As soon as you set foot on Bali (and certainly on most Asian countries), one of the first things to hit you is traffic. Not necessarily the jam type, but the way people get around and how the traffic flow works.

What we’ve learned is that there are not many traffic rules. Everyone gets to where they need to go in an organic manner, with eye contact, light honking, keeping left on the road (most of the time) and not making abrupt moves. The locals seem to say that the biggest hazards are dogs! Dogs just hang out, sometimes laying down on the road and you have to honk to make them move.

Another interesting thing, which I’ll be curious to compare in other Asian countries we’ll go to, is that a large majority of vehicles here are new-looking. I was expecting it to be the other way around, with the majority having squeaky breaks or being piles of rust on wheels. Nope.

Of course, the most interesting thing to watch are the (very abundant) scooters. I could spend all day just sitting at a cafe watching the endless configurations of people and things carried on scooters and motorcycles. As a matter of fact we did just that one day and were able to snap these few shots as examples…

Scooters don’t just transport people, they transport your shop.

Helmets are optional and little kids are common.

The seats are big enough for three people, so why not take advantage of that regardless of the passengers’ age? That little guy probably learned how to walk last week.

In Ubud, there were quite a few westerners, possibly expats, kickin’ it Balinese.

And my favorite… The family of four. Classic. The driver has a helmet but not the passengers, the little kids are sandwiched between the two adults and the woman is riding amazon-style in the back, holding the kids. These people must have abs and arms of steel.

Seeing everyone move around with ease under these circumstances definitely puts to shame our westerner paranoia of getting hurt… and is insanely entertaining.

I’ll start with this: no matter how much you read about a country and differences to expect, you only really realize them when you see them with your own eyes, smell them with your own nose, feel them with your own skin.

Our first exploration out of the hotel was incredibly enjoyable and a punch in the face at the same time. Here are some observations I made on our walk to the fairly chill beach of Sanur and its restaurants strip:

– chickens (which roam around family compounds) are a different type here, they are a lot more slender, but not skinny
– there are loads of little refreshment stands in a row on a road that doesn’t seem to get much tourist traffic
– locals bathe in the ocean, naked and scrub themselves with sand
– small piles of trash burn on the side of the road… their version of recycling?
– cows look like big deer at a glance, are held on leashes which are tied to a rope harness that goes around their heads and through their nostrils
– there are millions of stray dogs roaming around and lots of them being obvious recent mothers
– there are Hindu altars everywhere (they can be as small as just a statue surrounded by a sculpted stone wall for the family house)
– there are religious offerings everywhere (woven palm leaves with flowers, rice and incense), especially near the altars
– it gets very hot between 11 am and 3 or 4 pm
– you will drip sweat even doing nothing
– you can charter a traditional boat (long and skinny wood boat with an outrigger on each side) for $40/hr.
– you get accosted by all restaurant worker/scooter renter/boat charterer/shop owner to know where you’re from, what you’re doing today, what your name is and if you’d like to [whatever they want you to do/buy]. The good thing is that once we would say no, we generally would be left alone. They’re not too aggressive in Sanur (we heard different stories about Kuta).
– People get massages right on the beach
– where it’s not beach or town, there are plenty of farmland around with extremely green and lush vegetation
– we’re still a little shy on photo-taking because it entails stopping, which entails the risk of being accosted,

All of these sights and experiences are very cool, but they are a lot to take in all at once. Both Justin and I had, at different times, while looking around, butterflies translating to: holy crap, this is different! It’s going to take a few days for our eyes to adjust to our new environment.

We flew Pacific Blue to Bali from Christchurch via Brisbane (Australia). It was a 12 hour journey which went very smoothly apart from the transfer security in Brisbane where they gave Justin a hard time about an Atwood tool… he got to keep it minus the screw driver bit.

Landing in the moody afternoon.

Having never been in a tropical place or in Southeast Asia, I had a bunch of apprehensions. Will I feel the suffocating humid heat? Will the customs line be excruciatingly long? Will the airport be crowded, hot and smelly? Will our driver never show up? As per the usual, none of these concerns turned out to be true. It was hot but not unbearable, there were next to no lines for visas or customs, the airport was air-conditioned and quite empty, we found our driver within 30 seconds we stepped outside and he drove us in a nice air-conditioned SUV to our hotel.

The drive was about 20 minutes long on the main “highway” of South Bali. Traffic is on the left side, which is perfect since we got so used to it in NZ that watching a movie where someone drives on the right side of the road looks totally wrong. Intersections were decorated with giant (and I mean, giant!) sculptures of Hindu heroes and historical scenes. There were gazillions of scooters and motorcycles slaloming between cars. Some didn’t wear helmets and several had the whole family on there, including a super cute 18 months old baby standing on the seat in between Mommy and Daddy with its head sticking in the wind like a little puppy. I didn’t take any photos of them but that image is forever engraved in my memory. Incredible.

Justin, flashing some Rupiahs on our hotel room porch.

Our hotel is just outside of Sanur, which is a chiller spot than say Kuta (surfer central) set on a side street in a beautiful tropical garden with a small pool. You can also have a peek here to know more about garden . We got there just as the rain started pouring, giving us the friendly reminder that we are indeed visiting Bali during its wet season. With the 5 hours time difference, we managed to stay awake until 8pm and then crashed, with the strange realization… we are in Bali!

A lot of people who are planning for a round-the-world trip opt for the “RTW” plane tickets. They are $4000 to $5000 and allow you to stop multiple times in several continents. Considering that long-haul flights are generally north of $1000, it sounds like a very attractive deal for such a long journey. The down side is that you have to pick your cities and dates in advance. Each RTW ticket has its own rules but essentially it locks you in a set itinerary.

We chose not to do that. Even if it’s more expensive.

We had a rough idea of an itinerary that would start like this:
New Zealand -> Australia -> Southeast Asia -> ???

Since we traveled to New Zealand by ship, we weren’t sure we needed proof of onward travel, so we didn’t bother. Oops… turns out we did, no different than if we were arriving by plane. Luckily we were allowed into the country thanks to a nice customs and immigration officer who looked the other way.

The only “plan” that sort of developed before we got to NZ was on the ship… we promised to visit some of the Cap Cleveland crew members in the Philippines in January when they’d be off the ship and home for vacation. They also told us about a big festival on the island where several of them live.

Ok, that’s a good start… The Philippines in January. But where to go in between? Well, after a month in New Zealand, we knew we wanted to stay a few more weeks to do some wwoofing and essentially stretch our money while trying out a little farming. That meant we’d only have 3 weeks to spare in between NZ and the Philippines. Do we go to Australia as we’d originally envisioned?

No. We decided that if we went to Australia, we’d want to do it the right way, the long way. We didn’t want to just glimpse at Sydney and Melbourne and maybe the Great Barrier Reef. Additionally, temperatures were hiking way up and so were prices around the holidays.

So we looked at a map to see what was in between New Zealand and the Philippines. We also had a desire of pampering ourselves after all the physical labor we’ve been doing in the vineyards. In the end, we’re going to get pampered in… Bali! This small Indonesian island is reputed to have fantastic and cheap spas, great water sports, delicious food and warm people. I need not be convinced further.

So let’s sum up. New itinerary:
New Zealand -> Bali (Dec 12) -> The Philippines (Jan 5) -> Southeast Asia -> ???

Could we have done that with a RTW ticket? No. Is it more expensive? So far, I don’t think so… each leg was just under $500. We’ll tally up in the end.

I’m so excited. Bali! The Philippines!

I don’t know about you, but I like bathroom humor. It turns out that while kiwi toilets are consistently clean, they also have interesting signs.

For example:

That makes me nervous about other countries where it is customary to throw your used paper in the bin. Yuk. At least they’d use paper…

This one is sooooooo kiwi.

But of course! Toilets for bungy jumpers… I didn’t jump, but used it anyway.

And this one has a cute pun…

We could be in “Marlboro” district, hehehe.

Visiting New Zealand, we knew we wanted to try wwoofing. It’s a great way to stay somewhere for free and to get a taste of real farm life. The joy of our first week-long wwoofing experience was to milk 8-10 goats morning and night, one at a time with a milking machine. The process took 1.5-2 hours to complete.

I’m not sure how it might be done in other farms, but here are the steps we took every time:

1. Mix the feed (cooked barley, molasses, hay, seaweed, and minerals)
2. Put together the churn (milk can)
3. Fill a one liter bottle with hot water and another one liter bottle with boiling water
4. Bring feed, churn, bottles of water, and a clean cloth to the milking parlor
5. Distribute the feed into each goat stall (milking goats get a handful, pregnant goats get a full ration, roughly 3-4 handfuls)
6. Bring goats from the paddock into each stall, making sure each is in the correct stall and the gates are tied (eight goats were always milked, two mamas, one with a single kid, the other with two, were only milked in the morning, one mama with three kids was never milked, and four pregnant goats were never milked—in all 21 goats and kids to feed and/or milk)
7. Turn on milking machine
8. Put boiling water in pot and flush milking machine on high speed
9. Close valves and plug tubes into the churn—read to milk
10. Put feed in bucket for goat to eat during milking
11. Get goat and secure boards around her neck so she can’t escape
12. With warm water and yesterday’s cloth, wash the teats
13. With clean cloth, dry the teats
14. Check milk from each teat by hand by milking 2-3 squirts into a clean pot, looking for lumps or blood
15. Grab the two milking cups and bring them in between the goat’s legs
16. Open the valve and plug the milking cups onto the teats
17. Check for correct pumping by watching the milk go through tubes
18. Once the goat is done (no more milk is visible in the tubes, the milking cups are riding up the udder, or the udder looks visible deflated) close the valve and remove the milking cups
19. If the goat is done eating, return her to the paddock, otherwise bring her back to a stall to finish eating
20. Repeat steps 10 through 19 for each goat
21. For the goats that don’t get milked, bring them back to the paddock when they are done eating
22. Collect all feed buckets when all goats are done milking
23. Clean the milking machine:
    1. Unhook tubes from milk churn and connect together
    2. Pump 1/2 a bucket of cold water through the machine on high speed
    3. Pump 1 liter of boiling water with cleaning solution through machine on slow speed
    4. Prop bucket containing the various pots under the machine’s evacuation trap
    5. Hang milking cups and unplug the machine—the water empties through the evacuation trap, into the bucket
    6. Rinse off and put away the pots and drying cloth
    7. Brush off milking parlor
24. Bring back remaining feed, the churn, the wash pot, and the dirty cloth to the house
25. Empty milk into jugs—for drinking, cheesemaking, etc
26. Clean churn (rinse with cold water, scrub with soapy water, rinse with hot water)

Here are steps 12 to 17 for your enjoyment (note the loudness of the machine).

This is Rose. She was my zen goat. She always seemed to be smiling, she was patient, observant and always willing without a fuss. She had a great pair of teats too.

It took me a few times before I could get a good squirt out. But voilá!

Milking in progress.

Oh and the best part… towards the end of milking a goat, I was suggested to grab the udder…

… and give it a massage (firm squeeze from the back, as if the kid were pressing its head against the udder) to promote milk production and to squeeze a little more out.

I hope it was as good for the goat as it was for me.

*Update*: to my udder surprise, udders are spelled with d’s not t’s. Sorry mama goats!