Bali, Indonesia

We arrived in the south of Bali, spent a few days at Kuta Beach (famous for a great beach and sunset, but very developed), and then headed north. First we spent a week in Ubud, the cultural center of Bali, listening to the Gamelan orchestras, watching the Balinese dancing, and taking Batik classes. Then we went to the beach in Amed for snorkeling and swimming. Rod took four dives in some of the best scuba sites on the planet, and otherwise we spent ten days swimming, snorkeling, eating, talking, reading, and relaxing. Ah, such a tough life... On the way back out, we spent a few more days in Ubud and then flew out of Kuta to Australia.


Bali

Bali has been synonymous with Tropical Paradise for half a century, particularly exploding in the last couple of decades. The palm trees, easy living, perfect climate, white sand beaches, volcanic jungles, and deep spiritualism of the people all contribute to the allure. Bali, one small Hindu Island in the middle of the Muslim archipelago of Indonesia, is a unique treasure.

A quick geography lesson: Indonesia, located south of Asia and north of Australia, is a country about the same size and population as the USA, except that nearly all of it is underwater. With a population of about 200 million it ranks #4 in the world, just behind the USA (240 million?), and the archipelago stretches from east to west about the same distance as does the USA. Think of taking the most populous counties in the USA and flooding all of the rest, and you have Indonesia.

Muslim Indonesia

Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country on the planet. A few isolated islands are Hindu (Bali) or Christian (e.g. parts of Sulawesi), but the country is over 95% Muslim.

On Java and Sumatra, fundamentalist Islamic fervor is so far actively and successfully deterred by smart actions by the government, e.g. by telling both sides of the story on the Occupation of Iraq (as it is called in most of the Islamic world), as well as fairly heavy-handed approaches in dealing with radicals (the military has quite a free hand here, and controls much of the government, rather than the other way around). Fundamentalists (mostly funded by Saudis) are trying to radicalize Muslims in Indonesia, including calls to fight America. But by and large such calls have been ineffective. Indonesians also are currently engaged in a debate about moral censorship --a rather sensuous dancer has probably garnered as many headlines as the Occupation of Iraq, and it appears that Indonesians are more worried by government censorship rather than indecency. Recently, the government has cracked down hard on extremist groups (which it previously denied existed), and seems to be doing a good job finding that delicate balance of not polarizing the population while still neutralizing the extremists.

Unfortunately, however, all is not calm in paradise. Last year 38 Islamic militants from Java set off two bombs in Bali, killing over 200 people. The natural outcome of violence is fear, intolerance and hatred, and we encountered strong anti-Muslim feelings in Bali. Some people directly say they think all Muslims are violent terrorists and should be kept off Bali. Others complain about specific things, such as the supposed destruction of the Indonesian economy since the Muslims save their money to spend on trips to Mecca rather than spending it within Indonesia (indeed Saudi Arabia has had to limit Indonesia to 800,000 pilgrims a year). The tension between the Muslims and the minorities is just barely below the surface. On the other hand, it is probably not much different than it has been since Indonesia was founded in 1948 (or even before then, under British colonial rule). Few Balinese expect another bombing, and currently extremists are more focused on fighting Jakarta for control of remote autonomous regions of Indonesia.

Tourism

Currently, tourism is seriously down. Independent travelers are off by about half, and the large groups (meetings, incentive trips, conventions, expositions) are down by over two thirds. Bali has suffered a long string of bad luck as part of Indonesian: the 1997 Asian financial crash (making travel cheap but business scary), 1998 El Nino killed off many coral reefs (rains reduced the salinity and corals died), forest fires blackened several other Indonesian islands and skies throughout the area, 1999 civil unrest and civil war in East Timor attracted world headlines, the 2000 global economic downturn slowed tourism, and then Sep 11th and the October 2002 terrorist bombing in Bali hit hard. Just recently, the SARS scare has dealt the hardest blow to travel to Asia (even though no cases have been reported in Bali). Most governments (including Australia, UK and USA) still warn travelers to avoid Indonesia due to terrorist concerns. Despite all that, the Balinese remain positive. People are taking advantage of the lull to reinvest, to renovate, and to get ready for the recovery as best they can. However, no one will speculate on when it will come, and many are near their financial limit. The government guesses it may take three years for the recovery.

Us

We can see ourselves beginning to reach the end of the trip. Initially in Japan, we would zip around and see many sites. That soon changed into spending time getting to know an area and the people more deeply. That continued as we also dedicated more time to our own spiritual growth. Now we see that we are not pushing quite as deeply to get know the locals, or for example trying to speak the language. We also are selecting a few tourist sites to see, and bypassing others.

Some slowing down is of course positive, but we are also beginning to be a bit lazier. Maybe the travel is catching up with us, maybe we need time to process everything we have learned and the ways we have changed and grown. Time in India in particular is both invigorating and exhausting. We look forward to a month in Bali to recharge the batteries.

We have remained fairly healthy. In India we have had a few "digestive days", but not really that many. We have lost weight, Rod probably a bit too much (down to 132 pounds, 60 kilograms) but still feels great. We have done little exercise (we don't dare swim here!), so lack of conditioning is contributing to the weight drop, but mostly it is due to a diet high in carbohydrate, low in fat or alcohol, and without meat. We are feeling good, but Rod in particular will likely put a few pounds back on in Bali and Australia. That happened naturally when we went from China to Europe --the diets in western areas are much richer and the pounds seem to just come back on their own.

Fran continues to nurse soreness. Her frozen shoulder has improved some over the past year, but remains an annoyance. To join it, she has been nursing a sore knee from another fall a couple of months ago. Both are very slow in healing, and likely she has some arthritis setting in. Ah, if only to be young again!

Ubud

Ubud is the cultural center of Bali, both for locals and for tourists. We choose a home stay with a gamelan performer and teacher. It is a nice quiet place, but there is little actual interaction. Later, we came through Ubud again and stayed in a different home stay. This time we found a host who has worked as a guide for tourists for thirty years, and is full of knowledge and stories of Bali.

Staying in a family compound gave us the chance to experience traditional Balinese life. From architecture, to religion, to language, to food...we felt immersed in the culture. And we felt totally welcomed into the warm heart of Bali life.

The center of Bali life is the family compound. Generations live together in a rectangular walled compound erected according to strict traditional guidelines. Each compound has a temple area with straw roofed pagodas, open walled ceremonial buildings (bale) and special seats for the gods to sit in when they visit. The compounds also have beautiful ornamental gardens and separate buildings for the kitchen and sleeping areas. In each home where we stayed, they had build separate bungalows in the back for guests. They were both beautiful and peaceful places.

Religious practices shape the flow of the day. The families we stayed with practice Bali Hinduism, a mixture of Hindu, Buddhist and animist beliefs. Daily offerings to the gods are necessary, to please them and to help the people wash away their negative actions. One wise person told us that as long as religion is strong within the family compound, no terrorism can take root in the soil of Bali.

Days started early. At sunrise the sound of sweeping mixed with the crow of roosters. The whole compound would be swept in preparation for the day. Later the woman of the house would pass by, placing offerings to the gods in the temple and in special parts of the compound. She would be wearing traditional clothing (a sarong, lace shirt and sash) as it is very important to wear one's best clothes when making offerings.

We would see her approach our bungalow with her tray of small, intricately woven palm leaf baskets filled with flowers and rice. On it were also the incense sticks and flasks of holy water. At each special location she would place the basket gently in place, wave incense over it, dip a flower bud in the water and ceremoniously sprinkle it over the basket. She would quietly chant a mantra then insert the incense in the basket, leaving it to purify the location. This ritual was repeated in numerous locations throughout the compound.

Later in the day we would see her weaving more ceremonial baskets for use in the family compound and at the temple. There are many ceremonial days in the Bali calendar and the women spend a considerable amount of time preparing food and offerings for temple ceremonies. For example, in early May our host and her mother were already preparing the multi-colored rice cakes that would be used in a temple ceremony in June!

In the streets of Bali you can see the effects of the modern developed world. Local men and women ride newer motorcycles amongst the throngs of 4 wheel drive vehicles carrying tourists to their destinations. Internet cafes are everywhere. Japanese, Mexican and Italian restaurants are numerous. But tradition reigns in the family compound.

Traditional foods and ways of cooking still exist. We saw rice is steamed in a palm basket over a wood fire. It is pounded into ceremonial cakes with a banana leaf covered stick in a stone mortar. Many desserts and fish dishes are steamed in banana leaves over the fire.

Tradition also determines the family living arrangements. When a couple marries, they live with his family. As the family grows, they erect more buildings. The family will stay together in one compound for generations, the younger caring for their elders.

Temple Ceremony and Barong Dance

In Ubud, one evening we were just people-watching and Fran noticed that many locals were headed the same direction, in temple dress (men wearing a sarong, a sash around the waist, and a headband, women wearing their finest clothing). We wondered what was going on, so we followed them some distance to the edge of town and found a huge traffic jam at a temple. It turns out tonight was a very large ceremony, not for show for tourists but a religious ceremony for locals. We found it would be okay to join if we were properly attired, so after a little costuming courtesy of our home stay host, we joined the ceremony.

Balinese dances are performed for religious ceremonies. These same ones are replicated for tourists, complete with costume, gamelan, and choreography. However, the authentic dances at the temple were qualitatively different. We were able to see a Barong dance at the temple ceremony and were quite taken by the whole experience. (See http://www.inm-asiaguides.com/Bali/ebarong.htm or http://www.bluesaccess.com/Barong.html for pictures and a detailed description)

When an evil spirit was to enter the dance ring to do ritual combat with the good guys, it was not just dance. Rod watched as the dancers put themselves into trance-like states. They approached the Barong, touched the hair and the spirits entered the dancers, taking over their actions. Priests were on hand to help when things get out of control and to help the dancers come back out of trance. The closest analog for Christianity would be people speaking in tongues. Fran was sitting in the area near the Kris battle. She strongly felt the presence of a powerful force in the circle between the dancers and Rangda. At points the whole ring was full of dancers possessed by spirits, and it become sincerely dangerous. Evil spirits can turn magic against the dancers, forcing them to turn their knives into their own chests. The good spirits dueled with magic to rescue the dancers and fight off evil. The intensity we felt, of being in the midst of all this spiritual energy, is impossible to communicate. Some dancers had scars on their bare chests where the ritual knives have inflicted wounds previously, as the spirits fight. To the Balinese this is neither dance nor performance; this is a serious dual between good and evil, and critical to keep evil spirits in balance to ensure future peace, or prosperity, or happiness.

Cultural performances

Many other nights we attended performances scheduled for tourists. One night we were able to listen to a bamboo gamelan, consisting entirely of instruments made of bamboo, ranging from a flute to a huge xylophone-like instrument containing bamboo with more than a six inch (15 cm) diameter. For several nights we enjoyed different gamelans and dance performances, each acting out specific stories from Hindu epics.

Batik

Batik is a traditional method for dying fabric for sarongs. Fran has loved sewing with batik, the color and design of the fabric have been a particular favorite for a long time. In Ubud, she met a watercolor artist who expanded his artistic talent towards creating hand painted batik. He was offering classes, she could not pass by the opportunity.

Arriving at Nirvana, Nyoman's studio, is in itself a wonderfully peaceful experience. His workshop is in his family compound, which is also an upscale home stay. The galleries and workshops have three walls displaying his watercolor and batik paintings. The fourth wall is open to the sun. From inside, one can receive inspiration from surroundings...the beautiful gardens, temple, traditional Balinese architecture and caged tropical birds.

Nyoman describes batik painting as meditation. Fran found that to be true as she painted the first wax outlines of the design carefully on the stretched canvas. The design is further developed by alternately painting the areas with wax that are not to be dyed and dipping the fabric in a color. Layers of wax and color build, with the most advanced batik being complex and many layered.

Fran's first attempts were not so prosaic; they were rather primitive. But she thoroughly enjoyed learning how the fabric absorbs dye and how the colors interact with each other. She developed an appreciation for the work of real artists. Batik is something that she would like to develop further when (and if) she settles down to one place again.

Around Ubud

One evening, we head just north of town to where Balinese White Herons roost at night. In the late afternoon, a few birds begin to show up and roost in a few trees along a short stretch of one village. No one knows why they chose this spot. By sunset, thousands of the white birds have congregated in the trees. Locals call the birds herons, but the bird guides refer to them as egrets. They look very similar to the lesser egret, if you are familiar with that bird. It reminds Rod of the thousands of green parrots which roost each night in a few trees at the train station in Agra.

Surrounding Ubud is hilly country with many streams and rice paddies. Now is the end of one rice crop, and the time from harvest to re-seeding is just a few weeks. We see a few fields that are still to be harvested, while others that are already flooded and being plowed for re-seeding. We see some women flaying the rice, and it is spread out on many side roads to dry.

On the south edge of Ubud, one ravine is relatively heavily forested and home for a band of monkeys. Called Monkey Forest, it is a big tourist attraction. The monkeys learned long ago not to wait for tourists to hand them food. One jumps at Rod in the parking lot as we arrive to steal food. We see another jump on a woman's head and pull her hair, and hear stories about them stealing anything shiny, including cameras. We even see one monkey tightly clutching a baby kitten --we watch for a while but are unable to figure out why.

Denpasar

Denpasar is the capital of Bali and not usually much of a tourist destination. The guide books say to give it a brief look but keep going. We found it to be a quite pleasant city, full of parks and interesting buildings. We spent a little time at the museum, learning a bit about Bali.

Maybe we should have spent a night and walked around more, but Fran's knee is still sore from a fall a month ago in India. Her frozen shoulder is gradually improving, but now she also has a sore knee to worry about.

Craft Villages

South of Ubud is a series of villages, each full of master craftsman of a particular type. First we stop through the stone carving village of Batulbatan, then gold and silversmiths at Celuk, then basket weavers, and finally woodcarvers. Each village is fully dedicated to its one craft, with the street lined with shop after shop, where the craftsmen are working. We stop and watch a while. Tourists from Kuta Beach arrive in large tour buses, spending just a few moments before loading up to go to the next sight.

North of Ubud is a kite village, where a dozen craftsmen produce all of the best kites of Bali and Indonesia. Some are very creative, e.g. the Flying Boat. Others are beautifully colored, e.g. Butterflies and Dragonflies. Some are huge, including a couple with a 4 m (13 feet) wingspan!

Kuta

Kuta Beach

Kuta Beach is the long-time center of tourism, with the best beaches in Bali, famous sunsets, and parties. For many people it is the only Bali they will see. That is too bad, because it is very developed, catering to tourism, with touts selling something on every corner. But the people of Kuta Beach have aggressively driven out illegal activities such as prostitution and drugs that have plagued other Asian destinations, and it remains a livable albeit highly developed place to visit.

With both wild party scenes and serene sunsets, and the full range of plentiful cheap places to nice 5-star international resorts (include one rated in the top ten hotels of the world), Kuta Beach remains the initial focal point of tourism in Bali. We want a quieter holiday, and to be able to understand Balinese culture better than is possible from folks desperate to sell a trinket. So other than taking care of a few logistics and organizing the rest of our stay, we decided to minimize our time in Kuta Beach.

Regardless, Rod found time to spend an afternoon on a surf board (or, more frequently toppled in the water next to it), his first time on a board. He caught a couple of waves laying down on the board but never mastered standing up. But it was still great fun. Rod also started swimming again, which always feels so good. (You don't dare swim in India, except a few beaches such as Goa and Kerala.)

After seven months in India and Nepal eating as vegetarians, we knew that it would become more difficult in other places. In fact we quickly got very hungry in Kuta Beach since everything features fish! Fortunately we soon found a great place with a vegetarian dinner. We had both earlier lost some pounds on the trip but are not looking to lose anymore, so it is great being able to pig out, and even chug some beers, feeling like it is okay if a few pounds come back! The days are quite warm and muggy, the nights often rainy, keeping the flowers lush. It is easy to just relax, and too warm to do much other than take it easy and swim anyway.

Balinese Culture

Balinese culture is overshadowed by the tourism, but it is definitely not threatened. As an influential Balinese in Ubud was to tell us later, the Balinese culture is very strong and as long as it remains strong in the family compound it will be all right. What happens with the tourist on the street and the beach is not a threat to the culture in the heart. As we rolled around Kuta we find that to be true. We stumbled past a community center where the local boys have gamelan practice (the Javanese percussion orchestra), and we are able to go in and listen. We switch to a home stay, where the family compound includes their own small temple and they quietly have their own private offerings and worship many times a day. Balinese spirituality is deeply rooted in Hinduism and animism, and Buddhism. Most everything has spirits, and many activities are guided by spirits.

Some Balinese believe intensely in the spirits, others conduct the ceremonies just in case the superstitions are true. Few ignore the spirits altogether. Every few days there is some auspicious event, or a ceremony for a spirit. Many are simply ceremonies in the home, some are quite elaborate. Regardless, every day includes making offerings to the spirits. The women fashion little bamboo leaf baskets, fill them with a bit of cooked rice, a few flower petals, and maybe a cracker (biscuit). She may make a dozen or more of these and take them to special locations within the family compound. As she places each offering, she lights a stick of incense and splashes a few drops of blessed water. With a gentle wave of the hand, she is then off to the next offering. Regardless of your belief in whether these offerings please the spirits, they do cause the household to keep spirituality in their minds constantly, and behave accordingly.

Uluwatu Temple

The island of Bali is small. Hundreds of years ago, the island was ringed by a series of seven temples, all within sight of each other, to protect the entire coastline and island. Each of these temples remains today, some still very spiritual, others largely tourist attractions. Uluwatu is the temple closest to Kuta, and attracts a large number of tourists. The temple is high on a cliff jutting west into the ocean at the southern knob of the island. It is famous for sunsets, and also for its monkeys which will snatch food, purses and cameras from tourists. We were able to attend a Kecak dance performance on the cliff at sunset. The story is about the capture and rescue of Rama's wife Sita, taken from the Indian epic Ramayana, which contains the roots of much Indian and Balinese culture and stories. Wonderfully costumed dancers perform slow intricate movements to the constant percussive chek-a-chek-a-chek bleating of a male choir.

Nusa Dua

A couple of decades ago, in an effort to isolate Bali from excessive tourism, the area called Nusa Dua (Two Islands) was developed for high-end resorts. Especially catering to the tourist who wants isolation rather than immersion in a country, the area is a beautiful escape from the real world.

We walked the grounds of the Grand Hyatt, and it was absolutely wonderful. Pools cascade over waterfalls into swimming pools, restaurants float over lotus ponds, and the grounds are immense, lush and immaculate. The streets and beaches are free of any local touts or distractions. Balinese culture is present in dinner shows. Unlike many of the places we stay, I'll bet the plumbing even works! We contrast this style of travel with ours, and must admit that this is attractive! If only we could afford long-term travel in this style! But alas we are comfortable with the choices we have made, trading comfort for longer time to meet people and understand their lives.

Unfortunately, these up-scale places are suffering the worst from the tourism drop. The wealthier tourist and conventioneer seems to be the most likely to change destinations if a place seems at all risky, so the hotels lost 65% of their guests after the Bali bombing. As we walked through the grounds whole wings of the hotel were empty, and it seemed like less than 10% occupancy. Probably a great time to get a super deal!

Amed and the north

Amed

At the north east tip of Bali is the tropical paradise we were looking for. Quiet beaches, friendly locals, sand and sun. Palm trees, bananas, ... Ah, so restful...

We found a wonderful place right on the beach --literally we just walk down four steps to the sand, and another 20 meters to the ocean. With an upstairs room, the balcony is nice and private with a great view through the palm trees. If this sounds idyllic, then you are getting the right picture!

The room includes breakfast and dinner, making life even easier. There is little to think about --no chasing off to restaurants to eat. Rod swims many times a day, and we both snorkel constantly. Fran spends a lot of time reading spiritual books. We initially checked in to Vienna Beach Bungalows for a few days, but we ended up staying for eleven!

Snorkeling

Earlier, while Fran took the Batik course in Ubud, Rod headed out to Padang Bai (Bay) for snorkeling. Purported to be one of the best snorkeling areas in Bali accessible from the beach, it was a great way to spend the day. Water was clear to about 15 meters and snorkeling was great, but the real treat was deeper where the scuba divers were. Initially the little bay was full of diving boats, but they left as the tide went out, a good clue that it was time to get out of the water. The current becomes very strong and the low water bashes swimmers on the corals.

In Amed and the north, the ocean is very calm, with waves just one foot (30 cm) high at most, and currents are mild. Just off the beach at the Guest House was an incredible coral garden, packed solid with soft and hard corals until the El Nino event of 1998 when excessive rains diluted the coastal waters and killed off the coral. Today there are just a few pockets of live coral among the acres of bleached dead coral.

Still, the snorkeling is enjoyable and the fish plentiful. Near the beach we find an eel garden, a sandy stretch with a hundred little eels the size of pencils poking up through the sand. In the crevice of one bigger rock, Rod finds a Moray Eel. In the shallows right near the beach are many trigger fish (especially the Black Spot Trigger), and fifty meters out (150 feet) are parrotfish, batfish, angelfish, butterfly fish, clowns, wrasse, and more.

Indonesia is in the triangle with the most diverse tropical fish in the world. The global ocean currents drive diversity towards the islands --the warm equatorial currents in the Pacific flow from east to west resulting in a increase in the number of species as you progress from the Americas to Asia. The currents circulate back through the cooler temperate regions, so the net drift of warm water species is east to west, and Indonesia has several times as many species as the south pacific, which has more than Hawaii, which in turn has more than the coast of the Americas.

In the bay, we discover an old wreck of a wooden 30 meter (100 foot) boat resting in 2 meters (6 feet) of water. The deck and cabin are long since missing, but much of the hull is intact, and the engine and drive train are still present. It is covered with coral and surrounded by little fish.

A few kilometers east, a larger Japanese shipwreck makes for great snorkeling. It lies at the leeward end of a bay so often the sand is stirred up and visibility bad. The first time we snorkeled to find it, we were unknowingly directly over the wreck when the dip of the ocean swells brought it into view just a meter (3 feet) below us! It appeared and disappeared in the time of one ocean swell. Later when the wind was calmer we could see the whole wreck. The nearby coral gardens are one of the few areas in Bali that survived the El Nino bleaching, and was spectacular.

The most famous shipwreck in Bali is the USS Liberty, about ten kilometers to the west in Tulamben. It is one of the three top dive sites in Bali.

In 1943 the USA was unofficially subverting the Japanese occupation of the South Pacific, and the USS Liberty was carrying a valuable cargo of rubber. Torpedoed by the Japanese, the Americans scuttled the vessel on the beach and removed the cargo. It sat on the beach for several decades until the earthquake in 1968 associated with an eruption of Agung Batur. During an earthquake sand vibrates and becomes virtually a liquid. The 140 meter (400 foot) vessel slid down the beach into 30 meters (100 feet) of water, where it rests today. It's amazing to think of a steel ship that size just sliding along --it makes clear why masonry materials are best avoided in earthquake zones! The ship is now covered with corals and small fishes, and larger fish come by for a meal.

Since the upper portion of the USS Liberty lies less than 10 meters from the surface, we went snorkeling to see it. But that didn't last long --it just convinced Rod to come back with diving gear. Ship wrecks are a favorite destination for divers because they are so full of life, and the wreck at Tulamben is one of the easiest in the world to dive --there is little current and the wreck is very shallow --the ship lies on its side not far under the surface.

Scuba Diving

Rod took four dives in Bali, two from Amed and two from Lovina Beach. In all four dives there were no other tourists, so he was alone with just the divemaster. That was great!

The first dive was to the USS Liberty wreck in Tulamben. The dive consists of drifting down one side and then back through the interior. We saw tons of corals and fish, including Lionfish. At the nearby Tulamben Wall, we saw a gigantic 2-meter (six-foot) Gorgonian sea fan.

The next two dives were at the equally famous Menjangan Island, part of a National Park and preserve. Among the long list of stuff that I didn't know or can't remember were a Black-tip Shark, table coral, brain coral, sponges, anemones, Clown Trigger, and a curious Cuttlefish.

Gugung Batur

Most of the Indonesia islands are volcanic. Each island is typically formed from several volcanoes which are close enough together to merge into one island. The north of Bali is formed from many volcanoes, in particular one mountain (Gugung Agung, at 3,100 meters or 10,000 feet) and two calderas.

The Gugung Batur caldera near the center of the island is a huge crater that was once a towering volcano. Inside are numerous fumaroles, a new peak that has risen above the rim of the crater, and a lake. While eruptions have occurred within people's lifetimes, many people live within the caldera in several villages. The soil is very fertile and the farms are beautiful. One village was nearly destroyed by a lava flow near the turn of the century, but the temple was spared. The villagers took that as an auspicious sign and rebuilt the village. But a second lava eruption a few decades ago again buried the village, and this time only the top spire of the temple was left. This time the village was relocated to the rim of the caldera, although several prosperous agricultural villages still thrive on the crater floor.

A favorite walk of travelers used to be up the new peak. However the local guides were overtaken by a corrupt group that raised the prices and began beating up tourists who attempted the climb without a guide. We decided to skip that hike, since we neither wanted to support such guides, nor incur their wrath. Instead, we walked from a charming temple on the floor of the crater up to the western rim for the view over the edge and out to the sea.

What's next?

We are starting to think about what we do when we return...We are finding a little less interest in learning everything about each place and the people. We are not tired of traveling yet, but can see that the end is coming. We are starting to talk about getting ready to come back, but haven't a clue what that means. We just see that the end is coming. We will stay in Australia for 2-3 months, and return to the USA in August. Fran's sister Lucy is assembling her family together to celebrate their 25th anniversary in July so maybe we will cut Australia a bit short to come home for that.