A morning of unbearable lightness fills my mind at this early confrontation at 5:30 am. where the crab-hunters already on the hunt and I am slowly moving away from a painful and short sleep. Life is in the moment 'so and so' as the movie director Kieslovski once answered a journalist about how he was.
7 Nov. / Saragan 1826 m.
Dear Friends
As you have discovered I have arrived to Bali. This report is lagging behind, but it is my soul and my thoughts too. It's actually not so easy when one cannot simply sit outside its discretion Guesthouse and write these words down on the computer. I have to drive 6 km. to an internet cafe and write a couple of hours. My back can still not take to sit too many hours in front of a computer. There is actually more variation in one's movements when driving on MC. on a smooth and fairly straight road. It is pitch-black 6:30 pm. and then everything looked different from when you found an Internet cafe. It is now difficult to find the road back. It is always important to get the hotels business card before you go into the unknown.
If you double snap at the photo, it will be enlarged.
Traffic culture here in Indonesia.
As I mentioned earlier, the traffic is downright humane compared to the traffic culture in India there was much more chance-risk and up to Brahman whether there was an accident. This includes, a nice distance between MC's. On Java I experienced not so many giant trucks and buses as I actually saw on the west coast of Bali. But here the roads were also a part wider. They are also richer here on Bali, so there are many four-wheel drivers.
The roads are very narrow with only 2 lanes so large vehicles can pass each other exactly. Only at the very big cities one comes into the 4 track lanes. The roads are in very fine condition. It is only out on the smaller roads there are gaps. Since Java and Bali consists of volcanoes, you drive much on the hillsides and the tract is filled with swing. If there is no swing there is housing all the way to the roadside. Therefore 80 km. is max. one can travel on these roads. On the smaller road you drive around 60 km. Here in Indonesia, one must in many places at the cross light, turn to the left although there is a red light. Remember they drive like in India in the left side of the road. Furthermore, there is always slow-moving old smoky trucks you have to overtake. There is after all not so much traffic and congestion, like in India. At night it may be a little dangerous on the smaller roads. Many MC. are driving without lights and also suddenly people walking up in front of your MC. beam.
In the bigger cities they have an incredible number of one-way traffic streets. It makes it extra difficult without maps to orient, since you must choose another way home. But it creates much more smooth and safe traffic.
At MC. it takes me 5-7 hours driving 180 km. with all the breaks and detours and despite that I overtakes much. It is tiring in this heat. It is the same cruising speed that I had in India.
Further, further
Now I have set myself in motion in spite of my back problems and my sore throat caused by air-conditioning has gone directly to my throat.
As I mentioned in my last report, it is now more a willpower to reach a little more relaxed touring model, which I can see Bali can be. The idea with this MC. trip was to get a little closer to reality, get into situation I normally would have simply let pass by my mind and consciousness as a glimpse.
I was actually taken to Sarangan located in 1826 meters to find a guide who could help me to ascend the holy mountain Lawu 3265 m. I would have to have climbed it at midnight and after 4-5 hours, would I be encouraging and could see a cloudless sunrise. Pilgrims must reach the top before, when they start to meditate at 2:00 am. With my back problems I would not be able to cope with this climbing. Instead I enjoyed the slightly cooler weather in Sarangan.
As I mentioned in my last report was Tulungagung not a city you wanted to be in for more than one night, even though your body needed rest after a strenuous hike of 183 km. and 5-6 hours MC. driving.
As a former Hatha yoga teacher and have practice this physical yoga exercises over 40 years, I know my own body and exercises that can slowly loosen the tension there during the night have accumulated in my body. The situation makes me think of history as a solo dancer from the Royal Theater, once told me. When he woke up with his slipped disc problems in the morning, he felt like an old man who was slowly awaken his painful body to life. In the evening on stage he had to dance and present the role as the young prince, who in turn raise the princess on his strong arm stretched out. It was not in excess of youthful force, but on pure technique and willpower, which allowed him to carry out this role and that the audience understands this feat as a symbolic shot of the youthful force and courage.
In the same way I feel at the moment, it is pure willpower, but also the desire not to be a second longer in this soulless hotel. Most hotels are completely without soul and personality. So if you do not even have it with you, it is hard to fill the room up with positive energy. But it is of course what is the meaning with a hotel that is only for a short visit.
Nov.8. On the way to the Indian Ocean in hopes of an extra day of rest.
It is again a hot hot day. I have packed my MC. and I'm going to drive a shorter distance in order not to expose my back to too much load. I had chosen a route out to a temple outside the Indian Ocean named 'Balekambang'. It was built in 1985 as a copy to Tanah Lot on Bali.
Here I enjoy a Teh, a place on the mountain side
Hostess 4 children
Ones rhythm and stress are dampened somewhat when you find a great place like this cafe on a hillside and, after many kilometers of turns. Now you have the opportunity to relace and release all the small delicate tension throughout your body. The silence is a release when you stop the MC. sound.
A nice cup of hot teh with sugar. Normally I never drink tea with sugar. But on my MC. trips I have found out that it gives me an energy boost. Perhaps more psychologically. But usually when I stop I'm tired in both body and mind.
It's great to get attention from the 2 harsh guys at MC. and hostess children. Sorry I cannot describe what she came into my teh, perhaps it was ginger. It was heavenly.
On my way to 'Balekambang', I tend to only stopped to extinguish my thirst, not to take photos, because it is too strenuous in the heat and painful with too many stops. So there are various good visual situations I have had to escape, it calls for extra energy to stop, to be involved. The extra energy I have had to economize with.
I finally came down to this fantastic beautiful white beach after many detours. The last 10 km. was a very bad road, where every bump was painful in my back.
There wasn’t any hotel on this part of the beach. I decide then to get into the water. I had underwear on, which may constitute for the trunks. Gently I let the whole body disappear into the refreshing water and found out that I could take some swimming roof without it tore into my dorsal muscle.
Towards Ngliyep.
After this incredible lovely dip I got on my MC. I had about 40 km. in front of me to drive. In the book Lonely Planet it said there was a Guesthouse near the coast at Ngliyep covering one's fundamental needs. Whatever that means. But I had to drive back again through the very bumpy road to find the second descent to the sea, where there would exist a Guesthouse.
Driving the small roads you have all the time to asked the local. They misunderstand me for the most, so I have to drive some detours. It wears on your energy into heat. I have really corroded my last resources.
If I choose only the major road the cities keeps going and disappearing into villages. There are no city sign so I don’t know where the urban-rural split.
I needed again some massage.
It had been some days without any massages and my body was very tense and tired. So I stopped in a smal village and got into the local grocery store. I try to make myself understood. And with the help from other customers, they understand me. There is actually a masseuse in town. One of the customers, offer to drive in front of me.
I arrive and greeted by a lot of people. They try to explain to me that the masseur has been sleeping. It was a very small and confined spaces. It took quite a long time before the masseuse was ready. It turned out that it was a blind man who took me by the arm and led me into a pitch-black room. There was some daylight at the top because the four walls did not go right up to the house slanting ceiling. The four walls formed a very intimate claustrophobic rectangular box, which was only 80 cm. wide plank massage bed in the right height. It was covered with thick plastic. There was a passage in 50 cm. all around. It may also been his bed.
I tried to explain to him my problems while he tried to help me with clothing. I came up on the massage couch and expected that he would give my hole body a sensitive and in-depth kind of massage. He did the massage in a other way than the previous masseurs. He got hold of all the right points and began to really manipulate these sore points. Every time he really went in depth on these vulnerabilities, I could feel how tense throughout the rest of the body I got. But he continued to manipulate the same painful areas. I thought he probably had a theory that the muscle has to be completely softened and then give in and fall in its proper place again.
I could take it any longer and tried with my arm up on the back, gently to mark that now I could not take more, because now I felt that this massage reminded me more about concrete physical torture. Maybe he thought or he believes from his theory that the evil must be removed with evil. He continued even though I tried to put my arm in between. I had to take his wrist to get him to stop. Now I think that I had tested my pain threshold. I had given him the opportunity to pursue his theory in more than a 1 / 2 hour. He completed all of this torture session without having been loosened up the rest of my body.
All friends and family in the house was fully involved in this for me unusually loud massage hell. I should have stopped this blind masseur much before. I am just hoping that my back muscles not are so sore, so I cannot lie on my back tonight. He demanded almost nothing for his heroic work, so I gave him a little more, because I assumed that he did in the good faith that it would help me.
The whole family could keep up with my painful massage.
The blind masseuse and his daughter, of pure good will really got tested my pain threshold.
Towards Ngliyep.
The last 10 kilometers on the way to the beach hostel, was again filled with large holes and this time I could really feel how tense the body was. I had to relax in my hole body and just get use to the stabbing pain.
I reached down to an almost deserted Beach rocky area.It is now pitch black. I tried again with the name of the Guest House I had the Lonely Planet. They sent me back to the little village which was 4 km. Again I had to bite the pain in me. This short MC. trip was still a drive of 157 km.
Well now I had to return to the small village. When I stopped residents came out to help me. Luckily there was a young girl who was visiting his uncle who could English. She told me that in an hour would the Guesthouse open. I was welcome to wait here. She welcomed me with teh and I told her about my problem as a vegetarian. I understand that there was a small dining down at the beach. She would write a note so they knew about my problem as a vegetarian. I had hardly had anything to eat that day.
The young woman was incredibly friendly and brought me a giant muffin, which was actually a cream bun, which she had bought for himself. She thought I should have it as breakfast. I must certainly have looked very distraught and hungry. I tried all the time also to keep my coughing fits back. She thought I had a kind of respiratory illness. It was very nice to sit there on the road between a lot of houses in only a little light from a house. Most of the residents sat or stood around me in the half dark. It was only a young girl who also had a son I could talk to. Time passed quickly and a person showed up, that would follow me down to the Guesthouse.
When we showed up, they had turned on some very dim bulb outside the Guesthouse. There was no light in the room. Only a few candles. They insisted that I had to drive my MC. into the room. So I was specifically not all alone with Geko who crawled on the walls.
The mild Cafe Owner.
There were others who lived in this little piece of beach. It was the friendly hostess who really tried to please me with a vegetarian meal, as I in my earlier report said, she constantly misunderstood me. She did not know what it will say not to eat meat. Together with her constant smiling man and some others who also watched TV in the background in the cafe, I spend the night under their electric lamp. Incredibly nice.
The mattress was really hard. I had fortunately got a fairly good carpet I could put between the mattress and sheets. I fell asleep but woke up a few times. Stood up before the sun and could then follow how life slowly wake up here at the Indian Ocean. I survived another night and my body has curiously survived the torture. But I really had to do many small exercises to warm the body up before I could get out of bed.
Java in the distance
