Chelsea’s RTW Travel Log

Bali has been a ride. To anyone who is thinking about visiting SE Asia, add Bali to your list. The locals are kind, honest, and warm. Yes, you have to banter and bargain a lot, but that’s part of the fun.

Arriving in Bali

When we first arrived, we stayed in Kuta Beach, Bali – not to be confused with Kuta Beach, Lombok (more on that later). Kuta is nice if you’re looking for a party scene or a fancy dinner.  You can purchase DVDs for .80 cents each and Nintendo Wii games for $1.80… you can even buy designer perfume in a real looking faux box for $5.00.  They have Dolce & Gabana stores on almost every street corner, but it’s more like Dolce and K-Mart. The tourists eat it up though. 

Upon entering shopping mecca in Kuta, I was bombarded with offers for massages, pedicures, and haircuts. I was finally pursauded by the Kimberly Spa… I paid $7 US for a pedicure and a manicure. Talk about being pampered!  What a treat.

Our night out in Kuta Beach, at the only wine bar. Mind you, we typically look like greasy backpackers.

Ubud, Bali

After getting grounded in Kuta and running around like spoiled kids in a candy store, we arranged a shuttle to Ubud, Bali. Ubud is the artistic capital of Bali where you’ll find paintings on every corner with rice fields that roll for kilometers. The rice fields are so green. They gave me such a feeling of renewal.

Here’s quick video of us riding through the rice fields. It’s not the greatest quality, but you’ll get the idea.

On our first night in Ubud, we stayed at the Uma Sari Cottages for a couple of nights. The location was decent and the price was right, but the plumbing was not. We could smell our own defection and after a few days, so even the shower felt dirty.

Moving on, we’d planned to stay in Arjana 3, a set of newer buildings out in the middle of the rice. It was only $18 per night with breakfast included. But, as timing would have it… we ended up staying at Christina’s place, Villa Talidandan.

I’d emailed Christina months back, and received a response that her villa was available, but I thought it was too far out for us to even consider (5 km from Ubud). But, we since had discovered the wonder of the motor bike and even liked the idea of being outside of the city centre. I emailed Christina the day before we were to move to Arjana 3, and she called us immediately. We went to look at it first thing the next morning… and it was perfect.

Here’s a quick video I took of Villa Talidandan.

Christina is amazing. She’s originally from Modesto, CA and has lived overseas for more than 20 years, 6 of which have been in Bali. She and her family have put their time, money, and energy into the school near her villa, by starting a computer school, a library, and initiating a recycling program. Since Christina spearheaded the computer school, so we chatted her up about how we could help.

Teaching a Class at the Abangan Computer School

Justin and I were excited about the possibility helping, so the next week we taught a class to 6th graders about digital images, photo editing, and file saving. We had them go out in groups to take 10 pictures each (30 per group).  Then, we had them load up Picasa 3 (a photo editing product made by Google) to upload and edit the photos. The cool thing about Picasa is that it’s very simple, intuitive, and powerful. Unlike Photoshop, there are not a bunch of menus and complicated processes. Most things just involve clicking or double-clicking. We had a translator, a lesson plan, and we even had 1GB thumb drives to give to the children (we took a scary motor bike trip to Denpasar the day before to purchase them).

The class was a success. The children were more advanced, curious, and exploratory that either of us had anticipated. By the time we were finished, they were cropping photos, balancing color, changing images to black & white, and adding text to their photos. Each child had to load their photos onto the drives we gave them (we had them write their initials on them to know whose was whose). So, now they can save their work and use the drive on any computer they ever use. I am not sure whether they fully understand the concept of the thumb drive, but they will as they use it more.

Here’s a video of the computer school when we went to visit the school the first time.

The government run schools in Bali are not what we’re used to. Often, teachers don’t even show up to class and the children run rampant. Here are some photos of the rest of the school. The school been cleaned up quite a bit with the help of Christina and her family. They started a recycling program, so at least the grounds are clean.

  

If you’d like to donate to the school or these kids… please let me know. I can get you in touch with Christina. Any contributions donated will 100% go to the kids, the computer school, and better teaching materials. There are no administrative costs, so even a small donation will help. Or, if you’d rather send over children’s books, software, stuff for the classroom, etc. I can get you an address.

I can guarantee you, anything you give, will help. They’d like to leave the computer lab open after school hours when classes aren’t be taught, but that requires additional funds that aren’t currenty available. Also, if you’re coming Bali and intersted in teaching a class, I’m sure you’d be very welcome. The kids are so grateful for the computer school. They are always arive early to class with a huge smile, eager to learn. It’s optional for the kids to attend the after school computer classes, but students don’t miss it unless they are ill.

The computer school is the gateway to a better future for these kids. Most kids in Bali villages don’t even see a computer until high school, and even then, the resources are minimal. By the time the kids at the Abangan Computer School graduate from the 6th grade, they’ve learned MS Word, MS Excel, have started to hone their typing skills. They finish off the year with a 2 week computer camp where they learn how the Internet and building web pages works.

Buying Trip

As some of you know, I’ve always wanted to open an import store in the United States with beautiful furniture, décor, jewelry, and clothing from around the world. Bali certainly made me consider sending a container home. The cost is approximately $4000 (20ft) to $6000 (40ft) for shipping and customs to the port of San Francisco. 

I came to the conclusion that you can’t just send a container home and hold your breath. It’s a lot of work, a lot. And, not only that, but you’d have to find a channel to sell goods through. Retail is no picnic, especially right now. My vision of the retail store I’d want to open requires quite a bit of capital. It’s a fun business idea, not necessarily the most easiest model. I am not saying that I am not going to do it, but I’d like to have to have another successful business venture to finance the costs and risk associated.

Nonetheless, Justin and I went on a buying trip. As luck would have it, Christina‘s friend, Victoria is well versed with the import/export business. She has a retail shop in Ubud with gorgeous home furnishings, silks, and decorations. I spoke to Victoria briefly on the phone and we decided to meet up to discuss how we might be able to help one another. She met us at Villa Talidandan, and from there we went all over the place to look at furniture, fountains, sculpture, and décor. From this trip, I got a good idea of price, selection, and quality.

Victoria is an invaluable resource and a very kind woman. She definitely knows her way around the business and doesn’t sugar coat anything. Through the buying trip, I realized that furniture would be a tough sell in the US with all of the competition buying/selling imported furniture.  See, in the short term I was thinking about doing a warehouse business trafficed by inexpensive online marketing and beyond. I could sell straight from a warehouse floor and forego the need for pricey retail space. After understanding prices, liabilities, the potential for wood cracking, and taking into account the economy, I realized even doing that would be an uphill battle.

I do have a good eye for things. I think I’d make a great buyer for imported goods, but you have to have a way to sell those goods!  My takeaway was that the fountains, marble bathtubs, shell/stone/quartz sinks, mirrors, counters, and small bathroom accessories would have much less competition. If I were to buy based on what I thought I could sell at a high margin, I’d buy this stuff. Problems with this are multi-dimensional: I am not excited about bathroom furnishings, no one is building right now, and I’d still have to find a channel to sell it through (custom home builders?).  

Oh well, I will figure out how to do the import/export biznaz eventually.  I know it’s not as romantic as it sounds to expense traveling, but we’ll see?

Here are a few photos of things I liked:

  

Justin and I also learned how to ship LCL (Less Container Load) without paying per cubic meter prices. You can send a huge box, and as long as it weighs less than 20kg, it only costs $70 door-to-door. This is a good way to send jewelry, clothing, and textiles, which are difficult to send via a container because of regulations and tariffs.

Anyway, we sent home a couple Japanese style lamps with burnt orange shades, some gifts, and a couple paintings. At 2-3 months transit time, the stuff might even beat us back!

Health Report

As far as Bali Belly goes, both of us have felt it. My digestion has been a little raw for that last week and I had a high fever one night along with what seemed like food poisoning, but nothing too maddening.

Lombok, Indonesia

We’ve met a lot of interesting people in Bali. It’s not overrun by backpackers like Thailand. We met one guy that builds and tests engines for Porsche (a German of course), a family of 8 from Australia (we took a biking tour with them), and a Lonely Planet writer. The Lonely Planet guy told us that Kuta Beach, Lombok was a “Must SEE!” 

So, we took his advice. There are a number of options available for transport to Lombok. The easiest/quickest is a flight for $40 one way. Next up, a 1.5 hour boat that goes to the Gili Islands and then to Lombok for $65 one way. And finally, a 3 hour cruise boat for $35 each way.

It turns out there’s a slow boat from Padangbai to Lembar for just 32,000 rupiahs. That’s $3.20. Here’s a video I took walking onto the ferry.

 

Once onboard, we rented a cheap mat and enjoyed the sunshine overy a friendly game of gin. There weren’t very many Westerners (maybe half a dozen) on the way there, and on the way back we were the only obvious tourists. We were bombarded with offers to buy this and that… and you can’t say “No, thank you.”  Any attention is attention…

Kuta Beach, Lombok is a MUST MISS!  It’s out in the middle of no where. The beach is ok, but you can’t swim in it, and you have to take another boat like 30 minutes just to get to a good surfing spot. There is no where to stay unless you want to fork out $70+ to stay at the Novotel. Everything else is really trashy. I don’t mind minimal accommodations, but these places were dank and depressing.

I think the people are much worse off in Lombok. They don’t have resources such as rice, bamboo, and irrigation water as readily available. There’s garbage everywhere and the people are fairly unwelcoming. There’s also the difference in religion. Most of Lombok is Muslim, whereas the Balinese are mostly Hindu.

The boat ride was the best part. I am glad we didn’t go the easy/expensive way. 

Impressions of Bali

The poverty really struck me in Bali. The culture and the people are very palpable. Many speak decent enough English to have a choppy conversation, so if you’re curious, you can learn a lot, quickly. Balinese make roughly $50-$100 a month, and it’s typical for well over half of that to be spent on housing. Families live in compounds, with several buildings for different generations.  Each building in the complex is as simple as you can possibly imagine with bamboo roofs, beds, and a gas stove top for cooking. Each family cooks the meals for the whole day first thing in the morning. Everything is fresh. If they need feed for their cow or pig, they go out to the fields and cut it.  We saw many walking down the street with a blade in their hand and grass feed strapped to their back. Women seem to carry everything on their heads.  I even saw what must have been an 80 year-old woman in her underwear carrying 2 large building bricks on her head. They must have weighed 20 kg.

A beautiful baby girl at a compound we visited on an eco bike tour, doing laundry:

It’s really beautiful to see people live so simply. Everyone has their role, their duty, and there’s timing to everything, rituals constantly, and celebrations weekly. People smile a lot in Bali. And I can see why, there’s a lot to smile about. They have what seem to be unlimited natural resources and a strong connection with their religion and family.

At the end of our stay in Bali, I left a few belongings behind that I won’t need anymore — a travel blanket and a fleece jacket. The maid found them and tried to give them back to us when we returned from lunch to pick up our bags. We explained that no longer wanted them. The smile she flashed is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. She asked if she could have them. Of course, I obliged. She started trying on the jacket and commented on how nice it was. In all my life I have never seen anyone so happy to receive used clothing. It really made me think.

I cherish the Balinese people and the wonder that is Bali. I will come back someday… hopefully, soon!

Monkey Forest, Ubud

Monkeys on Monkey Forest Road - video of a 5 minute visit we took to the Monkey Forest:

 I miss you all. Write me or comment below if you can. =)