It turns out going to Jakarta and not liking it wasn't all that bad of a thing to happen. Because of it we've come to Bali earlier than originally planned. The first stop was Kuta Beach, which in the travel book was described as where you'd experience the hedonistic beach world. It sounded almost post-apocalyptic. Then we saw what it was. It was a street lined with resorts on one side and shopping and bars on the other. In either direction from our hotel was a mall. Apparently this area is very popular with Australian tourists, who come here on an annual basis. There were several visitors who behaved like they had been friends with the staff for awhile, which either happens over several trips or this is a movie and they're the main character of the story and have somehow gotten close to everyone they come into contact with in a matter of a few scenes. It must be nice to have something tropical so close...like Hawaii. The downside to this though is that every white person is assumed to be from Australia so the 'Hey, Mate. Shopping?' continues. It was actually getting a little tedious not being able to walk more than ten feet without having to say 'no thank you'. When everyone looks at you like a giant, white ATM with horrible taste it's hard to really relax and enjoy yourself. It wasn't all bad though. It was just something that took some getting use to.
After that we headed towards the town Ubud, which is known as an artistic area and a lot more relaxed. On the main road, which is called Monkey Forest Road (spoiler alert monkeys) there are endless galleries of paintings, sculptures, souvenirs, good clothing, and wooden penis bottle openers. And right at the center of this is the Monkey Forest, where gangster monkeys roam around waiting for a tourist to give them a park-approved banana. If they get tired of waiting, they'll just climb onto you and see what's in your bag. They have no fear and one little one even came up and bit us, just to show us that it could. There is something very disarming about watching how they watch us. 'When she looks at you, you can tell she's working things out. They remember.'
The town also has what is said to be the best tacos in Indonesia, which may be a bold claim or just a simple trick since they may be the only ones who make tacos. Either way, we managed to come around the world and find damn good tacos. Good enough that we ate there all three days we were in town. Even on our last day when we only had an hour left before our taxi (taksi) came to pick us up for the next stop, we made sure to stop in for one last bite. Before we left the town, we made sure to take advantage of some of the activities nearby, which included river rafting. Rafting may be too strong of a term. It was more like a water park ride with the safeties disabled. Our guide was gracious enough to give us paddles and tell us to paddle a few times so we felt like we were white water rafting. The best part was when we dropped off a twelve foot waterfall before we could continue on for a lunch break.
We've since arrived in Munduk, which is a nice little mountain village with a few resorts that seem to cater to the French. The views are fantastic and we're basically staying in a movie. Right now I'm on the side patio, overlooking the grounds while the cicadas go bananas letting everyone know that the sun is going down soon. Once it gets dark here though most people don't go out as there is a local belief that the jungle may be inhabited by spirits or demons. Based on the size of the spiders I've seen, I can see how someone would think it's a demon. Either way once the sun goes down I'm staying in the light. No need to find out if the locals are right or not.
