April 5th, 2005
When we arrived on Bali, we flew into the airport at Denpasar. From there we knew that we had to make it up to Padang Bai by a reasonable check in time at our hotel. Since we had plenty of time to get to Padang Bai, that's why we checked out the art stuff along the way. Our route took us up along the towns between Denpasar and Padang Bai, staying along the East Coast. We planned to stay in Padang Bai for 2 nights and then move to Ubud.



In addition to massive stone carvings in the middle of towns and store after store of stone carvings or baskets or woodcarvings, etc... we also saw a little bit of the overlaying culture. The streets were lined with these bamboo poles that were either simple in design or much more ornate, but had offering plates built into them.


This is actually a street enroute to Padang Bai but I added it so you could see it in sunny daylight.

I asked Whiskey what these were and he said they were a "Penjor", which is a long bamboo pole with a decorated end, arched over a roadway or pathway used during festivals or ceremonies. At the base of the Penjor there was an offering plate. Like I mentioned in a previous post, offerings were such a major part of each Balinese's day, that they were seen placing offerings morning, noon and night.


Rainy morning in Padang Bai.


Base of a Penjor with a fresh offering added.


Local woman placing offerings in the evening. Notice the dress code. Sarong, sash and top.


After each offering is placed, it is sprinkled with some 'holy' water and a lit incense stick is also added, thereby making the streets of Bali aromatic.


Up close offering.

It doesn't matter if it's raining or not. Offerings are placed every day. You should try not to step on any offerings, but sometimes they are placed right in the path you are walking. As well, some offerings include food like rice, making them tasty treats for the roaming dogs. Balinese don't care that the dogs pick apart the offerings, it is what it is, but, they don't necessarily trust dogs either. Though you will see some dogs have been adopted by families, and you know this b/c they have a collar or are staying right with a specific group.


Once we got to Padang Bai though, we checked into our rooms and went to explore the village.


Hotel Puri Rai

Hotel Puri Rai was a very nice hotel. Our room fee was also inclusive of breakfasts each morning, which if you can get a taste of banana pancakes, with real chocolate sprinkles, (not waxy jimmies) which are more like crepes, you must give them a try! The fruit is also wonderful and the fresh sqeezed fruit juices are a lovely start to your mornings! And, as we found in Singapore, the coffee is always very very good! The room accomodations were Balinese styled bungalows (ours was 'fan cooled'), private showers/bathroom (just like the bathrooms everywhere else around here), hot and cold running water, patios with tables and chairs, 2 swimming pools (one with a swim up bar) and they had hot tea waiting for you at your room each day. The rooms cost about $28 USD/night. ( I think)

Contact info for Hotel Puri Rai:
Jalan Silayukti No. 7 X
Padang Bai 80872
Phone: 62-363-41385
62-363-41387
Fax: 62-363-41386
email: purirai_hotel@yahoo.com

Puri in Balinese, means "palace" and from what we saw, it was indeed like a palace.


Water lily urn.


View of pool from Sherry and Bill's room.


Our rooms. Sherry and Bill were on the bottom Right, and Jeremy and I were on the upper Left.


View of the pool from our room.


More rooms at Puri Rai.


An offering platform outside Sherry and Bill's room.


Our hotel had it's own Temple. This is the Barong outside the entrance to the Temple.


Carved Barong outside the Temple.


Stepping inside the Temple.


Offerings inside the Temple.


Kel and Jer walking to beach and village from our rooms.

Padang Bai is a very small village, with a sandy beach. We stood out like sore thumbs so we began to really get a taste of what it's like to be harrassed by locals wanting to sell you something.


Local women selling sarongs. Sherry considering and in the end buying, a sarong.

The locals who try to sell you their wares are called "Hawkers". If there was anything that dampened our visit to Bali, (the rain actually did NOT dampen our spirits) it was the experiences with the Hawkers. They were relentless. If you made eye contact by accident, you were done for, which made it kind of hard to walk around and actually 'see' stuff. We learned very quickly how to say "Deducta Terima kasih" = No Thank You! BUT, that didn't always stop them. You felt so bad that you were being rude by walking away, but sometimes they would follow you. Or find you later! If you did want to buy what they were selling, you just had to bargain with them. Get your start price, then drop it by a third and barain from there. You should be able to get what you want for half of what they originally asked, and it's still dirt cheap!


Beach at Padang Bai.


Men organizing fishing nets.


Fishing boats lined up along the beach.


Local family having dinner.


Children playing in the water.

Jeremy and I struck out on our own for a few hours and met these girls sitting next to the road in a raised hutlike structure making offerings. They were really sweet and friendly and offered to let us watch, learn and take pix. For all of the offerings that are put out, someone's gotta make them all. Actually, everyone (women) make the offerings and spend many hours a day doing so.


She's making up the bases out of a thick pliable leaf of some sort.


One of her offerings up close. Petals from red and purple flowers, on the bases, topped with another piece of folded over leaf, pinned together with snips of bamboo and then topped with shredded pandan leaves. Kinda like a sundae!


We enjoyed hanging out with these two girls. They were friendly and sweet and this one spoke English Ok enough to converse with, and then she would translate for her friend.


Up close of the base, you can see the snips of bamboo holding it all together.


We got the other girl to show us how to shred the pandan leaves so fine. She even let Jeremy try but it was getting too dark to get a pix of him in action. This girl used a knife that was super sharp and could sit and chat away while shredding. The other girl, claimed to not be able to do the shredding, and that's why she made the bases.


Just chatting and giggling away as she worked.



And when we left the girls to meet Jer's folks for dinner, we walked by this restaurant that displayed the fish of the day, and as you can see above, another offering. As well, please note the 2 silver fish as when we went diving we were encircled by an entire school of these underwater. That was awesome!



And it was funny to see Bill's pix with ours, b/c while we were talking to the girls, this big group of guys doing karate, ran by us and the girls got all excited and giggly. The girls told us that on the 18th, there was going to be a big festival at the local Temple, and these guys would be performing. Also notice the rooster in the basket. I read that the roosters are put outside so that they can find entertainment in things passing by them, and that the owners really care for the roosters, grooming them, feeding them, and keeping them healthy, all up and until the cockfight, when one rooster WILL lose. The 'winner' rooster's owner, then takes the killed rooster home, and cooks it and eats it.


And Bill and Sherry got to the other end of town from where Jeremy and I were with the girls. This man is sitting just outside of a Chinese Cemetary. Notice the raised tombs in back of him. The goats and the local cow graze the areas around the cemetaries to keep them a bit more tidy, although this was in disrepair.

We learned from our dive master (more on that later) that the Chinese were brought to Indonesia to help organize the Indonesians so that they could be more profitable. The weathiest people who live in Indonesia to this day, are still the Chinese.


And Sherry found the Ozone Cafe. Somewhere out at this end of town, maybe even the Ozone, there was live music happening, or maybe it was karaoke, late into the night.

We ate at two different restaurants in Padang Bai, and both of them were very good. However, the first restaurant that we ate in, we had most excellent frozen drinks. So, after dinner the second night we went back to our first restaurant for some drinks and dessert. In each case the atmosphere of the restaurants was warm and welcome.


Black mask decoration.


White mask decoration.


Sherry tried a Balinese food called Gado Gado, which is tofu, tempeh, veggies and eggs with a spicy peanut sauce. It's a very tasty meal, and as you can see by the size of the portion-huge! For all of us to eat dinner at this restaurant, including the alcoholic bevvies, our bill was $17 USD.


And when we came back to our 'fav' night spot for dessert we were seated up on the bamboo mats. There were two dogs that hung out in the restaurant and one of them was this little rammy puppy. One of the waiters brought him over to us and let him hang out while we had dessert. I cannot resist puppies!

The morning we were to leave Padang Bai and head for Ubud, it was raining like cats and dogs. But, Jeremy and I wanted to see the other section of town, where the market was before we had to leave. We had an early breakfast and then headed out in the rain.


This was an alley way off the main street. When we looked down it, we saw this dog, come out to the middle of the alley and cop a sqat. At least the water will wash it all away.


These goats were too cute. They were all huddled together trying to stay out of the rain.



We got to the market and went inside. There were all kinds of fresh veggies and needed items to choose from.


Up close of the peppers and onions and nuts.


This was a small market house under one large roof.


As we walked along the streets and looped around to begin heading back, we came across this place that had big chunks of cut lava stone piled outside. These chunks we later saw (and you will too) are used to make the applicae stonework for the Temples.


The smaller structures that are within the bigger Temples.


On such a dreary day, this red door, with the intricasies of the bamboo wall and the green pandan leaves just lifted my spirit. Then a moment later, a guy came out and asked us if we wanted to rent a room.

I should add that one of the reasons we came up to Padang Bai, was so we could go Scuba Diving. So, I will do the scuba section in a separate blog. But next!

© December 6, 2008