Shopping fun

Here in Dalung there are a number of small supermarkets which offer a reasonable range of locally popular food items.  Neither of the two closest has much fresh food as this is usually bought from the small street traders or in the traditional market. 

 

The closest "supermarket" is the "Mini Mart" which has a smaller collection than the Bintang Supermarket, and which caters mainly for people buying a few things on the way past.  I rarely see big baskets of stuff.

 

If I'm not in a hurry I roam the aisles looking for things which I wouldn't normally find at home, and it can be an amusing diversion.  Sometimes it's just the surprise in seeing things I've not found before, or finding products which look like things from home, but which are different.  It must be many years since I last saw Pepsodent toothpaste at home, but here it is a big seller.

 

The Tim Tams (made in Malaysia or Indonesia) are different - they are a little smaller and the chocolate is "tropical blend", and not quite as smooth or milky as ours.  There are several flavours here, but I think that the strangest is "keju" (cheese flavoured).  Cheese flavourings are quite popular even though you have to hunt for anything other than processed cheddar in small sticks or slices.

 

Here are a few items I photographed during my visit to the store yesterday.  The shop assistants wonder why I'm taking pictures of eggs, or sardines.



Danish butter biscuits are popular but the
packaging looks so quaint and old-fashioned.
Perhaps that's why they sell so well?



This is a big seller - 25kg bags of rice. 
They just about walk out of the
shop from the large stacks.



Here's a packet I like, even though I'm in no hurry to try the product.  These contain the "just add water and mix" blend to make the batter for "pisang goreng", or fried bananas.  I like fried bananas, but would rather not have them strawberry or cappuccino flavoured.

 

Flavoured batter mix for fried bananas

Tiny speckled eggs from the Balinese 'puyuh' bird.
It's an almost flightless bird of the forests.

Vanessa Bread comes in green or white.  Both are soft and
sweet, but the green is coloured with pandanus extract.

Here are some of my favourites from past visits to Bali.  Jungle Juice is a tropical fruit juice blend - nothing special, but the name sounds exciting and exotic.  I'm still amused at the concept of "Pocari Sweat".  It's a sports drink from Japan - I had visions of someone collecting sweat from the "pocari", a strange creature only found at the factory.



Interesting drink products on the shelf



When the weather is hot, reach for a cool can of "chilly sardines".
The new cans no longer have this amusing spelling mistake.

Then there was the time I was in a hurry and without my glasses.  The "Super Burbur" packet was next to the Instant Noodles and I misread "burbur" (porridge) for "bumbu" (spices).  Once for dinner was enough.

Fish flavoured porridge with crisps.  It's also
available in beef and chicken curry  flavour.

Happy shopping in your favourite supermarket or store.

 

Paul in Bali



Saturday in Singaraja

The Rektor of the University is keen for Laurel and I to get out and about, to see more of Bali, in our spare time.  This has made it much easier to request a car and driver to take us to places of interest away from Kampus (Indonesian spelling using "k" for the "hard c" - very sensible).  Last Saturday we drove (no, the English teacher in me says "were driven") north across the mountainous centre of Bali to the north coast.  Light rain was falling in Dalung when we left, and as we went north and into the mountains the rain and fog increased.  Pura Bratan in Lake Bratan, near Bedugal, could barely be seen through the cloud.  Once we were over the crest and on the northern edge of the mountains we left the cloud and drove into bright sunshine.  Once on the north coast we felt hot again.



Singaraja is the capital of the Bulelung Regency (one of the 8 administrative subdivisions of Bali which were based on the old Kingdoms of pre-Dutch times).  It was the Dutch capital of Bali until after independence when Denpasar was chosen.  A north coast seaport was much more convenient to the Dutch as this was within easy reach of other important colonial cities around the Java and Bali Seas.  The south coast was further away, and was also exposed to the swells and storms of the Indian Ocean.  Now the port has largely silted up and sea traffic either goes around the island to Benoa in the south or to another port in the west.  The city's name means "Lion King" - and it's the same "Singa" (Lion) as in "Singapore" and "Singha" beer of Thailand.  I wonder if Disney has tried to get a "royalty fee" for using "their name"!

Singaraja's "Lion King"

The Winged Lion, the symbol of the city, can be found in many places around the city.  The main statue is rich in symbolism beyond the representation of the lion.  The large base is 5-sided and represents the Pancasila (or Five Principles which underpin modern Indonesian society).  Each wing contains 17 long feathers; the lion holds a sheaf of corn with 8 leaves and 45 grains.  The "17", "8" and "45" represent the date of Indonesian Independence 17/8/(19)45.



The winged lion atop his 5-sided column



The winged lion in stone and on the city's emblem

 You can spot many little things which are novel to us, but which are essentially Balinese. 

Some traffic lights have a miniature Balinese roof
made of "ijuk", the black fibre from the sugar palm.
It is commonly used for sacred temple structures.

We visited the small Buleleng Museum, now housed in the main building of a compound which was formerly a Dutch colonial administrative centre. Although the display and storage environment would appal western conservation specialists, the local staff have done their best to display an interesting collection of artefacts, photographs and paintings.  Some of the archaeological finds go back to Neolithic and Bronze ages.

The Buleleng Museum on the southern approach to Singaraja

 

An interesting pair of "handbags".   The left example is carved from wood and was used for carrying a stock of betel nut.  Just the thing for a casual chew!

 

 

A "pocket sized" mortar and pestle for grinding betel nut into a paste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close to the waterfront in what was the heart of the old dock area is the colourful Chinese temple of Ling Gwan Kiong.  It's a good indication of the importance of the non-Balinese groups in this area.



Ling Gwan Kiong temple, Singaraja

 

It was hot on the land, but gentle sea breezes made the end of the short pier a pleasant place to enjoy a cool drink and small snack.

 

At the end of the pier you can escape from the heat on the waterfront

One of the many mosques in Singaraja is visible from the sea side

On the waterfront in the old dock area is the conspicuous monument to Yudha Mandala Tama, a Balinese freedom fighter killed by gunfire from a Dutch warship early in the struggle for liberation from the colonists.

Yudha Mandala Tama points out to sea from his elevated platform



Laurel decides to take it easy
whilst I look for new attractions



After our brief visit to Singaraja we set off to the "renowned" beach resort of Lovina, some 12 km to the west.  Lovina is perhaps best known as the place to spot dolphins.  Most mornings at sunrise a few turn up, braving the many pursuing powerboats in the expectation of getting fish.  It has the reputation of being "laid back" and "peaceful", which it certainly was.  The "resort area" stretches along several kilometres of beach frontage and it's hard to point to any real focus.  Unlike 2011 when enterprising hawkers pursued us along the beach, this visit was very low key.  There were few people on the beach, and all was quiet.  We ate lunch at yet another "Bintang" café ("bintang" means "star" - it's just popularly associated with the beer) and tried to explain some of the finer points of an AFL match screening on a large TV to Vivi, an Undhira student from East Java, with good English skills and a sense of adventure.

 

Fishing boats at Lovina

It's hot out there!  Vivi takes shelter whilst capturing an image

Fishing boats ride at anchor off Lovina Beach

The beach shelter offers a little relief from the sun

After a beach stroll, lunch and a coffee we returned to the vehicle and started the home journey.  As we started the long climb up the northern slopes of the mountains we could see dark clouds gathering on the peaks.  The light was fading when we reached the parking area for Gitgit Falls.  The name is pronounced with a hard "G" (as in the "g" of get) rather than the soft "g" because "jit-jit" means "bottoms".  We walked in to the falls, past the many now-closed stalls and encountered very few traders trying to sell their wares.

 

Small rice terraces along the path to Gitgit Falls.  The
smoke from smouldering rubbish spoils so many views.

Recently planted rice seedlings

Because of recent rain there was a reasonable flow of water coming over the 40m falls and some hardy (or perhaps "foolhardy"?) Australians had just left the water.

 

The falls from downstream



Laurel and Vivi at Gitgit Falls

From Gitgit we drove south and up into the mountains where we soon encountered fog and rain.  By the time we reached the little temple on the northern outskirts of Candikuning it was already quite dark,  We stopped for a few minutes to allow Laurel time to capture some "monkey" photos to post on Facebook.  They seemed to be able to stay in the rain and fog and out of the car's headlights so it was not easy to photograph them.  They are such unpredictable, capricious and sometimes aggressive little animals that we took care to not open the windows too far whilst they were close to the car. 



Mother and baby monkey (through rain and fog)

After a short time we got some useful shots and set off again, stopping only at Candikuning market to allow our driver to buy corn, strawberries and other treats for his wife.  The rain was with us most of the way back to the Kampus. at Dalung.

 

It was the first trip to the north coast for Laurel, and my third, as I visited the little town of Seririt in 2010 and Singaraja - Lovina in 2011.  It was a long drive, but a nice break from the familiar surrounds of Dalung in South Bali.

 

Paul in Bali

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Campus Happenings

Shame on me!  It's been a week since my last post and I had planned to post 2 blogs per week.  Shame!  It's also 4 weeks since I left Adelaide.  Time is slipping by rapidly.  I suppose I could split this posting and claim 2 posts this week - but that wouldn't count.  So ...  it's a biggie.

 

In some ways it's been just another week and although full, not necessarily full of things which are especially newsworthy, so I've bundled together something from last week with the news of this week.  Most readers wouldn't know, those pictured would, and they might think that I've lost track of a week, so I'll confess now to "bundling" the weeks.  Our "base load" is taking the "Matriculation English" classes for the new students before they can start the new Semester, and encouraging staff and those students who are around before classes start to engage in some English conversation. Laurel has distributed dozens of little "Can we please speak English for 5 minutes?" signs around the office work places and where students gather, and for many it has "broken the ice".  That's our regular and ongoing activity, and what follows is news of what is out of the ordinary for us.

 

Two weeks ago I and Laurel, my English teacher colleague and fellow Adelaidean, went to watch two of our University students compete in a cooking completion.  They are not "Food Preparation" students, they are studying a B.Ec. degree in Hotel Management, but cooking is a passion.  There was a "theme" to the competition - all dishes had to be based on "bean curd" (tahu, tofu etc).  I could not see this being particularly interesting, but I was wrong! 

 

Yustina and Adji in action, and their winning 4 course dinner.

Their presentation matched the food quality, and they won the prize (no pix - presented at a later date).  Well done.  Yusti and Adji were behind the farewell barbecue arranged and catered for by several students last year.

 

Just to show me that their "bean curd" dishes were edible as well as attractive they came to our communal kitchen and prepared 3 of the 4 courses for us.  Laurel and I, Yusti, Adji and Vivi enjoyed a banquet (compared to our usual fare) of Thai style Tom Yang soup with tahu, a "cordon bleu" with tofu in place of veal, and a strawberry fruit pudding.  It was a wonderful, friendly gathering and I hope they will treat us to another such occasion (hint, hint!).  Thankyou Yusti and Adji.

 

 

Vivi watches on as Adji (left) and Yustina prepare the "bean curd banquet"
Someone always manages to sneak a "V" salute into the picture.
We manage in our kitchen, but it won't make it into the "life style" magazines.

 

We salute our cook - Yustina.  She's rightly
proud of this attractive and delicious dessert.

Whilst on the topic of food, I should mention another "food related" change this week.  For years the "student canteen" with simple "warung"-style food vendors has occupied the ground floor space below the classrooms.  It was quite simple, and, for me, there wasn't much variety.  Now the space is under conversion to IT service area and Physiotherapy Laboratorium (see photo in last blog; work almost complete). 

 

Look, no students - a rare sight, even on weekends
(photos from previous visits)

The old motor bike racks along the eastern fence line have gone and the space now sports a long block of shutter-fronted "lockups".  At the end closest to the main gate and lobby (for those who know the campus) is the new photocopy and offset print shop.  It's currently very busy as students about to graduate print cpies of their now-approved theses, and staff prepare course notes for the semester which starts in August.  All the other spaces hold small warungs, eating spaces, and a little store.  It's already starting to get busy.

 

Look, up in the sky: it's a bird ..... etc.  Well, no "Superman" but an increasing number of kites are appearing now that the winds have started blowing steadily from the east as is normal for this time of the year.  In the past month there have been many days with no kites visible, but now they are taking to the skies again.  Many will stay aloft for 5 or 6 weeks, perhaps longer.  When the winds drop they may fall down, but in past years the east wind blew for a couple of months and the kites stayed up there.  Mid-week a huge black "eagle" appeared high above the rice field just to the west of the campus.  Because of its height it's hard to estimate its size accurately, but I'd guess it is more than 2 metres across.  It's an impressive sight.  Each week more will appear and on weekends I'll again see trucks carrying teams of villagers holding on to their large communal kites as they travel to the kite grounds to launch them. 

 

See my blog of August 2011 "What's up - kites, of course"

http://paulinbali.blogspot.com/2011/08/whats-up-kites-of-course.html

 

Whilst Laurel and I are volunteers and support ourselves here, we are each provided with a comfortable large room and occasionally we enjoy "fringe benefits".  Last Monday evening we enjoyed one such benefit when we joined the "cultural night and dinner" provided to honour the visit of a team from the "EMS" (Evangelical Mission Solidarity), a Stuttgart based organisation representing many German churches.  The EMS and its constituent churches is a partner of the GKPB (The Protestant Christian Church in Bali), as is my own denomination, the Uniting Church of Australia, and has given a great deal of support to the GKPB.  The German guests,  the Bishop and many members of the governing Synod, many staff of the university, and some associates, assembled in the training restaurant.  After some welcoming remarks we were treated to 2 graceful dances performed by girls from the nearby Widya Asih 4 Orphanage (many of the girls are present or past scholars of the University and training college).  The first was a dance of welcome displaying the characteristic Balinese dance elements and the second was a recent liturgical dance representing the angels announcing the gospel ("good news") to the people of Bali.

 

Dancers welcome guests in traditional Balinese style

The Rektor, Dr Nyandra (rt), presents a momento to EMS
delegation leader Rev Jurgen Reichel and Hans translates.

Our "angels" spread the good news of the gospel across Bali



The graceful welcome and "angel" dances were performed to recorded music.  The final dance, the "Janger", was the longest and most vigorous, and it was accompanied by the wonderful sound of a gamelang band in full flight.  It was the first time I've seen such an energetic, foot-stomping dance with a band really "belting it out".  It was sheer excitement, Balinese style!

 

The 6 male and 6 female "Janger" dancers file in.  The foot-stomping
of the larger male dancers really rocked the building!




The girls show some of the more graceful moves whilst
 the men at the rear keep up a steady stomping rhythm




The male "Janger" dancers slap out the rhythm.  Our dinner waits in the background.

This was an exciting and colourful start to our "cultural night".  The dinner which followed presented another aspect of Balinese culture.  Around campus it's almost a case of "food with everything".  It was a wonderful evening.

On Thursday evening (18/7/13) whilst in our rooftop garden just before sunset I saw something I've never seen before.  Usually tropical haze, low cloud, or just plain smoke obscures everything more than a kilometre away.  Not on this night.  Gunung Agung (Mt Agung), the highest and 'chief' mountain in Bali, was visible to the north east.  In about 11 months spread across 4 visits I've only once caught a glimpse of it first thing in the morning, but never in the evening.  It's over 30 km away and usually well hidden.  Not only Agung, but also the two smaller mountains to its north-west were also visible.  And if that was not unusual enough, far in the west, the setting sun was lighting up a mountain most of the way to the western tip of Bali.  We had to consult a map to work out what we had seen, and it was almost too difficult to believe, but we had indeed seen something amazing.



Gunung Agung, Bali's highest mountain, seen from the rooftop garden,
Universitas Dhyana Pura.  The power cables just could not be avoided.



In my blog of last Friday I noted the arrival of the new "access points" for the University Wifi.  During the week the plain  covers of the devices were replaced with customised covers and I suspected that the new service would soon arrive.  Well, it's here!!!   Laurel and I are "trialling" the system to ensure it is working properly prior to the official commissioning, and for us it's a labour of love.  What a relief it is to have a service which operates a bit faster than a carrier pigeon with a broken wing.

 

After years of slow communications, this is a beautiful sight



That's been weeks 3 and 4 at Undhira Bali.  We are looking forward to a weekend outing, and then another week in our wonderful world of English conversation where we try explain some of the peculiarities of the English language and demonstrate to our staff and students how to pronounce sounds unfamiliar to them - especially "th" and "v" sounds.

 

Best wishes and "sampai jumpa"

Paul in Bali

 

PS

Although it's not "campus activity", I should acknowledge the enjoyable dinner of home-prepared "spaghetti marinara" I shared with my friends Hans and Imelda Mbot on Wednesday.  Imelda lived and studied in Italy for several years and knows a thing or two about how to prepare good pasta.  Thanks for the meal, the company, and the long but extremely cautious motorcycle ride from and back to campus (I didn't shut my eyes, scream or gasp once).

 

After a home cooked dinner with Hans and Imelda.  Note my
"casual crouch" so I'm the right height for the photo frame.

 

Signs of the Times (and other changes)

Although this is “Day 21” (but who’s counting) and I feel well settled in, I’m still coming across many changes.  Some are big, significant and quite unavoidable.  Others are small and subtle but important in their own little ways.

 

Three weeks ago as I first (for this trip) drove to the University through “my town” of Dalung some changes were apparent.  The traffic lights had large "digital countdown displays with green and red figures indicating the remaining times on the green or red lights respectively.  It seemed a waste to me as few people bother about the colour of the light anyway. 

 

No doubt the engineers thought they would be useful.
I'm not sure anyone even notices them because
traffic still streams through on the red.  Why wait?

 

There was a little shopping cluster here and there which had popped up since I left 9 months ago, and an illuminated windmill announced the presence of the “Holland Bakery”.   It's part of a chain in Bali, perhaps elsewhere in Indonesia, and I hope as much effort has gone into the contents of the shop as into the roof feature!

 

Even a poor streetscape isn't really
improved by something like this. 

 There has been a subtle change in the mix of shops – small western-Asian mix cafes, bakeries (some relatively expensive and not well stocked),  “children’s spas”, boutiques, specialty pet stores and clusters of new ATMs point to a rise in disposable income (at least for some of the population, probably those building the new villas which are spreading across the old  rice fields). 



View into a new small shopping court across one of the last rice fields on
the main road.  It has some good little shops, one of which produces a
 most enjoyable pizza (for "film night") and a new café called Bamboe
(but the B keeps falling down), as well as a row of old-style street warungs.

Elsewhere there are still plenty of makeshift and rundown little shops and stalls showing that not all have shared in the rising fortunes of the town.  The state of the footpaths has generally improved although after 3 years and 4 visits I still have to take a long step over the “black pit” where the large cement panels covering stormwater access ports has been lost.
 

On campus (or “Kampus”) the major changes involved radical restructuring of senior management positions.  Time will tell just how well this will work.  There are several new faces on the staff.  Most of the anonymous doors I opened in the past when looking for people now sport new signs and it has made finding people so much simpler.  Most offices are labelled, signs  in the grounds point the way to “reception”, “motor cycle” parking area (as distinct from cars) etc. 

 

An important sign - the office of the "English Studies" lecturers

In past years I walked past this door many times without
realising we had an operating language laboratory.

In place of the somewhat “minimal” (understatement) student canteen are two new office suites and the displace canteen and lunch area now has a new home in place of the demolished motor bike shelters.  Some changes have had a ripple effect as change A prompts change B which leads to ….. On the oval and in other grassed areas there are groundwater recharge points which look a little like the "hole" or "cup" in a golf green, but with a little grill across the top.  This is to direct rain water (which would otherwise run to waste via drains) back down into the ground.  That's a useful and so simple improvement.

 

Meanwhile the cablers have finished installing the new “wireless access points” (WAP) to provide stable, reasonable speed WiFi with good coverage on campus, particularly in our building.  We’re still waiting for the link with the outside world to be completed, and it could be soon (but then again, it might not be – Boo!).

 



The new ceiling mounted WAP in the corridor just outside my door.



Meanwhile up on the roof .... I think I've discovered why progress
has been a little slow today. No, it's not an industrial accident.



Along the eastern wall of the grounds little businesses come and go.  Each year I’ve used a “new” laundry as the old one folded – often as a result of rising rents now that the street has been resurfaced and gained drains. 

 

Some of the warungs (small and simple food shops or perhaps just temporary screens around a trestle) have gone, but dear old Warung Bali, run by Pak Wayan and Bu Made is still operating.  My heart sank on my first day here when I saw the shop was closed, but they just were away at a ceremony in the home village.  Even Warung Bali has had a change.  The old hand written “menu board” has been replaced by a nice printed metal sign carrying their “offerings” – and there is even a new item on the menu: Ayam Betutu ("spicy" chicken, although I find almost everything somewhat spicy).
 

Warung Bali (2010).  Campus is on left of the street.

 

The new menu board has replaced the old sign.

Last night when wandering just before sunset I came across perhaps the most surprising change of all.  On the edge of a rapidly expanding residential area just 150 meters from the eastern entrance of campus I came across the “Bali Tulip" Hotel and Restaurant.  A hotel in Dalung?  Well I never – who would have expected that?  The decorations outside proclaimed an opening date of 23rd June but inside workmen were still preparing the buffet area.  Out of curiosity I enterred and found that they have 18 rooms at 299,000 IDR (Indonesian Rupiah) per night.  It had a pleasant, modern, business-boutique appearance to it, but regardless of style I was surprised by its mere presence.  Well, good luck to it.  Dalung has a hotel!



The new "Bali Tulip" Hotel
www.balitulip.com

Just past the hotel there was a flurry of building activity and several newish houses (the local people live in "houses", but similar dwellings are usually “villas” for expats – it sounds more exotic!).  I explored the rice fields in this area on my first weekend in Dalung in 2010 but had not been back until now, even though it starts just a couple of hundred meters from the campus gate, but in a direction I rarely travel.

   

There was a change I’d hoped to see but was disappointed.  In 2010 I gained a great deal of enjoyment from watching the cycle of the rice crop, from planting to harvest, in the rice field beside the western driveway (see 2010 Blog “Why am I watching the rice field?”).  In 2011 and 2012 this rice field had become a vegetable plot of much less interest to me.  I was told that the farmer had swapped usage as those seasons were very dry.  At present this season isn’t dry but it seems that the field has ceased to be a rice field and is now a vegetable field.  Pity.  It was a treat watching the rice grow but watching the beans grow isn’t quite the same.


The rice field as I remember it from 2010.  A beautiful sight.



On the left it's the same field but not the same "view".
Vegetables may be more profitable, but not as pretty.

The black poles along the driveway are very new.  They
support what I hope is a new fibre optic cable (internet).

Some things haven't changed much.  The roads are still packed with motorcycles; in the early morning and the evening I hear the Imam's call to prayer (there is a mosque not far away); when the gamelang band rehearses, the sounds drift into our building and delight me; the pop bands on stage at the Dalung Fair are just as loud as in past years  and the "Dangdut" music (a mix of Middle Eastern pop music, Western rock, hip-hop, contemporary R&B and reggae all starts to sound the same after 2 hours!  Fortunately there's a strict 10 pm curfew.  (The small fair runs for 3 weeks at this time of year - at other times the Balinese cattle graze on the open land).
 

And speaking of “change”, it’s time for me to “change” out of my orange-brown Staff “Friday shirt” (I wear the old 2011 “blue” staff shirt on Wednesdays!) and long trousers into more comfortable shorts and polo to relax.

 

Until next blog, “sampai jumpa”

Paul in Bali