Bali is an incredibly famous island to the east of Indonesia’s main island of Java (where Jakarta lies) It is known for delicious food, great beaches, a zenned out ex-pat community, and amazing crafts/arts. Luckily for Nick and myself, we managed to experience all of this up close and personal, and I am pleased to say that Bali has definitely been one of my favorite places during my travels.
We started off in the resort and tourist-laiden area of southern Bali, home to the famous beach area of Kuta and more surfers than anyone would ever want. Here we spent 3 glorious nights filled with tasty indonesian food, self-indulgent massages, lazy days laying by the pool and generally just relaxing. I have made it an unofficial policy in my head to not worry about taking photos when I’m being lazy at resorts because for the most part there isn’t anything really unique about these days…though I certainly enjoy them!
Lucky for us this was by no means our only experience in Bali, as we trekked an hour and a half north to the renowned town of Ubud. Ubud is a town tucked away amongst rice fields and rolling hills in the middle of the Balinese jungle. It is also known for its unbelievable crafts and arts for sale, and it did not disappoint.
Nick and I also stumbled across something completely unexpected; the “Bali Spirits Festival”. This was an transnational-drawing 6-day festivals of music, dance and yoga. It consisted of many workshops during the day, including yoga classes, dance, music and so on. At night the venue switched closer to town and it turned into a 6 hour concert of music from all over the world…it was of a very high caliber and Nick and I were immediately interested in the concerts and some of the workshops!…it was, however, ridiculously expensive. 100 US dollars for a full day pass, 25 bucks to attend just the concert and over 500 dollars for all 6 days of programming. This is INSANE amounts of money for Indonesia…
Sidenote: Does anyone remember when Nick and I got free tuxedo’s (and ended up renting BALLER zuit-suits) for our High School prom because we passed out the tuxedo-rental-store’s flyers to the private schools of San Francisco?
So yea, we pulled something just like that! We offered to volunteer at the festival and in exchange we received free workshops and access to the concerts! All we had to do was check tickets for an evening at the concert (As “Security Guards”). So we did that! And we got to see a free concert and attend a couple of workshops…all for free! (and they fed us 3 meals!)
Highlights from the festival include taking a Bollywood class where the whole group learned the same routine to some famous Bollywood song…and, blowing my musical senses out of the water, was listening to a musician named Mamadou Diabate, a Malinese (yes, from the African country of Mali, not Bali) Kora player. The Kora is a 21 stringed guitar/lute/harp instrument exclusively from West Africa…and Mamadou played it in ways I didn’t think were possible. We heard him first at the concert, then we had a workshop with him where he played for us and answered some of our questions. I bought his CD because I was so impressed. (oh FYI, he was the Grammy in 2010 for best World Music Album…yea, he’s kind of a big deal).
Anyway, Bali is amazing and you should all visit. Go to Ubud after getting a dose of party/beach life in Kuta. That’s my endorsement. Enjoy the photos!
