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All material including photographs are ©2009 Ronald Dunlap / Doglight Studios
Finally arrived in Bali 34 hours after leaving Los Angeles. 10 hours, L.A. to Tokyo, a 2 hour layover, then 7.5 hours to Singapore where we had a very tuff 12 hour layover and finally 2.5 hours from Singapore to Denpasar. We flew Singapore Air. Coach was a bit cramped, but the wait staff was terrific, none of the underling hostility that seems to permeate the U.S.A. carriers these days.
(TRAVEL TIP: we landed at Singapore’s Changi International terminal 2, if we’d known the airport better, we would have taken the Skytrain to terminal 3 where the shops are open from 6am to 1am, plus a lot of the food sellers are open 24/7. This is one of the great airports of the world, very much like a giant mid-western mall, with almost anything you could want, from a free 24 hour movie theatre, TV lounges, massage, every kind of restaurant you can imagine, even a Burger King, take advantage of it.)
After deplaning at Ngurah Rai International Airport, purchasing a 30 day tourist visa ($25 U.S. dollars), claiming our bags and walking out into the muggy Balinese morning, we came face to face with 25 or 30 hopeful hotel drivers, all waving signs and looking to claim their incoming guests. Dewa was there with a sign from Alam Sari Keliki, my name emblazoned on it. In his early 30’s, he turned out to be very much in tune with the soul of Bali and was instrumental in our understanding of their attitude towards life.
The van moved north through Denpasar (pop. around 500,000) to Ubud, the artistic heart and soul of Bali. A small town of about 10,000, it is becoming one of the island's major tourist destinations. Alam Sari Keliki hotel was 17 km north of Ubud, a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the landscape. I had reserved a “Family Suite,” which was two connecting rooms with two private outdoor baths. The room ran $110 per night so it broke down to $55 per room, including a light breakfast. If you wanted eggs, toast, and a diet coke that was extra. The only drawback is the road that runs past, which always seems to be infested by high-pitched motorbikes. It’s mostly quiet at night, but the island residents start to head out to work around 5am, so I found sleeping in sometimes a little hard, but then again you’re in Bali and really don’t need to sleep while you are here.
I was traveling with Ann Marsden, a photographer from St. Paul, Minnesota. We’d never met before connecting at LAX. I’d been looking for someone to travel with and through a mutual friend we came into contact through email and made all the arrangements. So here we were on Bali looking to capture some great images or at least passable ones.
I seem to be immune to jet-lag, as long as I fly towards the west and that was the case when I got up on the 11th. Showered, waxed my mustache, dressed, and knocked on Ann’s door. She was ready to roll, so with camera gear in hand we walked past the glorious pool to the dinning room. After a breakfast of fruit and hot chocolate, it was time to discover what the local neighborhood had to offer. We had two and a half hours of shooting before we had to be back to attend the local village’s cremation ceremony that we’d just been invited to.
Rice is the life’s blood of the island. Even as tourism is beginning to make inroads, rice is still what nourishes the spirit of the island.
Outside the hotel we turned south and began trudging up the hill, shooting anything and everything that looked remotely interesting. Near the top we spied a small path off to the left leading into the fields. With a little trepidation, and hoping we weren’t breaking some local custom, we walked onto the trail and into a Balinese paradise, one incredible vista after another. The fields are divided into family plots and each plot has it own shrine in which offerings are placed daily to persuade the local spirits to provide a healthy and bountiful crop. The shrines themselves add a beauty and ambiance that enhance the fairyland-like quality of the area. We planned to walk for an hour and then retrace our steps so we wouldn’t be late for the ceremonies. We encountered several farmers on our trek, all smiling and waving as we balanced our way along the high ground between the paddies. Near the end of our walk we encountered a very lovely, petite lady of many years who smiled and waved. She was taking a cold bottle of water out to her husband who was working in the fields. She graciously consented to be photographed and was more than pleased when I paid her a small stipend for her participation, as is my practice.
