A monkey meets a monkey

On Tuesday afternoon, we headed to the Sacred Monkey Forest of Padangtegal. The monkey forest is home to a great amount of long-tailed macaques who are well known for stealing food and scratching people who get too close. As Maddie is a lover of pulling animals tails, I was greatful to have our babysitter Nyoman with us! 


I've attached a few photos from the afternoon.

A big day!

While I was at the Yoga retreat, I met Aruna, another abandoned husband. Together we decided we would take the kids to see some of Bali while our wives indulged themselves. 

Wayan and Maddie in front of the volcano

I found a driver called Wayan who agreed to take us to the volcano. Maddie, Aruna, Darshan (Aruna's 5 year old son) and I packed into a minivan and set off. I took a lot of pictures this day, so I'll let them do most of the talking.

This is a terrible photo of the volcano. Apparently, the last time it eruped was in the 60s. 


This picture does not do justice to the epic view that we had - the fields towards the volcano are enormous and majestic. The lines of black spilling from the top of the volcano mark the paths of the last lava flow.

This is a photo of the volcanic lake that sits near the volcano. If you look closely, you can see a metal crane at the top of the picture.

Maddie being led through the coffee
plantation by Wayan and Darshan.

After the volcano, Wayan took us off to a coffee planataion in the middle of nowehere. We didn't care as long as they had coffee for drinking and not just for looking.  

Maddie finds a big fruit.

Aruna and Maddie

They indeed had coffee for drinking. We got 10 taster cups each - Vanilla bean coffee, Ginseng Coffee, Bali coffee.... an endless list (that ends at ten)! I tried several and they were all delicious, probably because they had been ground while we were sitting there. I decided to have a large Ginseng coffee. Apparently Ginseng is an aphrodisiac, as well as a combative drug for impotence, as well as being useful for increasing stamina - generally providing a lot of energy. I felt invigorated, and I put it down to the ginseng as well as the 10 taster cups I had drunk previously.

Maddie wants a swim

After leaving the coffee area, we droveon to Tirta Empul, the temple of the hot springs. A beautiful temple full of water and tourists.

Maddie spotted some fish and wanted to go swimming with them, but I couldn't allow that. She was not too upset because there was plenty of running around to do.















While running around, she bumped into a Balinese family who had come with their priest to the temple for a blessing (In Bali, the temples do not have a priest associated with them as they do in India or even in Christian churches. The priest is associated with the family). When Maddie bumped into the family, one of them immediately grabbed her and held her like she was the best present they could have received. I wasn't sure whether I should state that she wasn't a present and that their actions constituted theft or abduction. I didn't though, which was awfully nice of me.


This family did give us a treat. Their priest began their ceremony not far from where they are standing in the photo, by kneeling in front of a small altar, holding a bell between his hands and shaking his hands to ring the bell. The family knelt behind him in two rows as the bell rang out, reverberating off the walls of the temple. The high pitch of the bell flattened out the noise of the tourist's chatter (or possibly everybody stopped to listen) so all of a sudden I was  vibrating with the ringing of the priest's bell, unable to hear or feel anything else. It was an unexpected experience - my perception was completely altered - like I was suddenly in zero gravity, watching the world around me slow down and realise their own weightlessness.

Our final destination before heading home was Gunung Kawi, which I would say was one of the highlights of the trip! You feel like Indiana Jones when you go walking through this ancient site.


Gunung Kawi is a temple that has been built out of a mountain. It sits in the valley - to get there, you have to descend 270-odd stone steps. There are some beautiful and unorthodox rice paddies on the way down, but mostly people trying to sell you tat.








It's a bit of a shame that Maddie slept throughout the entire visit to this fascinating place. Here you can see some of the massive monuments carved out of the rock.
















There is a meditation area, which Aruna (who is a meditation teacher) made use of.

The meditation area

Aruna performs a demonstration

Some more monuments carved in to the rock. You can see Aruna and Darshan in the photo, which  gives a great perspective of the size of the carvings.

Maddie and I... Maddie is fast asleep.

Fields of tranquility

Walking down Ubud’s main street, Jalan Raya Ubud, makes you feel like you are in just another touristy tropical destination. There are shops, people trying to sell you taxi rides or dance show tickets, a Starbucks... it doesn’t seem all that tranquil. If you find yourself here looking for the natural beauty that people have told you about, head north for about 500 metres and you’ll find it.

In fact, head down any laneway you like at any point you like. Ubud is a region rather than a town – it is made up of about 12 different villages. The main streets that you come across are thin fronts for the rural life sitting just behind it

When you move past the town, you may find jungle, or you may find miles and miles of rice paddies. Either is good, but a walk amongst the rice paddies is akin to a warm bath: you cannot help but relax. At the time that we arrived, we the seedlings were just sprouting, so we could see the care with which each row had been planted. There were symmetrical little lines of green grass coming out of the mud in each paddy, each paddy being one patch in the quilt that made up the fields stretching all around. It was like being drowned in a sea of green.

As you walk along the stony path that runs between the paddies you can see the farmers working in the fields as well as little shrines that can be found every hundred metres or so (Ubud is a very spiritual place: you can’t go far without coming across a temple, a shrine or an offering left on the ground). The fields are like a massive, intricate artwork – beauty is can be seen from a distance, and beauty can be seen from close up.

Rice paddies and jungle make up the stretches between the towns in Ubud. Go in any direction away from the concrete and you will find yourself in one of the other.

Bunny and the Elephant

Maddie loves things in this order:

1. Bunny
2. Miscellaneous

Bunny is never allowed to be far from her reach, especially during our holiday where her usual routines and comforts weren't available. Maddie doesn't sleep without bunny, anytime that she has something to eat or drink bunny is sure to get some too.

Recently though, elephants have been creeping up the list. If you say the word "elephant", she throws up one arm like a trunk and makes an elephant noise. While we were in Bali, she would greet statues of the elephant god Ganesh with this as a salute.

When I read in the Bali guide book that there was an elephant park in Taro (which is not too far from our guesthouse), I immediately planned a trip there.

We set off on Thursday and Maddie seemed in a good mood, which turned sour not long after taking off in the car. Sitting down for great lengths of time is not toddler-like behavior, especially when there is climbing around the car to be done. However, several tantrums later, we made it to the Elephant Safari Park.

The safari park is a beautifully laid out area where worker elephants retire. They have a breeding program and the animals are treated well. They roam freely and for a fee you can not just look at the elephants, but ride one as well.

Upon entry, Maddie seemed mildly interested in looking at the elephants and far more interested on running near the filthy elephant pool, into the elephant's enclosures or up stairs towards a sheer drop. I abandoned my camera in favor of the baby sling to hold her out of danger.  Bunny of course was in the sling with her, as no experience can be had without bunny.

Then we boarded an elephant, sitting on a long bench which was tied to the pachyderm. The bench came with a useless rope that pretended to provide security, but I had little fear as the rocking ride of the elephant walk began.

Our caravan of 6 tourist-laden beasts ambled peacefully into the jungle single-file. Our "driver" sat on the head of our transport, gently encouraging forward movement while thrilling me with all of the Australian clichés that he knew: "bloody great mate, Melbourne cup, bloody ripper". Riding the majestic creature took a little balancing, but it was fine, you just sway with the movement. As Maddie's face was pressed up against my chest in the sling, I turned from side to side to let her see the elephants in front of us and behind. The great flapping of our vehicle's ears was enough to keep me entertained and she seemed quite fascinated by the journey. For about half of it.

There are good times and bad times to throw the biggest tantrum of your life. A good time is in a barrel of marshmallows. A bad time is while someone is holding you and that someone is 3 and a half meters from the ground sitting on a bench on top of a moving two ton animal with only a glorified drawstring to provide him/her with any security. That's my opinion.

There was kicking and screaming and arching of the back and thrashing and turning and several near to successful attempts to eject out of the sling and off the elephant. Water, patting, kind words, laughter, even bunny was of no use. This commotion had the people in front turning and looking and even the guy who drove us to the park heard the noise from the car park

The ride couldn't be over fast enough as Maddie wasn't about to calm down. The pace of the elephant had turned from soothing to too bloody slow. Then something even worse happened - we believe that it was an accident, we'll never know - bunny was hurled from the elephant onto the forest floor.

That was a moment of sheer panic. "We need that" I thought, "not want, need". But there was no way off the elephant, of that I was sure because if there was I would have got off ten minutes ago. There were cries of concern from behind us as the people in the rear had seen bunny fall and knew the gravity. The driver looked down to see what had happened, said something in elvish, then the elephant stopped, backed up, picked up bunny in its trunk and handed it back to the driver. The driver wiped down bunny and handed it back with a smile. Cameras were clicking wildly behind me, but I paid no heed, I was just so happy to have bunny back. It did nothing to calm Madeleine though.

Maddie was eventually calmed by our driver who had taken us to the park. The Balinese are wonderful with children, and adults as well as he soothed my nerves not long afterwards. Maddie was much happier on the trip home and I am happy to report that bunny is still on top of Maddie's list of loves.

Faizah's destiny

A short taxi ride from Ubud town centre is the Ubud Botanical Gardens, which seems to be an attempt to create a horticultural theme park.

It comprises: a bamboo area with about 5 different types of bamboo on display; a meditation garden made up of a little circle with carved wooden chairs for meditation as well as a statue of a buda lying comfortably; a labyrinth, which is a maze of 7-foot hedges in an oval shape; an Islamic garden that has a pattern of tiled pathways around various types of plants; and a rainforest walk, which is truly a rainforest at the moment as the floods have been through and turned it into a real jungle trek, complete with bamboo bridges giving way under your feet (to be fair, it was marked as closed, but we took it anyway).

The gardens are very quiet, but more due to a lack of visitors than the design (we were the only people there), which is not surprising. When you first arrive, you walk through an area with tables filled with sprouted seedlings, pot plants hanging from the latticed walls, making you think that you have walked into your local nursery rather than a tourist attraction. The layout is irregular.Steep steps lead up and down hillsides with little heed to safety, there doesn't seem to be much order within the grounds, the whole place seems to have been built without the requirement of perfection. 


As Wayan (our driver and local guide) and I wandered through with Maddie, we both commented that it was very unkempt - most of the created areas (especially the Islamic garden) were overgrown. I got us the impression that someone had had a lot of great ideas, implemented them and moved onto the next without planning for any ongoing maintenance.

"The people around here are lazy." said Faizah as we sipped some mango juices in the cafe at the end of the walk. "They don't want to work. No one wants to plant trees or do work." Faizah is a middle-aged Javanese woman who designed and created the Botanical Gardens. "I do everything myself" she told us. 

Seven years ago, Faizah and her American husband had come up with the idea and started the botanical gardens. It had grown through her green-thumbed toil and they struggled through just breaking even before tragedy struck in 2008, when her husband was diagnosed with cancer. He went through the rounds of treatments but three months ago the cancer finally claimed him, leaving Faizah a widow with more than US$300,000 of medical debts to pay and no way to earn the money.

Now the gardens are to follow in the footsteps of so many natural attractions surrounding Ubud: by succumbing to development. Chinese and Indonesian investors have offered to pay her medical bills in exchange for the gardens, which Faizah has no choice but to accept. "I looked for other investors, but no-one wanted it." she lamented. Her anger at having to let go of her dream was palpable, but she has a plan. "They build big wooden lodges here - twenty of them. I will design all of the gardens - each will have a vegetable garden and flowers and all sorts" she said triumphantly. In this way, her dream of building beautiful gardens has not died, it has simply taken a different shape.

Faizah's story is typical of what is happening in Ubud. The postcard view of this area is endless fields of rice-paddies beyond the main streets, but now they have new buildings(probably tourist lodges) popping up on them. The developers come to the farmers and offer them a sum for their land that they simply cannot refuse. Harriet tells me that this happens in England when struggling farmers are offered vast amounts for their farms so that a motorway can be built (I am sure that it happens all over the world). It is sad to see, but I think that Faizah's attitude shows someone willing to move with the times and make sure that the beauty survives.

Wayan told me on the ride home that the Balinese are not lazy at all (my experience confirms this), but the reason Faizah couldn't get any workers was because her wages were too low. I reason this is due to the fact that she's not making enough money to pay people a decent amount. I suppose the end of the gardens was inevitable, but the will of Faizah will ensure that her vision is implanted upon whatever takes its place.