly western prices for food, ok, maybe 50% of western but still super expensive.) We had good Thai food, I had steamed Marlin from the local market, with light lemongrass/tamarind/chili sauce. Kids Monstered their Phad Thai, Julia had cashew chicken, which she said wasn't so good.

2005-12-10T23:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning we awoke early at 5:30 to go on a dolphin cruise. Actually pretty good compared to some guidebook accounts. I was expecting the wild west, with 125 speedboats all following the dolphins at harassing distances. Reality was 12 outrigger canoes with small engines, very slow. Dolphins come close if they want to, and they mostly did. The guides are fisherman out to catch tuna, they follow the dolphins who are following the tuna. Tuna can jump pretty far and high when its being chased by a hungry dolphin. A few of the larger dolphins put on jumping exhibitions that remind one of sea-world. Amazing jumps with 3-4 complete rolls, tail walking, etc. It must have a reason because I doubt the fisherman taught them. I think they are just showing off because they learned that the tourists like it. We also saw mother and child swimming very close, usually touching, with the baby about the size of a big salmon, and looking very slippery. Smaller than Niels for sure. Julia got quite a bit on tape, until the battery ran out, so back in seattle we can all enjoy a dolphin show.

Wayan and I were in one boat, Wendy, Julia and Niels were in the other. Wayan and Neils wore their floaty-suits, which are not easy to get into when the child is cooperating, very difficult when they're asleep. Wayan and I had one of the best guides, kept his distance and watched, then slowly maneuvered to where the tuna were going. We were often surrounded by 30-50 breaching dolphins, large jumps all around us, both dolphin and tuna, and a groups of small silver fish that seemed to skip across the surface of the water touching every 20 feet or so (flying fish?)

Yesterday we got off the bemo in the middle of Lovina. There is a nice upscale backpacker area with good restaurants (and nearly western prices for food, ok, maybe 50% of western but still super expensive.) We had good Thai food, I had steamed Marlin from the local market, with light lemongrass/tamarind/chili sauce. Kids Monstered their Phad Thai, Julia had cashew chicken, which she said wasn't so good.

Sorry, didn't bring my camera, was expecting to get wet. Was calm like a swimming pool, so would not have been a problem. Terrific views of Bali when out on the water, nice sunrise.

2005-12-10T22:59:00.000-08:00

View of the sunken bar at Aditya. From this you'd think the hotel was nasty, but its actually pretty nice. The grounds are beautiful. Note Wayan is wearing his new shoes, they have a magnet clasp, and are convertible into flip-flops.

2005-12-10T22:58:00.000-08:00

Wayan getting stationary supplies on the third floor of the Singaraja Hardy's.

2005-12-10T22:57:00.000-08:00

It was tough work finding fast internet, but we eventually did at Twighlight Internet, across the alley from Hardy's the Indonesian shopping megaplex (3 floors of bored salespeople, no ac)