Started off pretty normal. We were leaving for Sudaji today so we were on the road by 8am and into the jungle! The car rides here are actually pretty amazing as there aren’t highways, so every trip we are weaving in and out of villages and seeing palm trees and rice paddies.
This trip was the same, except we were heading north, and needed to go through some mountains to get there. It started raining and produced the heaviest fog I have ever seen, which really made the parts of the forest we could see even more Jurassic Park-esqe. The scenery itself was amazing, vast rice paddies with valleys of palm trees in front of distant mountains.
A few hours later we arrived at Sudaji, although I must say, a very sad moment occurred during the ride. One of my worst fears, hitting an animal in a car, came true, although luckily I saw the dog walk away, so I think the car only tapped his bum. Our driver had tried to slow down, but the dogs here are weird, and even though he could have easily put a hop in his step and avoided the car instead he continued at the same pace and was hit.
Despite this tragedy I am still in love with this day, because of delicious vegetarian fare at Omunity, an actual rice paddy walk and a moped ride. Let me explain.
After dropping off our bags at our host family’s compound, hello clean white sheets and shiny tile floor!, we went to meet Sen Sen, our host at Omunity. He fed us a great meal with rice, corn fritters, hard boiled eggs, noodles, tempeh, tofu and Balinese desserts. The food really hit the spot and eating under a bamboo shelter in the middle of a thunder storm, overlooking the jungle and surrounding rice paddies just put the cherry on top.
We hid out under the shelter for a while as it was really raining, but then Geday, a local English teacher, offered to take us on a walk to the Secret Temple and rice paddies. Of course, as soon as I heard rice paddies I was in. Off we went into the rain, trekking through ankle deep puddles, and luckily I had worn my rice paddy shoes! I talked to Geday through most of the trek, and learned a ton about rice, the village and local school system.
First off, rice! Geday has his own rice fields, and is actually self-sufficient in rice. Amazing, huh? He doesn’t grow Balinese rice, and instead has the more common 3x a year variety. We also saw the irrigation streams that are diverted from the dam to Sudaji and other surrounding villages. The rice grains are planted in one little section and then are transplanted into the field, and most farmers now use tractors to till the soil, although some do still rely on cows. Additionally every rice paddy has a small temple on the side for offerings to be given to the gods for a good harvest. Usually there is someone in the village who owns a machine that shakes off the rice husk. Every farmer brings his harvest to this person and then pay to have their rice husked. Geday also solved one mystery we had wondered about, taxes! The government does collect property tax, with Geday’s estimate being 50,000 Rupiah a year per rice field, about $5.
For the village life, Geday lives a bit outside of the main city center, but he rides his motorbike in everyday, about 8km, since he works at a private school in town. The school is a junior high with 7th, 8th and 9th graders, about 80 kids in total. There is also a government run school in town, which Geday sees as equally good as his school, but most villagers think is better than the private school. However I’m not sure how it’s private since the government funds it and there are no school fees.
A few weeks ago the village experienced a terrible flood that washed out a bridge, which the government is replacing. We walked over the rickety temporary bridge on our way to the temple, and it seemed to do the trick, but hopefully the government one will be more stable for the future. After crossing the bridge and walking up a hill we came to an extremely ancient temple which was built by the original Balinese, not those who had come from Java after being prosecuted in the 5th century??…?? We couldn’t go in since we didn’t have sarongs on, but the view from outside alone, which had the ocean in the distance, made the walk more than worth it.
After the temple we went to the dam, which required a significant amount of walking next to rice paddies, following sure footed children and jumping over irrigation streams. After this hike I could go home now and be thrilled with the trip. But, luckily for me the amazingness continued and we made it to the dam, washed our feet in the stream and then went in to the Agricultural temple further along. I was extremely turned around at this point, so I haven’t the slightest idea where we were or how we got there, but luckily Geday seemed to have it under control.
Somehow this trek brought us in a full circle and we walked back into town after seeing the temple and community bathing spot. All of us decided to return to our respective home stays, and Erica and I had high hopes of getting laundry done with the rest of our afternoon.
To accomplish this goal we talked to our host mom, Deian. She seemed unsure about our requests, and offered to do laundry for us, but we both refused, mainly because we wanted it to be dry and things take forever to air dry here, and we didn’t want to make her do our laundry for us! After a few minutes working through the language barrier it was agreed that Deian would take me to the laundry shop on her motorbike. This being the first time I’d been on a motorized 2 wheeled vehicle since my father and I rode his motorcycle up our street and I screamed in his ear the whole time, I was a bit worried, but since children ride and drive them here I figured I could manage.
Deian rolled the bike out, I hopped on and off we went! The ride was a lot smoother than I expected considering the number of potholes here, and Deian showed the same grace other drivers show in navigating the crazy Balinese traffic. We whipped by more rice paddies, smiled at some lounging men, waved to women carrying baskets in their heads and stared longingly at the mountains, or at least I did. Blissful.
The laundry shop didn’t work out, and I think Deian may think I’m a tad insane since I wanted to do laundry but didn’t want her to do it, but nevertheless I’d do it all over again for that ride. I tried to look at everything as we rode back home, and from my silence Deian must have thought I wasn’t doing well so she asked if I was happy; there was nothing to say except, “yes.”
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