June 19, 2016

June 19, 2016

It's Sunday here and the weather is possibly the hottest, muggiest, wettest weather I've ever experienced in my life. Sure, the high says it's 89 degrees (hot but manageable) but when factoring in the humidity levels, which exceed 100% every single day, it feels like a blistering 110 degrees. I'm a sweaty, sticky mess from the moment I wake up to the moment I step out of the shower. How is this possible? I look around me, the Indonesians are used to this but what about the other white people? They all look flawless with beach waves in their hair, perfectly tanned skin, the right amount of dewiness on their face to make them look effortlessly sexy. Now turn to me; my hair is nearly an afro and soaked in sweat that it gathered from my forehead, my face is broken out because it hates this weather and what I'm doing to it, my white skin has a pink tint to it because it doesn't understand how to react to the climate here, and every pore on my body is excreting stinky perspiration. It's really quite the sight.

Some people are really good travelers. They manage to look pristine after stepping off of a 15 hour flight and walking 2 miles through a foreign airport. They come prepared, they know the city because they've spent countless hours researching it and know every single sight they want to see. They are masters at reasoning with foreigners. This is definitely not me. I'm a zombie when I step off a plane. I haven't brushed my teeth in far too long, my hair has an indent in it both from sleeping (and probably snoring) with my head in all kinds of awkward positions and also from the strap of my eye mask, I'm wearing the most comfortable clothes I own which happen to make me look like a cross between a mom who just got out of a sweaty yoga class and your local homeless man. I've done the minimal amount of research necessary to not die when I arrive (booked my hotel, that's basically it). Aside from the obvious attractions that I know I must visit (the Colosseum in Rome, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, etc.), I have absolutely no clue what to do. I wander around aimlessly, presumably the butt of every joke made by the natives watching me attempt to fold up a city map and failing miserably. All of my friends and family assume that since I've traveled so much that I must be good at traveling. This is a bold-faced lie (I had to look up whether the phrase was bald-faced or bold-faced, if this gives you any type of insight into the kind of person I am). Perhaps this is why I prefer to travel alone? I can come back from my adventures with snazzy pictures and cool souvenirs while my friends and family demand to hear all about it and I can act like I'm a natural world traveler. Or maybe it's because I like to be able to do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it without having to cater to the needs of a travel companion. It's probably a combination of the two.

Okay, so onto the actual adventure of the day, the part you all want to read about. Kirra and I had such a great time on the day-long adventure yesterday that we decided to go on another today! Our same driver (I'm omitting his name because I forgot to ask his permission if he could be the character of my blog and I don't want to infringe upon his privacy) picked us up at 10am again with a whole list of things for us to do. First on the list was a chocolate factory. I love chocolate, but this was not the reason for wanting to go to this place. In fact, the owners of the chocolate factory rescued three sun bears from hunters a few years back and have kept them on their property since then. And they are super friendly! So the motivation for visiting this chocolate factory was to pet some sun bears and possibly eat delicious chocolate (although I would settle for just petting the sun bears). We arrive to the chocolate factory after searching for it for far too long (nothing is easy to find in Bali) and find out that it's the bears' day off. Crap! I was so excited to cuddle with some sun bears that it was hard to hide my disappointment.

But there's no point in sulking about it because we got to see some elephants. These poor elephants had to carry fat white people around on their backs all day. You could see the marks on their ankles from where they were tied up by chains. Their eyes were sad and it actually made me want to cry because I hate what these humans have done to these beautiful creatures. And I hate that people ignorantly ride them as a tourist attraction thinking solely about themselves and not the poor elephants that were not physically built to carry obese people on their backs (this is a scientific fact, you can look it up if you don't believe me). So Kirra and I talked to the elephants for some time, Kirra even fed them, and we drank a chocolate shot (it was free with our ticket) then headed out.

Do you see the chain marks on their ankles?

Chocolate shot

After driving up and down roads through meadows and mountains, we arrived at a botanical garden. It was like a giant park with remarkable foliage tucked away in the mountains. The air was much cooler here thanks to the altitude and families were scattered around the grass with picnics and tents for camping. We parked along the road and walked around for a little while.

This is from the drive to the botanical garden

This is also from the drive

Botanical garden

After leaving the botanical garden, we made our way to a lake with a famous temple. The temple was stunning with the lake and low clouds in the background. Before walking to the temple, though, we stopped to watch a Balinese gamelan ensemble with traditional dancers. Since taking a musics of the world class a few years back, I've been interested in Balinese gamelan and was so delighted to witness one in real life on the island that it originated! The sounds of the ensemble are beautiful and the moves of the dancers are graceful. After watching this, we walked around. This trip is actually making me become very racist towards white people (can I say this?). Kirra and I witnessed two women (presumably Russian or Eastern European) sit underneath a tree and proceed to have a photoshoot while pretending to meditate (all for a stupid Instagram picture). This is such a small thing and normally I wouldn't be bothered by it, but Kirra said it perfectly when she said it's almost as if they're mocking the culture. I get it, if you come to Bali for a spiritual getaway (Eat, Pray, Love) that's really awesome and I'm really proud of you (this is not sarcasm, I am actually very proud that you have devoted a part of your life to improving yourself), but for a photoshoot with an iPhone? Don't come to Bali if you're just interested in having pictures of yourself taken that make you look like you're truly Balinese, that's you're so Balinese that you're actually meditating under a tree by a temple because that's not even remotely true. Have respect for culture and if you are interested in learning about that culture or partaking in some of the traditions, do it. But don't do it for the sake of an Instagram photo, please.

Balinese gamelan ensemble

Temple on the lake. Look at the clouds!

After the temple, we went to lunch where I proceeded to eat two whole plates of Indonesian food that was so heavenly I forgot to take a picture of it. I don't know as if I've ever eaten food so fast. We were starved because by this time it was already 3pm and we hadn't ate yet.

When we finished eating, we left the lake to drive 1.5 hours to Tanah Lot, a seaside temple. We arrived and had to walk through a market, but this was the best market I've ever been to because there were animals! I got to hold an owl, pet a luwak (those things that eat coffee beans then poop them out into delightful and expensive coffee), hold a snake, and look at the largest bat I've ever seen in real life. After we navigated our way through the market, we made it out to the ocean and temple and walked around (as per usual). Again, my dislike of white people became evident with all of the photoshoots going on but I tried to ignore it. People are ignorant and they will do anything for some Instagram likes, but this isn't my problem. It was just as the sun was setting that we got there, so it was especially beautiful.

This bat is huge and so are his balls

I want a luwak!

Snake

We were best friends

After we were done at Tanah Lot, we drove an hour back to Ubud where it was then dark. I was so drained from today that I went straight back to my room and called it a night. Kirra went out for dinner but I was so tired that I didn't even want to. Goodnight everyone.