Travel diary #5: Indonesia

Travel diary #5: Indonesia 13170

The flight from Brisbane to Denpasar, Indonesia, was a piece of cake compared to the previous leg of our journey. We did not complain. We spent just one night in the Kuta region on the island of Bali before taking a ferry to the small island of Nusa Penida, where we planned to stay for a week. Our research didn’t mislead us, it is indeed a lovely little island, though slightly more expensive than Bali. While walking along a road, we passed a tiny shop advertising tourist activities like snorkelling, sightseeing tours, and scooter rentals. This led to a delightful encounter with a local entrepreneur offering his services. We booked a family scooter for the next day, a tour of the eastern part of the island, and a boat excursion with snorkelling. The latter turned out to be one of the most memorable moments of the trip: swimming in the ocean near a cliff, amidst meter-high swells, and, to top it all off, witnessing a dozen manta rays dancing before our eyes, a few meters under us. As I mentioned in the previous post, it is the rainy season here. However, none of our activities were spoiled by the weather. It rained occasionally, sometimes light drizzles, other times heavy downpours, but we always found time to explore beaches, cliffs, or take scooter rides. We visited Crystal Bay, which was supposedly one of the must see beaches. In my opinion, it wasn’t worth it. The beach was dirty, and the area behind it was crowded with shops and warungs (small, cheap restaurants/stores), ruining the scenery. If you only focus on the ocean and the rocks though, it’s undeniably beautiful. This wasn’t the only spot where enjoying the view required overlooking trash or tourist oriented constructions (swings, wooden nests, hearts, sculpted benches, etc.) meant for artificial and exaggerated social network photographs. It’s a pity. Fortunately, not all places were affected. One morning, we discussed our plans with the receptionist, who suggested a slightly off-the-beaten-path destination worth a small detour: Tembeling Beach. We visited Broken Beach first, as planned. For the second stop, the final stretch of the journey turned into a dirt road with steep inclines: off-road scootering! We finished on foot, descending stairs for about 15 minutes. What a sight! A hidden beach nestled between cliffs, with rocks forming a freshwater pool at the end of a river. The pool was semi-natural, with visible pipes directing the river water into the pool and some rock reinforcements. This spot was stunning, and we encountered only a handful of other visitors. Then came Christmas Eve, one of our last days on Nusa Penida. For the first time in a long while, we decided to do nothing at all. Every now and then, it feels good. We spent the day planning the next steps of our trip, playing games, watching a movie, swimming in the pool, and enjoying dinner at a cliffside restaurant with a fabulous sunset. We had planned to visit Lombok next, but after talking with locals, always a great source of advice, we changed our plans. They told us that skipping Bali would mean missing out on a significant part of the culture. Lombok, they said, offered mostly the same activities as Nusa Penida (beaches, cliffs, hikes, and diving) just on a larger scale. So, we took the same ferry back to Bali and booked a guesthouse for six days in Ubud. It was a beautiful homestay set back from the main road. The taxi couldn’t take us all the way, so we walked down an alley, along a small rice field on a paved path, until we reached a house composed of several buildings. The rooms were private, and the bathrooms were adorned with intricate moldings. The complimentary breakfasts were so substantial that we barely ate lunch throughout our stay. One day was enough to explore the city’s main attractions on foot: temples, shops, markets, etc. On the following days, we rented scooters to visit the surrounding areas, including rice fields, the Sangeh Monkey Forest, waterfalls, and temples. In the days leading up to New Year’s, the city was bustling with tourists, but traffic eased up afterward, making scooter rides more enjoyable. Riding a family scooter remains one of my favorite activities, regardless of conditions (traffic or rain). The next stop on our journey was another guesthouse, this time in Munduk, near Mount Batukaru. That’s precisely why we went there, we planned a day hike to and from the summit. There were several starting points, and online we found a trail of about 5.5 hours leading to the peak. It didn’t disappoint! It was one of the most challenging hikes of my life, just over 3 km one way with a 1,100 meter elevation gain. The rest of the family stopped a little over halfway, but my pride pushed me to the summit. I left the picnic and water behind, taking only my poncho in case of heavy rain. I eventually caught up with them just before they reached the starting point. The view from the top was quite beautiful but partially obscured. While the photos weren’t exceptional, that wasn’t the point of my climb. It had been a long time since I’d pushed myself to my physical limits, and it felt great! We ended our trip with a few days in southern Tanah Lot. The temple is stunning, but like many tourist attractions, it’s marred by superficial tourist artifacts. We stayed in a hotel that was not more than ten-minute walk from the ocean, in the Canggu area. It was a stark change of scenery, full of gyms and trendy restaurants catering to a certain type of tourism that didn’t suit us. I don’t want to end on a negative note, though. Our stay in Nusa Penida and Bali was an incredibly enriching experience. We met many wonderful locals and had engaging conversations. The landscapes were breathtaking, as long as we ventured beyond the trendy tourist spots and ignored some artifacts. There won’t be another destination for a few months at least, as we are now back home. This marks the end of our family adventure but far from the end of our travels!

Antoine

I am the CTO and co-founder of Bluwr. I love designing and writing scalable code and infrastructure.

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THE MEDITATIONS - Book I.[1/3] 5596

Bluwr X Commons: Marcus Aurelius, 2 y.

3.7 min read.

1. I learned from my grandfather, Verus, to use good manners, and to put restraint on anger. 2. In the famous memory of my father I had a pattern of modesty and manliness. 3. Of my mother I learned to be pious and generous; to keep myself not only from evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts; and to live with a simplicity which is far from customary among the rich. 4. I owe it to my great-grandfather that I did not attend public lectures and discussions, but had good and able teachers at home; and I owe him also the knowledge that for things of this nature a man should count no expense too great. 5. My tutor taught me not to favour either green or blue at the chariot races, nor, in the contests of gladiators, to be a supporter either of light or heavy armed. He taught me also to endure labour; not to need many things; to serve myself without troubling others; not to intermeddle in the affairs of others, and not easily to listen to slanders against them. 6. Of Diognetus I had the lesson not to busy myself about vain things; not to credit the great professions of such as pretend to work wonders, or of sorcerers about their charms, and their expelling of Demons and the like; not to keep quails (for fighting or divination), nor to run after such things; to suffer freedom of speech in others, and to apply myself heartily to philosophy. Him also I must thank for my hearing first Bacchius, then Tandasis and Marcianus; that I wrote dialogues in my youth, and took a liking to the philosopher’s pallet and skins, and to the other things which, by the Grecian discipline, belong to that profession. 7. To Rusticus I owe my first apprehensions that my nature needed reform and cure; and that I did not fall into the ambition of the common Sophists, either by composing speculative writings or by declaiming harangues of exhortation in public; further, that I never strove to be admired by ostentation of great patience in an ascetic life, or by display of activity and application; that I gave over the study of rhetoric, poetry, and the graces of language; and that I did not pace my house in my senatorial robes, or practise any similar affectation. I observed also the simplicity of style in his letters, particularly in that which he wrote to my mother from Sinuessa. I learned from him to be easily appeased, and to be readily reconciled with those who had displeased me or given cause of offence, so soon as they inclined to make their peace; to read with care; not to rest satisfied with a slight and superficial knowledge; nor quickly to assent to great talkers. I have him to thank that I met with the discourses of Epictetus, which he furnished me from his own library. 8. From Apollonius I learned true liberty, and tenacity of purpose; to regard nothing else, even in the smallest degree, but reason always; and always to remain unaltered in the agonies of pain, in the losses of children, or in long diseases. He afforded me a living example of how the same man can, upon occasion, be most yielding and most inflexible. He was patient in exposition; and, as might well be seen, esteemed his fine skill and ability in teaching others the principles of philosophy as the least of his endowments. It was from him that I learned how to receive from friends what are thought favours without seeming humbled by the giver or insensible to the gift. 9. Sextus was my pattern of a benign temper, and his family the model of a household governed by true paternal affection, and a steadfast purpose of living according to nature. Here I could learn to be grave without affectation, to observe sagaciously the several dispositions and inclinations of my friends, to tolerate the ignorant and those who follow current opinions without examination. His conversation showed how a man may accommodate himself to all men and to all companies; for though companionship with him was sweeter and more pleasing than any sort of flattery, yet he was at the same time highly respected and reverenced. No man was ever more happy than he in comprehending, finding out, and arranging in exact order the great maxims necessary for the conduct of life. His example taught me to suppress even the least appearance of anger or any other passion; but still, with all this perfect tranquillity, to possess the tenderest and most affectionate heart; to be apt to approve others yet without noise; to have much learning and little ostentation. 10. I learned from Alexander the Grammarian to avoid censuring others, to refrain from flouting them for a barbarism, solecism, or any false pronunciation. Rather was I dexterously to pronounce the words rightly in my answer, confining approval or objection to the matter itself, and avoiding discussion of the expression, or to use some other form of courteous suggestion. 11. Fronto made me sensible how much of envy, deceit and hypocrisy surrounds princes; and that generally those whom we account nobly born have somehow less natural affection. 12. I learned from Alexander the Platonist not often nor without great necessity to say, or write to any man in a letter, that I am not at leisure; nor thus, under pretext of urgent affairs, to make a practice of excusing myself from the duties which, according to our various ties, we owe to those with whom we live. 13. Of Catulus I learned not to condemn any friend’s expostulation even though it were unjust, but to try to recall him to his former disposition; to stint no praise in speaking of my masters, as is recounted of Domitius and Athenodorus; and to love my children with true affection. 14. Of Severus, my brother, I learned to love my kinsmen, to love truth, to love justice. Through him I came to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, and Brutus. He gave me my first conception of a Commonwealth founded upon equitable laws and administered with equality of right; and of a Monarchy whose chief concern is the freedom of its subjects. Of him I learned likewise a constant and harmonious devotion to Philosophy; to be ready to do good, to be generous with all my heart. He taught me to be of good hope and trustful of the affection of my friends. I observed in him candour in declaring what he condemned in the conduct of others; and so frank and open was his behaviour, that his friends might easily see without the trouble of conjecture what he liked or disliked.