Surf's Up!

As I mentioned last time, the main reason Anna and I went to Kuta was so I could take surfing lessons.  I’ve always wanted to try surfing but never really had the chance, so I had to take this opportunity to do it – and what better place than in Bali?  After checking out a few of the surf schools in Kuta, I decided on Odysseys Surf School, which was by far the cheapest and had great reviews.  I initially thought I’d just do one lesson, maybe one more if the first one went well – I ended up surfing three days in a row and wishing I could stay in Kuta longer to do more.

I signed up for a group class, but it ended up being more like private lessons, which was great.  On the first day, my group had six students – two couples, a Dutch guy, and me – and three Balinese instructors.  We began the lesson on the beach, learning the “theory” – mainly proper stance and how to go from lying on the board to standing up.  Then we headed for the waves.

I remember the beginning of my first day of snowboarding was pretty rough, as most people’s are, and I was expecting surfing to be about the same.  It was.  The first thirty minutes or so consisted almost exclusively of me getting slammed by waves, inhaling tons of saltwater, generally having no idea what was going on, and frankly kind of wanting to get out.  Fortunately, one of the instructors took me under his wing, and things started to get better.  That instructor was also working with the only other person doing the class alone – who then got hit in the face by his surfboard and had to get out.  So I ended up getting individual help, which I definitely needed.  I slowly started to get the idea of how things were supposed to work, and it got a lot more fun.  Then, very unexpectedly, I finally stood up on the board, at which point I decided surfing was completely awesome.  The feeling of actually standing up – and of not immediately falling off – absolutely shocked me.  By the end of class, I was having a blast and didn’t want to get out.

My arms and shoulders were pretty sore the next day, but I knew I wanted to try surfing again, and the second day ended up being even better.  I got to where I could stand up pretty consistently and generally had a really great time.

Not only was surfing itself great, though, but so were the people at the surf school.  They could actually tell the white people apart, and remembered me as “Jennifer,” not just as some muzungu.  On the second day, I couldn’t believe how many of the staff, even those I had barely talked to, greeted me by name when I walked in.  As I’ve complained about many times before, Rwandans called me “muzungu” every single day, even those who knew me and knew my name.  Having people, even people I barely knew, call me by name and treat me like an individual person was extraordinarily refreshing.

At the end of the second day, when I still wanted to keep going and Anna didn’t want to leave the beach anyway, we decided to stay an extra night in Kuta.  I surfed again the following day and, while the learning curve started to flatten out a bit of course, I made some more progress and had a great time.

In the end, I was sad to not know when I’ll be able to surf again, and also to leave the people at the surf school – people who treated me like an old friend and not like a zoo animal.  They reminded me that not every place is like Rwanda, which re-confirmed that I do still really love traveling, meeting new people, and learning about other cultures - something I had begun to doubt somewhat while living in Rwanda.

Some Ramblings about Kuta

After leaving Ubud, we headed to Kuta, a large beach town on the island’s southern edge.  Having heard mostly terrible things about Kuta – a town known for its surfing and nightlife, but also for its overdevelopment, excessive commercialization, and general obnoxiousness – we decided to go there solely because I wanted to take surfing lessons (more on that later), and Kuta is basically the only place they’re offered.  So, with low expectations – particularly on Anna’s part, since she wasn’t going to surf – we left the lovely town of Ubud.

Before arriving in Kuta, I’d heard other travelers who’d been there describe it as “crowded,” “intense, and “only good for a party,” and generally talk about how much they disliked it.  Maybe our expectations were so low that the reality was bound to be a pleasant surprise (or maybe it’s our standards that are too low), but it really was not bad.  Sure, it’s a tourist trap with tons of foreigners, and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted it to be my only destination in Bali, but being there for a few days wasn’t bad.

Had we gone straight to Kuta from Rwanda, I think we would have been extremely overwhelmed – by the number of Westerners, the revealing clothes, the level of development, the huge and fancy mall, and the generally availability of basically everything.  We were shocked by the presence of American restaurants, things that are certainly not in Rwanda and that we had sort of forgotten exist in other parts of the developing world – McDonald’s, Burger King, A&W, KFC, Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone, Haagen Dazs, Starbucks, The Coffee Bean – and multiples of most of them.  (As a side note, many of them, including McDonald’s, have a delivery service – usually done by motorcycle.)  We also saw Roxy, Billabong, and Quiksilver stores, which were not too surprising, given the town’s emphasis on surfing.  Stranger, though, were the Ralph Lauren Polo stores (no other Ralph Lauren lines, only stores selling specifically Polo) on basically every block.  There are at least as many stores in Ubud, and, having been in both towns for several days, I’ve yet to see a Balinese person wearing a Ralph Lauren polo – and what foreigner comes all the way to Bali and decides that’s what they want to buy?  I really can’t imagine why they’re here to begin with, how so many of them can possibly stay open, or why there aren’t any other similar stores.  But I digress.

Our hotel in Kuta, Hotel Lusa, wasn’t as completely awesome as the places we had previously stayed, but it was fine.  It was a bit cheaper than the one in Ubud, about $22/night for a double including breakfast, and that was with no discount.  We had a fan, an en-suite bathroom with a cold-water shower, and a patio; plus there was a pool, its the redeeming quality.  The breakfast didn’t include as much as at some places – there was fruit, toast with eggs or pancakes, and coffee, tea, or orange juice – but it was excellent (other than the fact that instead of butter, they use Indonesian Blue Band, which is somehow worse than Rwandan/Kenyan Blue Band).  As in other places we’ve been on Bali, both the Western and Balinese food was great everywhere in Kuta.

Visiting places outside of Bali’s touristy and commercial south coast is an absolutely must for any visit to the island.  But I’d say ignore the people who love to hate Kuta – it’s no different from touristy towns anywhere else, the beach is nice, there’s always a lot going on, and the surfing conditions are great for beginners.

Hiking and Biking

While staying in Ubud, I took a couple day trips to the volcanoes in Bali’s interior – the first to climb Mt. Batur and the second to do a bicycling tour.

People climbing Mt. Batur typically do it as a sunrise hike.  So, after going to bed the previous night at about 9:00, I woke up at 1:30am to wait for a driver to pick me up at the hotel.  We picked up three guys (one Slovakian, two British but living in Australia) staying at other hotels in Ubud, and were on our way to the volcano by around 2:30.  We drove for about an hour through the countryside before stopping for a breakfast of coffee (which, fortunately, was very strong) and banana pancakes.  A few minutes’ drive from there and we reached the bottom of the trail, starting the hike around 4:00.  It was really amazing to be hiking in the dark under the moon and stars, though of course it’s somewhat difficult to hike when you can’t really see where you’re going.  We used flashlights, but they didn’t always provide enough light to really tell where the trail was – all part of the adventure!  The hike was a bit more difficult than I was expecting, mainly because our guide was going faster than I would have preferred, which I’ve heard a lot of people who’ve done the hike complain about.  With the rate we were going, it only took about two hours to reach the top, and we got there just before 6:00, at which point it was still dark.  The view from the top was beautiful, though unfortunately I don’t think my pictures really did it justice.  The viewpoint on the top looked out over a lake and across to another volcano, Mt. Agung – it was a great backdrop to watch the sunrise and the gradual transition from darkness to daylight.  Seeing the beginning of a new day from the top of a volcano was very invigorating, and the gorgeous scenery of Bali’s interior made it even better.  Some time after the sunrise, and a breakfast (lunch?) of banana sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs, we headed down the mountain and drove back to Ubud – in time to continue the day with everyone else.

A few days later, I had the opportunity to go back to the volcanoes for a bike tour, which offered a different perspective on the same beautiful area.  After driving out of Ubud, we started the day with a breakfast of fruit, tea, coffee, and banana and chocolate pancakes – and a great view overlooking the volcanoes and the lake.  Our group – made up of travelers from all over, including a British girl living in New Zealand, three Germans teaching English in Thailand, and a Chilean couple on their honeymoon – had a fantastic and hilarious guide who explained more about Bali and Balinese culture in that day that I had learned in the previous week here.  During the bike ride, we stopped at a coffee farm, a family compound, a village “square,” and a rice paddy.  For me, seeing the compound and learning more about Balinese family structures and daily life was the highlight of the trip.  The ride had a few challenging moments, but was mostly downhill and very easy, as we had driven up into the mountains and then biked back down towards town.  Biking on small backroads in the interior of the island offered a chance to see much more rural and less touristy parts of Bali than I would have been able to see otherwise.  It really enhanced my experience here and gave me much more perspective on local realities.  After ending the tour at an amazing buffet, which included delicious tempeh and chicken satay (skewers of chicken served with peanut sauce), we headed back into Ubud, slightly sore but with a much better understanding of Bali.

Ubud - Bali's Cultural Capital

Though it’s neither the capital nor the biggest city, Ubud is the cultural center of Bali, and most visitors spend some time here.  The town, comprised of narrow streets lined with shops and restaurants, is bigger than I was expecting and has a lot going on.  Ubud has a lot of travelers, as well as ex-pats, from all over the world – I’ve heard most visitors to Bali are Australian, which means sense given its proximity, but the vast majority of people I’ve met so far have been European.  It seems there are hardly any Americans – actually, I think I’ve only heard American accents once.

Our hotel in Ubud, Nick’s Homestay, is very different from the one in Pemuteran, but just as great.  It’s basically an expanded version of a traditional Balinese compound – the family who owns the hotel lives in the compound’s front buildings, and the buildings in the back hold guest rooms.  Our double room is about $23/night – again with a discount – and has a patio, a fan, and an en-suite bathroom that sometimes has hot water.  Breakfast is included, and the hotel staff brings it to our patio each morning whenever we ask.  It’s usually tea, fruit, and a banana jaffle, which is basically two pieces of toast formed into a pocket and stuffed with a filling, like fruit, vegetables, eggs, cheese, or meat.

Since Ubud is the center of Bali’s tourism industry (and of its ex-pat scene, as far as we can tell), the town has a huge variety of amazing restaurants serving all kinds of Western food.  We decided this would be our time to indulge in all the things we missed in Rwanda and splurge on lots of nice meals out.  I’ve had humus, nachos, salads, a chicken quesadilla, Greek pizza, chicken and vegetable pizza, fettuccine with feta and veggies, spinach- and ricotta-stuffed tortellini with veggies, and gnocchi with pesto and chicken.  I’ve also tried Bali’s most common beers, Bintang and Bali Hai (I definitely preferred Bintang, but thought both were pretty good), as well as the local Hatten wine, which was really good, though a little odd in that the red was served chilled.  The restaurants in Ubud have been amazing, and exactly what we were hoping for coming from Rwanda, but I’m looking forward to eating lots more Indonesian food during the next portion of the trip.

In addition to great restaurants, Ubud is practically overflowing with cute shops selling all manner of clothes, accessories, décor, and other souvenirs.  I managed to limit my impulses somewhat, but did end up with a few things for myself and some gifts for people at home.  We also discovered an outlet store selling name brand stuff for really cheap – Abercrombie and Fitch, Ann Taylor, Express, Victoria’s Secret, Aeropostale, American Eagle, and more.  I got a cute White House Black Market top for $10!

Ubud is not only about consumption, though, it’s also about art.  There’s so much happening here and so many things available to visitors – multiple performances every single night and various types of classes, not to mention museums and temples.  We went to a shadow puppet – yes, shadow puppet – show one evening.  Shadow puppetry, known as wayang kulit, is a prominent feature of Balinese culture and tradition and has been recognized by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.  During the show, a puppeteer sits next to a lamp or flame behind a screen, and holds the puppets between the screen and flame to create a shadow.  I should note that these are typical puppets that you put your hand inside (nor is the show a person making shadow puppets with their hand, which was all I could think of before seeing it); they’re more like stiff paper dolls, with individual sticks controlling each limb.  The show told the story of man who offered to sacrifice himself for his people, but used his supernatural powers to overcome the demons fighting against him.  The experience of the show was pretty strange – and particularly incomprehensible to us since almost all the dialogue was in one of several Indonesian and Indian languages –  but it was really interesting, and, considering how important shadow puppetry is here, I’m really glad I got to see a show.

Another night, we attended a Balinese dance performance, which was also different than I had expected, but really cool.  Bali has three major types of dances, and the one was saw, Kecak, is known for its use of fire – a fire is lit the center of the stage at the beginning and burns throughout the show.  More than just dance, a kecak show is a combination of dance, dialogue, and music.  Actually, no instruments are used; rather, the men perform elaborate organized chanting, which sounds almost like instruments.  They sit in a circle around the fire throughout much of the show, while the other characters dance around them.  The show depicted a prince who must fight against a demon king to rescue his wife.  Dance is a huge part of Balinese culture, and it seems that kecak is the most popular form, so it was great to be able to see a performance.

Balinese cooking classes are also quite popular in Ubud, and we took a vegetarian course at a local restaurant.  We learned to make several dishes: a soup, a salad, vegetables with peanut sauce, tempeh with sweet soy sauce, tofu steamed in banana leaves, fried noodles, and Indonesian crepes.  I learned a lot about different spices, herbs, vegetables, and cooking techniques, and everything we made was absolutely delicious.  Most of the ingredients we used are at least somewhat available in the U.S., or have easy substitutions, and we got a recipe book at the end of the class, so I hope to make some Balinese food when I get home!

Another big activity in Ubud is going to the spa, which is great both for relaxing and for scrubbing off the African dirt!  In what was probably one of the most luxurious and indulgent days of my life, we purchased a package at the Jelatik Spa and spent about five hours having various treatments there.  And it all cost about $55 – the price of a single treatment at home!  In addition to a facial and pedicure, I had a hair cream bath, which seem to be popular here and is basically a deep cleaning shampoo and deep condition with steam, and the traditional lular treatment, which consists of a massage, body scrub, yogurt rub, soaking in a floral bath, and body lotion.  It was SO relaxing, and I feel cleaner than I’ve felt in two years – it was more than worth the $11 an hour!

First Stop - Pemuteran, Bali

I’m officially no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer, and I left Rwanda for good a little over a week ago. Maybe I should write more about how I’m feeling about all that, and maybe I will later, but for now, I want to talk about the trip! Anna, my good friend and fellow volunteer, and I decided to celebrate finishing Peace Corps with a backpacking trip in Southeast Asia, starting in Bali!

We left Kigali on Qatar Airways last Friday afternoon, spent Friday night in the lounge at the Doha airport, left for Bangkok on Saturday morning, spent Saturday night at a small hotel near the Bangkok airport, flew out of Bangkok early Sunday morning, arrived in Bali’s capital of Denpasar around noon, drove four hours across the island, and finally made it to our first destination – Pemuteran!

We went to Pemuteran, a small beach town on Bali’s north coast, on the advice of a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, who’d visited Bali before. A ways off the island’s main tourist track, the town of Pemuteran is essentially just some buildings along a small section of the main (but extremely narrow) road that runs along the north coast. The town pretty much consists of just that one road, lined with hotels and guesthouses, tiny warung restaurants, small shops, spas and salons, and a few street vendors. Hearing that Pemuteran was a quiet, laid-back place with nothing much to do besides lay at the beach or by a pool, we thought it would be the perfect first stop, a place for us to relax and finally decompress from the constant tension of living as Peace Corps Volunteers in Rwanda. The narrow, black-sand beach is perhaps not the most spectacular in the world, but it was gorgeous and great for sunbathing and swimming, and a few days of relaxing there was just what we needed.

Of course, one of the biggest things we noticed in Pemuteran was the lack of staring and pointing – we could walk down the road without causing a scene! People would typically look up to say hello, and children would sometimes wave, and then go about their business. It was a refreshing change, to say the least.

We stayed at the Kubuku Hotel, which was wonderful, especially considering – we got a discount since it’s the low season and we stayed five nights – it was only about $22/night for a double room. To us, the room was pretty fancy, with an en-suite bathroom with a cold water shower (it was hot enough that hot water really wouldn’t have been a benefit), really soft towels, a fan AND air-conditioner, and a patio with a view of the mountains. Breakfast was included, and each morning was a feast and with TONS of choices. Coffee or tea? Which of five different fruit juices? Eggs scrambled, fried, or in an omelet? Toast or pancake? Banana pancake, lemon pancake, pineapple pancake, or honey pancake? After trying the banana pancake, and discovering it was amazing, I had that with scrambled eggs, tea, and orange or watermelon juice the rest of the mornings. In addition to the included breakfast, and getting juice and fruit at check-in, we also got an afternoon snack each day. The hotel staff brought tea and fried bananas, egg rolls, or dadar galung on a tray to our patio each afternoon, so we could have it overlooking the courtyard at our convenience. The people at the hotel were so kind and friendly – clearly customer service is valued here! One night, while there was a ceremony going on down the street, one of the employees came to our room, extremely concerned that the noise was bothering us, and offered to let us leave our stuff but sleep in a different room that night. It really wasn’t that loud, and we opted to stay where we were, but the concern was very sweet.

We ate in a different warung every night, and the food was wonderful and cheap across the board, and often beautifully presented. All the dishes had lots of flavor and spices – which was a welcome change – and most came served with rice. Plates of chicken or vegetable curry or chicken skewers with peanut sauce ran about $3, and every meal was absolutely delicious. All in all, visiting Pemuteran made a wonderful beginning for our trip.

Thinking about Returning to the U.S.

On a similar note to my last post, as I think about returning to the U.S., I’ve been preparing myself for things I’m excited about and things I’m really not looking forward to (yes, there are some!).

Things I’m Excited For:

- Hot showers – with water pressure

- Electricity that never goes out

- Hi-speed Internet that always works

- No delays on the phone

- Washing machines and dryers

- Stoves, ovens, and refrigerators

- Carpet

- Trashcans, recycling, and garbage pick-up

- Driving my own car

- A high-quality mattress and pillow

- Food!

- Grocery stores

- Restaurants

- Not having bugs, rodents, reptiles, or amphibians in my house

- The gym

Things I’m Really Excited For:

- Never being called “muzungu”

- Not being constantly made fun of and insulted

- Not being watched

- Not having my every action judged

- Not having people constantly poke me, rub me, or pull my hair

- Being able to silence or turn off my phone without risking infuriating somebody

Things I’m Dreading:

- Consumerism

- Waste

- Excess privilege

- Ignorance

- Lack of concern about other parts of the world

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As my Peace Corps service draws to a close and I prepare to leave Rwanda, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the things I’ll miss about living here, the things I won’t miss, and the things I’m just dying to get away from.

The Good: Things I’ll miss

- My close friends in Nyagatare

- My fellow volunteers

- Teaching

- The abundance and variety of plants, shrubs, trees, and flowers

- The view of the hills as I walk from my house towards town

- Speaking multiple languages everyday

- Riding motorcycles

- Dancing in church

- Getting really excited about the relative luxury of the city

- Open-air markets, where you never know what you'll find

- The sense of being/living in Africa

- Villages

- Fanta

- African tea

- The peanut sauce my best friend in Nyagatare makes

- Homemade French fries

- Passionfruit

- Tree tomatoes

- Avocados that cost less than $0.10 a piece

- Zaaffran (former volunteers who are now back home say Indian food in the States doesn't compare!)

The Bad: Things that really aren’t terrible, but that I can’t say I’ll miss

- Cooking over my little kerosene stove on the floor in the doorway

- Washing dishes in a bucket

- Hand washing my clothes

- Bucket showers

- Having lizards, roaches, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and spiders in my house

- Power outages everyday

- Constant water shortages

- Slow and unreliable Internet

- Unreliable cell phone service

- Crowded matatus that stop every five minutes

- Stumbling down rocky dirt roads in the pitch dark

- Church services that last 3+ hours

- Pre-paid cell phone and Internet credit – and inevitably running out of credit at inopportune times

- Wondering if what's served to you will be anything like the description on the menu

- People screaming “SORRY SORRY SORRY” every time you trip or drop something

The Ugly: Things I cannot wait to get away from

- Being called “muzungu” every time I leave my house, even by people who know me and know my name

- Being insulted and made fun of every single day

- Being laughed at for making an effort to learn the local language

- Being stared at

- Having every single I do be judged by the people around me

- Being poked, prodded, rubbed, and grabbed

- Having children screaming right outside my house at all hours

- Seeing my fence become more destroyed each time I'm gone overnight

- The way Rwandans make fun of other Rwandans for being friends with a muzungu

- Having people get irritated and angry every time my phone is off or miss a call