Project Week 1: Life in Bali

7th-13th July (Week 2: Mon-Sun)

7th: Monday back in Mas, and I woke up after some pretty good sleep for our first day of project. The new routine of breakfast and somewhat of a rush to our meeting point began - having a roommate who is just as happy as me to set the alarm for 40 minutes before we have to leave has been very much appreciated. Collecting at the gallery, we piled into our separate cars for the hourish drive to where our partnered was based, for my group, an environmental education centre in Denpasar. We spent the morning hearing all about the organisation, asking questions to get to know them better after they kindly provided us organic snacks using more leaves as packaging. After hearing about their aims and challenges as an organisation, we chose our action projects, deciding to focus on promotional content for their social medias (a sustainable day-in-the-life style video), educational posters targeted at tourists in hotels, since tourism in Bali is such a huge contributing factor to the issue of waste here, and an updated version of the catalogues they need for the zero-waste refill shops they have starting up - something I'm particularly interested in and enjoyed hearing all about. I'm glad to have got an organisation with a focus on sustainability and the environment and have thoroughly enjoyed trying to support them through our action projects but also learning about the brilliant work they do educating the public and tourists in Bali on the issues being faced.

Once we'd figured out our solid plan for the week work-wise, we took a quick detour to the mall in Sanur for some lunch, and I was wowed by the grandeur of it situated next to the lovely beach. A nice assortment of Balinese food set us up well to get well underway with our decided projects for the afternoon in a co-working space nearby - a very typical 9-5 style office with a cool rooftop for us to take a break on. Back in our homestay in the evening I played with the dogs for a little bit, enjoyed another delicious dinner including fried mushrooms and tofu, rice and veg, and then went to visit the animals (and friends) of another homestay around the corner. We had a moment of panic when all the lights went out and we were informed much of the island was in a blackout. Some immediate moral panic led us to believe that the eruption of a volcano on a nearby island earlier in the day had caused this, though it later turned out that this probably wasn't the case, and this can happen rather frequently. It did have us rethinking our weekend plans a little though, as you'll hear about later, as we played some cards by candlelight (despite still having access to our phone torchlights - though I suppose it was sensible to try conserve the charge in case the blackout lasted all night as we were warned it might). A partially scary and partially delirious walk back through the village had us jumping at the noise and then sight of the dogs that wander the street, and then the terror instilled in us by the sudden noises of the cremation ritual being practised in the dark in the Bale Banjar - think extremely loud drums. I finished off the evening with much relief as I logged online to see my first year university results and fell asleep feeling pretty good.

8th: Up and breakfast of omelettes and fruits fuelled our slightly longer walk to our restaurant meeting point, as we followed the locals getting on with their daily lives, for many of whom it is common practise to carry things on their heads in a very impressive manner - we practised some of this in the camp and it was not easy by any means. We had our first skills session as a group, hearing about different business techniques to spark and focus ideas which seemed useful but was a bit too business-heavy for me in content. Lunch at one of the many restaurants along the quite quiet road was nice, and then a few more hours work in another cafe. I seem to have been very lucky with regard to mozzy bites in the first week as now they're catching up with me - I'm still using my spray but they just seem to be coming after me more now - frustrating but I will live.

Needing to stock up on snacks I came home via a KMart and acquired a range of goods to store in the fridge, and then it was a rather quick turnaround for our evening activity - a Balinese dance class held by locals in the Bale Banjar. Whilst the boys wielded sticks (spears) for the Baris dance, a traditional war performance, the girls were taught the Pendet dance using flower bowls. Despite there being not a whole lot of foot movement, it was weirdly exhausting but so much fun to learn. The locals showed us how it was really meant to look, and the detail in their movements is incredible and so beautiful. More lovely dinner, with specific vegetarian provisions for me finished off the evening before an early night.

9th: With this mornings pancakes I enjoyed some of my daily dog therapy from Poppy, and also Kiko who seems to be warming up to us. The walk to the art lounge for todays meet was short, and we met with the project partners for our mid-week Q&A to discuss our progress and gain some clarification on anything needed, which was very helpful. I ordered a fancy-looking tropical pink smoothie - made extremely pink by dragon fruit, and then a flavourful vegan Balinese dish of tofu, green beans, peanut sauce and rice cake crackers for lunch. Although we're only having to pay for our lunches in the week and everything seems quite cheap, I feel it starting to build up already. We headed back to the homestay to get ready and took really nice mini-buses to Sanur with lots of space and air con. We arrived just along from the mall the other day to carry out a cleanup along Sanur beach - so pretty but quite touristy - picking up rubbish as we walked along towards the mall. We had a bit of free time afterwards to browse and I checked out Bath and Body Works to see if I could get anything for cheap but it seems all the prices have been marked up to target at tourists. Got some interesting ice cream - blueberry cheesecake, cookie monster & candy floss flavours, all very blue-centric and had a sit by the beach front. Back for nice dinner together where there were many concerning sightings of mice, rats and geckos to keep us entertained before bed.  

10th: Up and breakfast, which alternates between pancakes and omelette, before walking along the fields again back again to the restaurant for our peer presentations and work on project. I had my first proper disappointing lunch, expensive, delayed and not very tasty, but that puts all the other great food experiences this far into perspective. We got our bus to an arts studio in Ubud for a for a group art workshop, to practise our artistic skills in such an incredibly creative environment. We were taught batik painting, involving melted wax and dye on fabrics, a technique I did actually do back in textiles in Year 7. Mine this time was a lotus flower which once they’ve dried well receive them to keep. A bumpy ride back to Mas was made more chaotic by rounds of Uno over lowered seats on the bus. We arrived back at our homestay and learned from the family that today was Purnama, the Hindu-Balinese celebration decorated to the Moon God, Chandra. More cards games at ours saw a resurgence of Go Fish, a game that’s very nostalgic of my childhood holidays. I finished up editing bits for our presentation the next day and got some sleep. 

11th: An earlier morning to go back to the project partner location today, where we met and presented our action projects from the week, which they seemed very happy with, and filmed some more stuff for their social media’s which was good fun. We said goodbye and once back in the village had a quick-ish lunch at a cute little cafe round the corner, got some snacks for the weekend and dropped off our laundry to conveniently pick up again after the weekend. Packing was a bit of a mess, forgetting various things but having enough to last the time away. Our taxis met us at the gallery and we were off to the Bangli Regency of Bali as we had decided we felt adventurous enough to climb Mount Batur (Gunung Batur), an active volcano positioned in area close to another volcano, Mount Agung, around a beautiful lake up north from Ubud. Batur had last erupted in 2000 but with no severe damage being caused, making it feel safe enough for us to do, and though there was some deliberation after our blackout earlier in the week, we felt it was worth it. The journey was very chill and we were able to just relax and enjoy the spectacular views as we descended the steep roads into the region, the dropping windy roads making it feel like we were entering a cavern. It was very rural, with some shops and then mostly just little huts surrounded by woods - a really beautiful place to spend the weekend, made even better by the view from our accommodation - a series of our own huts to be shared between 2. It did take some effort to get there safely, as the roads are so bumpy and narrow, and then steep - the shaking gears do have me fearing we won't always make it.

We spent the evening settling in, appreciating the semi-sunset over the lake and mountains beyond, and headed down the very dark remote roads to a restaurant we had sourced online, who kindly took all 14 of us for dinner. We were accompanied by a dog we later named Uno (after our obsession with the game), who made the journey slightly less treacherous, and then also followed us back all the way too. Dinner was nice all together but we made sure to be back relatively early, to get some good rest as we had pre-booked a guide to take us up the mountain for sunrise, starting at 3am, meaning a 2.15am wake up - so only half a night of sleep. I'm not sure if I got even that much in the end after antics with disposing of critters in the room, difficulty locating where the light switches were, and horrific warbling karaoke somewhere down the road. I was mostly excited though to get started with our trek, and I think I did eventually get a couple of hours rest.

12th: Weirdly not feeling too tired, I was up and out with my middle of the night alarm, probably due to the excitement. We packed into our taxis and made it to the meeting point - it seems many tourists come to do a similar thing so this was normal for the accommodation host. We were offered tea and biscuits and fit right in sat amongst various other tourists out for the same venture, before getting kitted up with headtorches and wooden walking sticks - the latter of which I enjoyed using way too much. By just after 3am we set off in the dark through the fields and onto the base of the volcano. The walk was good fun but a lot more technical than I was expecting, about 8km in total but extremely steep and scrambly in some parts. The views over the edge even in the dark though were amazing. I'd overpacked for the day a little so my big rucksack added an extra challenge but was just a test of the lack of fitness I have acquired with 2 weeks without running. With some sore calves and shoulders later, we reached the summit, at which point it was around 5.30am and sunrise was still a little while away. And though we had been warned, I was still not prepared for how cold it was - we were very lucky to miss out on any rain but we spent the next hour shivering in the clouds, provided with some light breakfast by the guide and hoping the sunrise would appear. Sadly though, this hope began to fade as it got lighter but no pretty colours appeared, the clouds blocking any kind of view. We had a little wander around the top, still with no view, but felt the heat of the volcano steam which was very cool, and then began our walk back down, legs feeling a bit like jelly at this point.

Eventually, as the clouds cleared we could see the last of the sunrise over the horizon, and though it wasn't as intense as I was hoping for, it was very beautiful nonetheless. Despite the gorgeous sights the slippiness of the climb down meant eyes mostly stayed on my feet, and we made it down without any incident - no animal sightings at all though there are meant to be monkeys that often come out to say hello. I'm unsure if I'm disappointed or relieved to have missed them. Very dusty and with now sore knees, we ended up waling to the next part of our booked excursion, a visit to the natural hot springs included in our guide ticket. This looked like a small sort of water park with a series of different pools and even a slide which was admittedly very good fun. 

The hot springs were perfect for the sore muscles and we spent a good few hours just relaxing here, enjoying the view over the lake and decompressing from the walk. I was a bit silly with forgetting to keep my skin protected so am now suffering from some shoulder sunburn, though it is no where near as bad as previous experience has been for me in that area, thank goodness - I plan to keep it that way. Feeling refreshed we got our taxi back to the huts, with most people going off to take naps and catch up on the sleep we had lost out on, some of us ended up playing more games and soaking in the view we were so lucky to have. The cold persisted though, and I was shocked by how different the temperature up in this region was compared to back in the Ubud area - I regretted not bringing the one jumper I have with me from my suitcase. We ordered food from the same restaurant as the night before, with options being limited, and then got some well-deserved rest.

13th: I set myself a 6am alarm just to see if the sunrise was any good from our huts, and though not very strong there either it was still a brilliant view. Back to sleep for a couple more hours, before packing up to leave and head back to Mas, but not before having to deal with my first cockroach here. A quick turnover when we made it back had us driving back into Ubud centre to spend our last day of the weekend doing some shopping. It was super busy and touristy here, and I had already forgotten how hot and humid this area was, so it was all a bit overwhelming, but overall a successful shopping trip in terms of souvenirs, and nice to get some lunch in the centre. A cold drink in the form of a milkshake kept me going until it was time to head back and have a chilled evening just chatting and snacking before bed to rest up before our new project week.