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Free & BrEasy - Bye Bye Beautiful Bali



After six days on land we are back on Free & BrEasy headed for Christmas Island on a 585 mile westward passage in the Indian Ocean. Light winds are predicted but fingers crossed we will be able to sail rather than motor, as refuelling with diesel will not be as easy from here on. From Christmas Island, the next destination, a mere 525 miles away, are the Cocos (Keeling) islands in the Indian Ocean, followed by a long 2350 mile passage to Mauritius. The Indian Ocean can be a sailing challenge so we spent some of our time in Bali visiting temples asking the appropriate Gods to send us fair winds and safe sailing.

Bali is a tourist's heaven with tours available to see a range of delights from forest monkeys and volcanoes to one of the many, many temples. There are temples everywhere and almost every other house has a Hindu shrine dedicated to the souls of the ancestors of a group of families. Each shrine may have four or five little open huts each with thatched roofs covering an alter for offerings and even a little couch for visiting deities. Although much of Indonesia is Muslim, Bali has its own monotheist version of Hinduism. The religious practices appear immensely complicated but religious offerings are very important to the average person. The shrines and doorways to shops and houses, were strewn with offerings of rice in little bamboo dishes accompanied with smoking incense josh sticks. As well as the thousands of private temples there are large public Hindu and Budhist shrines with ornate stone work and very fierce looking effigies carved in stone. We were asked to wear sarongs at one temple making an interesting spectacle of the World ARC fleet all in skirts!

The Hindu philosophy of trying to be good in this life to offset the inevitable periods of bad behaviour appears to influence the island. Every one we met greeted us with a lovely warm open smile and a determination to be helpful. This made our arrival in Benoa Marina very welcoming with hordes of volunteers helping us dock and then shaking our hands. In their midst was Rob from World ARC with his helpful grin and Australian humour! This made up for the somewhat "rustic" (or its marine equivalent) standard of the Marina. The welcome was further enforced when we realised that the price of a beer was a third of that in Darwin! The currency in Indonesia is the Rupee and one dollar was equivalent 10,000 Rupees. It was a novel feeling to become a Rupee millionaire after drawing out the equivalent of a modest 100 dollars at an ATM! Another reason for a deeply spiritual approach to life is the sheer danger of travelling on the roads. Most of the population travel by motorbike which weave around the cars and buses at frightening speeds. Motorbikes have the advantage of being quicker than cars as they can escape the frequent traffic jams.

Bali is famed for its skilled artisans that create wonderful wood carvings, jewellery and paintings. Unfortunately, these have to be sought out. The main artisan shopping area in Ubud was disappointingly full of shops selling the same mass produced items. Roger and Allejandro were able to see the skilled side of Balinese artisan industry by taking a bespoke tour with guide who drove them in his car. Alejandro stayed with his Mother (Nieves) and sister (Raqel) and friend (Tani) in an excellent, reasonably priced hotel with Roger and his wife, Annabelle, a few doors away in the same hotel. Most of the World ARC fleet took advantage of the attractive hotel prices to spend a few nights of luxury off the boat. This also meant peace and quiet as the tour boats near the Marina took great delight in pumping up the volume of the dance music. Charlie and Cathy Simon from Celebrate also rescued us from the Marina by very generously hosting an evening to celebrate Cathy's birthday. We were allowed a glimpse of how the top one percent live as we sang "Happy Birthday Dear Cathy" in the penthouse lounge of a luxurious resort hotel with views over terraced swimming pools and the sea. Thank you Charlie and Cathy for a lovely night and your generosity.

Soon it was time to start thinking about leaving Bali on the next leg of the rally. Roger returned to the boat to carry out some light engineering tasks on the engine and steering gear. Alejandro returned to help with the provisioning. Our wonderful World ARC representatives, Suzana and Rob, hosted the Prize Giving evening which included very tasty and spicy Balinese cuisine. The prizes were given out with great applause and good natured hooting and the evening was tastefully finished off with a fine exhibition of traditional Balinese dancing.

Bali is a complicated destination with lovely people doing their best to maintain their traditional values despite the heavy bombardment of tourism. We shall remember the waterfalls, volcanoes, rice paddies and temples but most of all, the smiling faces and warm hearts of a people who genuinely interested in visitors and particularly welcoming to that strangest of breed of visitor, the circumnavigator!

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