Desert Mandala: Life In Central Australia

gadget December 21st, 2008

Well the year is nearly over. Frustratingly, my job is still in limbo with no clear direction as to where I’ll be and what I will be doing 6 months from now. I have enjoyed the challenge of managing one of the Territory’s iconic parks and have gained much experience in dealing not only with my staff but the broader corporate and tourism sectors. Personally it has been a good year with our trip to Bali in April, where again, much fun was had and prompted me to purchase another toy for the garage.

• Bali , Bemusing , Kings Canyon , corporate culture , fun
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gadget April 12th, 2008

We’re back at home after our epic flight (!) from Bali to Darwin, a five hour wait in Darwin airport from 1.30am to 5.45am, and then a two-hour flight back to Alice Springs. We were, to say the least, STUFFED. We’re both still recovering. Next time (yes, there will be yet another sojourn to Indonesia), I think we’ll fly straight to Denspasar and then spend a couple of days in Darwin at the end of the holiday.

At any rate, I’ve started to update the blog with photos. Please scroll down and check the posts below, starting from those written pre-Bali, for photos of our Chinese Silky Chickens (we now have 5), the Knob-Tailed Gecko and Perentie, and shots of Redbank Gorge at Easter. I’ll be putting the Bali shots up over the next few days and adding detail/fixing typos on the posts I wrote whilst in-situ. given the prevalance of free Wi-fi hotspots in Bali, next time we will take the PDA and I can go for broke whilst sitting in Kafe enjoying my iced tea!

Otherness

There’s a bit of blog maintenance that needs to be done, so over the next few weeks I will be:

• updating the blogroll
• adding a ‘Climbing Mt Zeil’ instruction page - apparently, we have a reputation to maintain 
• encoraging Gadget to write a few posts

So a little bit of work to be done here.

Please check back every day or so over the next week for our improved posts and Bali photos.

• Bali , coffee & raisin toast
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Amanda April 8th, 2008

Hi,

It’s us again, this time back in Ubud after our to sojourn to the tip of Lombok (the  island next to Bali).

We travelled from Candidasa on Friday to Padangbai, the main ferry port for travel between Bali and Lombok, and then got on a boat to Gili Air, a very small island off the north western tip of Lombok. The trip was pretty good across the Lombok Strait -which is about 30km wide. We saw lots of flying fish, two Pilot Whales, and a few dolphins. The trip took about 4 and a half hours.

We arrived at Gili Air about 7pm and went off and found a hotel. It wasn’t the best maintained hotel, but it was clean and the staff were friendly. We stayed therefor three nights. Most of the time we spent cycling or snorkelling or just chilling out. There are no cars or motorbikes on any of the three Gilis – just bicycles and cidomo -horse drawn carts. We cycled around the entire islan in less than an hour! Apparently, it only takes an hour and a half to walk.

We can recommend the Blue Marlin Dive Centre for great helpful service and free boat rides to other Gilis for snorkelling. Again, the snorkelling was wonderful and we saw so many amazing tropical fish… and green sea turtles.

After three peaceful days, we returned to Bali. This time, we had to catch a small boat across to Bangsli in Lombok, then travel by bus to the very beautifal town on Senggigi, and get on the boat back to Padangbai. This took about 3 and a half hours, then we returned to Ubud by bus.

This morning we went to the Bali Bird Park which is just incredible – we saw three different kinds of bird feeding displays and Komodo Dragon feeding. If you’re going to Ubud you have to see this place! We had Birds of Paradise hopping over us to eat and got to hold Brahminy Kites and owls.

This afternoon we have been shopping, with the obligatory trip to the Ubud markets. Tomorrow is our last day in Bali and we fly out to Darwin at 9.15pm.

Perhaps more tomorrow.

• Bali
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Amanda April 3rd, 2008

I’m writing from Candidasa, which is on the eastern tip of Bali, a small seaside resort town, quite chilled and relaxed.

I haven’t written for a few days because there was either a slow internet connection or no internet connection where we were. But anyway, here’s an update on what we’ve been doing.

On Sunday we travelled from Ubud to Lovina via a Perama shuttle bus. Perama is a tourist company, and we were surprised to discover that our ticket not only included lunch, but also one night’s  accommodation in a simple losmen (motel). It wasn’t flash but for an extra $3 AUD we got a room with hot water and air con and decided to stay there one night. The following night we stayed at Gede’s Homestay (recommended in Lonely Planet) which also very inexpensive and quite nice.

Lovina is a fairly chilled out place, mainly oriented towards diving and snorkelling and general relaxing. So, unlike Ubud, there isn’t many shops to buy things. What is in Lovina, however, are a number of persistant hawkers near the dolphin monument (you can also go dolphin watching) who can be very annoying. Right on the beach, there are a number of very nice restaurants and bars to relax in and just watch the sea, the local fishing boats and catch glimpses of volcanoes on nearby Java.

Whilst in Lovina we hired a motor bike and rode 40km west to Permuteran, a renowned diving and snorkelling village, to check it out. As I’ve never been this far west in Bali before, it was great to have the motor bike to give you the freedom from hawkers and ability to check out sights and places of interest. We looked at a couple of really flash and expensive (US $110 per night) hotels, and then found Reef Seen Diving Resort.

Reef Seen is run by an Aussie ex-pat, Chris Brown, and is a unique place that is both community and conservation oriented. It has its own website: www.reefseen.com  – check it out. After seing the room – it had an amazing outdoor bathroom- we decided we’d stay 2 nights and booked in. The following morning we rode back up to Permuteran with our gear and then chilled out. We met up with Pete  and Ursula, an awesome couple, who we hung out with and chatted to for hours.  The next day, we went diving.

I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to dive, given my history with sinus, but after a few ups and downs to equallize my ears, I was fine. Gary and I spent an hour or so exploring the amazing repaired and recently established reefs just in front of our accommodation. It was like being inside an aquarium full of tropical fish. The diversity of fish was just astounding – words won’t do it justice. Our dive went down to a depth of 7.5 metres not very deep, but deep enough for us first-timers. I can see why so many of our friends are hooked on diving.

After our dive, we went snorkelling in the shallow waters which was almost as good. We saw so many different coloured fish and corals and electric-blue star fish.

Yesterday, after checking out of Reef Seen, we braved a long-distance bemo ride from Lovina to Candidasa. It took about 4 hours. It was ok for little me, in the bemo -which is a mini-bus- but poor Gary was a bit squashed and his bum got very sore.

We arrived in Candidasa about 3.30pm and are now staying at Kelapa Mas in a huge bungalow which has its own TV – kinda fun watching very bad Indonesian TV.

Today we hired another motor bike and went off cruising around. For some reason no one seemed to understand, there was a shortage of petrol in all the service stations, so we had to buy some from one of the many shops that sell it at a slightly higher price.

We cruised through some amazing scenery today: Tirta Gangga, a water palace built by the last king of Karengsam, the Amed coast – amazing fishing villages that now cater for diving and snorkelling. Again, we’ll have to post some photos as words don’t do it justice.

This afternoon we booked our tickets to go to Gili Air, a small island off the north-western coast of Lombok. We’ll be over there tomorrow night, staying for three nights, before heading back to Ubud for our last three days… 

• Bali
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Amanda March 28th, 2008

This is our bag for three weeks away. That’s right- both of us have our belongings packed in this bag.

Hey there, 

We’re in Ubud, Central Bali, on the second day of our holiday here. We had a good flight on Air North from Darwin – they give you HUGE meals!! The flight from Darwin to Denpasar only takes 2 1/2 hours. We arrived in Bali at 8.30pm local time, and then went straight up to Ubud (about an hour away from the airport).

We’re staying at Ananda Cottages again where we stayed last year. We’ve also hired a motorbike – just like last year. Yesterday we spent the day chilling out around Ubud: going to Kafe, looking at shops (but not buying anything), and eating. We saw the most amazing electric blue kingfisher with a red beak, and from our second-storey bungalow set amongst the rice paddies, watched a squirrel build its nest. Last night I did a yoga class (Yin/Restorative) at the Yoga Barn. It was ok, except for the mosquitoes! Actually, the woman teaching should come and do Sally Mumford’s classes in Alice Springs to get some idea on how to cue more precisely for beginners. It was a little annoying to hear incessantly: ‘… feel energy flow into the meridians and connective tissues’ as opposed to ‘…externally rotate your upper thigh…’

Today we’ve been off exploring on the motorbike. We went up through Tampaksiring (where the Water Temples are) and halfway to Kintamani via the tiniest back roads we could find. We weren’t really lost (much). After dodging school children, dogs, chickens and potholes, we found our way back onto a main road and came back down to Ubud via Tegalalang where the amazing rice terraces and world’s most persistant hawkers are (you want sarong? Only one dollar…). It doesn’t matter how much you say tidak mau (I don’t want it), they just don’t BLOODY LISTEN!

The cafe on the edge of the rice terraces

At any rate, we hid in a picturesque cafe perched on the side of the terraced rice fields (which had one of the cleanest toilets I’ve seen anywhere) and enjoyed the view and the coffee. Then it was back on the bike and down to Ubud for lunch at Dewa’s Warung in a side lane. Very very good and very very cheap.

We’re just filling in time now before we dive into Ubud’s main market for a bit of retail therapy and some more harrassment.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Lovina on the bus, so I will write more when we get there.

Namaste

• Bali
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gadget March 26th, 2008

Hi all,

I’m writing from Darwin on our way to Bali. We had a good Easter out at Ormiston Gorge, complete with an amazingly large Knob-Tail Gecko sandwiched in Gary’s front door (but alive), and an ever-visiting Perentie. Here’s the Knob-Tailed Gecko as we found it, sandwiched between the flyscreen door and the wooden front door, and the stalking perentie:

This is the Knob-Tail Gecko in Gary’s hand to give you an idea of how big they are:

We also went to Redbank Gorge and swum up the gorge using tubes. This is an amazing and permanent waterhole in the West Macs, and has one of the best camping areas in the NT. It’s right at the foot of Mt Sonder, too.

Last night we had dinner with Simon and out of the blue I created a label for myself and others like me: ADVENTURE GEEK. Syme is getting his brother to draw up a cartoon logo of an adventure geek. I’ll define this term later, as this is just a quick blog update while we’re waiting for Andy to arrive and go out to lunch.

I did try to find a geocache near Stokes Hill Wharf, but ended up tearing my skirt on a random piece of reo hiding in the scrub. Didn’t find the cach and now Gary thinks I am some kind of uber-nerd!

Oh well…

We’re flying out at 7.30pm tonight, so my next log on will be from Ubud.

Talk soon

• Bali , coffee & raisin toast , geekdom
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Amanda June 13th, 2007

Following the excitement of the Monkey Forest, we got very brave in the Bali traffic and went up to Tampaksiring (about 18km north of Ubud). We decided to visit the water temples there called Tirta Empul. The spring from which the water flows is sacred, and is believed to have magical and spiritual cleansing properties. You can go for a cleansing bath to rid yourself of your sins and misdemeanors in one of the 9 temples there, but Gary & I wussed out. Instead, we observed local customs, donned saris and did the gawky tourist thing instead.

After Tirta Empul, we were back on the bike and off to the Elephant Cave – Goa Gajah, just down the hill at nearby Gianyar. The cave was discovered in 1923 by Dutch archaeologists and has been dated to the Majapahit period in Bali which is about the 11th Century CE. We were lucky enough to be guided around by an archaeology student called Putuh, who gave us a wonderful extended tour and was almost late for class. Here’s us at the mouth of the Elephant Cave.

And here is the fountain of youth. Which of course we drank from and now are going backwards in age.

Here’s a few more of the river valley around Goa Gajah. You can see the relics have been uncovered and there’s still a fair bit of digging going on. There’s a large archaeological museum and college nearby.

On our way back to the scooter, we came across some boys who wanted us to take their photo. So we did. And we showed them. And they thought it was hilarious.

Here’s a photo of the traffic we were riding around in.

Scooters R Us.

And me at Café. Yes, the café’s name was Café and it quickly became our favourite haunt after every day’s adventure. Ok. And before everyday’s adventure, too.

• Bali
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Amanda June 11th, 2007

I know, I know … it’s Tuesday and I haven’t put up anything else on our Bali trip. Well, I am the evil Fairy Godmother from Shrek (yes, the Jennifer Saunders version) and I’m here to put a smile on your dial and make those wishes for more Bali blah blah and happily-ever-afters come true!

On our second day in Ubud, the intrepid Gadgetman decided it would be a good idea to hire a motor bike to get around. This solves the problem of constant “you want taxi?” that you get from the many sadly underemployed people who own cars and other vehicles in Bali. It also saves me from having to repeat endlessly: tidak mau (don’t want it) or sudah habis (already have it).

On this note, Australian tourists were the main form of employment for Balinese people until the bombings occurred several years ago, and now there are hardly any Australians in Ubud at all. Whilst staying there, we met French, German, Japanese and Americans – but hardly any other Australians. When I first went to Ubud in 1996, the streets were packed with tourists – it was like the centre of Sydney at lunchtime. I went back to Ubud in February 2005 (after the first Bali bombing in late 2004) and couldn’t believe the difference … a few Australians, but more like a country town at lunch time. This time, it was like a ghost town (at lunch time, even). If you’re thinking about going to Bali, just go. It’s safe, the Balinese love Australians (their sense of humour is just like ours), they adore kids, it’s cheap, it’s beautiful, the food is fantastic. It’s an easy way to see another very different culture and not get culture shock. Damn it, just go!

(If you don’t want to go, send me the money and I’ll go for you).

Back to the motorbike … actually, it was a large motor scooter – about 100CC- and gave us the freedom to whizz about everywhere. It cost us $7.50 AUD per day. And yes, on the subject of motorbikes, some of you will know that I’m a bit of a chicken when it comes to riding these as a pillion passenger – even with a very experienced rider like Gary (although Gary is a hoon and that was what I was afraid of). When I first got on, I hung on like grim death – knees gripping his sides and hanging on to his chest- but by the end of the day, I was totally relaxed. If you can ride a motorbike, I recommend it in Bali. There is no road rage, and what might appear to be chaos very quickly becomes orderly – people are ultra-polite and give way to each other.

If you can’t ride a motorbike, be warned: Bali is not the place to learn to ride.

So, on our scooter, we set off for our first day’s activities. Gary wanted to see the Monkey Forest (there are about three monkey forests in Bali) which is at the bottom of … you guessed it, Monkey Forest Road. We reached the gates, paid our money to go in and bought the obligatory bag of bananas from some street vendors. At the gate was this enterprising monkey (left picture, below) hoping to score from tourists with burgeoning bags of bananas (try saying that fast). Which of course, he did.

The monkeys that live in the forest are Balinese macaques (Macaca fascicularis). Both the forest and monkeys are considered sacred according to Balinese Hindu traditions. About 300 macaques live in the monkey forest in several bands. There are about 95 females and 35 males and 170 juveniles. They have a complex matrilineal social structure, and after humans, are the most common primate on the planet. Needless to say, they are charming and intelligent and you could spend days watching them.

The monkey forest itself is a lush green tapestry of figs and other trees, creepers, and dense undergrowth. The forest contains three temples (all main Balinese villages contain three temples), built around the mid-14th Century. One of these temples is a funeral temple, with platforms for laying out of bodies for cremation, and nearby graves.

A number of paths connect the temples within the monkey forest, and are graced with carved stonework, pools and statues.

These are Komodo dragons, carved from stone:

And here’s a real skink, species unknown:

And what would a trip to the Monkey Forest be without more cute pictures of monkeys?

• Bali
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Amanda June 6th, 2007

Yes, we know. We’ve been slack. There are numerous excuses. I won’t bother listing them…
Oh ok. Maybe I will.
1. The firewall/virus checker thingy on Gary’s tablet won’t let you upload pictures to the blog easily.

2. The thesis. (Don’t ask. Please.)

3. Rainbow Valley AGM

4. Managing people and parks

Anyway. Here’s a bit of the blah blah from Bali. It seems like a long time ago that we went now. For those of you who’ve forgotten, we went in early April because I didn’t want to be in country from my 40th bithday. It was Gary’s first time in a non-first world country. Although we went to Bali we did not:
1. Go to Kuta

2. Go to a resort

3. Go to a beach
Why?!? Cos we just have to be different.
We went to Ubud, which is about 60km north-west of Denpasar, and up in the highlands. We stayed at Ananda Cottages, where I’ve stayed three times before. (It also makes it easy that I can speak Indonesian).
So here we are. This is Ananda Cottages. Well, part of it. This is the building we stayed in. Our first room was downstairs. It was way too big and I was viciously attacked by mozzies. So we moved upstairs in the same building to a room with a mozzie net. Please note that Gary got not one mozzie bite!

Ananda Cottages is about 2 km up the hill from Ubud in Campuhan (pronounced champ-U-wan). It’s set amongst the rice paddies (sawah) and is landscaped in such a way that it’s private and tranquil. Ananda often hosts yoga retreats and teacher trainings, and has its own yoga hall.
Here are a couple of other scenes from around Ananda.

As I don’t want to give you all the low down on our holiday at once, you’re going to have to have it in installments. (Actually, it’s because I’m doing this in my lunchbreak whilst writing my thesis and having a Body Attack launch this afternoon).

So I promise you more on Friday.

• Bali
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